Bartertown.com

I think that if your rating is higher and you want to buy from a lower rated person you can ask for ship before pay. I looked through some stickiees but was not able to find an answer to this question.

BUT does it matter that my rating is so low? If a seller has a rating lower does it matter?

If I ask for ship first from a lower rated seller am I risking the sale occurring?

Thanks,

FC

Depends on the buyer & seller. I probably wouldn't pay you first. No offense, but your rating isn't that high. No one is forced to accept anyone elses terms. Ive seen plenty of low ref members have an ad that says "payment first, no matter the ratings". Most high ref members will pass them by.
Ive seen a guy selling an army for $1500 with a 0 rating. Who in their right mind would pay him first?
Look at the back out & bad trade section- the vast majority are low ref traders.
Im not saying all low ref traders are bad- there are many good ones. But the facts are; who has more to lose? The guy with a 4 whos been here two months or the guy with 400 whos been here 8 years?
Your trade rep is built up & earned. To come here , brand new & demand the same treatment that others spent years & scores of trades on is silly & will cost you many potential buyers/traders. But its always your choice.

starslayer wrote:Depends on the buyer & seller. I probably wouldn't pay you first. No offense, but your rating isn't that high. No one is forced to accept anyone elses terms. Ive seen plenty of low ref members have an ad that says "payment first, no matter the ratings". Most high ref members will pass them by.
Ive seen a guy selling an army for $1500 with a 0 rating. Who in their right mind would pay him first?
Look at the back out & bad trade section- the vast majority are low ref traders.
Im not saying all low ref traders are bad- there are many good ones. But the facts are; who has more to lose? The guy with a 4 whos been here two months or the guy with 400 whos been here 8 years?
Your trade rep is built up & earned. To come here , brand new & demand the same treatment that others spent years & scores of trades on is silly & will cost you many potential buyers/traders. But its always your choice.

+1 as always Starslayer.

I couldn't agree more with what Starslayer has stated. I have to admit, though, that I get a lot of newer traders who understand what the trade rating
means and they are willing to ship first.

I see newer traders who have the "you pay first" line and I just smile and move along. I have only had TWO bad trades here on Bartertown and both times
they were when I sent money first to somebody who had a MUCH lower rating than me.

I won't do it again and I am a little surprised when I see very high rated traders who do. I just see it as a potential for trouble that's unnecessary.
Almost every high rated trader that I know will go to unbelievable lengths to make sure that their trades go smoothly and both parties are happy with it.

Having done this for quite a while, one of the biggest things to learn is that if somebody's trade practices don't work for you, then let it go. There are a ton
of fish here and you will find your items in time.

Karl

starslayer wrote: Im not saying all low ref traders are bad- there are many good ones.

In fact, all high-level traders began as low-level traders, and all good traders began as low-level traders too.

That experience often shapes the attitudes of a high-level trader, who has, so to speak, "done his/her time" or "paid his/her dues".

The only part kind of isn't fair to me is the fact I've had 25% of my traders not leave any feedback so that makes it hard to build a higher total.

s_o_r_r_o_w wrote:

starslayer wrote: Im not saying all low ref traders are bad- there are many good ones.

In fact, all high-level traders began as low-level traders, and all good traders began as low-level traders too.

That experience often shapes the attitudes of a high-level trader, who has, so to speak, "done his/her time" or "paid his/her dues".

Right.
I just add that part because some new traders might feel im saying they are all bad. We all started with a zero rating.

Jokerkiller....

I would take the time to politely message them and ask them to give that reference.. "Since things seem to have gone well, can you take a moment to leave me some feedback?" or something..

I find that a LOT of traders, especially new ones, don't hit "Yes" on the second confirmation screen... so, they THINK they left a reference, but did not.

-P

jokerkiller wrote:The only part kind of isn't fair to me is the fact I've had 25% of my traders not leave any feedback so that makes it hard to build a higher total.

Something I've done in the past is to add, as part of the trade agreement, something like, "At the completion of the trade provided both parties have lived up to their portion of the trade, we will each leave a positive reference for the other." If they don't, then they are violating the terms of the agreement, which allows you to leave a neutral or negative.

I'm also a proponent of "First Risk, first reward." If you ship your stuff to me first, then you deserve to leave the first reference. This ensures that higher rated traders don't GET ref's without leaving them.

Eric

I need to go back and check to see if folks ever left me feedback. Hmm. Good thing I have a spreadsheet of deals!

starslayer wrote:Depends on the buyer & seller. I probably wouldn't pay you first. No offense, but your rating isn't that high. No one is forced to accept anyone elses terms. Ive seen plenty of low ref members have an ad that says "payment first, no matter the ratings". Most high ref members will pass them by.
Ive seen a guy selling an army for $1500 with a 0 rating. Who in their right mind would pay him first?
Look at the back out & bad trade section- the vast majority are low ref traders.
Im not saying all low ref traders are bad- there are many good ones. But the facts are; who has more to lose? The guy with a 4 whos been here two months or the guy with 400 whos been here 8 years?
Your trade rep is built up & earned. To come here , brand new & demand the same treatment that others spent years & scores of trades on is silly & will cost you many potential buyers/traders. But its always your choice.

Sorry guys I am not getting the answer to the question that I tried to ask.

I have a rating 8 a seller has a rating 2 and is offering 60% off MSRP on NIB items. Sounds almost too good to be true. So I would proceeds with a bit more caution. All my other purchases were with double digit or better sellers.

So in being cautious could I ask that they ship first or would I get laughed at?

Wow. I'm glad you guys were talking about it. According to my quick vlookup versus my feedback list, I am missing feedback from the following users:

ontargetstudios, lostprophet, Readingrambo, Cbandit17, Wolfgang07, VoxPlayer, Zombiepimp (2 refs!), Skuller, steellegioncpt, Joekayak, Bigheaddan, Tingle, krootman, A Musketeer, dgoerlitz, fryguy49, Inigo Montoya, AdamantLife, Mournafein, Byte, griffen127, Legions_no_more

Time to edit my sig!

frankcastle wrote:Sorry guys I am not getting the answer to the question that I tried to ask.

I have a rating 8 a seller has a rating 2 and is offering 60% off MSRP on NIB items. Sounds almost too good to be true. So I would proceeds with a bit more caution. All my other purchases were with double digit or better sellers.

So in being cautious could I ask that they ship first or would I get laughed at?

I would go halfsies with him. Pay half now and half on arrival. You guys basically have the same rating at this point.

He might (and I stress might) be willing to ship first. I think a difference of 6 on trade rating is taking the whole "you ship first" to an extreme. I will pay or ship simultaneously with traders who have 500 or 600 less of a rating than me if I feel that their references look good.

If I was him and had a 2 rating (and we all did) and you asked me to ship first with an 8, I would say no. Now if you had a 48 or so with all good references, then yes I would ship first before you pay.
How big of an order were you going to place?

Karl

frankcastle wrote:I think that if your rating is higher and you want to buy from a lower rated person you can ask for ship before pay. I looked through some stickiees but was not able to find an answer to this question.

BUT does it matter that my rating is so low? If a seller has a rating lower does it matter?

If I ask for ship first from a lower rated seller am I risking the sale occurring?

Thanks,

FC

Yes, you can ask anyone to ship first.

Yes, you could risk the deal. depends on the persons temperament.

A good deal isn't a good deal if you don't get what you paid for.

Good luck.