I think the following is a very sensible idea that will help Ten determine how many (and what kind of) Classified Ads are perceived as being commercial.
Quote:
Originally Posted by develvjd-  How about a "Flag this post as Commercial" button on all personal Classified ads. If enough members flag the post as commercial... |
Another idea would be to restrict each member to one Classified
FOR SALE Ad posting per month which still allows members the opportunity to "house clean" their collections. Of course, I would exclude WTB/WTT Classifieds from this policy since I don't see them as fitting easily under the Commercial designation.
Personally, I think a good starting point to separate Commercial from Personal sales regarding live casino chips would involve three things:
1) quantity for sale, 2) location, and 3) price above face value/cost. Instead of the whimsical locations that some CT members list in their profile, members wanting to post a Classified Ad would be required to disclose their location (verified by their IP address location, if necessary). From that, I think we can reasonably conclude that any listing for live casino chips in quantity (50 or above) from a seller residing near the location of that casino, at a price greater than face value is a commercial enterprise.
I suppose another criteria could be a
"produce to order" component. That is to say, table builders and chip manufacturers conduct "produce to order" business - which is very different from collecting. So, unless it was a barter situation ("WTT"), I would designate table building to be strictly a commercial endeavor.
It's worth mentioning that I chose not to address the issue of "flipping" or speculating on closed casino chip sets as these are typically one-time listings. Although I've seen a few members do this regularly (giving the impression that these are commercial attempts), I do distinguish between those sellers who are re-allocating existing chips and those introducing new chips into the collecting community. For example, I love seeing TR King hotstamp sets and Crystal Park sets change hands, and to me that is completely different than someone selling live casino chips that are (comparatively) easier to acquire and (comparatively) easier to replace.
Thoughts?
