A trend is developing and I want to encourage more people to take a little time, a cheap coin and join the ranks. This trend would be listing auctions on ebay that are designed to educate potential bidders. I will personally try any angle that I can to make people REALLY look at what scammers are pulling off. I have one winding down now while Arizona Jack has one that it gaining momentum. They are BOTH legitimate auctions for LEGITIMATE coins. Cardsfanpat has some great ones going right now as well and I'm sure there are others. I KNOW a lot of people here sell on ebay. I also KNOW that most of you are tired of ridiculous claims in auctions. We discuss it 24/7 folks. So why not list an Infoauction? A cheap coin or not packed with a lot of truth. I hadn't listed on ebay in months but mine is now approaching 300 hits for a low grade Indian Cent. Yes, a lot of CT members have helped the cause with "Questions to seller" and at least one has bid. Not looking for bids but the truth being read. Word your auctions carefully and stay within the guidelines. Not really that tough and the reponse has been great from Non CT members as well. Enough said auctions and people will really start to take notice. Rome wasn't built in a day. clembo
Would work for me Magman. They do get hit a lot and not all CT members. Course we gotta play by CT rules as well. Glad to see someone else joining in though. The more it's seen the more people will learn! clembo
In case it wasnt clear - Cointalks rules are that a member cannot self promote an auction in a thread. A memeber can only do that in the open forum (unless i am mistaken) so to post an auction here, it would have to be someone other then the auction poster
The rules are quite clear, and you are correct. That being said, I have had a few complaints about this already - that it borders on the line of being self promotion. And it does. But so far that line has not been crossed which is why the threads and posts have been permitted. But you are walking a very thin line folks. While I am in favor of your intent, I urge caution. Self promotion is one thing that will not be permitted here, no matter how well intended.
Yes it would, or the Auction forum as well. I'm not trying to be a stick in the mud here. I support your ideas about educating people. But you have presented me with a rather unique situation that could make it diffiult to strictly follow the rules. Some lines, once crossed, are very hard to go back across. That's what I want to avoid for all of you. The rules that Coin Talk has are what make it different from all other forums. They are what keep this place a family oriented, friendly forum where everyone is treated exactly the same and with respect. Where none of you have to worry about being inundated with SPAM and advertising is kept to a minimum. It is the Rules that have made Coin Talk what it is - along with all of you folks of course
Following the progression of thoughts here it seems that we (informationalists?) have offended a few people. Of course, we had no intention of doing so but CoinTalk is a community and we seem to have put a unique strain on the rules. This in mind I suggest we take our "information" to the open or auction forums as noted above. We know we are not out to cause trouble and we DO have an avenue to educate. We must simply comply with rules in order to educate. Ebay I would lose in a minute but I'd really be at a loss without CoinTalk. clembo
I agree the posts, if an auction, should be in the auction thread or open section. While fun at first, it is real easy to wear out a welcome. One thing you guys who are going to participate in this have to be very aware of is the risk of neg feedback. I am posting 99% of my questions as well, but I have had to seriously weed a cpl out as not to taunt TOO badly. Those of you with less feedback and auctions few and far between, a cpl/few negs could really affect your score and it could really hurt you, and I would hate to see that happen. I am willing to take a hit or 2 because mine will bury so fast, yours may be front page for months. One seller who has been doing this has already been negged
I don't know that it offended anyone. And if the posts are moved to the open or auction forums it would still be nice to have a little nudge from one of the more traveled sections to let us know it's there. I think the infomercial auctions are a great way to spread the word. Keep it up.:thumb:
I do agree that our info-auction threads are pushing the rules. It would be in the best interest of the site if we refrained from posting one anothers auctions. That being said, I think we need an "Auction Discussion" forum added down with the Open Forum. I would also like to see the Open Forum's name be changed to Trade Forum. I think that might relieve some confusion and help direct people properly.
Well Adam, A few of us have been listing rather sarcastic auctions aimed at various scams on ebay. We ae basically exposing a few of the "fraud techniques" being used on ebay while listing an honest auction at the same time. In my case I wasn't too concerned with selling the coin. It was nothing to me. What I DID want to do was educate bidders as to how scams work. They have generally been received very favorably. I have another in the works actually.
They create auctions that inform the public of some of the sneaky tactics used by scammers. Like the tactic of putting key or semi-key dates on the end of a wheat cent roll and putting generic 40's-50's throughout the rest of the roll. They get a lot of people to think the whole roll may be of that key date. The scammers always say the rolls are "unsearched", but how would they know they were all wheat cents ?
How about we include the words "informational auction" in our descriptions to make them easier to search for.
