Help me understand: Why do YOU respond to ads with "PM sent?"

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MagickalMemories ( 832 )
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Help me understand: Why do YOU respond to ads with "PM sent?"

Post by MagickalMemories »

So, this phenomenon has been growing for years, where people reply to someone else's trade ad with "PMed" or "PM sent" or the like.
And I just. Do. Not. Understand. It.

So, my question for those of you who do it is "Why? Why do you do it?"

My thought here is that it's unnecessary for two reasons.
1) If someone has alerts set, they're getting an alert when you PM them. So, if you PM them AND respond to their ad, they're getting TWO email alerts. On the other hand, if they have alerts turned off, they're not getting notifications for either.

2) Since discussing trades will get your ad locked, and the PM system is our standard method of communication, they're GOING to get your PM if you sent it. If they asked you to email and you replied via email? Well, they'll get that, too, since they know to look there (and, even if they have alerts set... stil getting 2 emails).

So, for those reasons, I see "PM sent" responses as wholly unnecessary and I just can't understand WHY people do it. That's actually rather rare for me; In any situation, even when I disagree, I almost always understand where the other person is coming from.

Help me understand?

Eric
Lower rating? You ship first.

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I think what this situation needs is some imagination.

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Forsaken Poptart ( 578 )
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Re: Help me understand: Why do YOU resppond to ads with "PM sent?"

Post by Forsaken Poptart »

I don't anymore, but I used to reply with "PM sent about X Y Z", so other people could see that I was trying to work out a deal for those items,and they could know if those were potentially going away, or not hesitate if they wanted other unrelated stuff. I don't know if that is better, or helpful, but I liked the idea of it.
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pretre ( 1340 )
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Re: Help me understand: Why do YOU resppond to ads with "PM sent?"

Post by pretre »

That's what I always figured. Is to signal to everyone else that you were working on a deal.
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MagickalMemories ( 832 )
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Re: Help me understand: Why do YOU resppond to ads with "PM sent?"

Post by MagickalMemories »

So... to try to scare other traders away from what you're interested in?

What about if the guy has, like, fifty things listed? What is the reason then?

Eric
Lower rating? You ship first.

Give me a sense of humor Lord. Give me the grace to see a joke.
To get some humor out of life and pass it on to other folk.


I think what this situation needs is some imagination.

"...I'm a nerd, and I'm here tonight to stand up for the rights of other nerds.” – Gilbert Lowell

Want my help with a BTR or backout? All messages sent/posted should be in CHRONOLOGICAL order. Otherwise, I just won't read it.
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3eland ( 76 )
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Re: Help me understand: Why do YOU resppond to ads with "PM sent?"

Post by 3eland »

Reason 1 - Facebook

Depending on how new the trader is, it could be picked up from trading on Facebook since FB has gotten pretty big for that.

Facebook has that silly "filtered" message section. Unless you have the messenger app, you don't get a notification if someone messages you that is not on your friend list (this also depends on your privacy settings), so by posting "PM Sent", you are informing the person to check their filtered sections for your message.

So it could just be a habit from that.

Edit - Story time regarding the above actually. When I was filing a Bad Apple on someone (I don't remember who on the top of my head), I reached out to multiple FB groups he was in, to let the moderators/admins know about what happened here. The guy still hasn't read my message to this day and I sent it almost a year and a half ago (I wasn't in the specific groups he administrated, so no way to post "Pm Sent")

Reason 2 - The ol' mind games

What I have picked up is exactly what you concluded above in many cases. A sales tactic. By posting PM Sent (sometimes stating what they sent it on, sometimes not), you can sometimes make people lose interest in PMing themselves since they think its gone or a trade has already started. It doesn't always work, especially if they have a giant article of trade goods, but I have seen it myself effect people.

I once had a lot on here, it was 3 or 4 armies I was getting rid of. 2 People posted 'PM Sent' on it (and yes, they did send me PM lol). One of the members ended up not wanting anything and the other member bought a bit of stuff, which I updated my OP to reflect. A couple days later someone messaged me saying he wasn't sure if anything was sold or not, but that he was interested in X if it was still available. People are really bad for not updating things that are sold online. You ever contact someone's ad and they go "Oh sorry, that is sold" (or they don't even reply, they just mark their stuff as sold)? Happens to me all the time. Not here mind you, but Kijiji is TERRIBLE for it (Canadian Craigslist).

Reason 3 - Bumper Helper

No lie. There are people who bump friend's posts by posting 'PM Sent'. USUALLY it is on Facebook. I've done it to help friends, friends have done it to help me (on Facebook). Now, although Bartertown doesn't bump in the same way as pretty much every forum on the web, I would NOT be surprised if that happens here, albeit on very rare occasions.
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Forsaken Poptart ( 578 )
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Re: Help me understand: Why do YOU resppond to ads with "PM sent?"

Post by Forsaken Poptart »

MagickalMemories wrote:
Fri Sep 13, 2019 3:04 pm
So... to try to scare other traders away from what you're interested in?

What about if the guy has, like, fifty things listed? What is the reason then?

Eric
I never meant it like that, though I can see how it could seem that way. To me it was more like "Hey, I'm going to make an offer on this guys trenchers, but if you're looking for long gunners and gun mages, you should still message him."
Do I owe you a trade ref? Remind me- sometimes I forget!
Awaiting trade refs from: tristym, yazaran

If you don't have your Location listed, take a second and update it!

-I respond within 48 hours unless utterly incapable. Please do the same. Any offer I make stands for that long as well.
-Lower rating? You ship/pay first. Same goes for me.

'How Much for...?' messages will no longer be replied to at all. I've been nice about it, now I'm done.
MagickalMemories ( 832 )
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Posts: 16741
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2003 11:38 pm
Location: St. Louis, MO - USA

Re: Help me understand: Why do YOU resppond to ads with "PM sent?"

Post by MagickalMemories »

I see.
Lower rating? You ship first.

Give me a sense of humor Lord. Give me the grace to see a joke.
To get some humor out of life and pass it on to other folk.


I think what this situation needs is some imagination.

"...I'm a nerd, and I'm here tonight to stand up for the rights of other nerds.” – Gilbert Lowell

Want my help with a BTR or backout? All messages sent/posted should be in CHRONOLOGICAL order. Otherwise, I just won't read it.
warlordgarou ( 248 )
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Re: Help me understand: Why do YOU resppond to ads with "PM sent?"

Post by warlordgarou »

I do it, in part because, several days later, when I look through my posts, those will still show up. Otherwise, I have to go to my mailbox, and then look over the messages to figure out which trade deal(s) I had been interested in.

Plus, belt & suspenders - I have missed people sending me PMs until I noticed that my trade thread had been posted to, so I do it in case someone missed a message to their inbox.
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