Screening Process for Group Buy section

SON240sx Automotive SON240sx Off Topic
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Has something like this ever been considered?

I’ve noticed a few conflicts have come up in the past between sellers (and suppliers) when someone inexperienced (such as myself when I did my first sale… the MR Group Buy) runs a group buy.

Without getting in to details or specifics, certain things can cause issues with the other members/sellers here on SON as well as the bigger picture; the aftermarket industry as a whole. Different problems such as undercutting other sellers on SON and in the general auto marketplace, misrepresenting products and brands, etc. are happening here and even me, a smalltime on-the-side seller, can see the problems getting bigger and foresee them eventually getting out of hand and bringing down the community with it.

Those of you who haven’t been getting involved might think it sounds crazy, but those of you who are — I’m sure you get the same feeling.

SON is at a point now where we are a large enough club to have a huge influence on the local market specific to our cars, being one of the biggest car specific clubs in Southern Ontario we need to set good examples.

In my opinion we need to take action - and my suggestion would be to implement a basic screening process for group buys and seperate commercial posts from the rest of the game.

Private sales of used or single items would of course remain the same.

Commercial posts should not be allowed in the For Sale section and should have a seperate section created where sponsors/advertisers can post whatever they want. (a la www.240sxforums.com)

Group Buys should be screened by a number of people - I haven’t put enough thought in to this to suggest whether it should be in public or private, if it should be voted on by mods/admins or other sellers, etc. That’s what this thread is for.

The result of implementing this would be fantastic in my opinion. Amateur’s would no longer be running massive group buys (It’s funny that I bring this up since I myself am probably the largest offender of this one) and upsetting other sellers, prices would be fair to the buyers AND the marketplace, and group buys will be more organized and have a higher success rate overall.

Let us discuss…

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^— is my post…

3

I wouldn’t go as far as saying someone stepping on another seller toes can relate back to their upbringing, but it’s definitely not “polite” or “sportsman-like”.

I feel the bitterness in your post though, so I’m sure thats where some of the seemingly irrational comments are coming from.

Regardless, good points… anyone else? I’m surprised to not see a few more opinions from sellers here. Quincy? Bing? Varun? Phil? Theo? Andy? DFJ?

4

In my experience, with this club and a few others with which I have been involved, GB’s only seem to work well when they are done on a grassroots level.

In my opinion, a group buy at the grassroots level is a few trustworthy guys coming together to pool their collective purchasing power and leverage that power to negotiate a more competitive price with a seller. In this scenario, all buyers are aware of the price and the true benefits of the group buy. Some guy ultimately does a little work but nothing that justifies a gain as opposed to the others in the buy. Everyone wins…equally.

The difference on this site, and many others, is you have a series of group buys being run that are merely just sales/discounts marketed as group buys. Because of this, you typically have one person looking to gain far more substantially than any other person included in the buy. I PERSONALLY don’t call that a group buy. I call that a guy running a business and trying to drum up some sales with targeted sales events (re: Group buy).

What does it mean? It means that it’s no wonder people are stepping on toes, it’s a free market and the “businesses” on this site are competing for customers in a very small market.

My Solution/Opinion:

Charge a GB registration fee for any person/business looking to run a groupbuy. This does a few things:
-Subsidizes the growing hosting costs for the administrators of this space. It’s only going to get worse.

  • Seperates the men from the boys when it comes to running group buys. GB Pricing will be need to be more competative for buyers or the registration fee is just wasted money for the business.
  • When folks register their buy, they provide personal information to site admins. Buyers then know they are protected. If the “seller” takes the cash, the admins have their info and can follow up with appropriate action.
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You signed in as Guest so I don’t know the GB you are referring to. In any case I beleive my recomendation still works out for the good of this site and it’s members.

In order to have the opportunity to leverage this clubs members and save yourself some money by organizing your GB, you need to come forward with a registration fee. This again, helps the club financially, protests buyers and there is nothing to stop you from absorbing the registration cost into the savings on the product.

For example:
Widget = $100 retail
10 guys want on so Seller says $80 is the GB cost
Registation fee is $20
EVERYBODY in GB pays $82 for a $100 widget
Club gets $20

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I think thats a fantastic idea Dan.

If every thread in the group buy section required a registration fee, aside from helping out the club it would have lots of benefit to the group buy section.

Like you said, separating the men from the boys.

A fee of say $20 might not be enough though. I think it should be more like $40 or $60 bucks a shot. Afterall, like you said - these are business transactions.

In the case of a group buy not being a business transaction and having a member actually negotiating a deal with a business on the forums behalf - I think this scenario is obvious and they should not be required to pay a fee.

Again, I think there should be a registration/screening process involved.

I think the distinction between the two ‘types’ of group buy is easily distinguishable so no “business” would be able to get around the small registration fee.

I think in the case of a business group buy, $60 would be a measely amount considering the amount of profit thats involved in a typical group buy.

Any admins have any input here?

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we’ll have to change up the current set up at some point for sure.

perhaps only allowing sponsors to conduct this sort of thing.

there are a variety of reasons for the whole scenerio.

firstly, there has been a fair bit of fraud going on (not on SON group buys) and it would be good to restrict some people from conducting group buys. not anyone in particular, just in general, allowing only sponsors who have a invested into the club who are staking reputation and $$$ on the group buys. as opposed to individuals who may or may not be qualified or have experience handling these types of transactions.

Dan is right though, there is no way to prevent anyone from stepping on toes at the moment and i dont think that there really should be. there should be competition, it will encourage better pricing and ultimately give our members better deals and more selection. for example, if someone has a problem with me personally they can purchase similar items from someone else at a similar price… there is no problem with that. location may also play a factor.

Alot of people, including myself are generating sales from SON members, i really feel that all of us should be throwing $$$ back into the site for the ability to do this sort of thing.

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I’m all for not stepping on people’s toes and all, but when some person sets up a group buy, and somebody else, can get the product for less, then seeing as though group buys are there to help us all, that’s not stepping on people’s toes.
I’m specifically talking about the two brake line group buys, when I saved a good $70-80 by going with Andrew’s buy.
The true solution to this is, we have a PRICES section. This would be a section where we’ll have threads on certain items, and people can post how much they can get them for. This would only apply to items you can get ALL of the time. If you have a small finite quantity (less than 5), you wouldn’t be allowed to post your price there. Ofcourse this section would have to have some policing. If someone is unable to actually get you something for the price advertised, their price would be deleted. If they’re caught doing this 3 times, they’re not allowed to post prices anymore.
To standardize, you will post how much the item would be IN YOUR HANDS in CAD. If you live far, you’ll specify where you live, and whether you’ll deliver in the GTA.

There might be a few problems with this, but I think it’ll work reasonably well.
Oh, there would be NO arguing in this forum. You’re only allowed to post your price, no smack talking other people’s price, nor asking the seller’s questions. If you have a question, you ask it by PM, if the seller gets the same question a bunch of times, they can edit their price post to reflect the answer.

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Sol made some good suggestions IMO. Definitely something else to consider - I’d be all over that