Quality Sporrans for less money

[FossilHunter]

You're free to your opinion, and I too like the sense of community that helping others spot diamonds in the rough encourages.

From my point of view, it takes some of the sport out of hunting through listings knowing that it's just going to be spoon-fed to anyone who happens upon the forum. Obviously anyone could bid higher to win the auction, but if you, like me, enjoy finding a deal, this makes it harder. This isn't like a sale at Macy's, where there are multiple items for a set price. More often than not, it's something that's a one off, has either been misidentified by the seller or is just not something the casual forum member would be aware of or would even have cared about until someone explained the significance. Because it's an auction, the increased interest leads to higher prices. The idea of promoting "affordable" items is a little self-defeating, as increased competition makes it less affordable. It's not so much an issue of ethics and, as stated above, I know that it's made with the best intentions. Think of it like a great local bar or restaurant - the minute someone starts talking about it on Yelp or some forum, getting a table becomes impossible.


There is a ton of information on the boards and in this topic that could help teach people what to look for. I have no problem with suggesting methods for finding deals (the Morrison sporrans listed presently aren't exactly difficult to find) or reviewing recent auction results so people know what's out there, but come on... learn what to look for and then do the work yourself.


As far as putting limitations on not being able to link to items a forum member is selling, how exactly would that be monitored? Seems tricky.

While I find getting a deal gratifying, it's not my main reason for using ebay. Getting the thing I want is the main draw, though saving money is always a plus.

And realistically, I doubt this thread will start any major bidding wars. Some people wear kilts, a smaller number of them read this forum, a smaller number of those people wear traditional sporrans, and an even smaller number will want an authentic, Scottish sporran. Of the people who see this thread, many will dress non-traditionally, and more will probably elect to just wear a cheap Pakistani sporran or the one they already got from the kilt shop.

Regardless, I think we'll just have to disagree about the ebay thing.

My other thought about a deals section wasn't clear in my previous post. It would probably not include ebay listings. It would need to be "deals, coupons, and sales" from online stores and would need to not include vendors or advertisers who should advertise deals on their own sub forums I think. It would be a good way to share deals for things that don't get advertised here (like the wingtips at macys). It shouldn't be too hard to keep out spammers since the moderators see peoples email addresses and IP information, that's what allows them to keep banned members from coming back with puppet accounts. There is also the probation period all new member have that requires that all of their first ten posts be approved my moderators. It would be difficult for someone to make a bunch of fake accounts from the same IP address and run each through ten moderated posts just to promote "Seamus' house O' Kilts."

That's my general idea. Maybe I will start a new thread to suggest it so I don't derail OC Richard's thread too much.