Money is still being expended (postage) so there is still potential for drama if things go wrong.

I'd also be interested in having an official trading section on vogons, but I understand why the mods are against it.

AMIbay and VCF are a thing, but if those don't work for you perhaps you could create a dedicated officially unofficial hardware trading forum for vogons (kind of like vogons drivers or the vogons game server). Probably check with the mods about what to call it and maintain enough isolation from the mothership.

I'll be interested in a trading section too, I have a lot of hardware that I don't have use for but perhaps is exactly what some other person is searching for.

shiva2004 wrote:

I'll be interested in a trading section too, I have a lot of hardware that I don't have use for but perhaps is exactly what some other person is searching for.

Yep. Same here. I've got a lot of Win98-era stuff that I'd gladly trade for DOS-era stuff.

I'd be interested. Maybe make a post count minimum on the mainforum to have access to it? say 50 or 100 quality posts?

That should weed out most of the trash. Amibay and VCF are going down hill quick plus there both almost exclusively european (which makes no sense as i assume there to be just as many old computer collectors in the land of the free). Amibay is basically just eBay prices with slightly better documentation and sellers, and VCF is a ghost town.

Trading would do me some good but it would have to be local as shipping would be cost prohibitive and the mods would naturally be against it as some people out there are bad apples as some say.

Amibay is very Euro-centric and is great for all kinds of computer trades and sales within that region but not so much in America. VCFederation is about as good for 70s-80s micros including early IBMs within America, I've done several trades on there in the past. But for post-386 machines it can be inadequate because of their perception as "junk" within the predominantly older community in their mid 30s-50s much like how a lot of people here view Dell P4 boxes now.

In North America particularly there is not really a central forum for people to sell/trade x86 machines. There is definitely a gap which could be filled. There are many reasons why Vogons will never have a marketplace section, but I don't see why some other site couldn't do it.

ElementalChaos wrote:

Amibay is very Euro-centric and is great for all kinds of computer trades and sales within that region but not so much in America. VCFederation is about as good for 70s-80s micros including early IBMs within America, I've done several trades on there in the past. But for post-386 machines it can be inadequate because of their perception as "junk" within the predominantly older community in their mid 30s-50s much like how a lot of people here view Dell P4 boxes now.

In North America particularly there is not really a central forum for people to sell/trade x86 machines. There is definitely a gap which could be filled. There are many reasons why Vogons will never have a marketplace section, but I don't see why some other site couldn't do it.

People in Europe got it easy with Amibay, I just hope that something gets started up in the next few years as the prices on eBay are getting steeper. Almost nothing at all for 90s and 2000s stuff.

Again, I think having it on a different server than the main forum would avoid a lot of problems. If policing it becomes a problem, you could shut it down and the main Vogons server wouldn't be bothered. Call it something other than Vogons so there's no splash back or confusion as it would only be linked by people on Vogons wanting another trading platform.

gdjacobs wrote:

Again, I think having it on a different server than the main forum would avoid a lot of problems. If policing it becomes a problem, you could shut it down and the main Vogons server wouldn't be bothered. Call it something other than Vogons so there's no splash back or confusion as it would only be linked by people on Vogons wanting another trading platform.

Like I said though, I think 50 posts on Vogons (or a similar site) should be a requirement.

We don't need people that know nothing, are there to sell at eBay prices, or are there to cause trouble.

Yeah, only invite people that you know from Vogons. No problem with that.

Thats easy, require invites instead of open signups, thats very easy. Or make it so signup requires admin approval

candle_86 wrote:

Thats easy, require invites instead of open signups, thats very easy. Or make it so signup requires admin approval

the result of this would be a very limited supply of items, where you would depend on outside aquisitions for additional trading. such a trading post could work but requires dedication of its member otherwise it would die out (activity will be low anyway due low amount of offers). we are all hoarders of outdated crap most people would throw away 🤣
Ebay succes is due to its reach (worldwide supply). Prices for ebay are high for a reason, its the ebay warranty you get when something is faulty or for w/e reason you do not want it anymore (you just contact the seller and tell them you want to sent it back for a BS reason and they will, for the sake of less hassle and no negative feedback (buyer almost always wins disputes and both parties know this).
amibay prices are lower due "higher risk factor" and depend on discretion and trust of its users and scams could occur (and do no doubt). Who is going to force me there to accept a return when I know it worked before I sent it, mods are more reasonable and look at the case reasonably and judge upon it if needed (we know how carefull amibayers are with proof of state). Again amibay is based on trust and discretion, the most thing they can do to me is ban me from the forum.

Maybe if there was a separate thread selection on the main for trading and selling that linked to paypal? and maybe there could be separate people managing those thread, so it was be less work for the mods? Im just being hypothetical.

As much as I like this idea and as much as I would like to see this happen. I know for a fact this would make for problems down the road. It can be done without theses problems, but then you end up making a market place that doesn't work.

The best way to do this is to setup a requirements such as 100+ posts, ISP email only, user for X amount of time and admin approval. Anything else and it will just not work out in the long run. But vogons will still have the liability problems.

EDIT:
in be for the lock. 😵

"It doesn't work!" "Did when I sent it" "I doesn't work! Send my stuff back!" "Nah, mine now 🤣" "VOGONS! get my stuff back or I call police/lawyer!"

^^^^
Exactly

The main issue is there exists no decent way to ensure that people are going to ship the items. Someone can just say they shipped it, show a bullshit tracking label or whatever, or even just ship something different, and have the poor saud on the other end send valuable and collectible tech to them for no cost.

It's a good idea, but a lot of legal and technical work will need to take place, and by the VOGONS staff.