Announcement Junkyard Changes - ALL PLEASE READ!

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Quite amusing to see threads in the old Junkyard suddenly offering lowered prices. Glad to see the end of some of these clowns who bump daily (in one case I know of more than once every 24 hours) who have only come here to dump their stuff but not contribute to the forums.

Like the new Junkyard - only criticism would be that if you have 5 of the exact same item you have to create 5 different sales (or is this incorrect?). Junkyard will fill up pretty quickly if someone has 10, 20 or 30 items ready to ship.
 
I have to say, this Junkyard exceedes my expectations! Well done, gentlemen.
One question. As with the old JY, this one says no bumping within 24 hours. Is there something in place that prevents the seller from bumping within 24 hours or is it on the "honor" system again, because we all saw how THAT turned out.

Sadly, at this point, it still is just an honor system and I am not sure how we could get around that from a technical standpoint, BUT I am putting it on the list of things to go over with the programmer to see if that is even possible to do from the software side.
 
Another suggestion, can you bump up the size of price, ships, and Feedback a notch or two? I'm on a 24" screen and it's a bit hard to read (i.e. very small). I know my eyes aren't the greatest anymore, but I can't be the only one. :)

We are working on a revision to the index page to specifically address this issue.
 
First of all .. YE! Finally!!!

That being said, and maybe I missed it, but the new listing format in thumbnail mode, is that an option somewhere? I was used to write the forum as read to know what listing I had looked at .. so that only the new and bumped threads would show up.

So questions:

1. Is there a way to write a listing as "read"?
2. What visual cue do we have to know that it's a new listing OR that it's been bumped -(see previous little arrow on new post)?
3. Is there a was to change the listing mode from thumbnail to listing for ex. Not that I really want to, but it would help figuring the other previous 2 points.

Good job guys!

1. No, but we have added this to the list.

2. There is none now, but this is also going on the list.

3. There is no option for this at the moment and I am not sure what it would take from a technical side to add that functionality, but we will check into it.
 
Just so you are aware, all of these things that I am telling you we are looking into are being added to a list at the bottom of the first post of this thread.
 
WTB added!


The new JY looks fantastic. Great job guys.


[/LIST]

Can all Want To Buy threads get a WTB prefix like all of the other Classifieds sections? Reason: I typically use the New Posts option, and the WTB thread titles are the only Classifieds section threads that do not stand out as Classifieds threads. I'll click on an interesting looking thread, thinking it is a build thread, when it is actually a WTB that has been bumped 27 times.

Thanks,
Gator
 
Would it be against the rules to post my website in a new thread since unless i pay the thirty dollars i can no longer sell in the junkyard btw it looks cool in the new format

It is not against the rules to post a link to your personal webpage if it is relevant to the discussion, but we would prefer you did not advertise outside the junkyarrd.
 
As I understand the new rules, I would not be allowed to post a for sale thread in the JunkYard, even though I am 10+ year member with multiple sales to my credit? I will only be allowed to post a sale If I buy the Premium Membership? So If I wanted to sell a $10 figure, It costs me more to place the ad than I would make in the sale?

I will try to read all this again later, I may have missed something.

No. Premium membership is $4 a month (or $3 a month is you buy a year's worth), so you would still make money on even the single item in your example than the "cost to place the ad." Granted, I know that was a largely factitious example on your part, but here is the reality of the situation; very few people sell ONE item and we do not charge per item. We charge for a monthly subscription that includes the ability to post as many listings as you like.

Someone JUST sold a $2,900 Iron Man costume here. What did it cost them? $4. What would it have cost them on eBay? $290...8 YEARS worth of Premium Membership here at the RPF. How much do you think that person will sell here in the next 8 years all for the price of what one sale would have cost him elsewhere.
 
I like the look of the posts - great job there. The pics on the overall forum page seem a bit squished (but not terrible) - the pics on that page are going to make it so much easier to navigate and I'm gonna spend more money because of it.

That is the idea! People buy with their eyes. This is going to have all of us buyers looking at every item, where before, many of them wouldn't get a real chance because we pass right over them without clicking inside. It is like a bakery putting in a big plate-glass window... so much more appealing!

I have mentioned it a couple of times before but we are definitely going to be refining the look a bit as you are right; it is looking a little pinched.

Like some, I'm not too keen on it being limited to Premium Members only. But, had this been more of an eBay style system, you could be paying by the ad and maybe even by a percentage. Yeah, it sucks for some folks... but, a lot of folks have made a lot of money off this site for free - it seems fair that there should be some payback for selling (is Premium the best way to do this? Maybe - maybe not... just remember, kids: the price could've been steeper).

We thought about a pay by item system and immediately rejected it. It is too tedious and it felt like it was more about the money than about providing a better service to the members. We also thought about raising the price of Premium Membership but ultimately felt that would be thumbing our nose at the members who already had a membership and we just didn't want to do that either.
 
You guys just alienated probably 85% of the people that use this site.

I don't see this ending well.

Time will tell.

Funny that you chose the number 85%. Prior to this change we had "New Members" and "Full Members." New members could not sell. Full members could.

New Members account for 85% of our membership. By your definition, they were already "alienated." Now, thanks to the new rules, that 85% actually CAN sell if they choose to become a Premium member, so contrary to your assessment, we are actually reaching out to the 85%, not alienating them.
 
I think it sucks, big time.

I was promised that part of the new regulations would be that any seller who doesn't ship would have you and me flown out to his house.

Promises, promises ... then nothing.

Think of the airmiles lost :lol

I am still trying to find a budget to make this happen!
 
Dude, how much money do you think the RPF has??? Last I heard Art will be providing us skateboards. Yeah, we'll collect, but it may take us a while! :lol

Pfffttt... skateboards are expensive! We are just adhering stamps to you and sticking you in the mail!
 
Now, if say you had to pay ANY amount annually just to be an RPF member, okay, I'll pull my pitchfork out and join the revolution. But that's not the case. It's still free to be a member, unless you want sell. The knee-jerk response is to think that we're being FORCED to pay money, but that's just not the case.
Sit back, have a bourbon and think about it. If you still come to the conclusion that you're being screwed, I encourage you to find another site where we can move our toys for free and still get this much exposure to our target audience. Then come back and tell us where it is!

Nailed it! And you will never see us charge just to be a member. We'd kill the community in a day. Don't want that!
 
As of right now I'm seeing 16 thumbnails for "for sale" items, am I viewing this correctly? Sometimes I'd have to go through a few pages of items for sale to browse through everything. I'm assuming these are the only premium members selling? I just want to make sure I'm not being dense and overlooking something.

That is correct. It is going to take time for people to post up new listings. The previous Junkyard had 90 days worth of listings in it. So far, we have had 2 days with this layout.
 
I'm wondering what will happen with the "Tell us what XXX owes you..." threads? There are a few threads to keep up with sellers that still owe quite a lot of people here money or props. Will these be lost within two monts? In this case the RPF more or less "clears the reputation" of some sellers who screwed over a lot of people here. That would be a shame...

I definitely understand where you are coming from but there are two important things you need to keep in mind.

1) We now have a seller reputation system available, so there is no "clearing the reputation" and while a single thread about a bad seller might be missed, it is hard to miss their seller reputation which is prominently displayed right under their name!

2) In almost every case, the situation you are describing deals with a RUN of items. The Junkyard now only allows the sale of a SINGLE item per listing. Runs are held in the Project Runs forum which doesn't have the same rules, so threads may stay around a LOT longer if needed. Trust me, this whole update centers around making it harder for scammers to screw our members, not to protect them (the scammers) or hide their misdeeds.

I'm also afraid that with making the junkyard only available for premium members, a lot of RPF-members will not post there sale's here anymore and will turn to eBay. I do understand that the RPF has to make money to stay in the air, but I don't know if a lot of people will become a premium member now. In a day time, only 5 different people posted one or more sales threads in the new junkyard. Anyway, let's see how this evolves, but I'm afraid people here will miss out on a lot of nice deals, because the "occasional sellers" won't take a premium membership and just sell their stuff elsewhere. Me, for instance, also offer my props on a dutch prop / collectible forum. I'm still considering taking a premium membership, but if I decide not too, then my props will be only offered on the dutch forum, not here anymore, preventing RPF-members that might be interested, to do a good deal.

So, although I understand why the choice was made, I have my doubts about making the junkyard only available for premium members.

We have had over two dozen people sign up in the past day... that is in addition to the 450 people who were already Premium Members. While I certainly understand your concerns, I think we will be ok, and honestly, anyone who turns to eBay over this because of cost, is not truly calculating the math properly. As a couple of members have shown, the math is far more in our favor over eBay (although eBay obviously has a much broader market).
 
At eBay, here in Belgium, listings are free. If the item isn't sold, you don't have to pay. If it is sold, you pay 8% fees. So all my items on eBay have these 8% fees included in the asking price. If an item doesn't sell, it doesn't cost me anything. Here on the RPF, you pay the premium membership anyhow, even if you list 10 objects that aren't sold in the end.

But anyhow, $30 for a premium membership isn't that much, off course. I might be signing up after all. But my funds are a bit limited right now...

Keep in mind, you don't have to sign up for an entire year. You can sign up for the monthly service. It is a little more expensive, but it is easier for some.
 
Good call! Adding this to our to-do list!

I read through this thread thoroughly. I am not a paying member, nor have I sold anything on therpf. However, I am a buyer, and I've bought at least 5 different items from therpf sellers over the last 3 years. The new Junkyard looks cool, but I'm missing the easy search text box. This let me quickly type in a description, but limit my results to the junkbox forum. So, for example, I could type in "Star Wars", and I'd only get threads in the Junkyard related to Starwars items. I could see ALL the FA, FS, FT, (and even WTB) etc.in the same search results.

I can't figure out how to do this "easy search" in the new junkyard. If I use the search box at the top of every page, I get all forums, threads and posts related to my search term, when I'm really only interested in Junkyard results. I can use Advanced Search, but this is neither quick nor easy.

At the bottom of the Junkyard pages, there are "Thread display options" that let you filter/sort Junkyard in useful ways. Any chance you guys could "add back" the search box so that you can search across all the Junkyard postings using a simple term (like "Dredd, Tron, Robocop, Vader" etc) and get back the results of all the FS FA FT items quickly and easily? If I'm missing something, and there is already a way to do this without going to the Advanced Search at the top of the page, just let me know...

Thanks...
 
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