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

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I tend to splash around in the shallow end. The few times I've looked in the dealer section, all I saw there was the fancy stuff.
 
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There was a thread in 2018 where members complained there were too many undercover or unofficial dealers in the private sale section — and were unhappy the mods were not doing enough about it.
Turns out the mods were swamped and also have a life to deal with — I have no particular stock in the forum but I’m a moderator on another so I can relate.
The discussions were different in substance and in tone — but the management’s reply about how to assign sellers to each section was pretty much the same as here, and the policy was exactly the same, ie, there are several factors, volume being just one of them. And it’s a balancing act left to the discretion of the forum management.

whichever way you look at it, it will never be perfect for everyone.

Yes, I remember that thread, and for sure it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation for the mods.

I've been on plenty of forums over the years, dating back before forums like we are on now, and to the time of newsgroups. Many different subjects including sports, cars, and of course watches. In many of those forums, simply posting this thread would be grounds for banning, because questioning moderator decisions isn't allowed at all. But things are not that uptight here thankfully.

Although I don't always agree with every decision made here, I can honestly say that the one thing I do believe is that mods do what they do here for the betterment of the forum, and it's members. Of all the forums I've been a part of, this one has had the best moderation bar none.

So if I'm giving anyone the benefit of the doubt in this situation, it will be the mod team.
 
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If you’re moving the kind of volume where you are moved to the professional sellers forum, it seems to me that WUS would be a better place for selling.

For some of us posting on WUS would be like driving a Smart Fortwo on the Autobahn.
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Interestingly part of the way we identify guys is many of the guys we ask to move in turn snitch out several of their buddies and in this case one previous guy who was moved not only had a list of names for us to look at for this batch of 10 but also gave us the matching eBay accounts, store websites, other sites they shift inventory on, listing counts, etc.

I'm not sure what's more disturbing; the snitches snitching, or your gloating about their snitching.

but again in this batch we had a few guys that also snitched on their buddies who will be part of the next list as they don’t want them having an advantage.

So then being moved to the dealer's section is disadvantageous?
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As in any relationship, communication is key.

I do believe rules are needed as soon as crowds becomes too large. As we all know, there is always that one why the rule was created for! Lol

Some say, take it or leave... No rules on sales volume needs to be especially defined... We had this discussion before etc

All arguments are valid per definition... But the community is what makes the forum a great place to be. So telling people to take it or to beat, it might not be the best philosophy.

If you forbid people to create a sale post before they reach 200 posts count but don't clearly tell them how many they could do per month/year/specific period, you expose yourself to this situation... Otherwise, why is the logic having a post count but not a count for sales/volume/sales per week or month (whatever logic one wants to implement)?

Discussions like this happened before... Well, this year the sales volume is 20, next year it is 15, last year it was 25... Rules can change, owners can change them much as they want to... Again, just communicate it to avoid such situation. And the logic, it was discussed previously makes it that it should not be discussed again, is just absurd. It is a moving ground, different users, different rules, I believe a civilised debate/conversation is always healthy.

Maybe we are not aware (nor we ought to), there are some impacts (legal/financial/others) to the website that would require a clear definition between Private and Commercial sales in terms of whatever volumes.

I believe it is understandable that a dealer connotation could be perceived as negative... I'm not saying you agree on the rationale of why it has a negative connotation, but that you can empathise to the fact one can perceive it as such.

I also believe that mods/owners do not have the luxury of time to accommodate personal messages to every user on general topics... Hence, make it a clear rule (that can change).

And if not mistaken, the common feeling from the impacted users is the sudden request... Maybe a prior warning message would have been better received explaining the change/new rule, giving users time to adapt.

All in all, I believe this space is a great one to share knowledge, experience, and to give life (decrease or increase) one's watch collection.
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I'm not sure what's more disturbing; the snitches snitching, or your gloating about their snitching.



So then being moved to the dealer's section is disadvantageous?
I wouldn’t call it gloating, its just helpful and more efficient being given a heads up with actual information to support it which we can then verify and I invite others to forward on any such reports to us for us to look over. We don’t agree with all but many we do.

As to whether its an advantage or not really depends once again, there is a higher standard expected but also a higher perceived trust in the watches for sale section, it also allows multiple listings to be made at once which isn’t possible otherwise and as mentioned the indexing is the same.

Once again its not personal, in your instance two separate people mentioned you were a dealer and one said you had about 100 listings, it turns out you actually had 117 listings in total in the last two and a bit years and very few other posts outside of that section so it was upheld.
 
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I think @YY77 forgot his <\sarcasm> tags. But that leads to the interesting question, @STANDY being the Mick Dundee of fisherman and all, what would happen if his line actually got a bite 😀 (I believe I know the answer to that)...

Jeez guys. Read the thread you're talking about. Think its fairly easy to determine the answer to that 😉



Great tune...but I sincerely think he wouldn’t 😀

Currently sifting through the 45 minute videos that was required from each of the potential buyers now. 📖
 
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As has been said before. “Whoever owns the sandpit we play in makes the rules.”

And if 28 was a lot on page one of this thread 117 is a shit ton in anyone’s book.

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Let's approach this from a different direction. Instead of looking at sales numbers, maybe we can do a behavioral assessment.

You know you're NOT a dealer when ...

- you pull a watch out to photograph it for sale, and then change your mind and wear it.
- you're secretly relieved when someone makes you a lowball offer since it's easy to reject.
- you ask your wife's opinion about every watch you are thinking about selling.
- you take a listing down after getting a lot of likes and reading nice comments.
...
 
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I visit OF frequently and mostly for the content forums but also check out both the private watch sales and the watches for sale. I don’t understand why there is an issue being made about which of the two sales sections of watches are posted. I check both and have bought from several people advertising in each and all experiences have been positive. For me, it’s based on trust of the seller and I can find both new and vintage in both locations.
 
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Once again its not personal, in your instance two separate people mentioned you were a dealer

Did either of them look like this?



and one said you had about 100 listings, it turns out you actually had 117 listings in total in the last two and a bit years and very few other posts outside of that section so it was upheld.

Wow 😬

I guess I did deserve to be moved then. I didn't realize it was that many sales listings. I should have kept track.
 
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@STANDY mentioned having both dealers and sellers in the same forum...maybe labeling them as "dealer" or "Private". That probably would make the forum a little overwhelming to brush through.

I personally (and I don't have a say on this) would remove dealer listings from the site altogether and THEN maybe just have a dealer forum that simply has links to known dealers or dealer members websites or sales platforms. By doing so any transaction with a dealer and any liability attached to such transaction is removed from the forum. You're a member + you're a dealer....you have the right to link your business on that thread.

You can have member user "reviews" be the posts under each dealer post. So it would read like this. Title: dealer name and location, First post: Link, Bio and introduction (expert on vintage, or modern etc). Subsequent posts: reviews and comments on dealer.

Alternatively the whole "Dealer thread" could be moved to another site and just linked through. Set a "dealer fee" to support that domain and its management.

If something is taking more time and effort than the benefit it's bringing....change it. Then again, I don't know what the benefits are of that forum and it may be worth it to the elders.