New Rules for the Exchange forum - Feedback thread.

Cougar Allen is quite correct on this. The right way to word this is that the seller has to assume risk until the goods are delivered. Meaning the seller has to insure or if he does'nt and the knife is not delivered or lost .... it is his risk.

If the goods are paid for by paypal and the buyer advises he never received them he is entitled to a refund of the monies paid .... that is the cornerstone of the protection paypal offers.

A buyer is never liable for loss until the goods are in his hands. The threads where sellers say it is the buyers risk once posted are what are needed to be stopped.

 

my question was answered above, to my satisfaction. thanks.

 

I am one of the newer folks but, I really like the system of having separate dealer and individual for sale forums. I think it keeps everyone a little more honest and keeps the clutter down. Dealers are often able to beat the prices of individuals because they buy in volume or set the profit margins lower. The reverse is also true and newer people can be taken advantage of by this. I think it adds comfort to folks to pay the extra to a dealer and they assume they are getting a better deal. Having dealers mixed with regular folks selling the odd knife or two just causes chaos. I also think many of the collector folks belong in the dealer section based on the amount of knives they have for sale on a regular basis. This is how this site is paid for and maintained. For folks not to follow these rules is clear abuse of the system.

I think a system allowing folks to have 3-4 knives at the most for sale in the individual forum at the non dealer membership would be more than fair. If people are able to purchase, collect and sell 10 knives at a time they can surely pay for the dealer membership to support this wonderful site.

Zach

 

Regarding the insurance discussion, the Uniform Commercial Code says the following:

U.C.C. § 2-504. Shipment by Seller.

Where the seller is required or authorized to send the goods to the buyer and the contract does not require him to deliver them at a particular destination, then unless otherwise agreed he must

(a) put the goods in the possession of such a carrier and make such a contract for their transportation as may be reasonable having regard to the nature of the goods and other circumstances of the case; and

(b) obtain and promptly deliver or tender in due form any document necessary to enable the buyer to obtain possession of the goods or otherwise required by the agreement or by usage of trade; and

(c) promptly notify the buyer of the shipment.

Failure to notify the buyer under paragraph (c) or to make a proper contract under paragraph (a) is a ground for rejection only if material delay or loss ensues.

*****

U.C.C. § 2-509. Risk of Loss in the Absence of Breach.

(1) Where the contract requires or authorizes the seller to ship the goods by carrier

(a) if it does not require him to deliver them at a particular destination, the risk of loss passes to the buyer when the goods are duly delivered to the carrier even though the shipment is under reservation;

I am not a lawyer so I may be taking something out of context, but it seems pretty clear that in this case, once the seller puts the item into the hands of USPS or UPS, etc (and presumably receives documentation proving it), his actual liability ends.

Paypal rules are stricter--they require that the seller indemnify the carrier, as they require the seller to provide proof of DELIVERY, not just proof of shipment. Thus if the USPS loses something paid for via (standard, not gift) Paypal, the SELLER is going to be on the hook for it, even if the seller can show proof of shipment. (Incidentally, Paypal also requires the seller to require a signature for any transaction greater than $250.)*

Thus, in the case of a Paypal transaction, it is always in the seller's best interest to spend a few dollars to get insurance, at least for domestic packages. International is a whole other (confusing & expensive) can of worms!

Just food for thought.

*ref. PayPal User Agreement §§ 11.3 & 13.6, Sept. 22, 2010

 

No, not everyone who sells more than 5 knives at a time is a dealer. I am selling knives at more than 5 at a time, in some cases, to pay my bills. I am basically liquidating my collection. I lose money on most of them. I am not a dealer. I am unemployed, so selling knives is basically survival.

 

Yea,I still don't get this part even after the second explanation.I've always bought the insurance whether I was buying or selling.Sometimes when I was selling & the item was $50 or under,I'd take a chance,knowing full well,if it got 'lost',I'd be responsible for getting my buyer his money back.Insurance just needs to be included with the price,by the seller.

 

For whatever it's worth - I agree that high volume sellers/flippers (whatever the metric for 'high volume' ends up being) are essentially dealers and ought to be in a dedicated dealer section (including those who participate in the Busse sales sub forum).

 

Thank you Spark and the whole gang for the new selling rules I am sure that they will make our trading here on BF even more fun and safe than it is..........:thumbup:

My question with reference to buyers........

I often do this and then send a PM stating I will buy the item if the seller ships internationally.
I do this because it gives the seller a chance to decline if he does not want to ship outside the CONUS without cluttering his thread with declined "I'll take it" posts

Should I rather in the future say something like......

"I'll take it if you ship internationally.......PM to follow"

Thanks
Steven

 

I usually ship insured; but, insurance is not always available (especially internationally), and I have had a few buyers who insist on setting up their own shipping arraignment (the buyer supplies the Fedex/UPS/DHL shipping labels).

n2s

 

This is great and addresses my only concern with the new rules.
Thank you, Carlos

 

It will be very, very interesting to see how this is inforced in the Busse for sale forum.

Is the guy who only goes to Knob Creek going to be allowed to flip while the guy who goes to every show to buy and flip Busses be barred from the Busse for sale forum and relegated to a dealer for sale forum only?

What about a guy who buys, for example, 3 DSSF (or 2 SFNO LEs) for the discount with the intent to sell 2 (1). Is he a flipper? Or just the guy who buys 2-4 of everything to mark-up 20-40%?

 

Spark!

Ok, so I will upgrade to Knife Maker level..... in that level can I still have the avatar with my logo and a signature line with my web site listed?

 

Don't take my word for it, talk to your lawyers. I predict they'll tell you it doesn't provide any protection to the seller.

Once again, only sellers can buy insurance. Whether it makes more sense to self-insure or to buy insurance and pay an insurance company for the risk plus profit depends on a number of factors. Some knife dealers refuse to insure shipments under any circumstances, saying experience has shown them it is impossible to make a successful insurance claim, or if it is possible it takes more time than the payoff is worth. (Talk to Fred at Knife Outlet.) In order to make a successful claim you have to show the knife wasn't damaged or missing when you sent the package and it wasn't damaged or lost because you packaged it inadequately, and you need proof of the value. Convincing them they should pay you is not all that easy. Even if they do eventually pay you it is likely to take hours hassling with them plus weeks of waiting.

Buying insurance might make sense if you're sending something really expensive. For most of the transactions on Bladeforums, it's debatable at best. Often the whole idea would be ridiculous. Should I insure my $4 bracelets or should I self-insure and absorb the cost if one goes missing? If I try to push the burden off onto my buyers and tell them if they don't pay for insurance I don't have to send them anything and I can keep their money, that's not going to work. (That's below the minimum even for small claims court, but even if I didn't care about keeping my integrity I wouldn't be willing to sell my reputation that cheap. Of course, some people don’t have any integrity or reputation to lose….)

You can make a legal contract that only requires the seller to deliver to the carrier, but the seller had better be prepared with good evidence that the knife wasn't missing or damaged or inadequately packaged -- see above about making an insurance claim; it's the same kind of situation.

That kind of contract could make sense for an international shipment.

Years of reading TGB&U has made me very familiar with disputes like the currently active thread Bad - Verpus77. You never have to look far back in the thread list to find one like that. If it isn't on the first page it'll be on the second or third. That’s the kind of dispute you have to think about when you make the rules, because that’s the kind of dispute that’s always going on. It's always the same excuses -- "He didn't want insurance," "Now he's gone public with this I'm not even going to refund half his money," "It's not inadequate packaging to stuff a heavy fixed-blade knife in an envelope," etc. I hear the same excuses when I sit in the audience at District Court. “The insurance will pay for it – or if he didn’t have insurance that’s his problem.” I wonder what thieves and vandals and idiots said before insurance was invented....

 

Thank you for the link Cougar Allen. The thread definitely makes sense as to why you would insure anything you shipped, that and properly package it. I think JTR357 makes a good point of this:

In the simplest of terms, the seller just needs to get the knife to the buyer. The few bucks can save a lot of headaches and keep the exchange forums a safe place to buy/sell.

 

Email is your friend, and might keep (you) for receiving an infraction. When in doubt, email.

 

Insurance would not have helped Verpus77. Packaging is the responsibility of the person who does it -- insurance would have refused the claim.

 

I like the recommendation that for sale threads should be locked once the knife is sold. In fact, I think it should be mandatory. It's simple, and keeps dead threads from being bumped up.