Potential YorkieTalk Used Yorkie Goods / Trading Forum

[admin]

This is just an idea in concept right now, if you have any questions, suggestions, or additions to it, feel free to PM us or reply in this thread.

We propose having a separate forum for giving away or trading used Yorkie items. It would work like this: a YT member (Member A) lists an item or several items with a suggested value of the item in a thread. A toy that may be $10 new would perhaps have a $7 value used. Another member (Member B) claims the item and posts in the thread that they want it. Member A ships the item (with a tracking number or delivery confirmation) to Member B within one week's time. Member B then lists their used item or items that have at least a $7 value for other members to choose from. Member A can then have $7 of credit to spend on other used items. Of course this would be based on an honor system for the most part.

We could also offer direct 1 on 1 trading, but we would think it would be more rare to find actual members with things they can directly trade and this method would be more in spirit of the original Gently Used Gift Exchange idea of sharing with others Yorkie goods that they no longer want and don't wish to sell.

We would require members participating to be a YorkieTalk Donating Member (a full Donating Member who has donated $25 or more in combined donations) and members with 200 posts or more. Items must be washed if possible or necessary, items must be listed with any defects or problems, members may choose two or three items per week maximum or a set value limit, and members must adhere to the guidelines/rules of the trading forum. Failure to ship items may result in a suspension or ban of their YorkieTalk account. As with the YT Gift Exchange and the ability to sell Yorkie products on YT, this would be an additional benefit of being a YorkieTalk Donating Member.

Most of this idea and requirements came from current YorkieTalk members and we would like to thank each and everyone who has helped us with this idea. Thank you - you know who you are! We would also like to specifically thank QuickSilver for thinking up the Gently Used Gift Exchange idea initially!

If anything is unclear or if members have other suggestions, please let us know.

[chattiesmom]

Totally awesome idea!!!!!

And I would like to be the first to thank QuickSilver for starting the little spark that turned into a wildfire of interest.

[twalla]

Originally Posted by chattiesmom

Totally awesome idea!!!!!

And I would like to be the first to thank QuickSilver for starting the little spark that turned into a wildfire of interest.

Ditto on both of Cindy's comments.


Now who can I trade whatever to get Sam some smoochie lips

[bchgirl]

I think you may be surprised how well one on one trading would work. The other method sounds very confusing...at least the keeping track part...jmho.

If someone wants to give items away....that's always been possible.

[Nancy1999]

Originally Posted by bchgirl

I think you may be surprised how well one on one trading would work. The other method sounds very confusing...at least the keeping track part...jmho.

If someone wants to give items away....that's always been possible.

You are not getting the Ralph Lauren jacket back.

[chattiesmom]

Originally Posted by bchgirl

I think you may be surprised how well one on one trading would work. The other method sounds very confusing...at least the keeping track part...jmho.

If someone wants to give items away....that's always been possible.

I, too like the one for one trading system. Short sweet simple -- you donate stuff, when someone "claims" an item of yours you have 1 YT Token to spend on One item.

I am guessing that we could contribute NEW items as well if we didn't have any gently used items and we wanted to play.

[DvlshAngel985]

What about a three way swap? If Member A has something that Member B wants, and Member B has something that Member C wants, and Member C has something that Member A wants.
Will this type of trade only work under the guidelines ONLY if the Items being traded are of the same value? What if they have different values, will members be credited with the difference?

Just asking!

I just realized that this can potentially be a problem with a two way swap.

[bchgirl]

Originally Posted by Nancy1999

You are not getting the Ralph Lauren jacket back.

I'm gonna be eyeing the trade thread....so it better not show up there either.

Years ago on another forum....we traded items all the time. Sometimes what someone wanted wasn't even specified...it was simply open to offers.

Since it sounds like admin plans for this to be a seperate forum....any individual could easily have a thread of their own...listing what they have and what they'd like to receive in trade.

[chattiesmom]

I believe that once you list something it's up for anyone who meets the qualifications to participate.

[QuickSilver]

Okay, (deep breath), here is the idea in my head so far. I am really excited about this, and want to thank admin for considering it!

Part of the reason I don't use the trading forum is that it's so many descriptive links, but it's not easy to browse photos. Also, there are so many different things, and they aren't grouped into clothes, toys, carriers, etc.

SO: How about a Virtual Treasure Box, which Boxes for Clothes - S/M/L, M/F; Toys; and Carriers and other large items.

Any qualifying member can sign up for any and all Boxes. If one box gets extremely popular, maybe it gets broken into two boxes.

All the boxes have an album associated with them (or something similar), so that all pictures are listed. I assume that someone would have to administrate the albums, to prevent people from accidentally deleting other peoples items and such.

You take turns according to your sign up order. When it is your turn, you send the moderator pix of your stuff, with a brief description of relevant info. You must submit at least one thing, BUT not necessarily to the same box. Why to a different box potentially? Because if you are starting out, you might not have any carriers, but you still need one.

Once you've submitted something, you can pick some reasonable number of items from the box you belong to. I vote for allowing up to 10 picks, with the stipulation that five things ALWAYS have to be left for the person next in line.

You post your picks. Either YOU or admin PMs the person/people who listed the items you want. They have ? 10 days to mail it out and provide a tracking number. Once all the tracking numbers have been collected, it's the next person's turn.

When you get the stuff you asked for, you post pictures of your yorkie enjoying it.

If there's nothing you want, you may "pass" (though I think you would still need to post an item). Hopefully there will be something fab next time.

You can quit your box any time, as long as you send out any stuff that's been requested. No takesies backsies.

I would suggest keeping relative value out of it if possible, because I think it's fertile ground for arguments.

One of the benefits of this is that your shipping burden should be reasonable. If you sign up for one box, even if you post tons of things into it, you will only be mailing to one person per week at most. The more boxes you sign up for, the more you may need to mail, depending on how popular your things are.

Clothing and carriers should be in "Excellent" or "Like New" condition. Toys should be WASHED before sending, and in at least "Very Good" condition.

If it's your turn and you don't post any pix or ask for items for five days, it's assumed you skipped your turn.

If someone asks for an item and you don't send it, you are suspended from TB. However, since it could be a long time between posting an item and someone asking for it, you can be re-admitted if you get back in touch and send your requested item. If this happens several times, you are permanently banned from TB.

People will be asked not to re-sell items that they request, since they are supposed to be gifts.


I know this could be a lot of extra admin work, so I have two suggestions: first that we start with a "pilot" program, maybe 2 dozen people for one big Clothing TB and see how it goes. Also, I would be very happy to offer my time to help with the administrative part in terms of saving tracking numbers, keeping track of who is in line, etc.

HOW DOES THAT SOUND??

[QuickSilver]

I'll admit I don't have experience administrating something like this, so I will defer to the admins, as they have more experience with tracking everything and enforcing rules.

I'm so pumped. I can't wait to get rid of all this stuff.

[chattiesmom]

I would like an open trading forum where you post your items, perhaps you get a "token" for each item you contribute and you can "spend" your tokens on a first come first serve basis -- much like the for sale forum except no money would be exchanged. Or perhaps you list items in good faith and when they are claimed and you have shipped the item(s) you get a virtual token maybe a star under your user id ----hummmmm that would be a better idea.

Like Admin said, much of this would be honor system -- and since the vast majority of our members are very honest, it would work out fine. If and when someone doesn't follow through with shipping an item within a reasonable period of time OR "goes into debt" by spending more than they have earned, then they could be suspended from participating in the YorkieTalk Traders Forum.

[QuickSilver]

Oh, one more thing. I can see how the tokens could be easier, but here are two thoughts I had on them:

- While it would be a pain (for admin) for everything to go through admin, it might reduce the chances of disputes; someone receives something and says, this was not worth 20 tokens, or I never received the package, or a different item was sent. Maybe I am over-estimating this since there are already a lot of vendors on YT, so perhaps the disputes are minimal and handled well.

- Since it's supposed to be all gift-y, I would hate for people to play favorites - someone lists a really nice item, gets a bunch of bids, but decides to send it to the tenth person in line because they are friends. Again, maybe overestimating the seriousness of this problem.

[QuickSilver]

Yeah, maybe just a token an item makes more sense. What would be the best way to track this?

[QuickSilver]

Sorry, obviously I have a lot of thoughts on this!

We will need to consider how people list and de-list things. I don't know how that's done now.

I'd like to see some kind of arrangement in place so that someone doesn't end up in a situation where they get thirty orders from thirty different people in a week. I suppose you could list and de-list your stuff periodically... that's just one benefit I saw about people taking turns.