MultiFeedback

[OmniJackal]

I am curious to know what everyone thinks about good feedback that transcends multiple trade/sale sites. What I mean is this; new guys on the BT scene come here, haggle for a trade, and then insist that you send first because they have more feedback on ebay than you have here. What do you guys think about this? It's probably just me but I couldnt give less of a squirrels hole about who has what feedback elsewhere. It is just too easy to lie about who you are and where you have been.
Thoughts?

[Camlost]

~~~And you'd be right in assuming that someone's ebay feedback means about as much here as it would if they wanted to go to a bank to get a loan...so it means diddly shite.

I've had several people try to pull that one on me, and more than once they haven't even bothered to use their own ebay account. One even made the blunder of using an ebay account from another country altogether.

I'm not saying that anyone who wants to use tehir ebay feedback is a scam artist, but it happens.

I've been a citizen here at bartertown for several years now, & have a pretty solid feedback rating, so when someone asks me to consider their ebay standings, I just let them know that only bartertown references matter & for the most part, after they check mine out [most don't bother unless you tell them to] they are fine with that.

Anyone who won't trade with you because they have bought more stuff on ebay than you [more often than not, their ebay feedback is all as a buyer which means nothing to me since I am expecting them to basically be the seller here on bartertown] really isn't ready for the type of trading that we do here, & will either have to wise up, or find some other place to trade.

[mad monk]

I'm with you on this one.
First off,I've seen so much bul....hit on ebay I don't care if i ever use that site.
I count trade refs here on B'town where I can confirm them.PERIOD!
If thats not cool with who I'm dealing with,simple...we don't deal.
So far I've had no problems at all, and have never been burned.
Bartertown is the best.
MM

[OmniJackal]

Well thats gravy. I thought I was the only one who refused to honor ebay feedback lol.

[Ralph]

I guess it depends on what you think 'feedback' proves.

I like Btown feedback because of the nature of the trading. It a system built entirely on honesty and trust. A trader who can build a reliable history here has shown himself to be honest and reliable (Ouch! I think I hurt my arm patting myself on the back.) If both traders have a reliable history here, then I don't care who ships first.

On the other hand, if someone has no history here on Btown...
Then eBay feedback is also acceptabe IF you have your own eBay account to check them out. Then you can log onto your own account, look up the other trader under their eBay name, and send them an email through eBay to confirm their idenity on Btown.

Ex :
eBay name : HonestAbe
Btown name : SlickWillie

Go to eBay.com. Log in.
click on 'Advance Search' (upper Rt hand corner)
click on 'find a member' (Lt hand column)
Enter User ID or email address of member -click on 'Search'
click on the matching name 'HonestAbe'
click on 'Contact Member' (upper Rt hand side)
Send your email. Something like : Hey HonestAbe, some guy on Btown named SlickWillie is claiming to be you. Please respond to this email to confrim your idenity. Thank You signed CynicalSam
*You can also check their eBay feedback history by clicking on the number in parentheses next to their eBay name.

At least you know they are who they say they are. And eBay will tell you how long they've been a member.

If everything pans out ...
The upside is, that this person has a history of satisfactory transactions on the internet, using the postal system.
The downside is that eBay will have no part in the transaction, and will NOT help you if anything goes wrong. (Not that Btown can do much either) Getting help with bad transactions is a whole other thread.

If the person who contacted you had good + feedback on eBay, in a sizable number (say? at least 20-25 transactions), has been on eBay at least a year, was fair, polite, explicit on the condition of what he was sending and what he expected in return, answered emails promptly (within 48 hours), then yeah I wouldn't have a problem shipping first.

In addition, for a sizable transaction, you could also ask for their address and phone number and contact them that way to confirm their idenity. They probably wouldn't mind; you can get most of this information off of Google anyway.

Good Luck
Ralph

[OmniJackal]

Actually BT is more helpful in purging smacktards from the system and having them hauled off to jail than ebay is. ebay could care less, they get paid either way since they have numbers. We however have a fantastic community that rallies around people getting ripped off and forms a solid support group.

[orcdom]

yes ebay feedback dont mean squat. before www.portent.net closed its doors, i even initiated a couple trades there but since they didnt have a referencing forum or whatever like like bartertown i got them to join here and got refs posted that way.

ebay dont mean crap here tho, here you get to actually voice a little bit about the actual trade as well not just like the 80 or so chars ebay lets ya have.
Steve