Quote:
|
Originally Posted by David
My own personal definition of a dealer is anyone who regularly makes a profit from the resale of items. Whether this is the person's major source of income in immaterial.
99% of what was being posted in terms of keris for sale in these forums was being done so by opportunistic dealers who either spent no time whatsoever contributing to discussion in the keris forum or, worse yet, used discussion in the forum to manipulate information for their sales.There was constant misrepresentation of the age and quality of pieces and in a genre of collection where there are constant forgeries and artificially aged pieces things were getting way out of hand. It's easy to say handle the people, not the swap, but in practice it was near impossible. Dealers were using the Keris Forum itself to subtly introduce keris that were intended for sale. Banned dealers often resurfaced with new tag names and keeping track became a complicated case of cat and mouse. Personally, as a collector of keris, i have never used the swap to make any purchases, though i have been tempted by a few items that i just couldn't afford.  I make my purchases from a few well know and trusted dealers who, while members here, don't seem to see the need to use the swap forums at all to sell their items. Every now and then i make a gamble on ePray if i think i see a deal or a sleeper item. But as the rules exist today i would find no problem offering a keris for sale if i wanted to lighten my own collection. I have, in fact been considering doing just that and i don't see what particular rule is so constricting that i would find myself unable to place an ad there. It's certainly a whole lot less complicated then putting up an auction on eBay and i don't have to pay anyone a percentage of my sale. The service is absolutely free for members. It does, of course, become a problem when people become members with the main emphasis being to set up a free sales site on our forum. This is obviously not the case with you. I find you to be a valued and involved member who spends much time contributing to forum discussion. But this is not every dealers take (and yes Gav, even though you have a "day job" i do consider you a dealer. You have a website and i am sure that you make at least some profit, however small, on the re-sale of your items) and frankly i would love to see the swap return to the spirit of a collector-centric outlet. Let's face it, just about all of us scourer eBay practically daily for deals. Dealer member websites can be clearly found on profile pages if members are searching for items. Most of us are already aware of them and if we like them they are bookmarked on our computers. The importance of Vikingsword and it's original purpose and design is one of sharing discussion and knowledge, of exploring the world of ethnographic weaponry. It's membership is knowledge, varied and international and the type of information that can be found here is often more accurate and detailed than any book or museum curator is capable of providing. It is not now, nor has it ever been primarily a place of commerce and if either selling or buying weapons is anyone real reason for being here then i am afraid that they are missing out on the bigger picture. |
David,
Great and valid points within.
I think it is clear that the swap forum is
NOT the reason people are here, however the real double edged sword is we are all here to discusss learn and study these wonderful weapons but think for a momnet, and yes there are many external avenues for commerce but without commerce be it here or anywhere else, there is no flow of product to follow. No product, nothing new, nothing new, no learning, no discussions. Please take it as a point context, not an absolute.
I'll take a back seat for a while and see what the broader community have to say as they are what makes this forum so fantastic to participate.
I look forward to seeing the questions I pose answered in time.
Gav