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Hi all,

 

It’s with deep regret that we will be closing RMweb Buy & Sell on Friday, March 3rd at 12pm.

                    

Our aim was to create a thriving community of railway modellers looking to do, as the name suggests, ‘buy and sell’. Whilst visitor numbers and sales were good, our focus at present is with BRM, BRM TV, RMweb, our four new magazines and three railway modelling exhibitions. We felt it was only right to close Buy & Sell as we couldn’t give it the focus it needed and deserved to be a success.

 

We are already looking at other ways for the RMweb community to buy & sell products. Andy York will be instrumental in ensuring that we make the right decision for the community. We will announce more in the future.

 

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to Buy & Sell

 

Steve Cole

Publisher

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Reality bites, stuff advertised on B&S has never looked particularly enticing to me. At the end of the day the entry barriers are too high given Ebay their main competitor whose market domination will take a lot to break down. 

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Sensible pragmatism. This was a very brave and determined effort, that continued to swallow resources to get the last couple of % of the system to operate effortlessly. Sticking to what you are good at will benefit more of us and bring new people into the fold. I hope any replacement system is essentially turnkey for the Team.

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It was a good idea - but I think the site was difficult to use which put people off.  Also it was top heavy with traders.

 

Having said that I did sell a couple of items through it.

 

Maybe a simple version just for private sellers with a flat fee commission of a couple of pounds would be more use to modellers?

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Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained.

 

Cue all those that thought classifieds were fantastic when they weren't, and were full of shysters and timewasters who never paid for what they asked for.

 

I never  had  any  problems  whatsoever  with  the  old  classifieds,  maybe  all the  shysters  did not  want  the  products  which  I was  selling,  also  found  that  there  were no problems  with  products  I purchased.

Edited by Stevelewis
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It was a good idea - but I think the site was difficult to use which put people off.  

 

Being honest there were teething problems which should have been ironed out a lot faster by the developers. We would give them a list of what needed to be fixed but they most frequently tried to point it at user error. I happened to be in Cornwall last spring and sat down with them and they could then see the issues which were promptly fixed. Subsequent issues arose and frankly they didn't fix those as they should. I was far from impressed to be honest.

 

Whilst we were working to fix things some people would moan and groan rather then 'helpfully comment'; that negativity rubbed off on some others (why is it that people are so quick to try and act clever and condemn something they haven't got any personal comprehension of in this hobby?) which dented the impetus. It could have been a very good system and at minimal or no cost to the modeller depending on what they were selling but they'd rather have their two minutes of fame moaning.

 

Chris P Bacon has hit the nail on the head about the problems of the old classifieds; those who thought it was good weren't the ones trying to sort it out and protect people when transactions went bad.

 

As Steve has said I am looking at future options (but they won't be available for a while) for something that's good for members.

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I never  has  any  problems  whatsoever  with  the  old  classifieds,  maybe  all the  shysters  did not  want  the  products  which  I was  selling,  also  found  that  there  were no problems  with  products  I purchased.

I sold part of an estate through classifieds then B&S, as well as some of my own items.

 

When it was classifieds I would have people ask for products, I'd set them to one side and hear nothing, I'd wait a week and in the case of some items, turned away others that wanted them only for the first 'buyer' to not respond to emails. I was also pestered with traders wanting to buy everything for a fraction of it's value, being asked once isn't a big deal but being asked over and over by the same one's was a PITA.

Maybe B&S wasn't perfect but I sold quite a bit of stuff through it and had far less problems than I ever had with classifieds.

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Having been involved in some of the testing for the B&S site, my impression was it was software that was not designed for the purposed to which it was applied - I would suggest this was an oversell on the part of the developing company.  They seemed to have little or no knowledge of the types of transactions or searches involved (e.g. show me all locos in OO gauge).

 

Searching and filtering is a fundamental part of the process, I hope the next version is more attuned to the needs of the modeller.

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Does this mean we can get the classifieds section back? Or are we looking at a whole new system?

 

It doesn't mean anything yet; as I previously said I'm looking at the options and it's part of a much bigger process.

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I used classifieds two or three times and have used Buy and Sell three times. In fact I bought an ex Tetley Mills Class 108 today through Buy and Sell. All transactions on both systems went smoothly. I have also used eBay on many occasions and except for two losses in the post which the sellers sorted out in no time I have had smooth transactions there as well. All three systems are only as good as the people who use them and RMweb needs to find a system that works for them and us. I wish Andy all the best in sorting something out in due course but I for one understand that he really has a lot more important things to do!

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I used and bought via Buy and sell and although the transactions were all easily carried out it was the searching and filtering difficulties that finally switched it off for me .

I can totally see Andy's points about the old classifieds though , he personally had to get involved in a sale gone wrong on my behalf and to be fair to him , it's really not what he's here for .

I'll be interested in seeing what comes next and no doubt will give it a try ....but please please if you can ,get the search facility to be more user friendly.

 

Cheers

Paul

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As Steve has said I am looking at future options (but they won't be available for a while) for something that's good for members.

 

Does this mean we can get the classifieds section back? Or are we looking at a whole new system?

 

It doesn't mean anything yet; as I previously said I'm looking at the options and it's part of a much bigger process.

 

I think you should at least have the decency to wait for Andy to look at what can/might be the way forward.

 

The constant, almost insatiable, desire to have everything 'now' is, at least, impolite and at worst, bullying.

 

You may/may not agree with what/how this has been put, but that is the immediate impression I got from your posting.

 

Thanks

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Couldn't we simply let followers of our regular WB or layout threads know we have something surplus we wish to sell. Then in all decency, such members could make a contribution to RMweb. I do not have in mind wheeler-dealers who are routinely trading in used goods.

Edited by coachmann
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It's a shame B & S did not work out for everyone Andy and for a new thread with so few posts where members are already attacking others because they let their views be known.

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You can always buy and sell via the famous Liverpool store.

 

For sale, Bachby Castle. GWR apple green livery, no chimney, poor runner, one driving wheel missing, realistically weathered  with a tar brush,  tatty dog eared replacement box, one careful owner, several questionable ones. Only one in stock. Buy it now for eighty quid, (the others are new 'uns on offer at £75).

 

Brit15

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You can always buy and sell via the famous Liverpool store.

 

For sale, Bachby Castle. GWR apple green livery, no chimney, poor runner, one driving wheel missing, realistically weathered  with a tar brush,  tatty dog eared replacement box, one careful owner, several questionable ones. Only one in stock. Buy it now for eighty quid, (the others are new 'uns on offer at £75).

 

Brit15

Yur roytt derr wachk...

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Living far away from the mainland in the GWN I always enjoyed the old classified and did buy a fair bit of stuff with never a problem.  I have never bought from the Buy and Sell.  It is true that the old classifieds did not have a filter but it seemed to me that it was primarily private sellers so i did not feel the need for a filter because and as such I regularly used to go to it to "window shop".  Note, I also sent stuff to modellers who were looking for items.

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