Classifieds - Should You Include Contact Info, Or Not?

[Steve Herschbach]

Something people may not consider here when running an ad. Especially if they are wondering why they got no response.

Did you include contact info in the ad?

If not, only full forum members with at least ten posts can contact you, either by posting a response to the ad, or by a PM. Now, that is great if you want to keep it in the family, and relatively safe.

However, about 700 people a day are looking at the page, and most are not members, and may not want to join just to contact you. If you want to reach more than just the forum membership, you need to put an email address or something in your ad. But do keep in mind then you lose the security of dealing with known forum members, though I suppose if the guy has joined just to contact you, that could still be a concern. Do pay attention to the date when joined on their account, and how many times they have posted.

I’ve always sold anything I’ve placed on this forum very quickly, while some stuff that is priced very low by others just sits. I think that’s one reason… no contact info.

[IronDigger]

Great advice Steve, for me personally I enjoy the safety net of being able to see our regular members posts. We in some way get to know who is who and can judge the credibility level of said members based on previous exchanges in classifieds. I can be wrong but it seems most of our members are old school one handshake and you know you have their word and guarantee if there's an issue it will be taken care of. 

[Noah (FL)]

Probably a good idea!   
Thanks Steve 

[WesD]

Now that you mention it, probably explains why I had had poor luck selling detectors here in the past. Thanks for the tip!

[Crossbow37]

Thank you Steve! When I get to full member status, I will be wanting to sell one of my Minelab detectors, and would like to be successful!

[Steve Herschbach]

On 7/19/2023 at 10:12 PM, Crossbow37 said:

Thank you Steve! When I get to full member status, I will be wanting to sell one of my Minelab detectors, and would like to be successful!

Welcome to the forum! I sold detectors for a living. It’s simple. Great photos of spotlessly clean gear, detailed description with honest assessment of hours, remaining warranty, etc. clear contact info. And price to sell. That has nothing to do with anything but going market price, and eBay “Sold” listings are the best place to see what similar models have sold for in the last 6 months. Stuff is only worth what it’s selling for now - what you paid or nostalgia are irrelevant.

But people post photos of beat up dirty detectors, or don’t mention remaining warranty, or simply price too high. I price to sell and if it’s not sold before the ad drifts to bottom of page, I update with reduced price and repeat until sold. Once items go to page 2 they almost never sell, game over.

[Timmysys]

I'm thinking about trying to sell a metal detector through this forum. I think most of the readers come from the USA, but maybe many people read it from Europe as well.
 Selling something overseas from Europe is a bit problematic for me. What I still don't know is how to facilitate the transfer and sending of money safely for both the buyer and the seller. I have no idea what the best tool would be.
 My profile here is 5 years old, I registered on the Findmall forum 14 years ago, I hope that means something :)
It would be really nice to leave ebay out of the whole thing, the money they take out of my pocket is quite big.

[Steve Herschbach]

Both payment and shipping are issues, but many people here have ordered from overseas and so can probably advise better on that. What I can do is show you where the people who visit here are from. The map is color coded with the darker the blue, the more visitors. But nearly 100% come from seven countries. Only just over half are here in the U.S. with the rest from around the world. This is visitor information, not forum member information, but our active members here do seem to reflect a similar mix although more skewed to the U.S.

 

[Timmysys]

Thank you it's very usefull information! 

If I can't sell it around here, I'll try this method as well.  Thank you very much for your help!