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Why [SOLD] instead of deleting post?

Lizzy65

Lizzy65

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While looking through the classifieds, I see SO many sold reptiles. Wouldn't it be better to delete the post after you've sold your reptile? In some cases, the sold reptiles take up so much space it's ridiculous.

It just seems like a waste of space. Other websites, such as Craigslist, make you take down your ad, not just post "sold" on the item.


Thanks.
 
I never delete ads until the customer has the animal in hand and is happy. That way I have my ad wording with the date of sale stamp in case there's any question about the animal's representation.

Can't speak for anyone else though.
 
Lizzy65 said:
While looking through the classifieds, I see SO many sold reptiles. Wouldn't it be better to delete the post after you've sold your reptile? In some cases, the sold reptiles take up so much space it's ridiculous.

It just seems like a waste of space. Other websites, such as Craigslist, make you take down your ad, not just post "sold" on the item.


Thanks.
Click to expand...

One, What was stated in the first response is right on target for many.

Two, Some would probably like to have the record there for the "just in case" scenario down the road if someone later complains.

Three, gives other customers a past history of what is offered by a particular seller. People may look at a sold ad and inquire with the seller about other available animals or future projects.

So, whose space is it wasting? For one, once it is sold it moves further down the list and doesn't get relisted. Actually it's against the TOS of this site to have the same ad listed twice in the same section. If you want to list a new ad you need to remove the older one.

Next, besides word of mouth and links, How do you think people find this site? It's because of keywords in threads and ads. If we deleted all the ads that's is like cutting our own throat.

We have taken the time to lock old ads but why delete them when they bring many people to this site?

The only time it becomes a waste of space if the owner here decides he doesn't want to keep them and not needed.

Actually, Craigslist doesn't make you do anything. The ads automatically expire unless you relist them or decide to take them down yourself.
 
I agree, some what of a resume really if you have several sold listings. Whether you're selling quality animals is still up for debate, but sold ads + BOI good guys or no BOI bad guys means you can strike deals and deliver.
 
Dennis and shaderathe covered most of the reasons why i leave up my ads, but there is one more. Leavong up sold ads also helps to establish market value.

Say you are looking for a particular animal. I'm going to make one up for argument. A widget lizard. This animal is somewhat hard to find, and very few people offer it for sale. You may find one, but the seller is asking $4000 for it. You didnt think it would cost so much, so you look through the ads and see that there were two or three sol last year of similar quality for $2000. You can then see that the sellers asking price is high for the market, add that information go yiur repeftoire and act accordingly.

Personally, i get upset when people take down their ads, as it's basically just throwing away valuable information.
 
One more: many animals have potential buyers 'watching' them, much like selling a home. They're waiting for a price reduction, or gearing themselves up to spend the money, or hoping it sells so they don't have to part with their hard earned dollars on an animal they can't live without. If it just disappears, well.....?
So it's kind of closure for everyone who may have been truly interested in the animal.

Noelle
 
Those are really good points.

I know when I was selling off some of my guns to finance my then newly developing car addiction, I used the search function on GunBroker extensively to search through completed auctions to see what similar models actually sold for. That gave me a much clearer picture of what I could actually expect to get for the items I was going to be selling. People can ASK for anything. The true measure of what the market will bear is what they actually SOLD for.
 
I understand all of your points, however 10 years from now, can you imagine how many pages some of the animals are going to have?!

Maybe they should consider having separate folders for completed sales, like ebay does. Just a thought...
 
I'm sure if it becomes an issue, staff will address it then. :shrug01: In the meantime, sold or closed ads aren't being bumped, so as said above they'll drift to the bottom beyond the active ads.
 
Lizzy65 said:
10 years from now
Click to expand...

Who knows where this site will be 10 years from now. But for the moment, if what is being done is working well, and with so many positive reasons for the closed ads to stay up, maybe if it ain't broke don't fix it for now.
 
Lizzy65 said:
I understand all of your points, however 10 years from now, can you imagine how many pages some of the animals are going to have?!

Maybe they should consider having separate folders for completed sales, like ebay does. Just a thought...
Click to expand...

Well, there is ten years of them there now. But my question is why how many pages per animal would be a problem for a viewer? Unless your compelled to look at ever page? Why would someone care how many pages there are? The listings are by date. People start viewing on page 1. Unless you are researching something (which would be good for those people to go back and look at older ads and those people will be glad they have those ads to look at) why would it bother anyone?

So what does it matter? I don't understand your concern.
 
If I'm going to look for a recent ad in the BP section I'm not going to page 2,240 and contact people. Or believe a animal listed in 2003 is still available.

The only person that would be concerned is the person paying to have all the information stored.

It doesn't affect anyone else. Doesn't distract from the current ads. Maybe only people who can't read a date on a older AD or someone with a compulsive disorder to look at every page. Oh snap, That might be me.
 
You may want to note that even using the search function, I have the number of returned hits capped at 200. So even searching for something common, you aren't going to get more than 200 possible hits. Searches are very server intensive processes, so I had to limit the number of records returned for this reason.

I have gone back in the past and removed older posts that were several years old that were soft deleted by members. Also every once in a while one or more of the mods will take it upon themselves to go back and delete any attachment photos on those old posts to free up some space on the server. Whereas the text in classified ads will trigger search engine hits, the photos won't, so they can go.

So far this seems to keep things manageable. The only times those old ads even affect the server is when someone actually LOOKS at them. Otherwise, they really don't affect much at all in a negative way.

But thank you for your concern.
 
I dont really see too many sold adds unless im using a search tool... and in that case, its expected to find sold ones, your searching for some specific reptile and odds are that the first couple results will yeild the animals available and the posts after it are sold, they are in chronoligical order, so as you srmtart seeing 'sold' posts that typically means they are older posts anyway.

Personally, i think its better, because if your looking for a specific and you see they are all sold, then you as the buyer can make a Wanted add and be more specific to your own needs and have people find you instead!

Either that, ir its morivation to get onto the boards quicker/more often so you can be the next reason someone writes SOLD
 
WebSlave said:
Whereas the text in classified ads will trigger search engine hits, the photos won't, so they can go.
Click to expand...

I was wondering where the photos went. I decided not to long ago to look up some past ads to compare what the "quality" of some animals were compared to today. My initial reaction to my quest was: "dang it.... my mission came to an end so quickly.... oh well, I tried :rofl:"
But thanks for the thread either way, I used to delete my ads as soon as the animals were into the other owners hands, but with the reasons I have seen to keep the ads up, I may just reconsider my methods.
 
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