Rules about commenting on prices on other peoples sales threads

[blue monk]

A user offered a license on the Sell & Buy subforum. It was about 5% lower than buying from the developer directly. Some people chose to express that this was unrealistic. One user posted a shop link where this could be bought for less than the 2nd hand license.

The seller opened a new sales thread and wrote that no opions about the price are to be discussed on that new thread.

I answered that it was not his place to dictate what opinions people are allowed to share on a public forum.

2 other users criticised that. They agreed with the seller.

* Do not comment here about the price .

It is not your place to dictate what other people are allowed to discuss in a public forum. If you do not like to be confronted by other users, then either be reasonable (which seems to be not possible), or do not post at all.

It's crazy that KVR allows garbage posts like this to be dumped on people's marketplace threads. Gearslutz has a rule against it.

I chose to not express my thoughts on the original thread and let the OP do his thing.
Some other people gave their opinions. They were not particularly disrespectful.

Claude, your writing this perspective/opinion of mine is "garbage". This, I think, is a problem. An opinion is what it is. It is not the truth, but a perspective. Wether it is appopriate or not to express and share at a certain place, that you can have your opinion about and share. No problem with that. That problem is that you seem to have the opinion that the opinion that you do not agree with ought to be not allowed to be shared. There we get into dictatorship territory.
Please feel free to clarify, disagree or double down. Whatever you like.

As for people criticising the price of a seller, I personally did not do that, because I thought it wasn't really appropriate. I guess, we agree on that, Claude.
What we do not agree on is wether other people are allowed to make their own decision here.
The price offered for a second hand license was and is so unrealistic that I get why some people chose to inform the seller. That information could actually be considered useful to the seller as he could reconsider and sell his license more quickly.
The seller chose to not reconsider. That is of course fine. But he all in all made an impression that I am not surprised that people reacted.

It is rare that anyone comments on prices. I don't. Should everybody be disallowed to do so? I don't think so. I think that it is potentially helpful for the seller. And even if it wasn't, I think that people make their own choices to share their perspective or not.

So is it bombing a sales thread what the commenters did or was it fair for them to share their thoughts?

If you, Claude, have a different opinion about it, I am OK with that. Are you OK with people having a different opinion than you? I am not so sure given your reply.

As I am concerned, I have shared my view with this post. I am not necessarily going to engage in further discussion because of the time that would require. But you are welcome to disagree and discuss with others. After all, it concerns everyone who is using the 2nd hand marketplace on KVR.

[Gamma-UT]

It's a forum. Unless it's specifically against the rules or is really inappropriate, fire away. But I don't think there's a problem letting people know there is a cheaper route to getting something that has a lower risk associated with it.

I saw the for-sale thread just after it got posted and thought "good luck with that".

Also, Claude is good at dishing it out when he feels like it but, as is so commonplace, doesn't like criticism coming the other way. He'll probably follow you around for a while with downvotes - and may already have by the looks of it.

[CrystalWizard]

IMO it’s fine, it’s an extremely good reason for a forum in the first place.

[Michael L]

Comments are an important way we make this a safer place to buy & sell!

[chk071]

The issue with this is that people are so easy to influence these days. Put up a plugin for a fairly hefty price, and people will come in, tell the seller that he's selling for a bad price, that he's greedy etc., and there'll be people following the influencers and the seller is a greedy asshole for them, instantly.

Also, I stil have no idea what is there to save people from. I think we're all adults, with eyes and a internet browser, which can lead us to the vendors website, or to online shops which sell the plugin, and see for ourselves whether it's worth it or not to buy the plugin used.

The point is: Some people (very few) are not capable of this freedom. Thankfully, my threads weren't invaded so far (only had some people trying to lowball me with ridiculous price offers...), but, I've seen a whole lot of threads simply being torn to pieces by the price police. Why? There's absolutely no reason for it whatsoever.

Imagine Ebay would allow other users to comment on article sales. Wild west rodeo guaranteed. No fun.

[Hink]

we have this wonderful invention here on KvR called private messages, one can easily let the seller know in a thoughtful way why one believes the prices are too high (or too low) without causing issues on KvR, it's not giving them a bump and a lot better for the community. You come along and want to start a debate in his thread over the fact that he has the right to say "dont comment on prices" which really makes no sense.

A seller can put any conditions they wish in their posts, it my be to their detriment but that's just natural consequences, the seller is selling for 5% below what you could buy it for new, he started a second sales thread and said to not comment on the prices. That would prompt me to compare prices he is selling it for and the actual cost, if I saw it was 5% less than new, this guy says dont comment on prices...I would simply move on, honestly that would be enough of warning for me.

As you see I deleted all those posts from his thread and perhaps the day after tomorrow he will bump with a price drop, who knows...but if you are not going to buy it, why bother? Move on

[schpaeckulum]

He can list it for twice the price new and if he says no comment on price that's exactly what it means. You have an opinion? Oh, how interesting!

Edit: oh, and the thread is his place, unless he does something against the rules, of course. So try to behave.

[canadian_moose]

I was one of the commenters and I now regret it because really, if someone wants to 'try' and sell at that price then good luck to them I suppose. Buyer beware and all that....

However, if I was the seller I would be concerned about posts mentioning an unrealistic price because in general, this forum is pretty good like that and it doesn't happen. The price had clearly got some attention and if was the seller, I would consider reconsidering. Probably not telling everyone to f**k off like this guy did.

Anyway, if the price is not realistic, I guess the 'bump' will be used a lot and the seller will be left to reflect on the reasons for it not selling.

[vurt]

!

Edit: oh, and the thread is his place, unless he does something against the rules, of course. So try to behave.

not really.
he is the thread starter yes but not its owner.

[medienhexer]

My experience selling is that if what I was offering had EVER been on sale for the same price or close to it, I would receive messages and comments from people expecting me to basically half that historic sales price. Also in a very entitled tone as if I was obligated to always undercut whatever price they had seen at some point in time.

I think it sets wrong expectations on the buyer‘s side and may make it unfeasible for the seller to sell at all. Sometimes, getting closer to a sales price outside a sales period can still be considered a fair transaction.

Now, if there‘s currently a better price in retail, there‘s two bargain threads users can look at for a great deal.

Actively searching out FS posts just to muddy the water is a total RICHARD move and should be discouraged.