Knobcloud.com - a free vst-marketplace

[fese]

Just hit the off knob. I seriously doubt the site is run by humanitarians - maintaining it and providing the countless security features ( ) doesn't come for free.

I suspect it's all about gathering and selling personal data.

Rather unlikely. The company is registered in Germany, which means it has to comply to the strictest data protection laws available (DSGVO). Sharing and selling personal data could get expensive.
Not that the site is likely to attract so many people that it’d be really worth a lot...

[Grottengeier]

Just hit the off knob. I seriously doubt the site is run by humanitarians - maintaining it and providing the countless security features ( ) doesn't come for free.

I suspect it's all about gathering and selling personal data.

Either that or they've struck a deal with PayPal and get a piece of the cake for every transaction.

Hi Proteinshake,

We are actually only using functional cookies and are doing no tracking whatsoever. In this first part of the project, we are just striving to make the site better for the user. Down the road we will think about how to monetize it, and we want to go for ads. If this requires tracking we will use an opt-in system.

[Grottengeier]

I edited my first post due to this incident, and let me say it here again: We can not vow for the correctness of every offer, but we do make PayPal mandatory, so these kind of incidents can be dealt with.

[Aloysius]

Dear Mr Knob,

I noticed a product on your website selling for 20 instead of the rrp of 100. Buyer will give the purchaser an 'unused key' for the product to register with Steinberg. There have been scams pulled here at KVR over already used up Keys being sold etc. I don't know who the seller is but the alarm bells started ringing in my ears as soon as I saw that particular entry.

Kind regards,
Quasimodo

[Grottengeier]

Dear Mr Knob,

I noticed a product on your website selling for 20 instead of the rrp of 100. Buyer will give the purchaser an 'unused key' for the product to register with Steinberg. There have been scams pulled here at KVR over already used up Keys being sold etc. I don't know who the seller is but the alarm bells started ringing in my ears as soon as I saw that particular entry.

Kind regards,
Quasimodo

Hi Quasimodo,

I cant just delete „suspicious“ offers. As long as the buyer pays with PayPal and doesn’t sidestep the fees (which are paid by the seller anyway), I don’t see how the seller could pull off a scam that ends in a financial loss of the buyer.

[Aloysius]

no worries. just thought i'd highlight it.

[codec_spurt]

ffff

[paterpeter]

I'm sorry that you were having trouble and I hope you get refunded, but tbh I think you're completely blowing this case out of proportion. If anything, it shows that the site could use a feedback system.

[Calenberger]

+1

[VariKusBrainZ]

PayPal does not offer guaranteed protection, especially if items are digitally delivered and not shipped. Better off on Kvr site and vetting the buyers yourself than using a 3rd party site where there is no history available about the buyers.

[ihatecables]

Hi, I'm the programmer of KnobCloud.

I understand the concerns of some of you about this site. I myself tend to be suspicious of any site that offers something for free, but this is simply an idea of a couple of friends that wanted a better solution for re-selling audio licenses and we decided to go ahead with it. I can assure you that it is not worth the effort to develop such a site and risk legal action just for stealing a couple of emails. I suppose there are more efficient ways to steal personal data.

For us, this is not about competing with "Sell & Buy" forums or giant selling platforms. We wanted to develop the site that we always wanted to exist. To make the experience of re-selling licenses much simpler and as safe as possible. 
The basis of our project is to create a community where the value of a user is the level of trust that he or she achieves with each sale or purchase on the site. This is the best way to generate a solid marketplace in the virtual world as well as in the real world. 

There's nothing hidden behind it. There is no big data that we plan to resell, we just ask for the data needed to run the site. We don't charge for the service, and we don't think we're going to get rich off it. Anyway, we do think in the future of some kind of advertising that will allow us to keep the system working. We haven't spent any penny in ads and we have only posted information about this site on a couple of forums.

We tried to do our best and are very happy to have a solid start for future improvements, but there is still a lot to do. The current developer database is a great start, but the transfer conditions of many other developers still need to be integrated. We plan to integrate new features soon to improve and speed up the search for products along with other user experience improvements.

So, please, before you blame our site not for assuring the veracity of every publication or before you post some conspiracy theory about the machiavellian plans to steal your personal data, I suggest you to think about what we are offering and what is different to any other Sell & Buy subforum out there, and what feature our site is offering for making a better experience is attempting against your privacy.

We are totally open for suggestions, and we are happy to implement any new idea that helps us make a smoother experience. Given the amount of positive feedback we are having I'm pretty sure this newborn site is going to grow to a well established marketplace for audio software making a contribution to a healthy music production community.

[Charles LB]

Ehmmm, if people as introman is being "concerned" about that, i am starting to worry a further bit. Check this thread out:

viewtopic.php?f=43&t=547630

Yes, difficult task to detect scammers, but he is showing his interest about that. Maybe he is already there under who knows what nickname. Only apprising.

[Aloysius]

Well there you go. Exactly the type of thing I was referring to. Perfect example Charles LB.

Dear Mr Knob,

I noticed a product on your website selling for 20 instead of the rrp of 100. Buyer will give the purchaser an 'unused key' for the product to register with Steinberg. There have been scams pulled here at KVR over already used up Keys being sold etc. I don't know who the seller is but the alarm bells started ringing in my ears as soon as I saw that particular entry.

Kind regards,
Quasimodo

Hi Quasimodo,

I cant just delete „suspicious“ offers. As long as the buyer pays with PayPal and doesn’t sidestep the fees (which are paid by the seller anyway), I don’t see how the seller could pull off a scam that ends in a financial loss of the buyer.

I hope Grottengeier will take a serious look at the Thread concerning sales of UNREGISTERED SERIALS that Charles LB linked to.

posting.php?mode=quote&f=43&p=7801855

Rightly or wrongly, I was not 100% encouraged by Grottengeier's reply to my earlier post.

The user Introman is a scammer, he's been selling UNREGISTERED SERIALS of good plugins and sadly I bought 3 plugins from him that will likely be revoked. Luckily in all instances I had made the sensible and important protection to use Goods and Services with Paypal.

How do I make such a strong claim this guy is a crook? First of all, he has JUST closed his post and deleted all mention of his plugins for sale. This is after I reported on his page about 20 mins ago. That is the most clear cut of all.

Purchases made to him were all under the same email address for his Paypal. I am going to post his email at the end of this post so you can cross check against any other purchases you may have made that were to his email. I purchased 2 licenses from Introman here on kvr and one through Facebook Audio Plugins Marketplace.

Ok the facts:
A chargeback claim has been made on a purchase of Mastering The Mix LEVELS, a purchase I made from him through that facebook group, his facebook account is deleted so I cant check with him for his side of the story.

He only sold me unregistered serials and that would have been perfect for him to use credit card and get rid of serials that are not tied to his iLok account.
He had very low user posts.
He sold multiple copies of things like Germanium compressor, both unregistered.
I asked him a few days ago about why the serials were unregistered and he said Softube "supply him".

I will post more but at least the warning is out.

I have contacted Softube and Mastering The Mix to report him and for them to cross check his email against suspicious purchases, Id advise you all to do the same and report here. I have beyond reasonable doubt he is a scammer.

The email is kangsmas.sobar@gmail.com

Maybe Grottengeier's reply to me was perfectly satisfactory but personally I wouldn't be willing to bet money on it.

[WasteLand]

why don't you make the paypal transfer through the website. yes, knobcloud would then be responsible for the transactions.
i mean: that you pay via knobcloud, you can make some money out of it.. has it's risks, but that is what the website must be: without risks. or else, it will loose the trust of users.

a backbone for such a payment "option", can be difficult (not if you are a developer..), and there are overhead costs, of course.

i thought first, that is the way it works, but it is not more than a front. like a facebook group.

so with disputes, you must do it via paypal. what is the added value for a buyer, in the sense of: protection??
you have made a website the resales licensies. this is a second hand market, in my country, you don't have to pay tax, when you as a entrepreneur sell second hand stuff (the VAT i mean!). but you are responsible in my country, if it is stolen. or it are copies (PS4 controllers, for example). it is police matter in that case.
did you consider the legal consequences? you are based in germany. laws apply.

ebay isn't trustworthy (although i bought a few license, 2 or 3, without any problems, but those had many reviews (perhaps not always correct perhaps)).

so what is the added value?

the KVR sell & buy thread is well known, i think, of course not by everybody. and yes no protection, but a dutch forum has the same kind of threads, also no protection. that is what you expect of a forum, no protection... but you have the feedback thread, and common sense (although i made a mistake once or twice, other websites, i felt, but impatience and greed, clowds judgment).

serials that are bought buy credit cards, for instance, stolen credit cards (or credit cards, in america, they give it away by a purchase of breakfast serial... yes, hyperbolic statement). or other ways. and they will be at some time, be invalid.
or buy a license, and within 30 days, ask your money back? can that be done?
o wel don't know all the schemes.

[codec_spurt]

fgfgg