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Tired of Bad Mannered New "Shoppers"

I have purchased a number of knives through Blade Forums Knife Exchange over the years. I don't do Paypal and have always used USPS money orders. Might not be entirely safe for me, but I feel it is best for the seller. I have seen a number of knives I would love to have that are "Paypal Only" - USPS MO's may not be quite as fast and conveniant as Paypal, but if that is what shows up in the mail, you don't have to worry about its legitimacy or whether there is going to be a dispute. I haven't been burned yet - I am pretty careful about who I send one to.
 
ooitzoo said:
One thing that needs to be said is that if someone is a d!ck in negotiating a deal will likely continue to be a d!ck when executing the deal and will likely be a d!ck after the deal. Hence, it is always worth trusting your gut reaction with folks and staying away from those that strike you the wrong way.
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100%
I just block people all the time now, too, just so I proactively can avoid future BS.

IDK when exactly, but maybe 5ish years ago it seemed like people no longer understood how to negotiate.

FB is even worse.
I can post a “taking public offers, please don’t PM me” and I’ll still get a half dozen “what do you want for it” messages immediately, with half of those guys continuing to be super aggressive until I block them too.

It’s like an entire generation of people learned to haggle from the manufactured fake reality of pawn stars or something.
 
Guess I'm on a roll. Found a knife I want in the exchange. Listed as NIB for a price 25% below dealer being sold by a Gold Member who joined in May 2021. Posted "I'll take it " and followed up with a PM. He gets back to me and says he only takes PayPal F&F since he "needs the money". I offer to pay the fees through G&S so he nets his asking price. He declines G&S so I withdraw my offer.

To me it's not worth the potential hassle.
 
Murindo said:
Guess I'm on a roll. Found a knife I want in the exchange. Listed as NIB for a price 25% below dealer being sold by a Gold Member who joined in May 2021. Posted "I'll take it " and followed up with a PM. He gets back to me and says he only takes PayPal F&F since he "needs the money". I offer to pay the fees through G&S so he nets his asking price. He declines G&S so I withdraw my offer.

To me it's not worth the potential hassle.
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Smart move there.
 
Murindo said:
Guess I'm on a roll. Found a knife I want in the exchange. Listed as NIB for a price 25% below dealer being sold by a Gold Member who joined in May 2021. Posted "I'll take it " and followed up with a PM. He gets back to me and says he only takes PayPal F&F since he "needs the money". I offer to pay the fees through G&S so he nets his asking price. He declines G&S so I withdraw my offer.

To me it's not worth the potential hassle.
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I personally shy away from GS-only purchases. I got screwed over the last time someone insisted that they pay only GS. They received the item prior to the estimated delivery date. It was marked as handed off to individual. I didn't hear from them and then a few days after the estimated arrival date the charge was disputed through PayPal. Tried to reach out to the buyer and touch base. Talked with local postal as well and they confirmed the driver handed it to the person who answered the door for the private residence. PayPal ruled in their favor, I'm out $600 and terrified to deal with anyone GS again as a seller.
 
deemage said:
I personally shy away from GS-only purchases. I got screwed over the last time someone insisted that they pay only GS. They received the item prior to the estimated delivery date. It was marked as handed off to individual. I didn't hear from them and then a few days after the estimated arrival date the charge was disputed through PayPal. Tried to reach out to the buyer and touch base. Talked with local postal as well and they confirmed the driver handed it to the person who answered the door for the private residence. PayPal ruled in their favor, I'm out $600 and terrified to deal with anyone GS again as a seller.
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This happen on BF’s?
 
Boru13 said:
This happen on BF’s?
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Noooooo I've had nothing but perfect transactions here so far, thank you for all you guys do to keep Bf clean for us!
It was on a Facebook group and he had a few vouches, he's long gone now lol
 
Best bet as a seller on here is to only sell to people with positive feedback. My wife quit selling on eBay due to the number of times G&S buyers claimed they didn't get the item or it was damaged or not as described and wanted a partial refund.
 
If you personally don't know the individual, or if they don't have a least 10 positive feedbacks and 0 negatives, You may want to stay away from them. Some are apt to be very juvenile in email responses.
 
10 is a little insane, I only have 2 for feedback. One for selling and one for trading (both stellar). I’m also new, only been here since late August. I actively contribute to discussions, consider myself a semi-regular in the Busse sub forum. I also got a gold membership because I’ll probably sell a couple of knives within the year long duration of the membership. The only thing I would say is that potential new members interested in buying should actively contribute in forum discussions. IMO that way you can potentially gauge them as prospective buyers. At the end of the day it’s totally up to the seller to vet whoever they want to buy their knife. Don’t mandate overly strict rules for honest and responsible new prospective buyers. Good judgement is the best policy.
 
deemage said:
I personally shy away from GS-only purchases. I got screwed over the last time someone insisted that they pay only GS. They received the item prior to the estimated delivery date. It was marked as handed off to individual. I didn't hear from them and then a few days after the estimated arrival date the charge was disputed through PayPal. Tried to reach out to the buyer and touch base. Talked with local postal as well and they confirmed the driver handed it to the person who answered the door for the private residence. PayPal ruled in their favor, I'm out $600 and terrified to deal with anyone GS again as a seller.
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G&S is the proper way to pay for goods, which knives are. Contrary to what you’ve stated, someone that tells me “f&f only” sends up a huge red flag… customer protections are out the window. Sure, buyers that get screwed can come to the GBU thread and complain, but if the seller flips the bird and bails from the forum, there isn’t much recourse. In my opinion it’s far more likely that sellers who demand f&f screw you over rather than buyers who pay g&s… anecdotally I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen someone post on social media “I paid Joe Schmoe x amount of money and I never received a knife!” I can count on one hand how many fraudulently disputed g&s transactions I’ve seen.
 
Pmurt Dlanod said:
G&S is the proper way to pay for goods, which knives are. Contrary to what you’ve stated, someone that tells me “f&f only” sends up a huge red flag… customer protections are out the window. Sure, buyers that get screwed can come to the GBU thread and complain, but if the seller flips the bird and bails from the forum, there isn’t much recourse. In my opinion it’s far more likely that sellers who demand f&f screw you over rather than buyers who pay g&s… anecdotally I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen someone post on social media “I paid Joe Schmoe x amount of money and I never received a knife!” I can count on one hand how many fraudulently disputed g&s transactions I’ve seen.
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This was my exact opinion...... until I lost $600
 
deemage said:
This was me exact opinion, until I lost $600
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Yes, there is no perfect system, and bad things happen.. which is why it’s so good we have a rating system here that sort of helps build confidence… but at the end of the day, it’s all based on a leap of faith. But I generally operate on the presumption that ”f&f only” is a bad omen.
 
deemage said:
I personally shy away from GS-only purchases. I got screwed over the last time someone insisted that they pay only GS. They received the item prior to the estimated delivery date. It was marked as handed off to individual. I didn't hear from them and then a few days after the estimated arrival date the charge was disputed through PayPal. Tried to reach out to the buyer and touch base. Talked with local postal as well and they confirmed the driver handed it to the person who answered the door for the private residence. PayPal ruled in their favor, I'm out $600 and terrified to deal with anyone GS again as a seller.
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Did you push this up the PP chain of command. PP sometimes makes bad decisions and any individual can be incompetent. You should have at least been told exactly why they were favoring the buyer, and had the chance to challenge that. I would think seller protection might have come into play here but you haven't given enough info) But if you have lost confidence in the PP system , don't use them, Go with money orders, rather than cheating PP out of their fees for G&S transactions. If the deal starts out with someone(PP) being cheated it is hard for me to determine where that cheating will stop.
Sorry for your loss
 
coolbreezy37 said:
10 is a little insane, I only have 2 for feedback. One for selling and one for trading (both stellar). I’m also new, only been here since late August. I actively contribute to discussions, consider myself a semi-regular in the Busse sub forum. I also got a gold membership because I’ll probably sell a couple of knives within the year long duration of the membership. The only thing I would say is that potential new members interested in buying should actively contribute in forum discussions. IMO that way you can potentially gauge them as prospective buyers. At the end of the day it’s totally up to the seller to vet whoever they want to buy their knife. Don’t mandate overly strict rules for honest and responsible new prospective buyers. Good judgement is the best policy.
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How do you know they're honest and responsible.
 
Murindo said:
Guess I'm on a roll. Found a knife I want in the exchange. Listed as NIB for a price 25% below dealer being sold by a Gold Member who joined in May 2021. Posted "I'll take it " and followed up with a PM. He gets back to me and says he only takes PayPal F&F since he "needs the money". I offer to pay the fees through G&S so he nets his asking price. He declines G&S so I withdraw my offer.

To me it's not worth the potential hassle.
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I think situations like this really depend on the specifics. There are absolutely people on this forum with whom I'd have no reservations in doing a FF deal. These are generally people I've dealt with before and have good feedback. Obviously, if its a random guy who signed up last Friday then the obvious response is "no".

I will say I tend to use FF for non-US deals. I do this because I don't want to deal with either postal fraud or with outright fraud by the buyer (and not having recourse in a random country).

As with most things, its a judgement call based on the facts you observe.
 
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