#51

Chazz Reinhold HOF
Back to the topic. Personally, I have given more gear away that I can think of. Profit? Don't care and don't need it.

My favorite profit is been able to help someone. When I do sell something, which is rare, I don't make any money on it. I never charge for shipping and I always ship priority with insurance on anything over $100.00.

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#52
(05-21-2016, 04:12 PM)hrfdez Wrote: Back to the topic. Personally, I have given more gear away that I can think of. Profit? Don't care and don't need it.

My favorite profit is been able to help someone. When I do sell something, which is rare, I don't make any money on it. I never charge for shipping and I always ship priority with insurance on anything over $100.00.

Same here. I prefer to PIF stuff to new wet shavers.

Still, whether or not a price cap is merited is a good topic, but my concern is about its application. There is simply no way that it can be fairly applied in my view, so it will always be an arbitrary rule that will depend heavily on the character and quality of the moderators. In principle it would seem to advance the interests of fairness, but in practice I'm not sure that it would do the same.

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#53

That Bald Guy with the Big Beard
Bishop, CA
(05-21-2016, 04:12 PM)hrfdez Wrote: Back to the topic. Personally, I have given more gear away that I can think of. Profit? Don't care and don't need it.

My favorite profit is been able to help someone. When I do sell something, which is rare, I don't make any money on it. I never charge for shipping and I always ship priority with insurance on anything over $100.00.
Im the same way. I would rather make a fair trade or give something away. I dont have room in my den for a lot of redundancy, and I absolutely have no room in my life for greed. My profit is held in the bank of Good Kharma. Currently, my balance is Feeling Fantastic.

I appreciate the community so much more than making a few bucks off of something I dont use...

With that said, i dont have anything thatvwoukd be considered valuable by mosy anyhow, so it is probably a good thing that spiitual value ranks higher than monetary for me...

Sent from my LGL34C using Tapatalk

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-Chris~Head Shaver~
#54
There are many fine aspects of TSN, but their price capping policy is not one of them. I'm no cut and slash capitalist, but people should be able to decide for themselves how much a given shaving item is worth to them. Just my opinion.

Not another word, I promise.
Cheers,
Ted

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.  Winston Churchill

#55

Chazz Reinhold HOF
(This post was last modified: 05-21-2016, 05:00 PM by hrfdez.)
I think most reasonable people understand your point, but like it has been mentioned before, it is their rule and it should be respected.

I also believe that any reasonable individual will know when something has been overhyped and it will simply just walk away from it.  Personally, I put people like that on my ignore list and don't even bother.

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#56

Member
Connecticut
(This post was last modified: 05-22-2016, 09:11 PM by Merkur Man.)
(05-21-2016, 04:21 PM)NeoXerxes Wrote: Still, whether or not a price cap is merited is a good topic, but my concern is about its application. There is simply no way that it can be fairly applied in my view, so it will always be an arbitrary rule that will depend heavily on the character and quality of the moderators. In principle it would seem to advance the interests of fairness, but in practice I'm not sure that it would do the same.
I guess all I can do is share my own personal experience, but I believe you would find that others have the same experience with the TSN BST.  
In my opinion the TSN BST works beautifully with the price caps.  It is really quite simple, all you do is post the price you are selling your item for at a price less than or equal to what you originally paid for the item.  If I have forgotten what a currently produced item sells for I simply look it up on line, deduct some for wear and tear and post the item and price.  If it is an item that is no longer produced you aren't required to sell for any particular price, although I still find it easy to sell even unobtainable things for approximately what I purchased them for. Pretty simple in my view and takes almost no moderator/admin input because the members monitor the BST themselves.  I know that member monitoring sounds like an even greater problem than moderator monitoring, however, the few times I have seen a price discrepancy, it is always handled in a gentlemanly way.  The process simply works and in the long run I think likely takes up less moderator time.  Anyway, this has been my experience with the new system and it has been remarkably positive.
Oh yeah, here is the actual TSN price list for M&F brushes. Not to shabby if you ask me.  You can't seem to sell a Chubby Manchurian these days unless you knock $100 off the price tag (I guess this likely speaks to the fact that perhaps the brushes are over priced to begin with).  The chart only asks that you knock off ~$25 off of the price of an M&F and it will sell in very short order. Again, the only challenge with this is if you purchased your M&F brush in the secondary market for an inflated price. If this is the case, simply sell it somewhere else.


[Image: mq49QUU.png]

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Nathan
#57
Neo, I agree with you. It comes down to if you think an item is overpriced, don't buy it. Nobody is forcing you to buy anything. Crappy practice in my book. And not just for M&F. For anything. Don't like the pricing, but it elsewhere. Obtaining M&F's is quite more difficult than other brush makers. And getting one new...probably the toughest. Hell, it's tough just to get in contact with the man.

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#58
(05-22-2016, 08:57 PM)Merkur Man Wrote:
(05-21-2016, 04:21 PM)NeoXerxes Wrote: Still, whether or not a price cap is merited is a good topic, but my concern is about its application. There is simply no way that it can be fairly applied in my view, so it will always be an arbitrary rule that will depend heavily on the character and quality of the moderators. In principle it would seem to advance the interests of fairness, but in practice I'm not sure that it would do the same.
I guess all I can do is share my own personal experience, but I believe you would find that others have the same experience with the TSN BST.  
In my opinion the TSN BST works beautifully with the price caps.  It is really quite simple, all you do is post the price you are selling your item for at a price less than or equal to what you originally paid for the item.  If I have forgotten what a currently produced item sells for I simply look it up on line, deduct some for wear and tear and post the item and price.  If it is an item that is no longer produced you aren't required to sell for any particular price, although I still find it easy to sell even unobtainable things for approximately what I purchased them for. Pretty simple in my view and takes almost no moderator/admin input because the members monitor the BST themselves.  I know that member monitoring sounds like an even greater problem than moderator monitoring, however, the few times I have seen a price discrepancy, it is always handled in a gentlemanly way.  The process simply works and in the long run I think likely takes up less moderator time.  Anyway, this has been my experience with the new system and it has been remarkably positive.
Oh yeah, here is the actual TSN price list for M&F brushes. Not to shabby if you ask me.  You can't seem to sell a Chubby Manchurian these days unless you knock $100 off the price tag (I guess this likely speaks to the fact that perhaps the brushes are over priced to begin with).  The chart only asks that you knock off ~$25 off of the price of an M&F and it will sell in very short order. Again, the only challenge with this is if you purchased your M&F brush in the secondary market for an inflated price. If this is the case, simply sell it somewhere else.

I understand your point, but the example you cite involves prices that are directly controlled by the mod/admin team, and therefore isn't subject to my critique. The point I was making deals with the calculation of the original price for the purpose of the policy. I'll use an example with fragrances, but this would apply equally to any shaving product:

Let's say I'd like to sell a new bottle of Creed's Pure White Cologne. Directly from the Creed Boutique (at the manufacturer's suggested retail in the USA), a 250 ml bottle goes for $745 plus tax. However, if I were to order this same bottle from a European retailer, say Essenza-Nobile out of Germany, I'd be able to get it for around $520 shipped, depending on the current rate of exchange. At the moment of this writing, the difference in price between the two retailers is ~$225. If I were selling this bottle, what would be the price cap? How would the mods/admins know whether or not I was adhering to the cheaper of the two? Would I necessarily have to keep the price under $520 when most people don't even know about the price differences between Europe and the USA? How would people know exactly what price I paid? Under the policy, there is nothing to prevent me from ordering a bottle at $520 and reselling at a profit. In other words, without articulating stipulations and exceptions that would run multiple forum pages, such a policy is ineffective and not fit for purpose. And as TXFIVEO points out, in any actual market situation, prices are determined not only by demand, but also by supply. If products are rare, extraordinarily difficult to obtain, and/or require a long wait of many months or even years, it is not unreasonable nor ungentlemanly to place a dollar value on those attributes.

My point is merely that this policy is inherently unenforceable, and any enforceability that it does have is derived from judgments that are necessarily arbitrary. At first glance I might have instinctively supported such a policy, but after consideration, I don't find that price controls are helpful for members.

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#59

Member
Connecticut
(This post was last modified: 05-23-2016, 03:38 PM by Merkur Man. Edit Reason: I have been trying to edit the formating to understand why I can't see the post on Tapatalk... )
I understand your point Peter NeoXerxes . You are correct, there aren't easy solutions for every situation. Perhaps we're over thinking this whole thing in the first place. I believe the TSN rule is simply an attempt to encourage people to sell things for a fair price to a friend and nothing more, rather than some massive over-reach or power grab by the administrators to control everything on the site, and whether you believe as I do or not, that underlying principle has merit. As you, and others mentioned previously, you enjoy PIFing shaving supplies, in my opinion, the rule is simply an extension of this ideal, giving a friend a good price on something that you understandably can't part with, without financial compensation. Anyway, the funny thing about the discussion we are having is that in the vast majority of cases this underlying principle of the rule is borne out, the members sell for fair prices because they are good people and expect the same in return. I feel this guiding principle gets at the heart and soul of what a shaving forum should be all about. Now my friend, let's get back to discussing lathers, or something else that is more fun! Peace out.

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Nathan
#60

Super Moderator
San Diego, Cal., USA
(05-23-2016, 02:46 PM)Merkur Man Wrote: I understand your point Peter NeoXerxes . You are correct, there aren't easy solutions for every situation.  Perhaps we're over thinking this whole thing in the first place.  I believe the TSN rule is simply an attempt to encourage people to sell things for a fair price to a friend and nothing more, rather than some massive over-reach or power grab by the administrators to control everything on the site, and whether you believe as I do or not, that underlying principle has merit.  As you, and others mentioned previously, you enjoy PIFing shaving supplies, in my opinion, the rule is simply an extension of this ideal, giving a friend a good price on something that you understandably can't part with, without financial compensation. Anyway, the funny thing about the discussion we are having is that in the vast majority of cases this underlying principle of the rule is borne out, the members sell for fair prices because they are good people and expect the same in return. I feel this guiding principle gets at the heart and soul of what a shaving forum should be all about.  Now my friend, let's get back to discussing lathers,  or something else that is more fun! Peace out.

And that, as far as I am concerned, is the heart of the matter. Smile

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