Marketplace

[dahamsta]

Someone on another forum I run has suggested a Marketplace forum, I'm wondering what people would think about something similar here? See my comments in this thread (http://www.faceoff.ie/showthread.php?t=285) for some of the concerns I'd have about it.

NOTE FOR POLL: This vote is on a strictly-moderated marketplace for football-related merchandise only, for non-traders that meet a requirement to be able to post -- probably 100 posts and/or 1 month active membership.

adam

[onceahoop]

I imagine it would turn into a major headache Adam. There's always someone trying to pull a scam.

[Paddyfield]

I imagine it would turn into a major headache Adam. There's always someone trying to pull a scam.

Took the words right out of my, er, keyboard. It would take 24 hour monitoring.

[atfconline]

I've bought and sold stuff over on boards/adverts and never had any problems.....if that is the type of format you are thinking of?

[dahamsta]

Yes atfconline. Monitoring is certainly a major concern, however that can be handled by good moderation. I'd be very involved in moderating this myself, and I'd ask one other existing mod to move to this.

What I'm really asking here is what kind of policies we should implement, and whether the ones we decide on can actually work. For example, do we allow traders - my gut reaction is "absolutely not" - and in either case can that be managed? And what would our policy be regarding scammers? Saying we're against them isn't enough, people /will/ get scammed so we'd need to be prepared to deal with that.

That kind of thing. I think there's a massive opportunity here for fans, I've been asked many, many times by hobbyists about this kind of thing, and of course we have a pretty busy ticket trade going on here. So should we expand on that, or leave well enough alone?

adam

[anto1208]

I think its a good idea there is a massive market outthere for a carboot sale type site . Ebay when it started was a place for people to shift there unwanted junk but it has been ruined by people just setting up bussiness's and flodding every catagory with cheap asian stuff anyone trying to sell an individual item gets there ad lost inbetween the nonsence .

What kind of stuff would this marketplace cater for would it just be anything and everything ?

[dahamsta]

Football gear primarily imho, at least at the outset. It could perhaps be open up to general stuff later, but I think it might be better to focus at the outset.

adam

[atfconline]

Any further thoughts on this?

[dahamsta]

I wouldn't start a new forum based on this little feedback tbh. I've posted an announcement to see if that brings more comments in.

adam

[Battery Rover]

I am a long time user of boards/adverts.ie and the key to this would be good moderation and the banning immediately of any traders that registered.

I wouldnt like it to be like ebay but the same as adverts where an asking price must be quoted on every advert and the first person to meet this would be entitled to it. People should also be made say if they want to post to a buyer or is it for local collection only as this is an issue on adverts in my opinion

It would be advisable to keep it to football related stuff as this is badly needed on the internet as ebay is flooded with comapnies that sell programmes and other stuff at little or no cost and stops the general small time seller from getting a value price for their items

[Lim till i die]

Hmm the Athlone fans are very keen on this.

All those players weren't on two year deals by any chance were they?? :)

[BohsPartisan]

We've got some half price cracked ice and miles and miles of carpet tiles,
T.V.s, deep freeze and David Bowie L.P.s,
Ball games, gold chains, whatsnames, pictures frames and leather goods,
And Trevor Francis track suits from a mush in Shepherds Bush,

[lofty9]

To stop traders, would there be any way of having it used by posters who are registered more than a year? Could this be set up?

Posters then could put themselves forward for use of the section after a years membership if they wanted to - maybe on a sticky thread of the said forum?

[Block G Raptor]

Y

What I'm really asking here is what kind of policies we should implement, and whether the ones we decide on can actually work. For example, do we allow traders - my gut reaction is "absolutely not" - and in either case can that be managed? And what would our policy be regarding scammers? Saying we're against them isn't enough, people /will/ get scammed so we'd need to be prepared to deal with that.



When you say traders to you mean professional traders or anyone who sells more than one item? for instance, I'm a graphic artist and would relish the opportunity to sell some of my paintings on here but would not be in favour of allowing any old del-boy get an account and start flogging tat on here
as for scammers I think it would be better for the Site/Mods/yourself to distance yourself from the actual transactions, have stringent rules regulating what can be sold, value of Items etc. but essentially at the purchaser's risk with a clear disclaimer stating this

[dahamsta]

lofty9, yes, that would be technically possible, but a year might be a bit long.

BGR, that would be hard to define. One man's tat is another man's gold.

adam

[Block G Raptor]

BGR, that would be hard to define. One man's tat is another man's gold.

adam
Oh I know I Know ;) what i was getting at was more to do with joe soap scammer joining our beloved board to specifically sell is fine quality wares that turn out to be in fact not as they are described

[dahamsta]

In that case lofty9's idea would help, although again, a year strikes me as a bit much. TBH I don't know if it can be done by a period of time, but I do know it can be done by post count.

[Block G Raptor]

was thinking about this last night: what would you think about setting up a foot.ie escrow account to allow the buyer to verify the goods before payment is sent?

[dahamsta]

I don't think we want to get into the escrow business. There's operators out there specifically for this, people can arrange it themselves if they feel the need.

[Block G Raptor]

I don't think we want to get into the escrow business. There's operators out there specifically for this, people can arrange it themselves if they feel the need.

Ok Fair enough. just thought it would be a good Idea if the site set it up so the user would know it was safe and reliable, many ebay scams involve realistic looking fake escrow sites

[dahamsta]

Do you mean on escrow.com as an "agent" or something?

[Block G Raptor]

I'm not overly familiar with escrow acc/sites. just thought that maybe an account could be set up by Foot.ie and only this site/acc would be acceptable for transactions on the marketplace forum. Don't know if this is possible or whatever. I don't know if this can be done if it can here's how I think it would work

Scenario 1
MRx (buyer) buy's item from MrY(seller)
MRx pays money into Escrow
Mr Y mails goods
on reciept of goods
MrX posts in marketplace forum that he has recieved/is satisfied with goods
Moderator in Forum see's post and releases escrow payment to MrY

Scenario 2
MRx (buyer) buy's item from MrY(seller)
MRx pays money into Escrow
Mr Y fails to mail goods
MRX posts on forum to this effect
Moderator returns payment from escrow to MrX


You can work out Scenario's 3-infinity yourselves but you get the jist

[Titan]

This whole internet marketplace thing is open to serious scamming. The problem is that once you open it to Joe Public to sell his Waterford V Sligo match programme. Delboy wont be far behind with his cheap kitchenware. The question is do you want a football only marketplace or are you happy to allow people sell anything?

Maybe you could start off with just clubs selling their own merchandise i.e. Bohemians sell match tickets,Jersies programmes etc.

Each club would have to have someone on the forum to monitor and fulfill the orders. This could be a good way for clubs who dont currently have online shopping to make some cash and give their supporters/collectors from around the world the opportunity to purchase their goods safely

Each club involved would have to stand over their merchandise and fulfilment procedures thus minimising the exposure to foot.ie.

If this worked ok you could then think about expanding it to individuals.

[dahamsta]

BGR, I don't think escrow sites work that way. We can recommend one or more, but I don't think we want to get involved in the details.

Titan, I think I've already specified that it would be football-only at the outset. I've dealt with the clubs before, they'll need to come to me in a case like this.

adam

[Block G Raptor]

BGR, I don't think escrow sites work that way. We can recommend one or more, but I don't think we want to get involved in the details.

Titan, I think I've already specified that it would be football-only at the outset. I've dealt with the clubs before, they'll need to come to me in a case like this.

adam

Fair enough!:( you can see how it would be a good idea though?

[dahamsta]

Escrow is grand for higher cost stuff, but the cost and hassle for the general level of sales we'd see in a marketplace here wouldn't really justify it imho. And of course there's nothing stopping people using escrow agents themselves.

[jebus]

I think it would be a good idea, and that hitting a certain post count before being allowed to trade would be a good idea. It might not stop all del boys but it would weed out quite a few.

[Block G Raptor]

I think it would be a good idea, and that hitting a certain post count before being allowed to trade would be a good idea. It might not stop all del boys but it would weed out quite a few.

Seconded ! a post count of say 500 ? and/or an active membership of 3 months ?

[atfconline]

Seconded ! a post count of say 500 ? and/or an active membership of 3 months ?

500 would be fairly high. I am on here since day one, and I still have less than 800 posts. You just want to stop people signing up with the sole intention of selling stuff - selling on their first day registered with not one post to their name.

[dahamsta]

I agree. A hundred posts would be fine for non-PCW (http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=QUT&q=post+count+whore+&btnG=Search), and we should really be keeping an eye out for PCW's anyway.

Screw it, let's see how the numbers look, poll added. I'd be the primary mod at the outset btw. And I voted yes, as my experience is that people would like to buy and sell and barter on Foot.ie, but haven't really been able to, at least properly.

adam

[billybunter]

i would support this venture. I hope it gets enough interest and takes off.

[osarusan]

I voted no, as I'm not interested in buying or selling anything on the site.

My vote reflects what's good for me, obviously, not necessarily what's good for the site.

I'm not too bothered about it though, if it is started up, it will just be another forum I don't go into.

[noby]

Surely not voting at all (or a third 'don't care' option on the poll) would have been better so. I don't post on the junior league forum, but I realise there's a place for it.

[outside in]

bad idea lads i can see it coming back to bite us in da ass imo

[finnpark]

There should be no problems provided the payment method is selected correctly. I can see this being very active. Paypal/Escrow seems fine or even a forum that is incorporated into ebay?

Im all for this.

[Dodge]

I think I'd use it to fill gaps in my programme collection so I've voted yes. I wouldn't like to see it develop beyond football

[Risteard]

Adam, surely any hassle would be yours to deal with ie small claims and any legal stuff.
I don't see why people voted no instead of just not using it.
I might use it rarely for any scarves or highly-sought-otherwise-unavailable-tickets but little else.

[centre mid]

If administerd properly cant see any reason why it shouldnt work. Good idea imo. Keeping it football based to start with is the right way to go.

[SligoBrewer]

I voted yes. I can't see how with a post count limit it wouldn't work.

Most of the people with 100/200+ posts could be trusted imo.

[seand]

I'd certainly be interested in filling gaps in my programme collection, and offering some spares. Perhaps as suggested there should be a 100 post minimum for users, or at least users would have to be approved by the mods. And a disclaimer along the lines of caveat emptor 'foot.ie accepts no responsibility... etc etc' would be essential.

[noby]

I see the Marketplace forum has been created. What's the criteria for posting?

[dahamsta]

None at the moment, I need to appoint mods. Nominations gladly accepted from users that have been around for a while. A month is not a while.

adam

[theworm2345]

Can I nominate Block G Raptor?
Based on this post he seems to be perhaps willing to do it
http://foot.ie/showpost.php?p=859462&postcount=22

[Block G Raptor]

Can I nominate Block G Raptor?
Based on this post he seems to be perhaps willing to do it
http://foot.ie/showpost.php?p=859462&postcount=22

Willing and able. Nom Accepted

Although I'm not online much outside normal business Hrs. as the missus still won't get Broadband in her gaff and I hardly ever stay in the ma's anymore