Hello everyone,

As you may have noticed, we're starting to receive more traffic in the sales (and seller profile) forums. It seems it's time for us to set some posting guidelines. I've started this discussion to gather your input. Any assistance is appreciated. Our only goal here is to empower the buyer/collector.

Proposed rules for selling:

• Photos should be at least 1200 pixels wide (or at least 1 Megapixel).
• There should be at least 3 photos in a sales post.
• Photos should be current. If they're not, please provide an explanation in your post.
• Photos should be hosted on Omega Forums (use the upload button)
• No deleting old photos, or removal of prices.
• The option to attach other files (like PDF's) is provided, but please keep all relevant info in your sales post.
• Omega Forums will not be held responsible for the accuracy or authenticity of posts, including sales posts and seller reviews. These tools are provided for your convenience only.
• Marking as "sold" in a followup post is acceptable, changing the price to $SOLD is not.

Additional rules for watch dealers:

• Keep it classy. You're welcome to post items for sale like anyone else, but the emphasis should be kept on the items and not marketing your business.
• All relevant info, specifications, and photos should be kept within your post. Members should not be prompted to click through to an external website.
• Dealers should respect the fact that we built and maintain ΩF for ourselves and fellow enthusiasts/collectors. In a world full of obnoxious ads, this is our safe haven.

(I'll be editing this list as our discussion evolves)

Feel free to contribute or improve my wording.

There's also still the issue of commercial posts in the seller profiles and sales section. Are these an asset to the community? Should we allow dealers to post sales ads and seller profiles?

Cheers

 

No deleting old photos, or removal of prices. Marking as sold in a followup post is acceptable, changing the price to $SOLD is not.

Ultimately I think we should be making it as easy for buyers or prospective buyers to get the most information possible, and showing historical sale prices helps that.

 

Yes, our focus should definitely be on empowering the buyer/collector. The initial sales post could become read-only after 6 or 12 hours? I think TRF and other sites do something similar. They might even block all edits of the first post immediately.

Should I move this whole post to the public forum? Might be better.

 

My reasoning behind the minimum photo resolution requirement was that it:

1. Makes it far easier spot scratches, faults, and evaluate the true condition of a piece (assists buyers in making a more informed decision).
2. Reduces the likelihood of someone posting a counterfeit item or parts.
3. Reduces the number of crappy sales posts a member needs to wade through. Tiny photos simply waste everyones time.
4. If a member isn't able to meet the 1 megapixel+ requirement, they're probably not someone you should be completing an internet transaction with (on a high ticket item). Omega Forums will always host your images free or charge, indefinitely, regardless of their size. There's not many excuses left for overly poor images. Even a common iPhone now outputs 8 megapixel images. At the very least, I'm sure one of us would be willing to lend a hand if someone was really stuck.

My aim here is to maintain a high standard for sales ads. We have the technology and resources to display great (big... juicy) photos, so lets use it.

Sounds good to me.

I'm conflicted on this one. I'd like to see them contributing as members, but tons of "nice pics" posts don't help either. Is a glorified bill board full of watches a bad thing? hmmm. Undecided.

None of this is set in stone, of course. Just brain-storming with you guys.

 

I suppose the only issue is that some dealers might include large "banners", logos, etc for their business. A sort of loop-hole to get in their advertising on a forum that doesn't have ads. There's nothing worse than a watch forum covered in banners, or the ones that send out weekly "newsletters" with no option to unsubscribe. We never want to become anything like that. Dealers should respect the fact that we built and maintain ΩF for ourselves and fellow enthusiasts/collectors. In a world full of obnoxious ads, this is our safe haven.

We may need to add something along the lines of "If you're a dealer, keep it classy. You're welcome to post items for sale like anyone else, but the emphasis should be kept on the items and not marketing your business".

Congrats on hitting 200, Steve!

 

I'm not sure if enforcing a post count would really help. It's easy enough to accumulate the required number of posts with quick comments: "Looking great", "That's actually kind of cool", "Nice PO.", etc.

I would (personally) prefer if dealers became involved in the community because they genuinely wanted to. It would probably help with their sales, anyhow

 

My take on dealers is this, if they can provide a trusted, safe way of people getting good deals then they're a benefit. If they price themselves out of the market, it doesn't matter because, they will simply not do any business, and frankly its no skin off my nose if they go to the trouble of posting an ad that gets no bites. Now if they do post an ad, their reputation as a dealer is part of the sale, and they of course must respect the rules, and conduct themselves as professionals. If they have a dispute with someone and do not settle it correctly, and that dispute is brought up here, it will not be deleted (There has already been a case of this with Dennis having a dispute with a dealer, it doesn't get deleted, it just stays as a record for the future). For that reason, I think we can benefit from having some good solid dealers for the following purposes:

• So people can know they can trust someone
• Access to larger stock
• Ability to buy watches pre-serviced
• Ability to ask for a guarantee that dial/hands etc are original / not refinished
• Ability to do trade-in deals where desired

Ultimately that's useful to the community, and if the buyers are sufficiently empowered with knowledge, advice, and choice, they can make better buying decisions. That's just my 2c. I don't really want to be taking money from them either, because it compromises my ability to tell them to sod off if they need to be gotten rid of.

 

Good point. 100% agree.