• The rules for The Exchange can be found here. Please read and follow them. Stop using Paypal Friends & Family and follow our best practices to prevent getting ripped off or having a bad deal.

Red flags or just being paranoid

S

steelhead seeker

Feedback: 6 / 0 / 0
Joined
Aug 1, 2014
Messages
510
Anyone else notice what seems to me to be a larger amount of people selling knives on the exchange that have zero feedback and just joined within the last months or 2? And they are almost always selling a knife thats a couple to several hundred dollars. I mean i get we all have to start somewhere and if I ever decide to go that route its not like I'll have a lot of feedback on my account but it kinda turns me off. It just seems to be happening more and more. Or maybe I just never noticed before...
Im curious if this is a red flag for some of you or if you'd just buy it anyways regardless and deal with the hassle of a claim if something was off. So how many of you only buy from member who have at least a few positive feedbacks or at least been a member for a while. And as long as we're going that direction, what is the minimum feedback you want to see or length of membership?
 
It's a regular cycle - there are constantly new people coming in, specifically to sell.
As far as what I look for when buying - I prefer to deal with names I recognize from participation in other areas of the site. That's not to say I won't ever deal with the Exchange Only crowd; but it's increasingly less likely that I will.
 
Yes, there are a lot of new members selling here.

Can't say why for sure but I think that eB's change in the method of processing payments has something to do w/it.

Just bought a knife from an eB refugee (who gave me his eB credentials to back up the transaction) and, even though I'm only an occasional seller on eB, I still have not chosen to opt into their new payment system.

I think it s*cks and need to set up a separate cking account b4 I make use of the new system; don't want eB to have direct access to my primary cking acct.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, definately some eB sellers, they suspended my seller account after over 20 years cause I wont give them my account#.
Screw em, I'm not a new member here and I havent sold anything yet but will now..
James
 
JamesBro said:
Yeah, definately some eB sellers, they suspended my seller account after over 20 years cause I wont give them my account#.
Screw em, I'm not a new member here and I havent sold anything yet but will now..
James
Click to expand...

Me too, screw them and I'm not setting up a separate account to use the service. I hope they lose tons of money, I won't comply
 
Even worse, PayPal has been banning accounts for selling knives...

Yet that makes up a large corner of ebay..
 
Yellow flag-be cautious.
A lot of people find the forum either as buyer or seller. Standard advice would be to pay PP goods and services. I have not heard of PP banning accounts and if so that advice may now be outdated.
They are just knives, and if you don't feel comfortable with the transaction, it is best to pass.
 
Hadn't heard that one. Combine that with PayPal reporting to Uncle Sam when you have over 600 dollars in sales and I may drop them both. It appears that cash is still king on the secondary market.
 
Good thread. I hope to be a seller here some day. Maybe the knife community can come together and form an e-currency for cutlery only transactions.
 
My requirements for buying and selling here are simple. First, I will only deal with paid forum members who have no negative feedback. Second, I will give preference to those who do more than just buy and sell. If I think they are flippers I ignore them. Over the last several years I’ve come to the realization that the forum has a lot more to offer than just being a classified add platform. Kudos to all that support this forum with their knowledge and financial support.
 
I think most new sellers are simply looking to sell with no intent of having anything less than a great transaction with an ultimately happy buyer. Whether they're a new or seasoned member, however, I just personally prefer to deal with folks who are here because of their affinity for all things knives, not just to sell or buy. In the end, whomever you are dealing with, go with your gut instincts. I have found my instincts to be correct much more often than not.
 
I have done only a couple of dozen or so transactions here, and never a problem.

I have not observed any onslaught of new sellers here, but it wouldn't surprise me. I've bought and sold thousands of items on eB over the past 18 years, amounting well into the six figures, but not many knives. IMO, it has always just been much better to deal here if possible. And frankly, I stopped selling altogether on eB when they instituted their ridiculous managed payments cash grab last year. I just find other venues. Maybe it works for high volume, professional, commodity sellers (mostly selling junk, IMO), which is all they seem to care about anymore anyway. Not so much for small volume sellers of high dollar collectibles. The few thousand dollars in FVF they are losing from me on sales which I'm not doing there anymore is chickenfeed to them. But others might have migrated here in response to the managed payments nonsense.

Anyway, I don't see a problem. The more the merrier, right? And everyone has to make a first (or second or third) sale to someone.
 
FWIW, I just set up a new free/no fee checking account w/my local community bank just to handle eBay transactions. Made a $100 deposit to the account, even though I didn't have to do so.

I don't sell on eBay very often but sometimes it is the only place I can move an item that I want to sell (despite their outrageous fees) -- it's hard to beat an INTERNATIONAL marketplace -- and, since I am planning to sell quite a few knives in the near future (some of which may not sell here), I just thought it best to set up the new checking account for this purpose b4 EB cancels my seller privileges which it threatened to do so if I didn't update the account w/a bank for transfer of payments and fees.

As for who I deal w/on BF, I will only deal w/sellers w/NO NEG FEEDBACK.

Not so worried about buyers, who have to pay me cash up front for anything they want to buy from me. However, you can still get an PITA buyer/complainer, which is why I still look for +feedback from them too.

As with my FTF business dealings and online trancstions, your word is your BOND and, especially w/online transactions, if you cannot trust the "anonymous" person you are dealing w/on the other side of the transaction, there's no reason to enter into it in the 1st place.

As for new sellers w/little to no +feedback, I ask for their credentials from other sites where they have been buyers or sellers, like EB, which they should be able to provide and confirm w/an internal PM at that site.
 
Last edited:
I listen to my gut with new sellers. A good listing with good photos and some attention to detail goes a long way towards reassuring me that the deal will work out.

But if the listing is one blurry photo, no condition information that suggests they know what buyers are going to ask about (or perhaps even know much about their knives), F&F preferred, "text me for photos"...yeah, I'll pass. :D
 
Dadpool said:
But if the listing is one blurry photo, no condition information that suggests they know what buyers are going to ask about (or perhaps even know much about their knives), F&F preferred, "text me for photos"...yeah, I'll pass. :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's something I pay a lot of attention to too.

People who do not even post a photo get an immediate pass from me, unless it's a knife that I "must have" but there are very few of those out there anymore.

Frankly, I don't get why people do not post clear and detailed ads when they are trying to sell something. Not just here but elsewhere like on CL & EB.

Actually had a guy selling some workout equipment on CL get testy w/me when I asked for more/better photos. Don't know if he ever sold it but I certainly wasn't going to buy it after getting that reaction.

LOL! ;)
 
I don't have tons of feedback but I've been around for a while , I usually buy from people who have been active for over a year with good feedback

Also if they communicate very well that eases some of my nerves

Anyone I've had transactions with here has been great
 
This is a great observation and post. I'm really interested in members thoughts. I joined Bladeforums on May 20, 2020. About a month ago I finally got around to listing a few knives. I sold 3 or 4. I finally received my first feedback, which was positive. I have often wondered if not having any feedback was a reflag to some. I completely get how some members would see it as a negative. With that said we all have to start at the beginning. I'd like to share a personal experience on this very topic. I had a member who purchased a knife I was selling. He asked about me not having feedback. We pm'd each other and I offered my cell to help him feel comfortable. We texted and the transaction went great.
 
I let my GM lapse here. Truth be told when I had it, it seemed like a hassle to try and upload pics. Sometimes they worked for me and other times not so much. Logging in with slow refresh rates were a bugaboo for me too. Last but not least I just didn't sell that many knives on here for whatever reason. Now this is not to say that I won't renew my GM here, and probably will down the road. It seems the response time is getting better as for logging in and posting so I'll give it a bit to make sure . But as a previous poster stated the forums here are alot more than just selling here. It's all good. stay safe
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top