Please Read First Before Posting Ads And Replying In This Section

[Alexander Chin]

Rules for Using the Classifieds

We reserve the right to delete without notice any threads that violate these rules.

1. Caveat Emptor.

SFI provides this board as a convenience to our members. We will NOT mediate or arbitrate or take responsibility for transactions. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to take every precaution and to obtain documentation / legal proof for your transaction and for your own legal recourses should a transaction fail.

2. If in doubt ask a moderator.

3. No professionals, retailers, wholesalers or businesses, please.

If you are not sure of your status, please contact a moderator. Contact Adrian or Genise to establish a link or become a sponsoring business.

4. The Classifieds will be periodically cleaned of older posts.

Save information or images elsewhere if you wish to keep them.

5. ONLY Posts For Sale (FS) or Want-to-Buy (WTB) / Trade

Only post swords and sword-related items/services. (Maces, axes, polearms, armor, etc. are also okay to post. See #2 above.)
Nothing that goes bang, real estate, human organs, etc. should be posted here. Posts for things other than sales or trades should go elsewhere.

6. No more than one item and two attached images per thread. Please use thumbnails or links.

You can provide links to additional pictures OR offer to email them to interested parties.

IF you cannot include pictures post as much information on dimensions, weight, decoration, condition as possible.

7. Items advertised for sale should appear, AT MOST, in one other forum on SFI.
No splattering across multiple forums.

8. Please do not post links that navigate people away to see sales on another website. If you post it here, it must be for sale here and no place else.

This is to avoid possible conflicts-of-interest or exploitation of this service.

e.g. posts for sales on Ebay are not allowed. Some websites have malevolent javascripts. We will remove posts that violate this policy.

9. No kibitzing.

If you are not the seller or a prospective buyer, please be courteous and make any comments that are not directly related to the sale via PM/email.

10. Semi-pros, "Weekenders", and Part-timers

We wish to encourage your pursuits, but also need to avoid the appearance of exploitation. Please post no more than 1-2 items per month. If you wish to post more, please contact me or a moderator.

11. No fishing.

This is NOT for testing interest or fishing for a price. The price must be clearly posted. Accurate appraisals cannot be done via the internet and this is NOT the place to have a sword appraised.

12. Seller must be the Owner.

You must be the OWNER, i.e. in physical possession of the item. You are not permitted to act as a representative or broker for someone else's property.

[A. Ko]

We do NOT arbitrate between Buyer and Seller

We have already said that use of the Classifieds are CAVEAT EMPTOR. Yet despite clicking "I AGREE" to our rules or having read this "PLEASE READ FIRST" a few of you are NOT taking the proper precautions and are finding yourselves, then you come crying to the admins for help and you don't have any facts supporting your claim; it's your word against his.

Proper Precautions

The Internet is unfortunately not always the most friendly place. There have been con artists since ancient times. Here are the golden common-sense rules:

1. Always obtain verifiable, full contact information, including phone numbers, cellphone numbers, physical addresses, etc.
2. Always obtain shipping/tracking numbers
3. Collect your documentation, evidence, paperwork, etc. in the event you need to contact the authorities.
4. Strongly consider FULL theft insurance
5. Consider a LEGITIMATE escrow service (see the CraigsList link below on fake escrow services)
6. Do your background research on the individual. Do they have a verifiable reliability rating on eBay? Is it REALLY them?
7. Strongly consider restricting your trade/transaction to the country you're in, if you do not want to risk cross-country issues where you have no remediation.

Remember: SFI cannot arbitrate or be responsible for something you need to be taking 100% responsibility for.

This is not to say the Classifies can't be a great resource -- it can be, so long as you use common sense and follow all precautions and preparations.

On occasion we hear that someone took money but didn't ship the sword. You need to obtain their full contact information, not just their e-mail. If you use PayPal then there's a chance that PayPal could provide you with some small degree of remediation provided you have ample documentation and evidence.

If you send cash, be aware that there's no paper trail. You need to discuss with your bank the different ways that you can ensure that in the event a transaction fails you have a paper trail or documentation proving payment. SFI is not in a position to recommend or endorse any form of payment in this regard.

It is your responsibility to obtain Tracking Numbers. Virtually every major courier uses these ID numbers to track shipments, right down to which airport, dock, warehouse, halfway-point, etc. the shipment is at.

It is your responsibility to Recipient Signature acknowledgement where a courier is required to obtain the recipient's signature, instead of leaving it on the porch or doorstep.

If you are an eBay member and the one with whom you're transacting is also on eBay, if you both have a means of verifying each other's identities (don't ask us how; we don't know) then it is possible to look up each other's track records and reliabiltiy rating.

The following is CraigsLists' own "Scams and Fraud" page. You should take a moment to read this. It has some valuable information.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html


Legitimate and Fake Online Escrow Services

According to the CraigsList link, many scammers use fake escrow services. But the aforementioned CraigsList states that www.escrow.com is legitimate. SFI has no direct experiences with escrow services and cannot make any recommendations.


Administrative Quarantine of Posts

Posts that are of any concern will be moved to Administrative Quarantine. This is not a statement of the seller/trader's wrongdoing. When seller/trader has communicated with us and we feel any/all concerns fully satisfied, we will be more than happy to restore the quarantined post to the regular Classifieds forum.

Please hold off on contacting seller/trader until the entire communication process is concluded. Thank you.


Do Not Post Appraisals, Questions or Tangent off into conversations. This is not a chat forum.

The Classifieds are NOT a place for soliciting appraisals or identification:

Even if you were asking for an appraisal, such is *NEVER* done properly online in any certifiable way. No one in the antique industry will put their name down and authoratatively validate and valuate a sword based on images. Rather, appraisals are always done in person. Find a reputable antique dealer who can examine the sword in person.

The only realistic help you can expect to receive is people's opinions (qualified or unqualified, experienced or inexperienced) based on whatever limited amount of information you provide in the first place.

If you fail to provide qualitative information and images, you can expect to receive feedback commensurate with what you provided. If your photographs have bad focus, bad lighting, bad composition, etc. then don't expect people to say "That's a 1876 pattern piece that is worth $24,000" because for all we know it's a photograph of a cheap wallhanger tossed on your bed and photographed with an indoor flash.

[Alexander Chin]

People are ignoring these two rules:

8. Please do not post links that navigate people away to see sales on another website. If you post it here, it must be for sale here and no place else.

This is to avoid possible conflicts-of-interest or exploitation of this service.

e.g. posts for sales on Ebay are not allowed. Some websites have malevolent javascripts. We will remove posts that violate this policy.

and

6. No more than one item and two attached images per thread. Please use thumbnails or links.

You can provide links to additional pictures OR offer to email them to interested parties.

IF you cannot include pictures post as much information on dimensions, weight, decoration, condition as possible.

We reserve the right to delete without notice any threads that violate these rules.

If you have questions about a missing thread, please include the thread title when contacting a moderator.