Separate EU classified section?

[threesixright]

Hi, not sure if this is on the right place. Maybe even already proposed in the past. Sorry if that’s the case.

I follow the classified section for sometime but every time I read a new advertisement it’s near almost US based. So more and more I don’t want to look anymore because shipping is either not possible or very expensive.

I know it’s a US forum, but wouldn’t a EU section be a bit handier/possible?

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[Gregor]

Or at least the ability to strip sub-forums from 'Unread' as the classifieds are completely useless to me (distance/transport cost and different mains voltage).

 

[semenza]

I can see that as a possibility. Though we need to think about how much world wide division we want in the Classifieds because I don't know if we want to end up with a country by country break down. EU seems easy / obvious at first, but then maybe someone wants only France , or only UK, etc. Then there is the rest of the Festool using world ............. Australia only, and so on.

But maybe.

Seth

 

[threesixright]

I can see that as a possibility. Though we need to think about how much world wide division we want in the Classifieds because I don't know if we want to end up with a country by country break down. EU seems easy / obvious at first, but then maybe someone wants only France , or only UK, etc. Then there is the rest of the Festool using world ............. Australia only, and so on.

But maybe.

Seth

Thats a good point. If sellers would set the 'sale area' in their subject (i.e. [US] or [EU] or [DE], etc.) it would already make a big difference. But I don't see that happening soon

You guys have access to some stats I think? I have not a clue how many FOG users are from the EU? This issue is slightly bigger, same is that a lot new tools also are US focused (with ridiculous shipping cost), not truly a option for the 'average' EU member.

I do think that lots of tools ara heavy and subject to import tax (if your unlucky) and a heavy shipping fee, and can not imagine lots of tools are shipped to EU (or other continents) for that matter.

Unfortunately we don't have a poll option, we could have asked the members... [smile]

Well I hope you guys (admin's) can give it a serious thought. Maybe a experiment (can always merge  it back under 'one roof')?

Thanks for listening!

 

[tewic]

I would also very much appreciate it. At the moment I do not even consider using the classified section, as it's dominated by US based sale. It would however be great if it was possible to filter it to show EU or US only topics. That way it would also make more sense for EU based sellers to use this as a place to sell their tools.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Waste of time. Far too little people from the EU participate here and the amount of EU people that put things up for sale here is miniscule.

Back in the days when I was a wee little fellow I tried to sell tools here, but never got a single reaction. Never saw anybody else outside the USA post classifieds.

It is a waste of time to create a board that will stay empty.

Want to buy Festool stuff in Europe? Check www.marktplaats.nl - best website for used stuff in the EU, and lots of Festool products offered there.

 

[Gregor]

Check www.marktplaats.nl - best website for used stuff in the EU, and lots of Festool products offered there.

One would have to learn dutch first... So when in the EU it might be best to select a site that is local to your country (which often also makes shipping/pickup easier).

 

[threesixright]

Waste of time. Far too little people from the EU participate here and the amount of EU people that put things up for sale here is miniscule.

Do you know how many from EU are registered here [tongue]?

Maybe, its not because not many EU members are here active, but because this (sales) forum is more oriented to the US. And because of that no EU members are even trying. Admin's can have a look at the member base and see how many are registered actually from the EU. I have not a clue if its 1% or 20%+ which would be a good indication.

Hey, we can try no? If its not used, close it  [smile] No harm done IMO.

On a side note, I know martkplaats.nl (although I'm dutch, I don't live in NL anymore) not sure if I would buy it there. Here, at-least we have a better 'feeling' who you be buying from.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Do you know how many from EU are registered here [tongue]?

You: Join Date: Aug 2017 - Posts: 338

Me: Join Date: Nov 2008 - Posts: 6087

Good luck explaining this website to me.

On a side note, I know martkplaats.nl (although I'm dutch, I don't live in NL anymore) not sure if I would buy it there. Here, at-least we have a better 'feeling' who you be buying from.

They are just letters on your screen. Is that a good feel? How about a person that shows up here first time and offers a conturo for $3200?https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/...o-set-with-96-glue-pucks/msg589545/#msg589545

You know nothing about the people here.

You always have to be careful buying used things, especially online. Marktplaats is a dedicated trading site with a lot more safeguards than this forum will ever have.

Hey, we can try no? If its not used, close it  [smile] No harm done IMO.

Of course you can. It's not up to me but to the moderators.

I have bought and sold a lot of Festools and other things over marktplaats and other places. Made a lot of money with it. I also tried here, I have actual experience. So with my prophetical powers, I predict it is going to fail, the way EU participation is here right now.

It is not this sites' fault, it is because of the lack of EU participants.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Check www.marktplaats.nl - best website for used stuff in the EU, and lots of Festool products offered there.

One would have to learn dutch first... So when in the EU it might be best to select a site that is local to your country (which often also makes shipping/pickup easier).

It is just a suggestion, but one that works a lot better than using the FOG. The website is still marvelous. What's your local alternative? Please share.

 

[Gregor]

Check www.marktplaats.nl - best website for used stuff in the EU, and lots of Festool products offered there.

One would have to learn dutch first... So when in the EU it might be best to select a site that is local to your country (which often also makes shipping/pickup easier).

It is just a suggestion, but one that works a lot better than using the FOG.

Yes, that's very likely.

What's your local alternative? Please share.

ebay-kleinanzeigen.de works ok for me, a while ago I set an alert there for 'festool' (and some other keywords of my interest) with a reasonable radius around where I live and over time it yielded quite some items on my wish list, ready to be picked up (without having to drive too far) for fair prices. YMMV on yield, depending on area.

 

[zapdafish]

can the user location be auto appended to the subject if posting to the classified forum?

 

[peter halle]

can the user location be auto appended to the subject if posting to the classified forum?

Not to the best of our knowledge.  But this question also brings something else into the equation - anonymity on the forum.  There is has never been a requirement to post under a real name nor list a location. 

Would it be helpful if posters would at least list their country in their profiles under "location"?  Yes.  But then some want more isolation from the web.

Peter

 

[threesixright]

can the user location be auto appended to the subject if posting to the classified forum?

Not to the best of our knowledge.  But this question also brings something else into the equation - anonymity on the forum.  There is has never been a requirement to post under a real name nor list a location. 

Would it be helpful if posters would at least list their country in their profiles under "location"?  Yes.  But then some want more isolation from the web.

Peter

Could FOG add in the stats page, number of users / country? It would be helpful to (at-least) understand where members are coming from...

 

[peter halle]

can the user location be auto appended to the subject if posting to the classified forum?

Not to the best of our knowledge.  But this question also brings something else into the equation - anonymity on the forum.  There is has never been a requirement to post under a real name nor list a location. 

Would it be helpful if posters would at least list their country in their profiles under "location"?  Yes.  But then some want more isolation from the web.

Peter

Could FOG add in the stats page, number of users / country? It would be helpful to (at-least) understand where members are coming from...

Not realistically.  We honor member's right to anonymity.  Always have.  On a case by case basis those of us behinds the scenes can look up a member either for moderation or in an effort to help, but what you are asking for isn't available to us on a large scale.

Peter

 

[threesixright]

can the user location be auto appended to the subject if posting to the classified forum?

Not to the best of our knowledge.  But this question also brings something else into the equation - anonymity on the forum.  There is has never been a requirement to post under a real name nor list a location. 

Would it be helpful if posters would at least list their country in their profiles under "location"?  Yes.  But then some want more isolation from the web.

Peter

Could FOG add in the stats page, number of users / country? It would be helpful to (at-least) understand where members are coming from...

Not realistically.  We honor member's right to anonymity. 

How (or why) does a just a list of countries and total number of members jeopardises anonymity?

 

[RC]

As much as I would wish an EU marketplace would work it is not like the EU is a single country like the US so private person shipping between EU countries is usually cost-prohibitive for heavy and bulky things like tools. I once tries to send a 1,4m tall, 40cm x 40cm object from the UK to Finland and the cheapest quote I got was around £160... I ended up flying to my mates house in Leeds to pick it up and bringing it as luggage home as it was abt. the same price in total and I got a guys weekend out of it to boot.

In practice doing EU marketplaces would mean doing maybe Central Europe (FR, DE, NL, AUS) marketplace, a Scandinavian (DK, NO, SE) and a separate Finnish / Baltic marketplaces to keep transport costs in check.

I shop regularly from German and Dutch webshops and Google translate is your friend, but private persons will never be able to offer reasonable postage for products. =(

 

[peter halle]

[member=65767]threesixright[/member] , believe it or not, this forum does not require members to indicate where they live when they sign up.  And to best of my knowledge what you are asking for is not readily available.

Peter

 

[threesixright]

[member=65767]threesixright[/member] , believe it or not, this forum does not require members to indicate where they live when they sign up.  And to best of my knowledge what you are asking for is not readily available.

Peter

I think you misunderstand then (or II explain myself badly  ), I'm not asking for any individual info. I would just like to know totals (member count) per country.  And those didn't fill it it is just "all others". I fail to see how to that would expose individual information.

If I would like to sell my tool, and see there are a few hundred members from my country, it might be use-full to place advertisement.  At this point we (non us) are "blind" when it comes to using the classified section.

There is already a stats pages that gives some info on messages posted / year /month, total member, time on line, etc. If possible a simple list with members (total count!) per country would be useful/interesting imo.

Something like this:

Country	# total
USA	1234
Germany	1234
France	1234
UK	1234
Unknown	1234

 

[Gregor]

There is already a stats pages that gives some info on messages posted / year /month, total member, time on line, etc. If possible a simple list with members (total count!) per country would be useful/interesting imo.

The google analytics that is spying on the users of this forum should have an approximative answer to this question, in the form of unique visitors per country. Which would be more relevant for the question if it makes sense to make a classifieds post as it's the amount of actual viewers that decide, not the amount of users (as they might not be active).

I still would likle the ability to exclude subformus that are uninteresting to me from 'Unread'.