BST Pricing SHOULD be mandatory.

[Wheeljack Off]

Hey guys.

As a bit of a nerd, I belong to a number of these types of forums and as such, get to experience how things are sometimes better with small tweaks.

I buy a lot of corals and fish in particular on a few boards that I have been a member of for quite a while.

The best change these boards ever made was to make a rule for mandatory pricing on all BST's.

Is it not just a huge waste of everyones time when someone posts all their figures for sale but offers no pricing?

What if you walked into TRU and they had no pricing and every single item you wanted to know about, you had to ask...

Would be pretty stupid right?

There are established auction sites for those who just want to get the absolute most they can get but don;t want to turn anyone off by posting ridiculous prices.

What's the logic behind not posting prices?

What't the logic behind this board allowing members to post sales without pricing?

This is my opinion, so would really value those of the boardies who see merit in priceless bst's, as I just can see why.

[chovner]

AAAAAAMEN BROTHER!!!I hate "Make an offer", it's lazy and annoying. Basically "I'm trying to squeeze every penny out of this as possible, and don't want to potentially under price something by a red cent"... Those people also tend to have "low ballers will be ignored"... You don't want to be lowballed? Put a price you'd be happy with!!!!!


Would be nice if the mods added this as a rule. Would the mods be open to putting this to a vote? Run a voting poll for a couple weeks and if the majority would prefer mandatory pricing, it gets made into a rule? Just a question/suggestion..

[FreedomGundam]

I'm totally with this idea.
I'm part of other forums in other communities that have this enforced as a rule. No prices listed? The thread gets closed/deleted/whatever.

On a semi-related note about required things in a sales thread, how about the LOCATION of the items?
Most of us here have our "Location" under our avatars filled in correctly, but not all. Some are pretty obscure and use the slang-version or odd-abbreviation of their city name or region. Some have things like "Cybertron" or "Earth". Which doesn't help when you're looking for something, and you're hoping to find it locally (or at least nearby).

[Goaliebot]

I'm loathe to advocate a rule forcing it, but I do wish people would include it and I tend to ignore threads that have no pricing.

Same deal for tables at toy shows and cons.

[Wheeljack Off]

Why so loathe to advocate a rule enforcing it?

We have so many other rules here, this one actually makes sense.

Any boardies who feel the opposite to the general consensus here??

Would really love to know a mods opinion on this too.
I am sure they buy tfs just as much as the rest of us.

[Leozak]

As a frequent visitor to the B/S/T boards, I see both sides to this.

I can see where prices may help but have also seen instances where a seller is attacked because their prices are 'worse than ebay'.

As a mod, I prefer that sellers have either option and don't feel that I need to enforce mandatory pricing especially if we also promote trading.

This is a community board and the B/S/T threads are a small part of what this board promotes. We are neither an auction site nor a retailer so pricing is not required.

I don't know if the other mods will reply but that's my opinion.

[Wheeljack Off]

Lol..
Maybe some people could use the reality check.

But that is an excellent point, however, if pricing were mandatory, it would be pretty easy to discourage and regulate any price bashing...pretty much the same way that you regulate members who are rude or aggressive.

I also think you wind up with just as many board members attacked for not posting pricing as for posting pricing viewed as unrealistic right now.

The trade factor wouldn't be an issue, even with trading if you put a trade value on something, it would make the whole process easier as trading is also encouraged on the other boards I am a member of where pricing is mandatory. It helps rather than hinders the transactions.

I think if you checked, the majority of us board members would tell you that the B/S/T thread is actually a BIG part of this site, even if not promoted as such.

[kirbenvost]

I don't agree with mandatory pricing for a couple reasons. I actually do put pricing on most of my items, however there are a few instances where I don't necessarily agree it should be mandatory.

First, there is no set value for figures. So what's fair? I tend to undervalue my items because I know it's the only way I can get rid of some of them. But does that mean I get what my items are actually worth? Not usually. If a person accepts reasonable offers they may be actually getting what the item is worth from a buyer who actually wants it. If they're forced to show prices from the outset, they'll either price it at what it's worth and buyers will go look elsewhere for the cheapest deal, or they price it too low and end up at a loss.


For trades, some figures of the same size class are simply worth more on the secondary market. If people are forced to put a price next to their items they will only look at the value versus what the figure actually is. For example, no one's going to trade a Generations Voyager for a Bayverse Voyager if say the Generations one is worth $25 and you can't get rid of the Bayverse for $15. However if it's a straight trade going by the size of the figure with no pricing involved, they might be more willing if they're trading a figure they don't want for one they do want.

Sometimes, the value is hard to determine. eBay is not the best resource for price references, nor are online retailers. When I was selling my Maketoys Giant I went by what eBay was offering as market price, when it turned out the re-release was just around the corner for much less, so I had to adjust my price to that. So it's sometimes a tough call to say what pricing should be. Pricing is usually not set in stone either, because many offer deals for buying multiples, etc.

That said, I do agree that it's sometimes a waste of time to have to message about a figure, only to find out it's priced higher than you're willing to pay. But it also takes a lot of time to price out every figure if you're selling a lot of stuff. If a buyer is truly interested, they will ask, and that's when the seller can take the time to price the item. But if they don't want to do that, they can have the prices set out in the first place.

So I dunno. I see both sides of the issue for sure but I probably lean more towards not having it be mandatory. Encouraged, but not mandatory.

[brr-icy]

If you want to sell, prove it. Prices take like five minutes to do and your stuff disappears a lot faster. No prices is a crap shoot

[victory_saber]

Originally Posted by brr-icy

If you want to sell, prove it. Prices take like five minutes to do and your stuff disappears a lot faster. No prices is a crap shoot

Totally agreed, I think the ones who don't put a price to their listing doesn't care if they sell or not unless it's for eBay pricing. With boardies who price their items you have the option to read the next post or if interested make an offer or buy it out right for the price listed.

Lets make this a rule moving forward!