For Sale Section

[J4P RX]

Has anyone got any thoughts about splitting it into cars for sale and parts for sale.

Was just browsing it looking for cars, and its kind of interwoven at the moment.  Seems to be about 50/50 split so they wouldnt look too empty split apart

Lee

[grinder]

thats how it is done on the rx7club.com forum

much neater in my eyes

[scooby_si]

cant be a bad idea although it\'s not like they vanish off page 1 in a few hours (check out scoobynet that is scary! )
Si

[Glenn Butcher]

We can look at doing this if you like after we move to v3 of the forum - I\'m trying not to make too many changes at the moment.

Do other people think it is a good idea?  please post here.

[20B_boy]

Can any one sell a car on MRC? or do they have to be members...?

[Fishy]

Rich, I think it should be something along the lines of, if they are traders in the rotary scene then fine. If they are non-rotary traders they should either pay or be removed, as they are not really offering a service to the community.

I think (flame suit on) that traders should support the forums by getting themselves a banner ad.

If its an andividual selling their car for the purpose of getting a rotary, all the better. But if they are just trying to advertise it for the sale, then something might need to be looked at.

Dan

[20B_boy]

I agree Danny (I think), I dont think any one should be able to chuck their car on here. Sooner or later some one buys a car they see on here from some unscrupulous hick, it goes tits up and they are left with a bad taste in their mouths and it reflects badly on MRC...

If people wanna sell their cars on here they should be members.

I personally think traders should either be charged for advertising cars and parts or at least have bona-fide paid for advertising in place like Brian. Either way, they are giving some thing back to the club to help finance our outings and things like Rotorstock etc. Otherwise I think its a bit rude personally...

[J4P RX]

I have mixed views...

Traders and members no problem.  But then you have the established poster who isnt actually a member (maybe they should join!) and those that just seem to appear to sell things.

Now if an established non member posts their car for sale then maybe thats not too bad.  I dont think they will want to join if they are selling it!  At least you may know a little background on the person selling the car etc.  

Its when people clearly come with the intetion to sell that bothers me.  Trouble is, I wouldnt like to miss out on a potential bargain on some parts or a car either.

Its a difficult one in my opinion.

Lee

Edit, by traders I meant people paying for banners etc.  Not just any old trader

[20B_boy]

Like you say Lee, if they are an established poster then they should probably join!

I think cars for sale by members only. Traders fine as long as they are putting some thing back - its not a lot to ask for A LOT of targetted advertising!!

[clive]

Whilst we are on this subject, how about this one as well Parts vendors !

We recently had one approach the club for a banner ad  but stated quite clearly that without a huge discount he would not pay the clubs set fee.

He was turned down on the grounds of, if we do that for one it would then quite clearly not be fair to the people paying the correct set fee.

We are a non profit making Club and not a business and we would like to think that anyone buying a banner would also be doing it to support our club because these fees as Rich says would act go towards making meeting etc better for it\'s members.

To put this into prospective we charge around 20% less for a year than  Japanese Performance would charge for a half page advert for one month !

So rather than pay our fee this person now packs his posts out with as much advertising as he can rather than pay the club money !.

As we are now 3rd in the top 150 Rotary sites they would surely get coverage for their company by virtue of the amount of people that now visit our site.

So as this club likes to have as much member imput as it can [ it\'s your club] do we carry on letting various Vendors use the forum for free advertising on their posts for their company\'s or should our Moderators edit out any advertising other than their email / web address ??

[20B_boy]

As I said in my earlier post - PARTS included IMO...

WTF should any one get free advertising, especially when its such a targetted audience. If a vendor doesnt want to pay a few quid for a banner/the right to advertise stuff generally then my feeling is that they shouldnt be allowed to advertise more than their contact details, end of.

Have a Vendors For Sale section or summut so only paying companies can post what they want to get shot of. Aint nothing for free in this world!!

As memberships grow so will the admin costs - personally I dont think its unreasonable to ask the vendors (whom I imagine make significant sales due to MRC/FDUK) to meet these spiralling costs in one way or another!

Rant over

[scooby_si]

i can see the logic of wanting only members to post but i dont agree this is the way it should be. Sure you may get people trying to sell shyte & i can think of a few examples but it\'s always buyer beware in any such aquisition. The big loss with doing such a system is as mentioned the fact the members/users may & WILL miss out on some good deals. For example with group buys & such like if you can only post if yer a member then noone else can post good deals on there this type of board seems conter productive to me as for example if i wanted to point say members of a certain supra board to a nice deal going then i have to join up which i aint guna do they dont get chance to get onboard a good deal & the group buy has less chance of getting decent numbers.
Just the way i see it but if some1 has something worth selling then i wana have every opportunity to see it & if it\'s a POS then that is to a degree down to the buyer to check for it\'s their money after all
Si

[g11ary]

Group buys would not get stopped coz its not stopping members posting that there is a group buy. Its just stopping some members that you only see on here when they want to sell some thing and generally have no imput to the club. If traders had to be a member or pay for the advert, you as a fellow mrc\'er can still say " hey guys great deal going down on a group buy". You wont ever stamp out free advertising coz lots of members will always push members towards friends or particullar people selling goods, but at least you can make the blatent sellers pay for it. How would you like free entry to RotorStock in 2 or 3 years time, possible if mrc has enough money in the bank. No reason that in a couple of years MRC shop can be evolved. These same dealers would not lose out coz if competetive they may well supply mrc.

If mrc grew to big as big as usa forum they could introduce the mrc credit card and earn a % on every sale made. feasable.

[Fishy]

I think the difference between a group buy and a vendor is the group buy is run by one person, going to different vendors trying to get the best price. Not a vendor doing discounts on products.

A vendor on the other hand will just offer there products at there price. If vendors were to offer a special of the month it might be nicer, but none offer this. Not much incentive to use them IMO.

The only thing that stops people getting stuff abroad is the some of the horror storys. I have done it and will continue to do it.

Dan

[johnf]

Might as well add my thoughts.............

I joined MRC to gain help, advice and support from like minded people all having the same passion and I sleep better knowing there is help out there if I need it.

If, for a variety of reasons i.e. modding, wheel cahnges etc some member\'s unwanted parts go up for sale this is an ideal site for them to sell and I thinks thats good, benefitting other members.

However if a dedicated trader wants to promote his \'BUSINESS\' through the site I think they should pay. I can\'t think of a way of advertising my business services to a specific target audience FREE and I would expect to pay.

There are of course grey areas - lets say I design a wonderfull new spoiler and go into production offering it to members. Now I\'m not a trader, this being a little sideline, so would it be acceptable for me to promote this on the forum free? I would say no.

With the rapid growth of imports could the balance of the forum change to a sales site, with our \'For Sale\' section developing into \'the place\' to look for a rotary and become known country wide.

I don\'t know the answers but I do think some rules and regulations should be discussed and implimented sooner rather than later.


John