RC India

http://www.rcindia.org/for-sale/guidelines-for-classifieds/

I have been getting quite a bit of feedback on item [3] in the above guidelines.  Frankly, I am in two minds about this one.  There are reasons why it should be enforced, and there are reasons why an asking price should not be enforced.  I checked the US RC forums, and most of them do NOT enforce an asking price (the quote is "what is wrong with bidding?"... and it seems there is no SIMPLE answer!).

I am leaning towards leaving that flexibility to the seller, it is his item.  But we will fight against double dealing (selling to someone for a higher price AFTER confirming to someone else, unless the buyer did not pay in a reasonable amount of time time).

Comments ?

in my opinion the seller should  make the price clear.... they know what they are  expecting  (:|~.

more over possible buyers can decide  if they can afford it... or some times  if the items  are cheap. just buy to stock it...

Added a poll.

I would suggest asking price and pictures as MUST for all used items classifieds If the item is new, pics can be avoided

Unless the seller likes to trade an item for his item,price is MUST..

A selling price helps the buyer know if he can afford it or not. Saves the seller PM's of ridiculously low offers. So its a MUST in my opinion.

Selling price is 100% must...
Else he can call for open bidding..

I think once the buyer gets an offer(bid) and is satisfied , he should lock the thread and just sell it .

i think asking price is important as it lets you know if the item is within the budget or not and also does not annoy the seller with super cheap offers and pms ... people say no low balling but many times the problem is they expect too much value of their items and you have to pm your offer to them and they reply only if they are happy .. thats a waste of time .. quote the price and be done.

positive

I would like it if the seller quotes the selling price. Makes things clear :)

According to Me like everything it has both pros and cons
Pros :
Seller on some occasions might be underpricing his products
Cons :
As Anwar sir said it will lead to double pricing .
Final verdict :
As it is a user friendly site , a public forum , not disclosing the price will be unfair
Reason
1) As compared to US , the hobby isn't popular neither are these methods of buying and selling . so the limited opportunity to buy cheap preused Rcstuff (through open disclosing the price) may be lost
2) It is all sellers gain and nothing for buyers , rather open bidding can be a mid-way solution which will help both the parties but still I would prefer the prices to be disclosed
3) And the most IMPORTANT , many beginners and low on budget hobbyist follow such forums and depend a lot on deals and offers on this forum, we have no idea how much to bid and what is the actual market price here in India and Abroad
This is my personal view .... I would rather appreciate if prices are disclosed on this forum as this forum is one of its kind here in India and lets first promote this hobby rather make business out of it  bcoz many young hobbyist look upto this forum

Seller should quote the price and Pic

when seller confirm buyer, seller should lock the thread
or
buyer should/can put comment on that thread (payment done wating for ship etc) to stop double dealing

If seller want to put Item on open bid, it is better to put on ebay and share link in thread.

In my opinion the actual photo and expected price should be made compulsory. :)

The scenario is completely different in India than west world.

Here the main problem goes IMPORT for which local purchase and reselling is the main market for us. We, the people of 3rd world knows the pain/hastles of importing from Dealer/ Manufacturer. The item price will increase not for legal  tax but for illegal twisting. And being the Leader of Indian RC Forum the reselling become prime here.

Most of new hobbist at first hesitate to invest on importing item and keep watch for cheap one used or extra item sale. And low stocks in LHS added extra attention to keep eye on FOR SELL items.

1. So, making clear view of any sell here, I think Asking Price should be mandatory for us. Some western forums may lough on us even, but we have to solve our problem in our process.

2. And even PM can be disabled even if any user put anything on Sell for a day at least.
...But phone number to be used for communication that increases the faith among sellers and buyers.

3. And posting for sell cannot be enabled in first post or below 10 posts so that before posting he become familiar with forum rule and postings.

4. It may be made mandatory to post in for sell sub-forum, to mandatory reading of  the posting rule of this forum if he is not a senior/old member.

However, rule is rule and everyone has to strictly follow it. I have pointed it earlier when the parts are still very small and pictures not given. You are checking when it crossed 99 to hundred, but I have pointed earlier when it become 0 to 1 (at least my reading).

However, this is an open forum and so rules are to be similar.

Contradictory ! It's true.

I totally agree with Kalyan sir, except point "2", which i would like to have my own opinion.
What i think that PMs should be disabled, as well as no communication via phone should be made until deal is final publicly.

Well among other things about the classified, I have a reservation to folks who don't declare themselves as LHS, but begin selling items when the number of posts on this forum are still in single digits. Seems they just joined the forum to hawk their wares. While some may be genuine, but in general I am kind of skeptical.

Yes asking price should be quoted while making sale posts,
But the seller has his rights to sell it at the best price, If someone offers a better amount. Why shouldnt he book profits.

Since most of the parts are not available in India at any given point of time, there is always demand for seconds,
which is good for any seller.

So the only way i see it is allowing bidding in forums, no phones... no pms... will help to decrease instances of double dealing.And also leave the option of the first come first served basis sales.

 And make a system where if a seller backs out of the sale under suspicious circumstances then that should be recorded in his reviews or profile (not in case if he didnt get the quoted value)

I know it never happens usually, but what can we do in case i made the payment to someone and then the next day his phones are off,no reply to any pm and i dont get the thing i purchased even after a long time?
What options am i left with in such a case..

Any online transaction carries a certain risk.  That is why we have been suggesting all the time to leave trader feedback on any transaction, so that people can build up a reputation here.

The rotton apples are very rare here, so you are generally safe. That still mean you are less than 100% safe.

Get proper contact information.  You will get banking details for sure.  Try to get things in writing  as much as possible.  Overcommunitate !!

We had an incident where someone went after a balsa supplier all the way in Indonesia !  Cyber crime rules are NO joke in India, and people should really think before cheating someone !  File a cyber crime case, and I am sure you can put the *genuinely* guilty party through a lot of grief, that they will swear that it was not worth cheating even over a few thousands of rupees !

asking price is must...
as there are soo many beginners and soo many unknown products there it is very tough for them to find its resale price..

And if price coated is very high it can be indicated from others and will warn people who's unaware of that model... ;D
If asking price is correct for that product its going to move on to next person....   :thumbsup:

Since the majority wants the sellers to post an asking price, we will enforce this going forward. This makes sense, and would prevent ridiculous low-ball offers also.

Note that the seller is NOT under commitment to sell at the asking price, and can wait for better offers for a small amount of time (couple of days or so). But once he commits to any buyer for a price, then the seller should not entertain better offers from others.

+1 to this
it should be enforced as it will be helpful in getting idea of the product. "PM me for offers" smells fishy ;-) deal should be transparent. 

+1

+1
I think it does help beginners like me as well. as if the price is high at least the seniors can guide. have seen it in an earlier post here.

Speaking as a foreigner, the open price system is unpleasant.  Asking price is more enjoyable but set price is the best.

If everyone can post pictures of products being sold and set price, it would be really awesome.

I don't really understand the concept of different price categories but I would atleast ask people to post prices as many of them are not posting the prices.
I don't really like disturbing someone just for the sake of price and also don't want to take time to ask them which really wastes my time to save their number and ping on whatsapp and wait for reply. Kind of boring stuff.

I am not sure which forum you are picking up that the Quoting price is "Optional" ? RCGroup, one of ubiquitously "defacto" site for English speaking people has "Price" as a Title Item and appears in the column.
NOT Quoting price usually leads in Seller taking a desperate newbie for a ride.
As far as "Bidding" goes, putting a Price, people can still negotiate a price.
AFAIK, this is NOT a bidding forum, drawing any "Commission" from the proceed, so better keep it that way. I have seen  the recent trend here (after hiatus from the hobby and this forum for the last 3-4 years that NOT quoting the price has become NORM.
Not telling the price upfront almost always leads to the Seller double- triple dealing and quoting obnoxious price.  And since all this happens in the background without others knowing it, the seller is always confident to get some unsuspecting Prey.

If you are selling an item whose  current "New" price is known, why not put your expectation unless you are somewhat hesitant that your asking price would draw flak

Since the Voting has a almost Absolute majority of 90% saying "YES" , lets close this poll and make the Quoting price mandatory .
-Ujjwal

Hi,

I think it should be mandatory to mention the price, whether the seller has the bill and to quote the price that it is being sold for. The info should be with a clear picture of the item for sale.
The price does not become a disadvantage because the seller is free to ask for whatever he or she thinks is correct. They should also mention the age of the produxCt