A question for those who ALWAYS say ship first in FS/FT

[Kenazo]

As a result of the earlier thread here in re: to Heatware and shipping...

For those of you who say you ALWAYS say ship first I am curious about a few things:

#1: Do you use heatware? Do you leave evals for others and get them for yourself? If so, what is the purpose of that?

#2: If you don't believe heatware/evals should be used to determine shipping/payment arrangements, what type of system do you propose for online trading? Obviously, everyone can't say "I only ship first" because that wouldn't work...someone has to ship first.

Edit: Before anyone gets upset, I am not trying to belittle this. I am sincerely curious as to what you think would be a better system for internet trading...maybe the method we have is not the best?

Edit 2: I am not asking about the value of heatware. For those of you who missed the earlier thread, there are seemingly a lot of people who say they will ALWAYS make the other person ship first...my question is, how does that work?

 

[Krye]

I'll jump in

I do check references before I ship. I don't think I've ever asked someone to ship first though. Usually someone's refs tell you how trustworthy the person is.

 

[Anubis]

usially if i sell something id like the money first just because it insures me im not getting ripped off. no if i bought something i woudl expect to have to pay first. and i usially do. I have shipped first before payment on my first few trades/sales. and teh other person had 50+ positive heatware evals showing me that he can be trusted and everythin worked fine.

i think the system is fine teh way it is but improvements can be made to anything

 

[Evadman]

I used to always ship first when I had little heatware. Ckeck their heatware, verify it, and ship. Most of the time I got paypal before I shipped anyway.

 

[kt]

Heatware evaluations are there for you to use at your discretion. You don't have to worship it like some do.. I've done a lot of trading before internet is widely used (yes, I am from the FidoNet BBS days) and before we do a trade or buy/sell we would call one another up. It's amazing how much you know a person just spending a minute on the phone with the person than thru numerous emails.

 

[wnied]

When I was establishing my evals on heatware I shipped first the first ten times I sold something here...after that I had established enough of a heatware eval list to have peoples trust. I also use my ebay evals in this forum too as a way to show how reliable I am on a deal.

~wnied~

 

[Johnnie]

heat is very useful...use it
I have had lots of "new traders" ship first.

 

[crystal]

I only brought two or three times in the FS/FT forum (a long time ago, but never created a heatware for them). I alway payed first.
Of the two transactions that I sell something in FS/FT, I have to ship first one time and other time, the money is in my paypal account before I closed my PM, it was that fast. Both transactions are over $200 so take that however you may. BTW, I alway included shipping confirmation with the packages.
As for the ebay transactions, I alway do the buying. Alway payed first before any sellers will ship. Of all the transactions, only one went bad, but I count that as much as my faults because I went against my insincts. The guy has zero(0) feedback. The guy even leave me a positive feedback before he take my money and ran.

 

[Kenazo]

I put my ALWAYS in caps. My question is about those who always say ship first...

If you missed the earlier thread, apparently there are quite a few people who won't do a deal unless the other person ships first (heatware doesn't matter) these questions are for them.

 

[KingNothing]

I've never come across anyone who requires shipping first myself. Only time I've ever done it is when I bought a $300 monitor from a guy with little or no feedback. He agreed to ship first, monitor arrived as described, and it worked well.

Always requiring someone to ship first is dumb, IMO. I pay first for things I buy when the seller has good feedback and I expect the same from other people.

 

[Tom]

"Heatware evaluations are there for you to use at your discretion. You don't have to worship it like some do.. I've done a lot of trading before internet is widely used (yes, I am from the FidoNet BBS days) and before we do a trade or buy/sell we would call one another up. It's amazing how much you know a person just spending a minute on the phone with the person than thru numerous emails. "

Exactly. I've been buying and selling stuff in newsgroups, FidoNet, Genie, for at least 15 years.

Never shipped before payment, never asked anyone to ship to me until I paid them.

 

[Darein]

When I sell something I want to get the money first. I don't care if people say its polite to ship first, if I have the money I know I won't lose my item. The seller is the one buying and if it is clearly laid out in the sale, then there should be no problem.

 

[Ameesh]

i think FS/FT is way shady.

 

[thomsbrain]

sold some stuff recently, with no heatware. some people wanted me to ship first, some payed first without my asking. all of them had great heatware so i wasn't worried. all the transactions went fine and now i've got heatware.