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Tightening up "The Gun Show"

B

bclark1

New member
While I generally agree to leave markets alone and let suckers be suckers, the direction this board's gone with a moratorium on political discussion seems fairly well enforced except in the buy/sell area. Though quite a bit more nuanced, (debatably-)barred political remarks are still there, and I find myself rather inclined to post replies in peoples' sale threads to point out the inaccuracies of what they've written or their own transaction histories that expose their attempts to flip guns like a poorly renovated house in '05.

One gentleman who frequently posts threads of dubious interpretation under buy/sell wrote "You Are Not going to be able to get these type of assault rifles anymore" when trying to offload a couple semi-automatic rifles at egregiously inflated prices with respect to even the present market. Naturally, he is simultaneously trying to haggle for similar rifles also for sale. Another recent member posted a (and re-posted a repeat) thread attempting to determine the value of a tactical-style shotgun, stating the asking price was $600. He's now got it for sale at $1100, with the admonishment that "You all know these are getting hard to get... Get it why [sic] you can."

At the very least, these are members attempting to leverage the current concerns of gun owners to make a buck off another shooter. They speak to nonexistent bans or restrictions in a completely speculative nature.

So, while it's against our rules to post detrimental comments in peoples' sale threads, I can't shake from my mind the possibility that, in this narrow instance, two wrongs might make a right. While I concede that the ignorant consumer is his own worst enemy, and people could easily do a quick background thread-search on sellers, I do think the attitude of these sellers justifies putting their foot in their mouth for them. The solutions I see:

1) Members are allowed to post remarks that point out the flaws in logic or dodgy transaction histories of the sellers.

2) Alternatively, moderators could lock these threads as political (although that perhaps would draw more attention in the seller's favor, as everyone would wonder why it's locked), as they're based on the pretense that a yet-unprepared gun ban is imminent.

3) Members are allowed to ask questions in-thread like "Why will these be hard to get?" or "When did you buy this firearm, and at what price?" I believe this is within-bounds already, and then moderators could deal with the forced responses when the seller states that "Obama is taking these away" or becomes personal with a board member who clearly knows more than they're letting on.

I'd appreciate any input from the moderating team as to if any of these possibilities would get a member of the board in trouble.
 
Definition of "fair price": The price that a willing buyer pays a willing seller. If you are not the buyer or the seller, the price for an item is not relevant to you...what someone else is willing to pay does not cost you a cent. This is free enterprise. IMHO
 
You could always send the seller a PM and bring it up privately. Otherwise as dahermit stated, it's a free market.
 
Caveat Emptor, a fool and his money are soon parted, there's a sucker born every minute, etc. If somebody is fool enough to fall for those come ons all I've got to say is it's their money. I personally wouldn't do it but some folks are like that.

Hoytinak, I like that sig line.:cool:
 
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