People who post up WTB ads are just chum for scammers if you haven't figured that out yet. It isn't worth the trouble, find what you want on GB or eBay or the like.

How about your LGS!! If not there then go fishing. Found a Remington a 870 Wingmaster vent rib for 150.LGS needs wood refinished but have something to do with grandsons you know out of school. Good time to do some training on life skills. Good luck, You all stay safe.

Picked up a nice Red Label here a couple weeks ago with a WTB post and turned down another one.

I've purchased and sold several items on here based on WTB posts.

I've not had any bad experiences here but am sure some have.

Meh. I don't buy that.

It's just like hunting - the sign is easy to read.

my next WTB ad title... 'WTB: Your mom a drink'

You sir, are correct.

Not a waste of time. You just have to be a little smarter than a babe in the woods. Use a little common sense and don’t F&F a payment to somebody you don’t know from Adam...

Can't we get admin to turn off PMs until the OP has 15, 20 etc. posts (admin would have review the posts to make sure they weren't crap to get their post count up). That would hinder them and maybe they would move to an easier place to scam.

This is a huge site and that would take an awful lot of man hours. Not to mention that twenty posts is easily done with the amount of traffic here. Just use common sense and these guys are easy to spot. People out them almost immediately anyway. There are three or four separate threads going right now about basically the same guy.

Same here. Never had any issue until a few weeks ago. First and only time so far.

Agreed, just have to do a little work to figure out if someone is a dirt bag. I haven’t been burned yet buy this site but I also only try to deal with the names I recognize as having been on for quiet a while.

Pretty easy to figure out a scammer and tell them to GFY.

Pretty good idea though I’d shoot for a bit more, say......24.

whatever happened to common sense?

So I’m sure he’s got well over 24 PM’s to people he’s trying to scam. What’s 24 regular posts to somebody like that? Just visit the various forums and pick any thread, then post away with banal comments. Doesn’t have to be anything earth shattering. I bet you or I could do it in less than fifteen minutes. What’s it to a scammer with time on his hands?

There will always be scammers. Don’t rely on the “admin” to try to protect you. You are your own best defense with some common sense.

Ill double down on my previous comment and say it’s better if there’s not a post limit, cause it makes them easier to identify.

JTrod: I have to disagree with you - I suggest folks use due caution with their "WTB" ads hereon.
I have done so many times in the past and in fact I may be posting a "Want To Buy" ad soon for a set of Redding 17 Hornet reloading dies.
I have been having trouble finding a set in the many stores I have frequented so far this year.
Yeah it may be frustrating having to dodge a turd here on the Classifieds every once in a while but I will keep at it.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

It looks like the scammers are outed pretty quick on this site. There are a lot of eyes watching. Everyone keep up the good work. Use common sense. Look for # of post's and joined date. I would not buy anything from someone without a positive history of selling. Maybe step up the (seller is good to go) when you have a positive experience.

I would like to make three points.

First, MOW is good to go. Even before he became a member he and I worked a deal with CJC73 to purchase a Leupold scope. CJC73 reported complete satisfaction with the transaction.

Second, I agree we need a minimum post count. There's no need for admin review of their posts. We can do it ourselves. Anytime someone contacts us about buying or selling just look at their posts to see if they're posting trash just to get their minimum count.

Last, I believe we need a feedback system where we can rate eachother and view that feedback before commencing any transactions. This will obviously require some admin effort to resolve any differing opinions.

Thanks, Dinny

Just a little due diligence and it's pretty easy to weed out the scammers.

Read all the recent "so and so is a scammer" posts and see if you can identify a commonality...

The software does not allow for it at this point.

I’ll continue to post WTB ads. As already stated, it’s pretty easy to spot the dirtbags. If I get burned, that’s on me. It hasn’t happened yet, and I buy a lot. I always check locally for what I need first. If I can’t find it there, this is my first stop. Far greater reach on here than almost any other forum, and I almost always find what I’m after.

Just make new members ship their items prior to payment. That's what I did as a new member a few weeks ago.

Have a look at Rokslide, their format is lightyears ahead...

I would not stop running WTB because of a few scumbags. It is very easy to see who is a scammer. There is actually no trouble, just don't answer them, and move on.

I have been posting WTB ads here for s long as I have been a member, no bad experiences to date and have made some extremely good buys. No need to be a naysayer !

I posted a wanted to buy a Guitar.. I am sitting here playing it as we speak.. not all people are bad.

I stand corrected. I consulted with one of the main developers for UBB, and he showed me how to get it done.

So we have a new group called "Newbies" that cannot PM until they become "Users" at 20 posts. We can adjust settings as required.

More coming ...

I’m personally a newbie and have already had a lot of success both buying and selling on here. Particularly with Bullet Moulds. Not just here but also on a couple other forum sites. I’ve had a few people try to scam but for the most part all my experiences have been good.

That's good news, thanks!

I will now sit back and wait for all the gents to thank me for shining a light on the issue :-)

Thank you. I know that I base my decision to deal or not deal with someone on how many posts he has...we're all safe from scammers now!

I’ve made plenty of WTB ads.

WTB- 6x36 gloss, WTB 700classic 250-3000, WTB 17rem reloading components, WTB CZ527 221fb

All were found, easy and smooth transactions, no issues . So. STFU, GFY, and have a good weekend.

I completely agree with this.

Nope.

x2

you are going to have crooks wherever you go...if you are smart you can get phone numbers, photos, have a contactable gunsmith inspect a item and get his ffl or have BATF see if he is legal….there are a lot of ways to protect yourself if you don't get greedy and think you have found a fool who is going to give aa item away for nothing...………………...if it's too god to be true it usually is not true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have had some good luck with posting WTB ..mostly stuff scammers wouldn't be worth there time...
I have sold a few items to those posts also without trouble...but for the most part the WTB guys are just looking for something really cheap and ar not willing to pay market price...

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!!