About the marketplace? Specifying head/body only in sales?

Oh yes, I've seen all sorted of info removed by the seller for reasons I can't understand. I once saw a thread where the seller had typed in the fill in form (and you need to, to post a sales thread), just to delete everything and replace it with a purple paragraph lyrically stating why they wanted to sell the doll. No year it was made, no yellowing estimation, no mention of modifications if any, no mention of what you would be getting for your money.

It's just... such a backwards step for no reason at all. The form isn't there to annoy you; it's there to make your sale easier :/

 

I appreciate it when a seller lists everything they can fit in the title.I always put "head" on my listings if it's just a head or "body" if it's just a body, but I don't specify if it's a full doll. Sometimes I do nearly run out of room in the titles, though. If you're selling a specific version of a doll, the titles can get quite long.

The thing that annoys me the most about titles is when sellers spell the company's name differently than how I enter it in the search bar. For instance, if you do a search for "rosenlied" versus "rosen lied" you get somewhat different results. Or "LittleMonica" vs "Little Monica". If a company's name has two words (or could be interpreted as being two words), I always list it both ways to be sure it shows up in searches.

 

I know, and I'm very grateful that you mods put in so much effort to keep the Marketplace nice and tidy^^. I just wish people would put in the same amount of effort when listing a doll for sale and at least wait with listing it until they have pictures available.

Anyway, my guess is that people who remove info from their thread titles do so to force people to click their thread to get the info so they can get a better idea from the number of pageviews of how popular their item is, how many people are actually interested enough to take the trouble to open the thread, and maybe they'll start looking at the other stuff for sale by that person even if the initial listing doesn't strike their fancy after all (you know, like making your customer come into the store and walk all the way through it before they find the article they want rather than put it all at the front door, it increases the likelyhood that they'll impulse buy something else and you can better distinguish between interested and just browsing. In a physical store anyway). Or just to fit in the "Best Price!! Major price drop!! Head with GORGEOUS stunning faceup!" type of attention seeking exclamations that aren't supposed to be in the thread title in the first place (except maybe "price drop" or "new pics added").

 

Just an idea, but if the main problem is there not being enough space in the title to list whether the seller is selling just the head or the whole doll, perhaps there could be one of those prefix buttons for 'head' or 'body' or 'full doll'? That way it wouldn't take up title space and the buyer would be able to tell what's being sold. It might also make things easier to search, since for example, you could set the thread display to only show heads for sale.

 

That sounds like a really useful idea actually
adhara...if you see any more sale threads like that I think the mods would appreciate being informed! But as sakuraharu said the mods are keeping an eye out for threads with missing information so hopefully there will be less of them now, fingers crossed, as you said, the form is there to make the marketplace easier, it tells everyone what they need to know!

 

Except the prefix is already taken for FS, FS/WTT, WTT and WTB. I'm not sure if the system can do two prefixes simultaneously.

Haha, I do try Except... I don't think it's necessarily against the rules (per se) but more just inconvenient for others. Missing pictures on the other hand, is against the marketplace rules, as it's easier to scam your buyer without pictures. It's a proof of ownership thing. Details such as yellowing, year it was made and mods aren't definitely necessary... but I'd still like to see proof that the seller has considered it by filling in that part of the form; even if it's just a "I don't know". Being unsure is still more information than a blank space.

 

There is an entire section under a sales listing that is a required field that states what is included in the sale. It's not that hard to click on a promising link and spend, the what, 20-30 seconds reading there to see if it's for a head or a full doll, if the price or company wasn't a tip off. Really, of all the things to complain about...

 

Thank you!

 

Then get the experience.

Seriously. It does not take that long to research companies and prices. It does not take that long to read through the required sale information. It does not take that long to do your homework prior to a doll purchase. If you're going to purchase secondhand, you must do your homework; you can't expect it to be done for you. That goes for any major purchase, really. Before you drop the dough, you do your homework. It doesn't take years and years and years to "become an experienced BJD person", it just takes effort. You make it sound like inexperienced BJD people, whatever those are, should be catered to and have their hands held. It doesn't work that way. The onus is on the buyer to educate themselves, whether that involves company research, spending that thirty seconds clicking a link, checking feedback to determine a seller's reliability, or prowling through listings comparing prices and determining what's reasonable. That's how the rest of us learned to use the MP.

Are you aware of how you're coming across in this conversation? Just out of curiosity.

 

Sometimes you can fit whether it is a complete doll/head only in the thread title. Sometimes you can't. There are character limits, and depending on the company name/complicated hybrids/whatevers there isn't the space to put everything you might want to include.

 

Owch... I smell burning newbies.

I second this...it's about as blunt as it needs to be.

It does take experience to navigate the marketplace. Sometimes the thread titles might look like it's in code if you don't know what it means( EI: V FCSMSDBH40 NS) unless you research it or quiet simply, click the thread and take a look.
The search function could be easier to use. but it's so-so IMHO. :/ even with experienced members, finding a specific doll is a hunt.

 

Eheheheheh...I didn't really mean to be too toasty. There really just isn't any way of fancying it up, though. The situation is what it is.

 

Well, a picture is a required field, and quite a few people have a problem filling that in I'm not surprised that sellers can't be bothered to fill the section of what is to be included in the sale too. And really, it's the buyer's fault the seller doesn't bother writing key information in?

Tell you what, if the seller shows they're educated about what they're selling, then the buyer should be educated about what they're buying. The more information that the seller puts down on their item, the more likely it is to sell without any problems. Why is it the buyer's perogative to fill in the form for them?

 

NO sales Photo? Click the report button. It's not that hard, want me to walk you through the process?

NO needed information that you see on the sales page? Why don't you PM the seller and ask? If you where serious about buying the doll then that's what sellers expect. Buyer-questions do separate the serious buyers from the non-serious. It avoids potential buyers who might flakeout of a sale.

It's all really just some common sense to these things

 

If you see a thread without a picture, report it. Not hard to do. I have yet to see a sales thread that doesn't have the "what is included" section filled out because sellers want to be clear on what it is they're selling in the large space that they are provided with to expound on that very topic. Complaining that all of this information isn't included in the title of the sales thread when it can be easily found within the sales thread, where it's supposed to be located, is ridiculous.

The information is there. People are complaining that they're required to click on a link and spend 30 seconds reading said information. I am finding it hard to be sympathetic to that.

 

Elysion gear: No thank you, I'm good, but if you post a walkthrough on how to actually fill in the form, I bet that would be better for all those sellers who can't be bothered to write anything

You're missing my point. If people can't be bothered to put in a picture, then they clearly can't be bothered to put in key information. And if they can't be bothered to put in key information, then clearly they might not be bothered to make sure the transaction goes smoothly on their end, and blame the buyer when they mess up. The mods created the form to make it easier for sellers to use (and clearer for buyers when buying); the very least they can do is actually use it.

I do report all sales posts that do not have the required information, picture or otherwise. I agree; if there's information that's there, then that's fine. But I find it hard to be not sympathetic with buyers when a seller can't be bothered to fill in an extremely easy form. As I said before; it's the seller's prerogative to put the information down in the first place, so if the buyer needs to message JUST ask a really stupid question (like "Is this a full doll or just a head? You didn't specify anywhere in the thread, I looked!") that the seller could spend a second filling in the form, it's the seller's fault, not the buyer.

(The point that's being missed is that yes, there is a report button for all those posts without a picture. But if sellers bothered to put in the picture in the first place, then the buyer's time wouldn't be wasted reporting the post, the mods' time wouldn't be wasted sending the PM to say "You must have a picture for your sales post" and deleting the thread, and the seller's time wouldn't be wasted having to fill the form in twice.)

There's common sense, and then there's being a lazy bum. Requiring buyers to message you for basic key information (as some sort of test to see if they're worthy of selling to? lol) is being lazy.

 

I don't know speaking as both a seller and a sometimes buyer, depending on how much information is missing and what that info is, it is a sign for me as to someone I don't want to buy from. There are very few items that are so rare that I want to risk buying from a flakey seller and ending up a Problem Transaction thread. Now if a seller left out something minor, like exact details on how a layaway would work, I'm not going to ding them since that might need to be something you work out with them, much like shipping costs. If a seller says a random wig or a random pair of glass eyes and doesn't picture them, they're a freebie and I'm not buying the doll for said eyes or wig and actual companies when they say those things don't show the pictures of the actual eyes or wig either necessarily, so again I won't ding a seller. But if a seller doesn't make it clear if they are selling just a head or a body or a full doll, why would I want to trust them with my money?

I've definitely ran out of space when posting titles to items I am selling. I've also had titles cut off until you click on said item. It looks sloppy. I do think as a buyer it is important to know some companies are heads only (like Migi dolls) and to have some idea of what the going prices are for various dolls vs doll parts. I think it's an important part of buying because you don't want to overpay.

 

Ahh, Now if you had simply put that note in your previous posts then we would have avoided this whole argument. It would have been very helpful to have known that before hand.


Getting into a tizzy about not seeing the information you want to see doesn't make any sense. Don't see the basic information in a sales thread, well....move on, again it's so simple: avoid those sellers if you wish. don't get mad at them, it's their fault for losing out on a potential sale.