"For sale" section thread missing

[Gary C.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Michael, much better with real names than the alias's like there was before. But you'd be surprised at what all happens. John could write a book. Gary....

[Michael W.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Michael, much better with real names than the alias's like there was before. But you'd be surprised at what all happens. John could write a book. Gary....

I'll pre-order a copy please.

[Donald H.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Not trying to stir the pot, but given the discussion throughout this thread about the low participation of the total membership of this TDB and that as part of the concern of having a for sale section that benefits a small percentage of the membership. Why does this TDB exist if the greater good is not being served?

I do understand the need to service the membership, but somewhere along the line someone decided a TDB was worth having regardless of the small subset of member participants.

I'm retired and would sign up to be a moderator. Not a programmer but very computer literate and could spent time helping moderate the ads.

Don

[Donald A.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Not trying to stir the pot, but given the discussion throughout this thread about the low participation of the total membership of this TDB and that as part of the concern of having a for sale section that benefits a small percentage of the membership. Why does this TDB exist if the greater good is not being served?

I do understand the need to service the membership, but somewhere along the line someone decided a TDB was worth having regardless of the small subset of member participants.

I'm retired and would sign up to be a moderator. Not a programmer but very computer literate and could spent time helping moderate the ads.

Don

Agree with above and I am also retired and computer literate, willing to sign up to be a moderator and help with ads/for sales or whatever needed.

-Don Anderson

[Norris W.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

I am one of the Administrators on a high performance boat website (www.screamandfly.com) with over 65000 registered members and do about 95% of the moderation in the buy and sell forums. MOST of the problems we have involve the balancing of freeloaders (commercial businesses who want to advertise for free) vs regular participating members who are allowed to advertise for free. The NCRS format, which identifies member rather than allowing them to hide behind multiple screen names would eliminate almost all of the problems we encounter. I find it very hard to believe that the larger vendors who participate in the Driveline would decline to participate due to increased internet activity, and of course it opens the door for commercial businesses to pay for the priviledge of posting ads on the website as well. In my own case I scan the Driveline basically for novelty or entertainment, but never hold out any hope of finding a needed piece there if it's the least bit unusual because it's always been long gone by the time I get mine.

I believe from a technical standpoint that it would be very simple to limit participation in a buy/sell type forum to registered NCRS members, either allowing views by guests with no participation as an incentive to join OR allowing ONLY members to view it. I also like the auction idea, but am not exactly sure of the technical challenges it would require to be integrated into V Bulletin. From my own experience on the S & F website listed above, I know that it is very simple to create a category of membership that is exclusively able to post in a given category of forums (such as buy/sell) requiring a paid registration on the forum, which can be done instantly with a PayPal transaction if revenue enhancement is the issue.

Regardless of the form it takes, I STRONGLY favor a buy/sell option here. One other point, buy/sell here goes on anyway. Although I haven't been on here a lot recently due to other obligations, in the past at least there are large numbers of carefully worded posts where the intent is clearly to find a given part, and frequently they're met with an offer to sell.

[Tracy C.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Greg makes a solid point and perhaps we should get real data on these questions:

What percentage of participants...........

Buy from the online store vs call with a credit card or mail in a check?

Register online for events vs call with a credit card or mail in a check?

Renew memberships online vs call with a credit card or mail a check?

Email their regional reps vs call or snail mail? (difficult to measure?)

I'll speculate it is easily over 50% if it was anything near 5% I doubt these options would last this long.

Another thought provoking question occured as I was thinning out by email inbox tonight. I had some electronic "thank you" notes from the NCRS for submitting my Driveline ads online. Perhaps one of the most telling questions we could ask just might be...

What percentage of members submitting ads to the the Driveline do so "online" vs "snail mailing" a completed form? The answer to this question should be self explanitory to those who question if online for sale / wanted forums are practical for our active membership or not.

tc

[Gary C.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Tracy,

Better indicator is how many members use the on-line Driveline.

Last time we looked it was a disappointingly low number. Especially since all the grieve many had to go through to get the Driveline posted on-line.

JMTCW,

Gary
....

[Tracy C.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Not sure that would be a good indicator Gary. The online version typically follows initial mailing by at least a couple weeks. I usually always have my hard copy by the time it is posted. There isn't any reason for me to look at the online version.


I do appreciate the effort though, the search function is nice.

tc

[Kenneth H.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

So I'm the guy who started this thread. If you'll go back to my original post, I was just asking what happened to another post on the same topic. While interesting, this thread has become so disjointed that it's extremely hard to follow.

Some good suggestions on how to proceed from here concerning an online "for sale" section have been made. I agree with Gary C. that before anything can happen a well thought out business case or plan needs to be created to take to the BOD. Gary C. outlined what needs to be in the plan in order to have any chance of success. I think that Greg Calder kind of volunteered to get the preparation of the plan started. If Greg is still interested in performing this task, maybe he could start a new thread to get input on the plan's creation.

To me, this thread has run it's course, and I was wondering if one of the moderators might consider closing it.


Thanks.

[Greg C.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

I kind of like keeping "similar" threads together... so when you search later its easier to find, but I understand where you are coming from.

Any mods care to weigh in on what should be done?

[Marc S.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

I am a new member here. It was advised that I join as I am in the market for a nice 1971 corvette for quite some time. I am very particular what I want in my car and was told based on my desires a NCRS car would make me most happy. I have searched the driveline and it is a great publication. But, I did run into this thread and it would be so welcomed to see a for sale section here. The problem is that the publications do not come out often enough to have cars for sale in real time. A forum that allows members to place their cars for sale would be more time friendly. Thank you for letting the membership comment and this happens to be my first post here. Best regards.

[Don H.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Marc-
you are late to the party, but we are happy to have you! The BoD approved the concept of the Sale/Wanted forum, and it is in the development stages now. We are hopeful to see it launch in the next few months. In the meantime, I hope you will join up with the chapter most local to you and make some new friends. Pretty quickly you will be in the network that will lead you to to the shark that you have been looking for. Thanks for joining the best classic vette club in the world, and hope to see you out at a NCRS meet soon,
check this link from the stickies above for details on the new forum coming in the near future.
https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...d-Coming-SOON-!

[Marc S.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Marc-
you are late to the party, but we are happy to have you! The BoD approved the concept of the Sale/Wanted forum, and it is in the development stages now. We are hopeful to see it launch in the next few months. In the meantime, I hope you will join up with the chapter most local to you and make some new friends. Pretty quickly you will be in the network that will lead you to to the shark that you have been looking for. Thanks for joining the best classic vette club in the world, and hope to see you out at a NCRS meet soon,
check this link from the stickies above for details on the new forum coming in the near future.
https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...-Coming-SOON-!

Hello Don. I guess better late than never. Next time I should read the entire thread before I respond. LOL. But, this is indeed welcomed news. Thank you for letting me know. I will have to check on my local chapter and where they are located. Hopefully I will find the shark I am looking for. I have been looking for a long time. Thank you.

[Terry M.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Take your time. There are a lot of sharks in the sea.

I can't count the number of times when I was 1970-72 National Team Leader I would get a call that went something like; "My friend said you know about Corvettes. I bought this Corvette and can you look at it. The seller said the numbers match." More often than not what happened after that was not pretty. Almost none of those people thought to contact anyone in the club, much less join, before they made that call. I used to get letters full of numbers from the car just purchased that went generally along those lines as well. The number of times there was a gem among the garbage was pretty small, but occasionally it happened. Better to be an informed buyer than to have regrets after the fact.

My first suggestion is to decide what you want to do with the car. Driver ... show car... a little of both. And buy accordingly.

I know I was not unique in those calls. All the NTLs of the time all got them. I am sure it still happens.

[Marc S.]

Re: "For sale" section thread missing

Take your time. There are a lot of sharks in the sea.

I can't count the number of times when I was 1970-72 National Team Leader I would get a call that went something like; "My friend said you know about Corvettes. I bought this Corvette and can you look at it. The seller said the numbers match." More often than not what happened after that was not pretty. Almost none of those people thought to contact anyone in the club, much less join, before they made that call. I used to get letters full of numbers from the car just purchased that went generally along those lines as well. The number of times there was a gem among the garbage was pretty small, but occasionally it happened. Better to be an informed buyer than to have regrets after the fact.

My first suggestion is to decide what you want to do with the car. Driver ... show car... a little of both. And buy accordingly.

I know I was not unique in those calls. All the NTLs of the time all got them. I am sure it still happens.

Hello Terry. Thank you for your response. I will be the first to tell you and I am not ashamed of it that I have a LOT to learn about NCRS and cars that are of this category. Your join date tells me how much experience you have with these cars and NCRS. I am a little flea here. But, I can tell you from the little knowledge I have, fortunately, I have been able to weed out garbage and avoid a mistake of a purchase. I never buy on emotion or impulsively. It appears you and I have a lot in common. I have owned a 2008 Z06, which I recently sold, and immediately purchased a 2008 triple black convertible with all the bells and whistles which I absolutely adore driving. I have never owned a shark but for years I have wanted one. I have been through several, most all of them at these classic car dealerships and consignment shops. It never ceases to amaze me what these businesses will say to sell the car. You do not have to be a gearhead to know if the car you are buying is trash. Just sticking to the basics seems to prevent one from making a bad mistake. Stamp pad appearance, vin pillar, trim tag, and simply taking the time to find out about rust areas, goes a long way in whether the car is any good. I cannot tell you the number of times a dealer advertises a red car and upon looking at the trim plate it shows it born with a different color. Is that really a big deal? Generally no if the car is not a show car and priced as such, but if they are asking top dollar for the car, you betcha it makes a difference. There are numerous other items one has to look into before purchasing especially if they say they have the original paperwork. After having so many let downs I was told about the NCRS and that the chances of seeing the mickey mouse game is slim to none by a ncrs member/car. It appears one should stay away from those dealers. It is unfortunate the people you speak of get caught up into buying something under false pretenses. You suggested I need to decide what I want to do with this car. The answer is it depends. I am open to a ncrs top flighted car as much as I am to a nice unmolested original car in good working condition. Or one that has been restored and not flighted. A ncrs car won't see much sunshine. Take it to local shows and stare at the car much more than driving. The other types, more driving and more fun. Not so worried about someone breathing on it wrong. I am good with any car as long as it is advertised as is and is not a mickey mouse car. (one that has several things wrong with it but told it is perfect). My biggest fear is having what happened to your contacts happen to me. Fortunately, I think that will probably not happen to me, especially if I find a ncrs flighted car, or a non flighted car that a ncrs member owns. That is my story and I am sticking to it.