Why do people delete the price when they have sold their pistol?

[Fate]

I'm with the "none of yer bizness" crowd. I always delete selling price. Always have, always will.

[nalcomis]

Nalcomis, I like your sigline. And many of the people posting on cgn would never dare run their mouths or conduct themselves like they do here in public I'd bet serious money on that. They usually will whine when confronted, "it's only the internet." I try not to be that way and I am willing to prove and back up any claim I make online in person.

Where's the "Like" button? We're on the same page.

[nalcomis]

Haha!!! Man, I feel like I stepped into someone else's dream world.

Leaving up ASKING prices is useful data?!? WTF? Case in point: Had a guy listing a gun for $950...next thing you know he drops it to $800. That was still more than I was willing to pay, so I PM'd him with $700. He agreed. Done deal.

So now, in the "leave the asking price up" dream world, someone comes along looking for "useful data points" and sees that the asking price was $950, then $800, then sold. How on Earth is that useful data for valuing what you want to sell or buy that gun for today?

Heck, even GunBroker recognizes that sales data needs to be purged...they only keep listings for 90 days before they're deleted, and it's only that long mainly in case of disputes between parties.

And, as for some wanting the past sales prices left up "for the good of the community", what I'm sensing is that those guys are actually more worried about leaving a few dollars on the table...and more interested in squeezing as much $$ from their "fellow CalGunners" as possible. That's not my thing, but to each their own!

[/rant]

You must be the "Price Line Negotiator!!" Maybe you should open a gun store! You'd be rich in no time, for sure! Sorry, I couldn't help it.

[Packy14]

I started out by just marking it sold. But with the price still showing I'd get I'll take it responses and PMs. I took the price off and I'd get PMs asking how much I got for it. Now I just delete the whole ad.

Yup, this is what I have taken to doing. Along with my pictures. It doesn't benefit myself or the buyer to leave that info online, and there are no other parties that have claim to that info as far as i'm concerned.

[SamsDX]

That alone would make me forget searching some random forum for what some dude paid for a gun. It would streamline gun values.

Market efficiency - that's what transparent pricing is all about. Why this is such a difficult concept to grasp, I don't know.

[devious21]

Those bringing up the buyer's privacy, someone mentioned it earlier in the thread and articulated it better than I could but here's the gist of it.

The buyer has almost full control over his privacy during a transaction. He doesn't need to post anything in the thread and can simply Pm the seller directly. Unless the seller goes out of his way to call out who the buyer is, leaving the asking price up really doesn't expose the buyer's privacy anymore than he's doing himself.

[readysetgo]

I'm guessing that "community" jab was directed at me?

Whatever, I don't see how my intentions could be twisted in that way by my words in this thread or actions anywhere on CGN. Weird.

Also, to my point, everyone keeps giving responses in the negative to why it's a bad idea, bypassing my question of "you can't see one good reason?"

And finally, I personally wasn't making a huge case for PRICE itself but the whole context of an ad. Maybe I drifted from the OP in that way.


A weird side note, I don't think I've ever deleted anything I've posted here. A couple times I've made an az of myself and I struck it, self deprecated and left it up.

[SamsDX]

Haha!!! Man, I feel like I stepped into someone else's dream world.

Play up the righteous indignation angle all you want, but the bizarro world is the one where there is no price transparency and everyone is going on gut feeling alone. Don't take my word for it - ask someone who knows about the Crash of '29, and the reasons behind the '33 Act.

Leaving up ASKING prices is useful data?!? WTF? Case in point: Had a guy listing a gun for $950...next thing you know he drops it to $800. That was still more than I was willing to pay, so I PM'd him with $700. He agreed. Done deal.

So now, in the "leave the asking price up" dream world, someone comes along looking for "useful data points" and sees that the asking price was $950, then $800, then sold. How on Earth is that useful data for valuing what you want to sell or buy that gun for today?

Even in this example, you prove my point. Knowing nothing else about what this gun should be priced for, (but a desire nevertheless to acquire the same) I do a search. I see that the initial listing price is $950, and for the sake of example, sold last week. I now have a basis of comparison. As many varieties of guns there are, one can always find a close competitor to it. If this is a mid-range Springfield 1911 we're talking about, I know that Colt makes some decent competition, maybe Kimber as well. Through other sources, maybe I find out that that the Colt is going for about $800 used, the Kimber slightly lower than that. I then guess that the Springfield 1911 in question should be within that range, and it certainly shouldn't be in the multiple thousands because it's not a Wilson Combat or a Nighthawk, or even a Les Baer. I then see that the price was reduced to $800. Ok, there's another clue that the initial asking price was a little bit higher than market. I now have concrete evidence to back up my negotiating position. As for the final selling price of $700, for an item priced at that range, $50~$100 is a matter of emotion - of the seller and of the buyer. Even if I did not know that you ultimately negotiated down to $700, if I can get anywhere near that $800 range, I feel like I got a decent deal. That bit of information makes me confident that I didn't get taken for a ride.

And, as for some wanting the past sales prices left up "for the good of the community", what I'm sensing is that those guys are actually more worried about leaving a few dollars on the table...and more interested in squeezing as much $$ from their "fellow CalGunners" as possible. That's not my thing, but to each their own!

How is the desire for more information concern about squeezing as much $$ from fellow calgunners? I want everyone to have fair market data so that neither party can take advantage of the other's potential ignorance. Paint this in a negative light if you want, but I can play that game too - why do you want everyone to go around negotiating prices in the dark? It's as though you want to lord your specialized knowledge and exploit their lack of it in terms of pricing. Who's the one doing the squeezing?

[devious21]

Haha!!! Man, I feel like I stepped into someone else's dream world.



Leaving up ASKING prices is useful data?!? WTF? Case in point: Had a guy listing a gun for $950...next thing you know he drops it to $800. That was still more than I was willing to pay, so I PM'd him with $700. He agreed. Done deal.



So now, in the "leave the asking price up" dream world, someone comes along looking for "useful data points" and sees that the asking price was $950, then $800, then sold. How on Earth is that useful data for valuing what you want to sell or buy that gun for today?



[/rant]

Yes. As I mentioned before, that data point doesn't exist in a vacuum. The same thing happens with cars, houses, etc. It would be balanced out by other information. It's why they average.

Let's say a house is for sale but all you can see is the asking price of a comparable house in the same area. You see that house has been for sale for 180 days and has had multiple price drops. Similarly, if you see someone's asking price on calguns, you can infer things from the post. You know that it likely sold for that or less than that price. I don't understand how you don't see that having an estimated range is not more helpful than having nothing at all.

The problem your speaking of only arises, if you're researching an item which largely has threads with removed sales prices. Now that data point has less other data to average it out and keep it in check.

To prevent the very problem your describing would be to add more information to the pool and available for the community. The way to defeat bad information is with more knowledge, not less.

I'm not saying every price or piece data is perfect. But it's better than nothing and along with other information becomes very useful. Knowing the starting asking price, how long it took to sell, the relevant comments, etc give a lot of helpful information, even if you personally don't see how they are helpful.

[devious21]

Play up the righteous indignation angle all you want, but the bizarro world is the one where there is no price transparency and everyone is going on gut feeling alone. Don't take my word for it - ask someone who knows about the Crash of '29, and the reasons behind the '33 Act.







Even in this example, you prove my point. Knowing nothing else about what this gun should be priced for, (but a desire nevertheless to acquire the same) I do a search. I see that the initial listing price is $950, and for the sake of example, sold last week. I now have a basis of comparison. As many varieties of guns there are, one can always find a close competitor to it. If this is a mid-range Springfield 1911 we're talking about, I know that Colt makes some decent competition, maybe Kimber as well. Through other sources, maybe I find out that that the Colt is going for about $800 used, the Kimber slightly lower than that. I then guess that the Springfield 1911 in question should be within that range, and it certainly shouldn't be in the multiple thousands because it's not a Wilson Combat or a Nighthawk, or even a Les Baer. I then see that the price was reduced to $800. Ok, there's another clue that the initial asking price was a little bit higher than market. I now have concrete evidence to back up my negotiating position. As for the final selling price of $700, for an item priced at that range, $50~$100 is a matter of emotion - of the seller and of the buyer. Even if I did not know that you ultimately negotiated down to $700, if I can get anywhere near that $800 range, I feel like I got a decent deal. That bit of information makes me confident that I didn't get taken for a ride.







How is the desire for more information concern about squeezing as much $$ from fellow calgunners? I want everyone to have fair market data so that neither party can take advantage of the other's potential ignorance. Paint this in a negative light if you want, but I can play that game too - why do you want everyone to go around negotiating prices in the dark? It's as though you want to lord your specialized knowledge and exploit their lack of it in terms of pricing. Who's the one doing the squeezing?

Well said. I'm surprised to see people argue against transparency, like its some way to take advantage of other people. It's exactly the opposite. If everyone has information available and can make informed decisions, everyone is better off (except for those trying to take advantage of the uniformed).

[Packy14]

Those bringing up the buyer's privacy, someone mentioned it earlier in the thread and articulated it better than I could but here's the gist of it.

The buyer has almost full control over his privacy during a transaction. He doesn't need to post anything in the thread and can simply Pm the seller directly. Unless the seller goes out of his way to call out who the buyer is, leaving the asking price up really doesn't expose the buyer's privacy anymore than he's doing himself.

Feedback? Yea, pretty easy to tie the buyer

[devious21]

Why do people delete the price when they have sold their pistol?

Feedback? Yea, pretty easy to tie the buyer

If you read my post carefully I said "almost all". As a seller you have to go out of your way to expose the buyer, by doing something like telling the thread who purchased the item, or like you just mentioned, giving feedback to that user.

If the buyer asks you not to, then absolutely don't do it. Feedback isn't mandatory just like announcing the buyer in the thread. I normally don't do feedback unless someone leaves it for me first and I return the favor.

[Packy14]

If you read my post carefully I said "almost all". As a seller you have to go out of your way to expose the buyer, by doing something like telling the thread who purchased the item, or like you just mentioned, giving feedback to that user.

If the buyer asks you not to, then absolutely don't do it. Feedback isn't mandatory just like announcing the buyer in the thread.

I like giving and getting feedback, just like I like deleting all info.

[devious21]

I like giving and getting feedback, just like I like deleting all info.

Fair enough. I say If it makes you happy and its legal, don't let anyone stop ya!

[lc*y]

final price could be different, so better to delete. after all it is PPT.