Soon - All sales will have to be in Commerce

[xphilx]

You're welcome to pay so the rest of us don't have to.

If people want to donate, that's awesome. But it shouldn't be made forcible for anyone who wants to sell even one figure.

take your 1 figure a year to ebay. simple......

 

[Unclechopchop]

i cant believe people are *****ing about a $30 fee for selling!

id be happy to pay $30 a year as a buyer on this forum. Ive purchased some amazing customs over the years and its all coz this forum exists

Great attitude bro. If you haven't noticed that the economy sucks right now, and that we really don't need extra fees on every little thing, then I don't know what to tell you.
Advertising can pay for everything a million times over. But no. Why not tax the smaller people.....
Turning a blind eye to what's going on, never allows you to see the problem at hand.

 

[Unclechopchop]

take your 1 figure a year to ebay. simple......

Like I said before. Great attitude bro.........

 

[Rotfish]

Really? The way I see it is the forum will benefit from not having members post-pad their way into the commerce section, sell a whole bunch of figures at inflated prices and then sod off.

Simple solution: do research and don't buy figures at unrealistic prices. If anything, that system actually teaches people the importance of doing their homework on a figure they want, rather than either bending over and overpaying or starting a new "how much should this cost?" thread every time something catches their fancy. If they get ripped off, it's their fault. No one's forcing anyone to shell out $400 on a black-suited Spidey or whatever the case may be.

Also, to those accusing the members against this change of being cheap: maybe we don't sell super-expensive items. Maybe we don't sell very much at all. But whether we do or don't does not change the fact that $30 a year (while it isn't too much) is still $30 that can be spent on something else. Not the "privilege" of doing business on a collectors' board where the sales side of things makes up less than 10% of our total experience.
Again, this makes sense for custom artists because they're selling several items in each run with multiple runs a year. Business for them is something regular, something they do consistently. For those of us just trying to let go of a few items taking up space and make some money in the process, $30 isn't impossible but it sure as hell feels unnecessary.

Just bombard us with ads, who cares?

 

[xphilx]

Like I said before. Great attitude bro.........

i understand times can be hard for some people but what about dave? why should he have to cop everything? You do realize the running of this forum would cost him alot of money each year right? Why should he pay all the money he does for this forum to stay open while people can sell items here for free. i think $30 a year is a very very fair price. Be thankful hes let it go on for free for so many years

can i ask you afew questions?

1) what do you think of my above statement?
2) what do you plan on selling on here in the near future?

I understand if you maybe only wanna sell 1 figure for $100 in a year the $30 is alot of money but thats why u can sell it on ebay and only pay $10 in fees.

People also need to remember he has stated its not just for selling its also has other perks like more space for PM's

ill be paying the $30 to support the board even though i dont plan on selling anything at this time

 

[BJJFighter]

do we get SSF t-shirts with the $30 bucks

I think it would be really cool if we did get one for joining

 

[Godfather1408]

$30 is that it? I was thinking like it was way more! In that I'm for it !

 

[Loki]

take your 1 figure a year to ebay. simple......

I take offence to the ignorance in that statement. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to argue with it. The fees alone keep me well away from ebay.

 

[xphilx]

I take offence to the ignorance in that statement. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to argue with it. The fees alone keep me well away from ebay.

do you think $30 a year on this forum is unfair?

 

[Loki]

do you think $30 a year on this forum is unfair?

The amount doesn't matter as much as the principal behind it. If it's only to fix the issues within the customs board, it's unfair to any member who isn't part of the issue. Why not make customs sellers pay $60, or $90? They're the ones who can afford it. The amount itself does become an issue (even if minor) for students, those with financial problems (if you're trying to sell items to help with medical costs or the likes, $30 can mean a lot), and those who are only trying to sell one item at a time.

 

[olbertfrog]

The amount doesn't matter as much as the principal behind it. If it's only to fix the issues within the customs board, it's unfair to any member who isn't part of the issue. Why not make customs sellers pay $60, or $90? They're the ones who can afford it. The amount itself does become an issue (even if minor) for students, those with financial problems (if you're trying to sell items to help with medical costs or the likes, $30 can mean a lot), and those who are only trying to sell one item at a time.

 

[EVILFACE]

There is always craigslist....

 

[Loki]

There is always craigslist....

It's a shot in the dark with Craigslist and Kijiji. I've yet to come across a Kijiji site with more than a couple Hot Toys/Sideshow collectibles for sale. I live in a very dense and populated city, but the Kijiji for it is bone-dry. Also, I've put items up (including several figures) on both Craigslist and Kijiji. One of them sold within two weeks. Others sold within two or three months. One of my ads for an item has probably been up there for 6+ months with no bites. With this forum, you're bound to get someone who's interested very quickly because we're all collectors.

But when the change is implemented, not everyone's going to want to - or be able to - pay the fee, so the FS section could turn out just like Kijiji (so to speak). And if you're in a pinch for funds, that fee can be daunting. Every bit adds up.

I probably sound like a broken record, but this whole idea really unsettles me for some reason.

 

[Ironman1188]

So far, I've seen people telling folks to take their business elsewhere, whether it be a custom or a puece no longer wanted, just because they don't agree with the fee.
I don't understand the "perk" of extra pm space. This forum has always had the smallest amount from any of the forums I belong to. And I don't pay at those other sites.

Toy Anxiety left OSW over fees but:

Regarding dealers - I'm not intending to change how they use the site now. However advertising will also be part of the new design and dealers will have the opportunity to get their display ads in front of the members.

(And part of the Premium Membership will be limiting the amount of ads you see.)

Apparently that won't be a problem with the new set up because they [dealers] will get a free pass? But, if I understood Dave correctly, if I want to see if there is any interest in a custom, let's say a Michael Knight sculpt for the sake of argument, I would have to pay the $30 annual fee. Then, if there's no interest, or not enough interest and the project never comes to be, I'm $30 in the hole? Doesn't seem fair.

Nor does it seem fair that I've seen a number of posts already pointing out about adding the sellers PM fee onto the buyers. Pay $203 instead of $200. So the fee for a Premium Membership would basically be being paid by the buyer not the seller which it was initiated to place accountability on.

Bottom line, no matter how great Dave's intention to utilize this fee to straighten out custom sale problems or whatever, it will ultimately be the buyer who incurs the cost of it but none of its "benefits".

 

[annihilate22]

But, if I understood Dave correctly, if I want to see if there is any interest in a custom, let's say a Michael Knight sculpt for the sake of argument, I would have to pay the $30 annual fee. Then, if there's no interest, or not enough interest and the project never comes to be, I'm $30 in the hole? Doesn't seem fair.

I think you've misread the announcement.

Posting in the Interest section warrants no charge, however when you port it to the FS section from the Interest section that's when you pay the fee. Seems Fair.

However, I'm not sure why Dealers aren't charged to promote their product but we're charged to sell. Should be all or none, no distinction. From what I've seen, a majority of sellers than transact on the board - The deals we get here are way better than ebay or any other portal. Makes us as valuable as dealers like TA.

 

[Invictus Sol]

Dealers like TA don't actually transact over the board, though. They just advise what the latest products and breakdowns are and then people head over to their site to make the sale (a site that costs them money to run, unlike someone just piggybacking on Dave's platform). Soliciting and making the actual transaction on this board is what is generating the fee and again to me it seems nominal and fair. Just seems to me that the people complaining about the fee are basically only in this for themselves and don't want to contribute anything to the maintenance of the board that is enabling them to make the sale in the first place.

 

[ProgMatinee]

Dealers like TA don't actually transact over the board, though. They just advise what the latest products and breakdowns are and then people head over to their site to make the sale (a site that costs them money to run, unlike someone just piggybacking on Dave's platform). Soliciting and making the actual transaction on this board is what is generating the fee and again to me it seems nominal and fair. Just seems to me that the people complaining about the fee are basically only in this for themselves and don't want to contribute anything to the maintenance of the board that is enabling them to make the sale in the first place.

Exactly how I feel.

Regarding TA or any other dealer, it seems surprising to me that a company wouldn't find it good form to at least kick back some type of fee to this website or any other, such as OSW. If the fee was ridiculuous like in the $1000s I can see not doing it, but if it was a couple hundred bucks a year or something I think it would be incredibly stupid not to pay that and risk the website folding or something.

If forums like this didn't exist to showcase your kitbashes and customs, I dare say breakdown stores wouldn't exist.

 

[olbertfrog]

Dealers like TA don't actually transact over the board, though. They just advise what the latest products and breakdowns are and then people head over to their site to make the sale (a site that costs them money to run, unlike someone just piggybacking on Dave's platform). Soliciting and making the actual transaction on this board is what is generating the fee and again to me it seems nominal and fair. Just seems to me that the people complaining about the fee are basically only in this for themselves and don't want to contribute anything to the maintenance of the board that is enabling them to make the sale in the first place.

Youre ignoring that me and others said that they would glady make a donation to keep the servers running...

So now pro like TA wont have to pay for anything... Getting better by the minutes... pro sellers like customizers who make money out of this forum and average collectors who are here for their hobby are on the same level and will be the ones who Will pay.
Make no sense to me but hey thats great if it works for most of the guys here

 

[ProgMatinee]

Youre ignoring that me and others said that they would glady make a donation to keep the servers running...

So now pro like TA wont have to pay for anything... Getting better by the minutes... pro sellers like customizers who make money out of this forum and average collectors who are here for their hobby are on the same level and will be the ones who Will pay.
Make no sense to me but hey thats great if it works for most of the guys here

If you think about it from an administration/work aspect how much work do dealer posts require from the administration of this site? Pretty much zero. Their posts are for the most part confined to one thread.

Customizer and for sale threads on the other hand constrantly need mod action in various degrees from simply locking a thread, reminding people to list prices, making sure people have proper access, all the way up to helping mitigate fraud and such.

The more I think about it, while I think a proper dealer should support this site through advertising fees, I wouldn't want to drive any of them into posting as "plants" or whatever because of it.

 

[Lejuan]

Seems like there are two camps here:

Rich people who are prepared to pay a nominal fee for the privilege of selling to a relatively known community.

And rich people who want something for nothing.