The Best of B&S - Someone should buy this!

[bry2000]

I think people are definitely buying. Look at economic indicators now vs. 2010.

I think people are focusing their time elsewhere: EBAY, Grailed, the on-line consignment shops that have sprung up, etc. Many of these businesses did not exist in 2010. For some reason, SF was not able to capitalize on its early start and large member base to become a leading platform for B&S.

 

[Ich_Dien]

My sales went from roughly 95% based on here to 0% based on here pretty much overnight with the platform change. I have sold maybe five things on here since the change. I used to sell, on a good day, five things a day on here.

The platform is incredibly messed up. Nearly all of my items are "out of stock" because some idiot has bought them and never paid. Not only did I only just realise this quite recently, but I never even got a notification saying this was the case. Even speaking to admin hasn't solved this. This renders the new "benefits" of the platform completely useless.

It is cluttered, a pain to moderate, and even more of a pain to be a seller on there. Just to bump your item is difficult.

OK the halcyon days of deals may have gone, but has anyone considered for one moment they've gone because sellers like me simply don't trade on here anymore? There used to be a lot of us who regularly offered great items on here. I don't think any of them are still going on this platform.

There's plenty of times I see opportunities that before I would have put to the forum...I simply just don't anymore as I know I can't shift it on here so what's the point of me going through the time and effort?

I much more enjoy selling to members on here and used to have a great rapport with quite literally hundreds of members. I would take a discounted price and some good chat with a client on here any day over eBay.

 

[bry2000]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Have you communicated your feedback to @LA Guy ? I started listing things on B&S right before the platform changed so I don't have a good perspective on the differences.

I still have quite a few things that I would like to sell. I have only been using B&S largely because I have a trading feedback history here, having never sold anywhere else. Equally important, I like selling to members here. SF people have been generally reasonable to deal with and I believe people have been very happy with their purchases and that is meaningful to me. But things are moving slowly so I will likely have to try other platforms like Grailed or even local consignment shops.

 

[othertravel]

My sales went from roughly 95% based on here to 0% based on here pretty much overnight with the platform change. I have sold maybe five things on here since the change. I used to sell, on a good day, five things a day on here.

The platform is incredibly messed up. Nearly all of my items are "out of stock" because some idiot has bought them and never paid. Not only did I only just realise this quite recently, but I never even got a notification saying this was the case. Even speaking to admin hasn't solved this. This renders the new "benefits" of the platform completely useless.

It is cluttered, a pain to moderate, and even more of a pain to be a seller on there. Just to bump your item is difficult.

OK the halcyon days of deals may have gone, but has anyone considered for one moment they've gone because sellers like me simply don't trade on here anymore? There used to be a lot of us who regularly offered great items on here. I don't think any of them are still going on this platform.

There's plenty of times I see opportunities that before I would have put to the forum...I simply just don't anymore as I know I can't shift it on here so what's the point of me going through the time and effort?

I much more enjoy selling to members on here and used to have a great rapport with quite literally hundreds of members. I would take a discounted price and some good chat with a client on here any day over eBay.

Agree with all of the above.

I liked the old format where sellers could post all their wares in one thread (making it like a e-store). But they changed the rules allowing people to post individual items in single threads. The result: when you open B&S, the page is cluttered by one seller unloading multiple goods. It not only looks aesthetically unpleasing, but it pushes other new listings to the back, even if they were just posted a few minutes prior to one seller posting multiples.

It makes it harder to sort the desirable from the undesirable items.

@Ich_Dien and @PocketCircle had amazing estores under the old format. Now their items are lost in the shuffle.

 

[LA Guy]

We may try some other formats. The old system is gone for good, and we certainly will no longer do the "thread" based system, which doesn't really work well in a modern marketplace. It will definitely be a single item/single listing system. (Incidentally, you can click on a seller, and get all of that seller's listings.) That said, we've been quite unhappy with the support from the devs on the existing marketplace.

These things are incredibly difficult to create though, so... we'll see if there is anything out there that better suits our needs.

If anyone cares to delve into Xenforo's possibilities (note that we are on the 1.X versions, and will not be on 2.X for a while, since most of the customizations are not ready yet, and will not likely be for at least a full calendar year, from what progress we've seen), we are happy to consider and even test them on a test forum.

Cheers,

Fok.

 

[troika]

Thanks for fighting the good fight Fok

 

[LA Guy]

I really wish it would be in the format of an ecommerce site, but I understand the limitations. Many moons ago we asked Fok if they'd be able to do a little offshoot similar to how the blog is in a different format. No dice.

There is nothing right now that has a very good bridge - aka - a single login that would join the systems. The blog is a bit different since you don't really need a full bridge for the thing to work seamlessly, for the most part.

Frankly, the hard part is not just finding good software, (since it would be financial madness for us to start from scratch since none of us are this caliber of programmer), but also finding a good contract developer who is willing to work with you, and is reliable. Everyone says that these people are out there to be contracted, but that's simply not the case.

This goes for both the add-on and the "separate software, good bridge" solutions. There are a few platforms that have offered this, but they basically just want to subsume your platform into theirs, which, of course, is not tenable.

 

[ThinkDerm]

fok, the thread system is what made the old B&S successful. not sure why you'd turn your back on that.

 

[Mr Clemson]

I used to list and sell on here all the time, but I now primarily sell on other platforms (Grailed and EBay) solely due to the platform change. The new one isn’t user friendly at all IMO.

 

[Handcuffed]

I'm not a big seller or buyer but I've been on SF for a while and have both bought and sold my fair share of goods. I don't even look at the new B&S anymore and haven't listed anything there. I stick exclusively to B&S on reddit/ebay/grailed.

 

[bry2000]

I did not know Reddit has a B&S. How is it? Fees? Trustworthy, reasonable buyers? Things actually move?

 

[Handcuffed]

Certain subreddits have scheduled B/S/T threads with the frequency dependent on the subreddit itself. goodyearwelt does theirs twice a week. Other clothes ones do theirs weekly or every other week.

To get this thread back on track, here are some great EG Dovers in fantastic shape from a reliable seller/poster for a nice price:

https://www.styleforum.net/buyandsell/edward-green-dover-11-11-5d-drop-9-28.9898/

 

[notdos]

I look at the for sale area everyday and have bought multiple items. From this buyers perspective, it works fine.

Phillip

 

[bry2000]

I look at the for sale area everyday and have bought multiple items. From this buyers perspective, it works fine.

Phillip

I wish there were hundreds of more people like you.

 

[stephenaf2003]

There are definitely good deals. I’ve had a pair of brand new EG Dover’s at less than half price for over a year in the thread.

My theory is all of the bad press the new format gets in the forum writ large, has most people thinking they can’t get deals there. Or that it is hard to navigate; it’s actually pretty not hard to find things one wants in the thread.