Can I sell my roller bag on here?
 

before I did anything to get into trouble I was curious if I could post somewhere that I had something to sell that I think would be appreciated by the people on here for its reasonable price?

I think it would be a good idea to have a marketplace spot on these forum, send freightdog a pm about it.

Advertising in not permitted on APC Forums. From our rules.....

"Commercial Offers - For Sale Threads - Site Promotion

The APC Forums are not for classified ads or a venue for webmasters to promote their web sites. Any solicitation, link, or promotion may be removed at the sole discretion of the administrators. If you wish to advertise on our forum please contact us to discuss affordable advertising rates."

Please click here for more information.

Dog (and HSLD),

I understand that we don't want spam advertisements and website promotions. However I do think that established members that have proven their worth might benefit from having a "yard sale" or craigslist type area to trade goods and other aviation related gear/services.

Perhaps a new forum call "services and goods" could be created? I know that vbulletin allows for such a forum to be blocked off from certain users (say those that haven't yet "established" themselves. As such you wouldn't get spammed, but could still offer a service to the members. It one thing for commercial businesses and services to be advertising... but another when general members/individuals have a single item that others might be interested in.

Just my thoughts.

HSLD and other admin,

UND established a site for students to sell things on. It works pretty nice, no spam, if you want to check out what someone has you just go to the site. You could make another section of the site accessible from the main page that members could log into to view things that other members have for sale. Take a look at what UND has made. Obviously there could be improvements but it is somewhere to start.

http://www2.und.edu/org/underground/

Our focus with the forums has been on building an online community of pilots and I guess you can't have that for too long before someone wants to sell something :)

We turn away considerable opportunity to make money on this forum from potential advertisers because we don't view the users as a revenue source. It would be disingenuous for us to offer a community resource AND try to make money from the community members at the same time.

I am warm to the idea of "pilots helping pilots" - that's our goal after all. I also want to be receptive to the will of the community. Users like you have invested considerable time here and we want to provide the resource that this community wants/needs.

Let me discuss this with FD, and lets see if we can find a solution that meets the needs of the community while maintaining the ethical direction of our no-advertising policy.

THANKS! Maybe it could be "aviation" only items, so you could avoid everyone trying to sell there xbox. thanks again

What? Come on, a little love for the reserve pilots! :)

I'd vote for an aviation for-sale area. Maybe have some sort of poster validation, some number of posts or a history of legit aviation posts?

I don't think a classifieds area would be such a bad thing as long as it stayed aviation-related. Crashpads, flight kits, etc only could be benneficial.

I'd like to see it too.

Could you elaborate on how users are being used as a revenue source by allowing the sale of certain items? How are you making money off of them? (I am grateful for this resource, but quite frankly I don't mind if I was charged for its use. Charging might deter undesirables from joining! This is akin to allowing only real pilots or people who have some flight time to join.)

I think having a section posting aviation stuff for sale is long overdue and has considerable pent up demand. It does not really detract from the goal of helping each other. It can be done and indeed is being done in many other forums.

Here are some thoughts that come to mind regarding parameters.

Is it possible to have a “form” that sellers fill out online? This will prevent wildly different kinds of descriptions. And it will help screen out the non-aviation stuff in case someone tries to sell his knife collection or 300 issues of old Reader’s Digest or his kidney.

Is there some way to authenticate that the poster is the real and legitimate owner of the item? I wouldn’t want to buy stolen headsets or manuals that are stamped “Property of Mesa Airlines.”

Rig it so each post is good only for 7 days from the time of posting, after which it automatically self-destructs. I believe craigslist does this. Or have that thread automatically lock itself after 7 days. The problem with this is that if the item does not sell, the seller is going to post again and again ad nauseum.

Like craigslist, the seller cannot post the same and/or similar thing until after the original has expired. This, of course, means that the aforementioned “form” must have a little intelligence.

Allow only the sale of one of anything. For example, it’s fine for someone to list a roller bag, but not ok if the same person in the same ad lists 5 identical roller bags or something that is tantamount to commercial quantities.

What about having the seller post a picture of this item? Do we really want to burden the database like that?

Like the Hiring section, this for sale section can only be viewed by legitimate users. No guests or people with fewer than 100 posts.

To avoid clogging up the PM boxes, a potential buyer can click on a link that leads directly to the seller’s personal email outside of APC. Both parties can then transact business on their own time and space, without using up bandwidth.

Final thought – what about having the seller post a link on this section that takes the looker off into another site (but I don’t really know where or what) that has a more complete description of the item? Problem here is this might be interpreted as the posting of the forbidden self-promotion websites.

Well, these are just some thoughts. What do I know? I’m just an annoying lawyer who still has only 15 hours in my log book. ;)

PS: Rig each thread so that nobody is allowed to comment on the item. The last thing I want is some yahoo's commentary about the virtue of a David Clark vs a Bose. So if you wanna buy it, contact the seller.

And thus continues the downfall of American society...too many lawyers(j/k, kinda:) ), too many rules. Let's keep it simple.

HSLD and I spoke today, and we decided that we will launch a "Garage Sale" forum here (got a better name? let's hear it), based on everyone's input. We will work out the details and open it up soon.

It will be open only to pilots selling their used headsets, crash pad junkers, etc. No company advertising will be allowed.

FD

That's cool, but I hope it doesn't detract from the quality of APC. I know the pilots would like to sell a few humble things not trying to make a profit on them, but APC is about ideas, expression, sharing, and so forth, I do not see garage style advertising as very consistent wth this purpose. Commerce is fully served already by eBay, Craigslist, Trade-A-Plane, newspaper, and local airport billboards. I think it will interfere with the current atmosphere that is uniquely free from business motives. Vagabond hints at the difficulty of achieving an acceptable level of quality in managing such a bulletin board, and with the moderators taxed as they are I doubt they will be able to work through dozens of less than acceptable ads to ferret out a small number of David Clarks and Purdy Neats. But maybe so.

Woo Hoo!!
 

When you get it 'up and running,' can I get my "strike" removed for posting a link to my headsets that are for sale?

In any case, it's a fine idea...keep up the good work!!

And, I guess it would be more of a "Community Hangar Sale," vs. "Garage Sale."

Call it the "bone yard"

"Trash heap" depending on how well it's managed (kidding).

Once boundaries are established on where to draw the line, I don't think this will be hard to moderate.

Sounds like a great idea to me.
Hangar Sale, Ramp Sale, Parts and Pieces would all work...
Someone mentioned "Bone Yard", my favorite so far.

I'm on my way from TPE to NRT this afternoon and will set the new forum up later today.

I would like some feedback from the community on how many posts a user should have before they can post a for sale item - 50, 100, more? The no freemail and minimum post hurtles on other areas of the forum are, in part, anti-spam measures and they will be applied to the "for sale area". I do want to provide a useful resource for the community, but avoid having people register just so they can spam the forum with ads.

I like the KISS approach, although we will insist on some basic ground rules with the intent being this is a pilot-to-pilot resource, not a pilot owned business to APC forum forum member advertising resource. It's a subtle nuance although we'd like to balance our no commercial advertising policy with providing a resource the community wants.

Feedback please!

I think the forum should be strictly limited to Items for sale. No ads, no business, no advertising of peoples business. I think this is a great idea, and i think a lot of pilots could benefit from it. like you said though it could be abused but i think people will learn fast. i also think people shouldn't be able to put links to things like ebay, craigslist, etc. etc. if they want to sell something they should have to do it here.

I think 20 posts minimum would weed out those registering for the sole purpose of selling their wares.

The ability to attach a few pics would be great, too.

Yes, Aswell whatever is on sale it should include a picture with the members forum name on a piece of paper next to the item, for validity reason. And i believe 50 post should be the min, as well an age restriction I dont think we have anyone under 18 here. Also a split section whether the seller is trustworthy, or not ex. (goodseller/badseller w/ a 3 strike policy) even thought I doubt that would be a problem.



Bri85 :rolleyes:

HSLD---hey whatever you set for the minimum posts, if its more than what I have can you exclude me, so I can sell and or look for what I am wanting to buy:D ? thanks, and I think we should name it the "2 Lazy to look" forum!:) :D

What's that? I want to buy and sell, not get touchy feely with people I don't know. ;)

Well, since you started this whole thing with your roller bag, I think you should get special dispensation, including the right to be the first poster in the new "APC Attic."

Sorry, thread drift again. Regarding number of posts, I still think it ought to be a higher number instead of lower. Last night, I proposed 100 posts.

I just thought of something else!! Is there some way for sellers to pick from a drop down menu of categories? This way people know what is or is not acceptable. Look forward to the beta. If there is abuse or whatnot, the garage door can always come down.

Or the hangar can close!

I'm also on a motorcycle forum that is Vbulletin aswell and they have a "for sale" section. one section is motorcycle related and the other is non-motorcycle related. They have rules about no businesses are allowed to post, and when you make a reply about it you cannot lowball, or jack a thread to talk about something else. little stuff like that. If APC had one, it could be just another way that the pilot community can become closer by buying and selling stuff from people that they already know a little. I personally think it's an excellent idea. :)

Calling it "The Bone Yard" would also throw of spammers who don't know what that means.

even though I am more bias to "2 lazy to look:p " (even though it really doesn't make much sense) I do agree "the bone yard" would be a pretty fitting name.

Sounds kinda gay to me. :D

lol.........................

I think advertising of pilot owned businesses would be ok. Maybe they have a service I need. I'd rather go to someone in the biz than joe schmoe. It's not like one would be forced to see it or read it.

We welcome pilot owned businesses to advertise on the site's front end and you can find more info here. We are NOT going to allow commercial advertising on the forum.

I've got nothing to advertise so I don't need that. Just stating that I wouldn't mind it if it were contained in the new section.

I agree, good idea

Sorry bout that (just got in from flying the all nighter) and my reply wasn't directed "at" you. Thanks for the input!

There are plenty of aviation websites out there already that offer "airline" discounts. I like the idea of keeping this strictly a Person to Person exchange.

I think the 100 post minimum is a little high. I would have taken me at least 3 or 4 months to have this number. I don't think you'd run into much trouble by putting the limit around 50.