986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post

BrokenLinkage · 12-08-2015, 10:26 PM

I'll take the other side of this argument.
NOT cool to flip cars here. Not figuratively. (Not literally either, Fred)
Legal, yes. Understandable, yes. But not socially acceptable.
Why?
People sometimes list all sorts of parts and even entire cars at below- market prices on this forum. They do this for many reasons, and far be it from me to divine the seller's motivation in any given case. But among the most common cited reasons are 1) the desire to pay forward all the good will and good advice from which they have benefited as forum members, and 2) the desire to see the car (which they have worked so hard to maintain and improve) go to a new owner who appreciates both the car for its inherent positive attributes and the efforts of the prior owner to maintain or even enhance these attributes.
These sellers are making a conscious effort to make their goods available at prices less than the open market, or even trade-in value, but only to a select group of people defined by this forum, out of respect for a shared enthusiasm and sense of community. To buy on the forum for the purpose of flipping often disrespects the seller's intent, and certainly decreases the prospects of a future seller of similar motivations listing something below-market on this forum.

Look, in this America, people offer the profit motive as an excuse for all kinds of behaviors. But in an exchange among enthusiasts and forum colleagues, money generally is not the only motivation. Otherwise we would all be on the wider market of craigslist/ebay/etc. So if someone wants to, in essence, violate the social trust of the forum by flipping intentionally underpriced sales here, well so be it, it isn't against the law. But I am not going to applaud, because it lessens the forum.

Imagine if I solicited help on various occasions from JFP, Jake, and ByPro, each time benefiting greatly from their knowledge, experience, and time spent with me; then it came to light that my questions were to help me work on my customer's cars rather than my own, and that I was in some way competing with each of these three. Would it still be ok to convert the largesse of others into profit for myself? For how long do you think they would continue to contribute to the forum?

I will add that I have no knowledge of this particular case, so maybe the seller didn't care, maybe he had it listed in 27 different places and discounted it deeply just to have some cash before his bookie came knocking, or whatever. But on the surface it smells uncool to buy cheap on an enthusiast forum and immediately relist at 55% markup in a broader forum.
I'll further note that I was almost tempted at $5500, but then I considered that I really don't need another box, and while I could flip it, I would rather see it go to some enthusiast that would use and appreciate it. So I guess you could say that my intent upon Not buying it was defeated, too.

So nothing personal against Van, and his explanation makes sense. But I hope he gets to enjoy his car (or cars), that the 3.4 gets driven by someone who appreciates it, and that flipping of goods doesn't start happening too often around here. There are plenty of other places for that.

12-08-2015, 10:26 PM	#20
BrokenLinkage Registered User Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Alabama Posts: 487	flipped out I'll take the other side of this argument. NOT cool to flip cars here. Not figuratively. (Not literally either, Fred) Legal, yes. Understandable, yes. But not socially acceptable. Why? People sometimes list all sorts of parts and even entire cars at below- market prices on this forum. They do this for many reasons, and far be it from me to divine the seller's motivation in any given case. But among the most common cited reasons are 1) the desire to pay forward all the good will and good advice from which they have benefited as forum members, and 2) the desire to see the car (which they have worked so hard to maintain and improve) go to a new owner who appreciates both the car for its inherent positive attributes and the efforts of the prior owner to maintain or even enhance these attributes. These sellers are making a conscious effort to make their goods available at prices less than the open market, or even trade-in value, but only to a select group of people defined by this forum, out of respect for a shared enthusiasm and sense of community. To buy on the forum for the purpose of flipping often disrespects the seller's intent, and certainly decreases the prospects of a future seller of similar motivations listing something below-market on this forum. Look, in this America, people offer the profit motive as an excuse for all kinds of behaviors. But in an exchange among enthusiasts and forum colleagues, money generally is not the only motivation. Otherwise we would all be on the wider market of craigslist/ebay/etc. So if someone wants to, in essence, violate the social trust of the forum by flipping intentionally underpriced sales here, well so be it, it isn't against the law. But I am not going to applaud, because it lessens the forum. Imagine if I solicited help on various occasions from JFP, Jake, and ByPro, each time benefiting greatly from their knowledge, experience, and time spent with me; then it came to light that my questions were to help me work on my customer's cars rather than my own, and that I was in some way competing with each of these three. Would it still be ok to convert the largesse of others into profit for myself? For how long do you think they would continue to contribute to the forum? I will add that I have no knowledge of this particular case, so maybe the seller didn't care, maybe he had it listed in 27 different places and discounted it deeply just to have some cash before his bookie came knocking, or whatever. But on the surface it smells uncool to buy cheap on an enthusiast forum and immediately relist at 55% markup in a broader forum. I'll further note that I was almost tempted at $5500, but then I considered that I really don't need another box, and while I could flip it, I would rather see it go to some enthusiast that would use and appreciate it. So I guess you could say that my intent upon Not buying it was defeated, too. So nothing personal against Van, and his explanation makes sense. But I hope he gets to enjoy his car (or cars), that the 3.4 gets driven by someone who appreciates it, and that flipping of goods doesn't start happening too often around here. There are plenty of other places for that.