Why doesn't Audiogon have some guidelines?

Some people leave the ad running until they receive the cash from the "committed" buyer. It's all too common for people to reneg, deleting the ad means having to re-post again when the orginal buyer backs out. Altering the ad so it sez "sale pending" is an eyesore and for some very strange reason, bugs me. Personally, I delete my ads and risk having to re-post them if necessary.

I do the same thing, Jeffloistarca. However, when I receive additional email about the item, I always indicate that
I have a sale pending, and will notify the potential buyer that I will get back to him if the sale falls through. Not only is this common courtesy, it's a good business practice. Happy Tunes!

One problem with deleting ads vs. posting a SOLD status is that it messes up the Audiogon pricing history stat's. They use the "sold status" with the "price info." to update their DBase with every sale that happens here. If we want current & vaild pricing data from this service (& if not then why even have the feature available?) then the only way it will happen is to work with the system.
Personally I don't mind "sold" or "sale pendings" at all. I've even contacted a seller with a "sale pending" asking to be notified if the sale fell thru; it did & I was able to purchase after all. Nice.

Maybe adding "sale pending" isn't as soothing as a fresh clean ad is to some sellers but isn't it the right thing to do. Potential buyers read through these ads ready to spend their money and they don't want to waste their time and hope on something which is no longer available. If I see an ad which I am interested in and it is labeled "sale pending" I will continue to watch that ad. If I respond to an ad which is pending and not labeled "sale pending" it raises a flag for me to beware of this seller. Just something that grates on me.