Lack of knowledge, or just diarrhea of the mouth?

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aaamax

aaamax

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HI Boys and Girls,
I love the For Sale section of the site. But can someone tell me what this is all about?

Far too often I see something to the effect of:

"This is a really great deal, Someone buy this!"

More times than not the above statement is just not correct for the item being sold.

So for the uninitiated, they are receiving bad advice, why?
This happens so often and it makes me wonder if it is the equivalent of shill-bidding, maybe trying to butter up the seller for god knows what reason, bored and just want to build up their post count, or what?

Wouldn't it be nice if posts like this were made only when they were in fact true? Then the uninitiated could actually score a deal as apposed to getting crap advice.
Of course there is no easy way to police it and I'm not suggesting it.
I would just like to know why this odd practice takes place.

Cheers
 
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/guidelines-for-b-s-t.23206/
Quoting from
Guidelines for Buy/Sell/Trade (B/S/T) Forums

"Commenting.

Negative comments in sales threads are forbidden and will result in revocation of B/S/T forum privileges. This includes -ANY unfavorable comment on member pricing, ANY impugning comment on the perceived quality of the knife or perceived defects or ANY disparaging comment on the knife maker or original vendor/seller. This is not the place to save the world from a perceived overpriced knife.

Intentional violation of this guideline will result in revocation of any participation in the B/S/T forums, without further warnings or discussion."
 
No, I think those BST guidelines only applies to BST threads. Plenty of other threads in other areas of the forum where people give negative opinions on knives they have had bad experiences with. Do you see people talking about TF knives with only positive comments?
You can post your CM knife on BST and no one will give it negative comments on BST if they are wise, but I'm sure there will be plenty of other comments elsewhere on other KKF forum areas thereafter.

There is also a thread about flippers.
 
What is or is not a good deal is entirely a matter of perception. An individual armed with more information may have a better idea as to whether or not it is possible to buy the same item at a lower price, given some degree of patience, but the monetary value is adventitious to the object itself in any case.
There does seem to be a broader social issue of lowered expectations/inflated reviews, look at Yelp or Amazon, where 5-star reviews are the norm. I don't like the phenomena but this feels like tilting at windmills.
 
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Reactions: ian
Who decides what’s a good deal and what isn’t?

for some a good deal is that a rare knife becomes available, others think it’s a bad deal because it’s listed over retail....

And that’s only one problem.

Besides: any member who makes decisions based on some other member posting “great deal” or commenting in similar ways is either very impressionable or borderline naive.
 
IMO the "Good Deal" comments are meant to reassure newer members that this is a knife worth purchasing for the price offered from the individual offering it. These members are looking at dropping a couple hundred bucks or more on something they may not know much about. It is by nature quite subjective.

It is also a way of giving a "friendly" bump to move the thread to the top of the page.

More experienced ,members can be reasonably expected to do their own market research.
 
soigne_west said:
This extends outside of BST too. Everyone’s all of a sudden a knife and steel expert.
Click to expand...
I read that as Soigne responding to the OP.

I also find the "Someone buy this!" comments strange. It seems to me like it's mostly a projection from, and encouragement of, the particular brand of consumerism with which so many of us are afflicted.
Or maybe people are just trying to curry favor with the sellers, for some reason
 
Eh, this is not a big deal imo. I think it’s nice when people express enthusiasm for knives. You can tell how much of an interest the community has in the knife, which can help you decide if it’ll resell easily should you decide to try it. It’s also just friendly.

I like the fact that there’s some discussion and community on BST. If it was just for sale threads with two posts: “Mazaki 180 petty for sale / SOLD” that would be boring. Probably good for my pocketbook though, since I’d lose interest.

And as others said, it’s your opinion that it’s not a good deal. Others can have different opinions. Personally I think the number of “that’s a good deal!” comments does correlate with how good of a deal the knife is, although not perfectly.
 
I'm not that big of a fan of all the chatter in BST.

I usually reserve my comments unless the thread is already at the top of the forum page. Sometimes I think it's nice to share positive experiences with the seller or let others know that you enjoy X knife from Y maker.
 
I've found most good deals comments to be correlated to real price also. However sometimes I must redouble attention as to why - a rehandling is perhaps more obvious and is often stated in the sales pitch. Other more obscure differences (to me) are not stated and will be obvious either only to members that have a wide knowledge of the market, or revealed with careful scrutiny against the "standard" offer of said knife.
 
My mistake for not being more clear.
I in no way want to make any kind of quality judgement on any item.

My sole interest is in why A stone or a knife, that is for sale on BST, for the same price as one can be bought new or what it originally sold for And Not being a particularly sought after item, i.e. ultra collectable.

This item gets the "great price! wish I had the funds, please someone buy this!"

:letseat:
 
aaamax said:
My mistake for not being more clear.
I in no way want to make any kind of quality judgement on any item.

My sole interest is in why A stone or a knife, that is for sale on BST, for the same price as one can be bought new or what it originally sold for And Not being a particularly sought after item, i.e. ultra collectable.

This item gets the "great price! wish I had the funds, please someone buy this!"

:letseat:
Click to expand...

I don’t see that happening often. If people say “great price” for something used that’s retail price, they clearly haven’t done their research.

Maybe you’re talking about Shigs and Kato or Raquins or whatever, though. They are usually more expensive on the secondary market because they’re so hard to get new, for better or worse. So a BST listing for retail price could be considered a good deal. I don’t participate in those threads though.
 
aaamax said:
This item gets the "great price! wish I had the funds, please someone buy this!"
Click to expand...

Doesn't happen often. Somebody making a "nice knife" comment that is within the rules but perhaps not showing the best judgement.

Doesn't take long to realize the "nice knife" comment in this instance is either looking for post count or just typing to type.

The world will not come to an end.
 
As @ian said, it's mostly enthusiasm, and sometimes also the price you see for the brand new unit doesn't reflect the conditions in which the member that says it's a great price could buy it.
 
daveb said:
IMO the "Good Deal" comments are meant to reassure newer members that this is a knife worth purchasing for the price offered from the individual offering it. These members are looking at dropping a couple hundred bucks or more on something they may not know much about. It is by nature quite subjective.

It is also a way of giving a "friendly" bump to move the thread to the top of the page.

More experienced ,members can be reasonably expected to do their own market research.
Click to expand...

This, nothing more


If you read litterally, 99% of the responders are broke, but if they weren't, they would have bought it immediately...

Just see it as a nice way of saying: hey man, nice knife, good luck with selling...
 
I don't know... sometimes I think people are just saying positive things about a friends posting, when they do not have any independent basis to claim it is a "good deal" etc. etc..... Maybe the solution (and no I'm not saying a solution is needed) is no posting at all, negative or positive, in BST postings....
 
Perspective from a relative new forum participant. I do like the messages others post, as they help me ascertain to what extent the OP is a legit and stand-up seller.

One of the issues here for me as a potential buyer is that sellers do not have a rating from buyers, i.e. they aren't kept in check by previous buyers.

So I see the messages as a way to keep sellers in check by the community. If a seller wasn't trustworthy I would expect the community here to intervene, and that's why I think it's important to allow for others chiming in. Yes you will have some 'glws' posts but I just see that as a gentle bump and again a way of saying the seller is trustworthy.
 
I don't get it either. It's not a bump when you reply within the first few minutes - the post is literally at the top of the page already. But I do get it too. Seems like more people are on the forums this year and it's no mystery why. I try to restrict my shiptosting to threads that have already gone off the rails, but to each their own.

Have to agree with Up_dog128 that the "please buy this" posts reflect a weird affliction of consumerism. We all struggle with it to some extent, or we wouldn't be here. Seems like the online version of a verbal tic, triggered by the stress of unactionable desire. I can understand why it may bother you, but it's not like you're stuck at your desk and a coworker is clicking their pen incessantly. Just don't read them.
 
ian said:
I don’t see that happening often. If people say “great price” for something used that’s retail price, they clearly haven’t done their research.
Click to expand...
Sometimes it's proximity too. Retail price shipped conus versus hitting the minimum on JNS is nice when the stars align.

Wahnamhong said:
Perspective from a relative new forum participant. I do like the messages others post, as they help me ascertain to what extent the OP is a legit and stand-up seller.

One of the issues here for me as a potential buyer is that sellers do not have a rating from buyers, i.e. they aren't kept in check by previous buyers.

So I see the messages as a way to keep sellers in check by the community. If a seller wasn't trustworthy I would expect the community here to intervene, and that's why I think it's important to allow for others chiming in. Yes you will have some 'glws' posts but I just see that as a gentle bump and again a way of saying the seller is trustworthy.
Click to expand...
This is a weird hobby where there's a lot of trust both ways. I've had a custom from a maker at my door before I paid a penny because my ticket came up a few weeks early. Of course, there are examples like the recent CA thread as well...but for the most part this is a small community that self polices well.
 
As it is said in other words above, the number of 'ah damn, i wish I had the money to buy it...'
also means that the seller is known, respected and therefor maybe thrustworthy...
I've seen topics of new members selling a knife....way less of those kind words..
 
Been wondering about this as well.

Have also read "this is really hard to find in EU!" while I have bought said exact same item brand new for less money a week before the ad was placed. Found it in stock somewhere after Googling for a minute or 5...
Just checked stock of the site I bought it at, jup still in stock...

I don't mind the bumps etc. but please don't say it's a great deal unless you have done your homework on the item.

That said... the seller can't help it either, and the buyer should be wise enough to make a decision :)
 
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