OK to hire “bounty hunters” in WTB forum?

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MissesMeow

MissesMeow

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Let me explain. I want a Small Sebenza 31 (MagnaCut, Insingo, Plain Jane). I want it badly. So badly, in fact, that I’m willing to pay someone $50 if they find one for sale at a reputable online retailer and send me the link. They send me the link, I buy the knife, I pay them the bounty. If they send me the link and I *don’t* buy the knife, because either it has sold out by the time I see the link or I simply choose not to buy it for some reason, then I don’t pay them the bounty.

It seems to me like the Want to Buy forum would be the right place for this sort of offer. However, since I’ve never seen this sort of offer made by any other users, I want to make sure it’s kosher before I post.

I checked the forum rules and I saw nothing that would explicitly or implicitly forbid me from making such an offer, but I’m extremely wary of angering our fearsome mods.

What do we say? Any guidance for a humble, law-abiding user?
 
I'm not in favor of such a thread. There are SO many things that could go wrong.
 
I’ll take that as a “no” and will abide by it, but let me respond (respectfully) to “there are so many things that could go wrong.” It seems like bounty offers could only create two problematic scenarios.

Scenario #1: Lazy Bounty Offeror

Lazy Bounty Offeror makes offer. Bounty Hunter #1 sends link to LBO, who buys the knife, pays BH1, but doesn’t update or take down the offer. Bounty Hunter #2 sees the offer and thinks it’s still live. He sends link to LBO, who either informs BH2 that he’s already bought the knife or simply fails to respond. In either case, BH2 could get mad and accuse LBO of ripping him off. Drama ensues.

Scenario #2: Criminal Bounty Offeror

Criminal Bounty Offeror (CBO) makes offer. Bounty Hunter sends link to CBO, who buys the knife but doesn’t pay BH. BH gets mad. Drama ensues.

Even in the Criminal Bounty Offeror scenario — the worst of the two — all that has been lost is the time and effort invested by the bounty hunter, and all that has been gained by the offeror is an opportunity to buy a knife. No one has lost or gained anything of real value. Don’t get me wrong, the CBO scenario is still a bad situation, but the stakes are significantly lower than a buyer/seller situation involving hundreds of dollars.

And let’s not forget about user feedback. Before pursuing a bounty, a potential hunter can check the offeror’s user feedback to see if he’s been problematic in the past. On the flip side, an offeror puts his user feedback at risk by scamming a bounty hunter or being negligent about updating/taking down expired offers.

All that being said, I can only imagine the raft of BS you all already have to deal with and I totally get that you don’t want to invite a brand new flavor of BS to deal with, so I hope you take my response in the spirit of “food for thought,” not as an argument.

Thanks for everything you do to keep this place running!
 
It's hard enough maintaining a level playing field for all, without adding bounties and other inducements.

In a perfect world, we'd help one another out because we are members of a like-minded community.

(Or at least not stab one another in the back unnecessarily. ☺️ )
 
MissesMeow said:
I’ll take that as a “no” and will abide by it, but let me respond (respectfully) to “there are so many things that could go wrong.” It seems like bounty offers could only create two problematic scenarios.

Scenario #1: Lazy Bounty Offeror

Lazy Bounty Offeror makes offer. Bounty Hunter #1 sends link to LBO, who buys the knife, pays BH1, but doesn’t update or take down the offer. Bounty Hunter #2 sees the offer and thinks it’s still live. He sends link to LBO, who either informs BH2 that he’s already bought the knife or simply fails to respond. In either case, BH2 could get mad and accuse LBO of ripping him off. Drama ensues.

Scenario #2: Criminal Bounty Offeror

Criminal Bounty Offeror (CBO) makes offer. Bounty Hunter sends link to CBO, who buys the knife but doesn’t pay BH. BH gets mad. Drama ensues.

Even in the Criminal Bounty Offeror scenario — the worst of the two — all that has been lost is the time and effort invested by the bounty hunter, and all that has been gained by the offeror is an opportunity to buy a knife. No one has lost or gained anything of real value. Don’t get me wrong, the CBO scenario is still a bad situation, but the stakes are significantly lower than a buyer/seller situation involving hundreds of dollars.

And let’s not forget about user feedback. Before pursuing a bounty, a potential hunter can check the offeror’s user feedback to see if he’s been problematic in the past. On the flip side, an offeror puts his user feedback at risk by scamming a bounty hunter or being negligent about updating/taking down expired offers.

All that being said, I can only imagine the raft of BS you all already have to deal with and I totally get that you don’t want to invite a brand new flavor of BS to deal with, so I hope you take my response in the spirit of “food for thought,” not as an argument.

Thanks for everything you do to keep this place running!
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What you’re looking for isn’t that uncommon. I once wanted one, and found one used within a couple hours (great choice btw, has become my nearly constant go to). If you just post a wtb and mention you’re looking for a new at dealer or LNIB from a well reviewed member, you could probably have a tracking number in a matter of days. Maybe even hours. Maybe even save 50$
 
I would add to what Blues is saying with this: Plugging into a community here is a great way to build the kind of connections that would be far more meaningful and rewarding than simply paying someone off to find your item. I am not an aggressive or prolific buyer but I've been able to scoop up some great pieces by being part of communities here that look out for each other.
 
To be honest, I enjoy watching and sometimes pouncing on releases just for the fun of it, and if I knew you and knew you were looking for something, I'd try to tell you about it anyway. Also, the knife you are looking for is not particularly hard to get, so I would just set my in-stock notifications to text you and then wait a month or so.
 
SVTFreak said:
What you’re looking for isn’t that uncommon. I once wanted one, and found one used within a couple hours (great choice btw, has become my nearly constant go to). If you just post a wtb and mention you’re looking for a new at dealer or LNIB from a well reviewed member, you could probably have a tracking number in a matter of days. Maybe even hours. Maybe even save 50$
Click to expand...

I know it doesn’t sound like it would be that uncommon, but I get daily emails from dozens of knife retailers and check the CRK buy/sell/trade forum daily and I’ve had a devil of a time finding this exact configuration. That’s what got me thinking of the bounty idea. Believe it or not, I never thought of doing a regular “want to buy” post because I want a brand new one and thought WTB posts were only for used knives. I’ll give that a shot.
 
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