Home Forums Gear Free Classifieds Don't bother with WTB ads

not a problem for me, usually don't get response, last one I got a GREAT deal on a savage 99 n .308

While I get your intention, I personally think post count to be irrelevant. Posts are easy and can add up quick. “Nice gun.” “I wish it was mine.” “I love hunting elephant.” It still takes us, using our time, to do something we should already be doing - just now with even more to sift through.

We all need to be smart and evaluate any deals we are about to enter, use common sense. If it is something we want to purchase, it is something we don’t currently have, which means waiting a little longer and doing our homework doesn’t put us in any different of a situation.

Reasons post counts don’t really matter: the internet and forums have blown up to a point, that essentially any topic can be searched universally. A person can copy and paste responses into threads and it seems like they know what they are talking about.

A perfect example: I posted a WTB thread on another forum recently. I was contacted by a new member who had joined within the past couple weeks. He had a low post count (4) but one, in particular, seemed to have context. It caused me to continue the conversation. After discussing the deal with him more, he provided pictures via email. I started to notice somethings: (1) his English was broken, (2) he wanted to use email instead of PMs, (3) the only forms of payment he’d accept lacked buyer protection, (4) he was willing to throw in extra items the more our conversation went, etc.

It all seemed odd, so I started to do my research. A Google Image reverse lookup took me to a different forum’s thread from back in 2015 where every photo he sent me was from a member there showing his new rifle. I then went to his posts just to research further. He had posted in a thread regarding bedding a rifle - I copied his post, pasted into Google, and found that he had taken it directly from another post in another forum. A post with context and value add, was just someone else’s words.

What am I getting at here? They want your money and doing a little bit of homework on their end, can seem like they are a contributing and valuable member of the forum, even if new. Us looking for easy solutions is ignorant.

They’ve started to learn what works and what doesn’t, so we need to do the same.

1) Discretion is advised in any transaction.
2) Look them up on the Good-to-Go members list.
3) Try to find other deals they have been involved in - reach out to other members on how it went if necessary.
4) Look for warning signs (they don’t want to PM, broken English, accepting funds via direct deposit or other methods without protection, they are just too damned nice, they can’t answer basic questions, their pictures show up elsewhere on the web, they won’t provide additional pictures based on your specific requests, they won’t provide a telephone number, their mailing address doesn’t match their name, etc.)

We need to stop trying to make thing easy when we are trying to spend our hard earned money. Be smart, research, and proceed with caution.

Side note: he was a scammer, with two usernames created on the same day from the same IP.

WTB ad’s are ignored by me any more. I used to see such ad’s and look to see if I could help out. I find what the poster needs put a decent price in it and the answer pretty much tells me the poster is just looking. Rarely will I open a WTB post anymore!!!

Once again, I feel we need an individual feedback system. Maybe a minimum post count to post in the classifieds too, not just to send/receive PMs.

Thanks, Dinny

I wish they would ban it in the classifieds and move it to its own place.

Nothing worse than scanning for something good, stopping and getting excited to just see it's a [bleep] WTB!

I thought about posting one for a discontinued scope I am looking for but decided I didn’t want to deal with it right now. Seems to be more unknowns floating around here lately. I would probably only deal with a regular who answered my ad. Just what would make me personally comfortable. As has been said, this is a big boy site and you just need to use common sense.

So why not post your WTB and just ignore the ones you don't feel comfortable with? Seems like a no-brainer to me...

I don’t see what the big deal is. This is one of the best classifieds section I’ve ever used anywhere. There are always going to be scammers. Relying on the admin to protect you from them as opposed to your own common sense is like relying on a safety to keep you from shooting someone...

Like I said. The rest of the post was merely making an observation on the WTB ads being a magnet for a larger than usual number of scammers lately. Just a fact of classifieds. I have done hundreds of deals here and never had a problem, but it does require a bit of vigilance.

I have a current WTB going right now and haven’t received a single reply. Just sayin...

I sold this guitar to Hubert a couple weeks ago, after responding to his WTB ad.

Have sold a bunch of other stuff, including firearms, scopes, etc. etc. in response to WTB ads. Have never been burned, and as some others have posted, it's pretty easy to tell what's going on. But I have only been a member for 19 years.

Getting ready to post a WTB ad for a TC Seneca or Cherokee 36.

Hope I am not wasting my time!!