Requesting opinions Providing A Selling/buying Channel on TTF

[Erestor Arcamen]

We’ve had a few people who have had items or swag, etc. that they were interested in selling.

Should TTF set up a channel to aid in facilitating this kind of thing?

TTF would only be responsible for having the forum post channel, we would not be responsible for the transaction, the money moving, etc. - that would be solely up to the members. It would exist as a 'use at your own risk' thing.

You could report abuse and spam to us of course, but that would be the limit to what we would support.

So I’d like to see what others’ thoughts on this would be. We would limit the forum to well established members. So someone wouldn’t be able to join for a day just to list something for sell.

 

[Halasían]

Oh... *whew* This is about a buy/sell forum on Tolkien Forums.
I saw the headline and thought that Tolkien Forums was on the market being bought/sold.

 

[Ent]

Oh... *whew* This is about a buy/sell forum on Tolkien Forums.
I saw the headline and thought that Tolkien Forums was on the market being bought/sold.

I've altered the title and a little of the content to eliminate this confusion and clarify...

 

[Halasían]

Cool. The place has changed ownership a couple times I believe, and I'm quite happy Mazzy is the King of TTF-land.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Oh... *whew* This is about a buy/sell forum on Tolkien Forums.
I saw the headline and thought that Tolkien Forums was on the market being bought/sold.

No, I’d be the one buying it if I could 😁

 

[Deimos]

I'm on other forums that have a "marketplace".**
It's not enough to limit to members, because you'll get people who "join for a day" just to sell something.
The "member seller" should have at least 100 posts. (100 is my idea)
Yep, "thems no small peanuts" and it will take a while to accumulate the required number of posts (whatever that number is).
But that's what every other forum I'm on does: membership AND a sizeable number of posts (but you have to be a member to post anyways)

** I think it's a great idea.
I've sold stuff to members I've known for several years. Always a "smooth transaction."
Though I'm sure having a marketplace here won't be limited to Tolkien/Me related items, I do have some to sell, and this would certainly be the proper venue for selling them.

 

[Ent]

The "member seller" should have at least 100 posts. (100 is my idea)

Yes, we've been discussing such things, if we 'go there'.
Not only number of posts consideration, but also (if it can be achieved) a 'length of time as a member" has been mentioned as I recall.

indeed IF we go there, it will be with what protections are reasonable to contrive...

Keep the thoughts coming everyone..!!!

And above all, in your mind "does it have a value to the forum, or do the risks outweigh the values in your mind."

 

[Deimos]

Yes, we've been discussing such things, if we 'go there'.
Not only number of posts consideration, but also (if it can be achieved) a 'length of time as a member" has been mentioned as I recall.

indeed IF we go there, it will be with what protections are reasonable to contrive...

Keep the thoughts coming everyone..!!!

And above all, in your mind "does it have a value to the forum, or do the risks outweigh the values in your mind."

Length of membership AND Number of posts.... should limit most, if not all, "fly-by-night" sellers.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

It's not enough to limit to members, because you'll get people who "join for a day" just to sell something.
The "member seller" should have at least 100 posts. (100 is my idea)

Yes, we’re limiting it to well known members

 

[TrackerOrc]

I think it's a really great idea.
You could extend it to members giving stuff for free to other interested members - I buy a lot of books from local charity shops, read them once and send them back to the shop. I'd be happy to send them to other members of the forum who might be interested.
Be a good marketplace for members of a creative,crafting turn of mind as well.

 

[Halasían]

Maybe I can hawk my vintage Tolkien Forums t-shirt on it.

 

[Deimos]

Maybe I can hawk my vintage Tolkien Forums t-shirt on it.

You have a Tolkien Forums T-shirt???!!! Do you have pics of it???

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Hal did post a pic of Elora's tank top version:

But said he lost his here:

TTF T-Shirts, Et Cetera

I've been asked quite a few times over the last year or so to put the TTF t-shirts back online, so, here you go ... http://www.cafepress.com/thetolkienforum ... I chose CafePress, because I still have some of those I had made some ten years ago and they're still in pretty good shape. :)

thetolkien.forum

So maybe he finally found it? 🤔

BTW, I suggested this in part because it might be a way to attract new members to the forum; that would probably mostly depend on whether it would come up when people search for "Tolkien books for sale" or some such. I know @Manwe did some work to get TTF to appear more frequently in search results. Whether he could do it for this, he'll have to answer.

In any event, one idea is to require inquiries to be via DM only -- no posting of phone numbers or email addresses; basically a diabolical scheme forcing people to register as members. 😉

On the other hand, there's a suggestion to make the ""TTF Marketplace" visible only to registered members, like the Photo Album.

Something to mull over.

 

[Deimos]

In any event, one idea is to require inquiries to be via DM only -- no posting of phone numbers or email addresses; basically a diabolical scheme forcing people to register as members. 😉

On the other hand, there's a suggestion to make the ""TTF Marketplace" visible only to registered members, like the Photo Album.

Something to mull over.

Make the Marketplace Forum heading visible to anyone.... it's called "baiting the hook" . Not sure if doing a search would bring it up but I guess it would.
So someone visits the main menu of all the forums and sees the heading for Marketplace. He clicks on it and gets some kind of pop-up that says "you have to be an established member of [X number] months to access the marketplace. "
Note that the person who IS a member but is one with a shorter membership time would get the same pop-up.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

A possibility -- but on the other hand, think of people being able to see all the good stuff they're missing out on by not being a member! 😄

 

[Deimos]

A possibility -- but on the other hand, think of people being able to see all the good stuff they're missing out on by not being a member! 😄

If you can work it out that would be ideal.

 

[Halasían]

Hal did post a pic of Elora's tank top version:
But said he lost his here:

So maybe he finally found it? 🤔

I did find it. It along with my other surviving Middle Earth forum site t-shirts were used to wrap breakables with during one of the moves and never got unboxed. Not sure if Elora kept hers as she sent off a few bags of old clothing to the charity collection. I still have the vintage Minas Tirith and Barrow Downs forum t-shirts as well. I had a TORc t-shirt but I had a red-stamp 'Banned 2-6-2023' silkscreened over the logo on the back. It was comfy and I wore it until it fell apart around 2010.

 

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

So was there TTF Merch back in the day?? Or did someone just design a T-shirt as a one-off?

Maybe we could make some new designs for TTF merch and sell it through Redbubble or something!

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

See Dapence's post in the thread I linked.

 

[Halasían]

So was there TTF Merch back in the day?? Or did someone just design a T-shirt as a one-off?

Maybe we could make some new designs for TTF merch and sell it through Redbubble or something!

Yes there was. There were two vintages of TTF t-shirts (examples in the 't-shirt' thread).

See Dapence's post in the thread I linked.

If I remember right Dapence, (the former TTF owner), had a cafe press page with other items available.