Have anyone else been forced to move their listings to the dealer section as an entusiast?

hejsam · Mar 6, 2021

I was contacted yesterday by admins and asked to move my listings to the dealer section.

No real reason other than ”Just looking at your sales history it seems like you’ve been dealing a decent volume”.
I counted my listings and its 28 total of the 2 years I have been here. Maybe a lot to some but not an eye opening volume to me.

I’m no professional dealer or even an amateur dealer. I’m just an watch entusiast and therefore buy a lot of watches, this also means I have to sell some of them. Sometimes for profit and sometimes I take a hit, like all do in this hobby.

This was cleary nothing that would be discussed since the admins made a decision already.

Have anyone else been contacted? Any good reason for moving members to the dealer section that clearly not is dealing?

Gav1967 · Mar 6, 2021

I'm not sure what you are hoping to achieve with a public thread. It would be better to take it up the mods privately I would have thought.
If that proves unsuccessful (which it may) I think I would feel disinclined to upset the apple cart any further and just feel grateful you are still being allowed to sell watches to a great audience without having to pay for the service. (Unless of course you choose to)
Just my opinion of course

hejsam · Mar 6, 2021

Gav1967
I'm not sure what you are hoping to achieve with a public thread. It would be better to take it up the mods privately I would have thought.
If that proves unsuccessful (which it may) I think I would feel disinclined to upset the apple cart any further and just feel grateful you are still being allowed to sell watches to a great audience without having to pay for the service. (Unless of course you choose to)
Just my opinion of course

I of course asked the admin that messaged me first but with no answear on my questions regarding the reason of this decision and not willing to discuss this further I was hoping to get more enlightenment on the subject in a public thread.

If more members also got this new rules to follow that I have this will probably be new guidlines on the forum from now on and thats fine for me, I just want some transparency for the reason behind it.

I would have no problem paying for using the platform to sell watches, but I don't think that's the case here.
I just don't see myself as a dealer and when looking which members are posting in the dealers section I really don't see how I will fit in there.

Gav1967 · Mar 6, 2021

Since I wrote the post I gave it more thought and I find your post a little disingenuous.

You have actually been a member 1yr 9months. On the assumption you needed to have 200 posts before being allowed to sell and that would have taken a few months, it actually means you have had up for sale 28 watches in around 12 months (ish). Let's call it 2 a month so we don't fall out of the figures.
It can take some time to sell a watch unless it is an excellent example at a great price. So taking that into account I would guesstimate you have somewhere in the region of 8-12 watches up for sale at any one time.
You may not consider yourself a dealer but to me those volumes mean that you fit the profile.
And if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck .....

SpikiSpikester · Mar 6, 2021

hejsam
I’m no professional dealer or even an amateur dealer. I’m just an watch entusiast and therefore buy a lot of watches, this also means I have to sell some of them. Sometimes for profit and sometimes I take a hit, like all do in this hobby.

I wasn't involved in this, so don't @ me. We already get plenty of unreasonable messages from dealers who don't want to post in the Dealer section. But this may help:

It's about sales volume, not about how you see yourself.

It's about protecting members from people who pretend they're private sellers to avoid the responsibilities of being a dealer, such as servicing standards, returns, delivery issues, etc.

The only way to reach a view is by looking at sales volume.

The forum offers free space to sellers & sales problems are usually the biggest headaches for the admins - there are emotional and monetary issues at stake when sales go wrong and they burn lots of energy. This hobby is supposed to be fun and the forum is supposed to be a good community to enjoy and share watches.

There are lots of places to sell your unwanted watches if the community standards of the OF sales forums aren't right for you.

hejsam · Mar 6, 2021

Gav1967
Since I wrote the post I gave it more thought and I find your post a little disingenuous.

You have actually been a member 1yr 9months. On the assumption you needed to have 200 posts before being allowed to sell and that would have taken a few months, it actually means you have had up for sale 28 watches in around 12 months (ish). Let's call it 2 a month so we don't fall out of the figures.
It can take some time to sell a watch unless it is an excellent example at a great price. So taking that into account I would guesstimate you have somewhere in the region of 8-12 watches up for sale at any one time.
You may not consider yourself a dealer but to me those volumes mean that you fit the profile.
And if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck .....

Don't know if its necessary to count figures but do you mean it takes about 6 months to sell a watch? Since you are counting 8-12 watches for sale at the same time over the course of aprox a year.

I have never had more than 2-3 listings at the same time, usually takes maximum a couple of weeks to sell a watch if not something especially hard to sell.

S.H. · Mar 6, 2021

hejsam
I was contacted yesterday by admins and asked to move my listings to the dealer section.

No real reason other than ”Just looking at your sales history it seems like you’ve been dealing a decent volume”.
I counted my listings and its 28 total of the 2 years I have been here. Maybe a lot to some but not an eye opening volume to me.

😒

So you sold 28 watches, at least 1 per month, on OF, benefitting from a free platform. Mods decide to bump you off to a more discreet location but don't prevent you from selling (OF is a private forum, not your sale platform after all) and... you complain publicly?

Am I missing something? And you did participate to the forum costs maybe? Or have you an adblocker...

hejsam · Mar 6, 2021

S.H.
😒

So you sold 28 watches, at least 2 per month, on OF, benefitting from a free platform. Mods decide to bump you off to a more discreet location but don't prevent you from selling (OF is a private forum, not your sale platform after all) and... you complain publicly?

Am I missing something? And you did participate to the forum costs maybe? Or have you an adblocker...

I don't "complain" publicly just want some transparency for the decision and want to know if this was directed just to me personally or to all members that are selling watches at a high volume.

And no I have not payed for the forums costs and I don't have an adblocker. As stated before I am happy to pay for listing if someone would ask me to do that.

Edit: but clearly I don't share other members views since I don't see selling 1 watch per month eye opening high volume, clearly most of you do so that assumption was mistaken from my side!

Gav1967 · Mar 6, 2021

hejsam
Don't know if its necessary to count figures but do you mean it takes about 6 months to sell a watch? Since you are counting 8-12 watches for sale at the same time over the course of aprox a year.

I have never had more than 2-3 listings at the same time, usually takes maximum a couple of weeks to sell a watch if not something especially hard to sell.

It was once explained to me that the forum is less of a democracy and more of a benign dictatorship.
stop behaving like you have some sort of entitlement and be grateful for what you have is my advice.

Good luck in reaching a resolution 👍

hejsam · Mar 6, 2021

SpikiSpikester
I wasn't involved in this, so don't @ me. We already get plenty of unreasonable messages from dealers who don't want to post in the Dealer section. But this may help:

It's about sales volume, not about how you see yourself.

It's about protecting members from people who pretend they're private sellers to avoid the responsibilities of being a dealer, such as servicing standards, returns, delivery issues, etc.

The only way to reach a view is by looking at sales volume.

The forum offers free space to sellers & sales problems are usually the biggest headaches for the admins - there are emotional and monetary issues at stake when sales go wrong and they burn lots of energy. This hobby is supposed to be fun and the forum is supposed to be a good community to enjoy and share watches.

There are lots of places to sell your unwanted watches if the community standards of the OF sales forums aren't right for you.

Good point, but this is whats bothering me "the responsibilities of being a dealer, such as servicing standards, returns, delivery issues, etc.". Selling watches from my own collection as a private person makes it hard to meet those responsibilities.

YY77 · Mar 6, 2021

hejsam
want to know if this was directed just to me personally or to all members that are selling watches at a high volume.

You're not the only one so I know it's not personal (I'm not a mod or a seller).

mountainunder · Mar 6, 2021

I saw a post yesterday that the title of the sales thread was changed to "WITHDRAWN" because a mod instructed us to move it from "PRIVATE WATCH SALES" to "WATCHES FOR SALE", but that post is gone now.

S.H. · Mar 6, 2021

hejsam
Good point, but this is whats bothering me "the responsibilities of being a dealer, such as servicing standards, returns, delivery issues, etc.". Selling watches from my own collection as a private person makes it hard to meet those responsibilities.

It was said to you that it is a volume problem... Ten or twenty guys like you would trample the forum to death, overworking the mods, overloading the threads prewiew and discourage a lot of members, me included.

You can setup a web page by yourself if you want to sell that many watches.

Also, in my country, the taxman may just laugh at you before slapping you with backtaxes: 28 watches in two years look like a small side business, not a hobby. You can't fault the mods for reasoning the same way...

Gav1967 · Mar 6, 2021

hejsam
Good point, but this is whats bothering me "the responsibilities of being a dealer, such as servicing standards, returns, delivery issues, etc.". Selling watches from my own collection as a private person makes it hard to meet those responsibilities.

It is an interesting point but I would expect you would little sympathy from those who do consider themselves as dealers.
They may think that you can undercut them because you dont have to maintain the same standards. Surely you should be meeting these standards anyway.
I think in the uk your hobby would be considered more of business.

SpikiSpikester · Mar 6, 2021

hejsam
Good point, but this is whats bothering me "the responsibilities of being a dealer, such as servicing standards, returns, delivery issues, etc.". Selling watches from my own collection as a private person makes it hard to meet those responsibilities.

You're not only person who has been asked to move their sales.

There comes a point where an ordinary watch collector's churn becomes something more - so congratulations, you are trading watches at a frequency where problems are more likely & people are entitled to view you as some sort of "pseudo-dealer".

S.H.
Ten or twenty guys like you would trample the forum to death, overworking the mods, overloading the threads prewiew and discourage a lot of members, me included.

You can setup a web page by yourself if you want to sell that many watches.

Also, in my country, the taxman may just laugh at you before slapping you with backtaxes: 28 watches in two years look like a small side business, not a hobby. You can't fault the mods for reasoning the same way...

Basically, yes.

Gav1967
I would expect you would little sympathy from those who do consider themselves as dealers.
They may think that you can undercut them because you dont have to maintain the same standards. Surely you should be meeting these standards anyway.
I think in the uk your hobby would be considered more of business.

All of this too.

We'll know how much of a dealer you really are if you carry on arguing the issue like all the worst offenders do. ☕

There's not a huge amount left to discuss here.

hejsam · Mar 6, 2021

Thank you for all your posts I got the answears that I was asking for, I will of course move on and obey to the guidelines. Don't see this discussion moving on further for any good reason 😀

I did not intend to achieve anything with this thread, just wanted to discuss and receive others opinions on the subject!

STANDY · Mar 6, 2021

You do realise this is the only thread you have started that isn’t a For Sale or Great Buyer thread.

28 watches there had to be one you could have started a thread about and enlightened us about the discoveries and nuances of such watch so all can learn.

28 is a lot in less than 2 years. 10 your probably just OK

😉

hejsam · Mar 6, 2021

STANDY
You do realise this is the only thread you have started that isn’t a For Sale or Great Buyer thread.

28 watches there had to be one you could have started a thread about and enlightened us about the discoveries and nuances of such watch so all can learn.

28 is a lot in less than 2 years. 10 your probably just OK

😉

IMO there is other ways to contribute and discussing watches besides starting threads.

Had collecting watches for many years since I found omegaforums so most of my collection was bought before.

But yes if the forum nourishes more from starting threads of every new watch I can of course contribute more to that in the furure, but that is not my shared opinion on a good interesting forum 😀

STANDY · Mar 6, 2021

hejsam
IMO there is other ways to contribute and discussing watches besides starting threads.

Had collecting watches for many years since I found omegaforums so most of my collection was bought before.

But yes if the forum nourishes more from starting threads of every new watch I can of course contribute more to that in the furure, but that is not my shared opinion on a good interesting forum 😀

No one starts threads there is no Forum. 🤦

dsio · Mar 6, 2021

It was a batch of 10 people that I PMed last night, many others have been asked in the past and there are often people unhappy when they get that PM.

The watches for sale section is indexed fully by all of the relevant aggregators like WatchRecon and people browse the topic very frequently. It also does not carry the one post per day restriction that other topics carry.

It really isn’t anything personal and it isn’t a punishment it’s just a categorisation based on an assessment of your history on the site along with several other factors.