Bartertown.com

I've increasingly come across this lately - BTers saying they are looking to buy (whether it's mentioned with trading or exclusively) when they aren't. This can be anything from "I'm looking to buy" to the ambiguous "I have $$$".

Please IF YOU ARE NOT LOOKING TO BUY, DO NOT LIST THAT YOU ARE BUYING (or have cash or whatever). It saves everyone a lot of trouble.

Has anyone else experienced this or am I becoming the BT curmudgeon?

Well, to be fair, I have replied "Looking to buy your...." to some posts, but once negotiations start, the price gets out there too much for my blood, or they want to change the terms ("oh, I rechecked and I have more figures than that so I want $XX.XX more...") just before I send payment, and I back out.

So while my experience is on the other side - I feel no guilt about backing out. If the situation is one where you already listed a price or there were no sudden changes to the terms, than I feel your pain and agree...

But it's part of the price we pay for dealing here.

It sounds more like he means people that post ads saying/heavily-implying they're looking to buy, and when you tell 'em you've got stuff they're looking for, they flake. Am I right?

I occasionally make offers for items, and then, the price gets either inflated or the items are mis-represented, and I fail to follow thru. I do generally let the other party know WHY I am bowing out though..

One thing recently that happened is I advertized as willing to pay for palstic battletech minis, and got enough responses that I could not buy em all! That led to one member accusing me of exactly what ancientsociety is referencing.. namely, why did I offer to buy em, when I cannot afford em? He seemed unwilling to accept that my budget was blown already..

-Porkuslime

I'm not talking about backing out of a sell deal, not being able to buy, or declining because you've already worked something out. That's totally understandable (a little frustrating but it happens to all of us at sometime or another).

I'm talking about traders who post "looking to buy", "have cash/$$$", etc. specifically in their posts and, once contacted, reply with a simple "not looking to buy" or something else terse and glib.

Trade Trolls. They wanna see what's out there and what they can get - like a full squad of Wraithguard for a buck a piece. Ha ha. Yeah, right.

So yes. Trade Trolls are rather annoying, but there's not much that can be done except note their names and move on. Nothing says you have to deal with them again.