Suggestion for buying and selling on the site

The only way to back out of a deal on Ebay is to win the auction and then not follow through on the transaction. While the rules here are stated somewhat differently, i don't think that anyone involved in this website or hobby would have a hard time with leaving negative feedback for someone who won an Audiogon auction and then backed out.

As to leaving feedback for "tire kickers" that make promises that they don't keep, that may be another story. I know that it can be EXTREMELY frustrating to say the least, but what else can be done other than what is being done ? You have to draw the line somewhere and Audiogon's decision as to where that takes place is quite clear. Otherwise, you would have "whacko" sellers leaving negative feedback for everyone that contacted them and didn't end up buying, "whacko" buyers that were upset and leaving negative feedback because they never received follow up information on their inquiries, etc...

I have seen some folks leave negative feedback regarding "transactions" that weren't really "transactions" as Audiogon describes them though. If you see one comment that says "backed out", etc... you kind of have to take that with a grain of salt. When that person has several comments like that, the person making the feedback obviously felt strongly enough to warn others. They did this even though they knew that there was no actual transaction involved and that they were actually "breaking the rules" to do so.

This one is kind of a two sided sword: it can cut either way and requires great care in handling. While i am grateful for some of the "non transaction based feedback" that i've seen in terms of being warned, i know that it borders on slander and would boil down to one person's word against the others. Like anything else though, you can't force someone to buy something no matter what they've said or done in the past. Just like they say "buyer beware", i guess we now have to say "seller beware". Both parties should work on covering their own "assets" : ) Sean
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Nice post Sean. Yet I understand what PI is saying, and I too like the "finality" of an eBay auction. If the item sells, a legal CONTRACT then exists between the two parties. I think PI is saying it would be nice to implement something like a CONTRACT with Audiogon's classified ads.

But of course this would require audiogon to be much more of a party to all transaction, and would also likely have some legal implications.

Contracts with classifieds anyone? Craig

I think though we could pull it off if there was an icon to click that says I will buy this item. Once its clicked it would dissapear because the item would be sold. It would garentee the sale to the one that clicks it.

You could take it one step further like ebay and only be able to leave feedback for the people that clicked the icon and vice versa. Then it wouldnt be up to the individual to judge whether it was a transaction. This would also stop someone from inflating there own feedback.

You could of course still email with questions and maybe even have an icon that says make offer. The seller would then either accept or deny. If accepted then again the icon would dissapear.

This would also cut down on the false offers because of the repercusions of the action.

Its not a perfect system but I think with a little thought it would work.