Classifieds

[pauley71]

Maybe I'm having a grouchy Monday but I don't like the way the classifieds are being filled with dealer boats.  Who likes looking at a boat ad without a price?  More dealers are finding the site and are only going to make it worse.  Maybe we need a NEW and a USED classified?

[SouthsideBoarder]

I agree.

Or a Dealer and Member or Private Sale section?

[braindamage]

There’s 2 or 3 other threads on this topic right now. I think the mods do a great job on this site but for some reason they are very resistant to this. I’m not sure if their issue is philosophical or technical.

[Ronnie]

I'll run this up the flag pole again with the other Admin/Mods.

Here's my issue and I Do Not Expect 100% agreement with the Membership;

1. Like it or not, the Classifieds are a source of revenue for us to keep this site online. Remember, there is no Vendor advertising here and we'd like very much to keep it that way so we don't have to answer to any vendors or protect their products on the Forums.

2. Again, like it or not, the $upproting Dealers are paying for these ads through their $upporting memberships levels. Yeah, we get that they are probably only doing it for the ads. Still, it's revenue for us And it, IMO, would be very unfair if we singled out their ads and placed them in a Classifieds section where they could be easily overlooked. 

3. It's very easy to scan through the "Added By" User Names on the Classifieds list to see who posted the ad. 

[Slurpee]

Just a suggestion.  Is it possible to set up the "ignore user" to also include the flag for classified messages?  I tried it on Boulder Boats and it doesn't make the boat listings disappear.  But if it did that'd be an elegant way to let users filter it out on their own if they care enough about it.

[Ronnie]

Not sure if/how that would work but it's an idea. The software would be the limiting factor there.

[braindamage]

I get it. I didn’t know they had to pay and that it was a substantial source for the site.

im good. Keep it as is.

[Ronnie]

29 minutes ago, braindamage said:

I get it. I didn’t know they had to pay and that it was a substantial source for the site.

im good. Keep it as is.

I'm not saying they are a "Substantial source' for the site's cost recovery but, it is a revenue stream that we would lose if they were to be put in a situation where they felt uncomfortable and not treated like a Supporting Member.

We are still discussing this, no agreement yet. I can't make any promises how or if it will change. We are listening to your suggestions.

The other thing is, Malibu doesn't like (Possibly even forbids) for Dealers to post pricing on new boats. You can imagine how pricing wars would be with the different pricing across the country if they were posted online. Look at the other Classifieds on other online sites, you most likely do not see pricing on new boats from Malibu/Axis. Even at that, the prices they would post would only be starting pricing and your final price may or may not be the posted price depending on many factors such as size of dealer, year end sales, returning buyer or your negotiating skills.

[BlackBluMalibu]

Maybe limit the number of boats posted in any given month by any paying member or something along that line.  

[RedWakesetterVLX]

I mean it’s kinda annoying but in the same sense it is what it is.  I just gloss over them and move on. They are either paying for the ad or are a supporting member so I’m ok with that since it’s supporting the site as small as it may be. 

Edited October 6, 2018 by Cazan
Spelling

[WakeGirl]

Hey all,

I haven't been ignoring this, just very very busy in my own life.

If I were to put in a filter for new & used boats that would be a required field when adding a classified, would that be acceptable? My thought is that would be enough, but I want some feedback before putting the effort into coding this up.

[shawndoggy]

56 minutes ago, WakeGirl said:

Hey all,

I haven't been ignoring this, just very very busy in my own life.

If I were to put in a filter for new & used boats that would be a required field when adding a classified, would that be acceptable? My thought is that would be enough, but I want some feedback before putting the effort into coding this up.

IMHO using the tried and true by owner/by dealer method for all ads (like craigslist does) would be a better solution overall.  

[RyanB]

I think it would be an improvement if you added a requirement for a asking price for all classifieds.

[WakeGirl]

On 11/2/2018 at 10:03 AM, shawndoggy said:

IMHO using the tried and true by owner/by dealer method for all ads (like craigslist does) would be a better solution overall.  

 

On 11/2/2018 at 11:41 AM, RyanB said:

I think it would be an improvement if you added a requirement for a asking price for all classifieds.

After discussing this with the other admins, I've implemented a filter for new/pre-owned boats, which should help. I'll leave the explanation to them for why we didn't do a dealer/owner filter or require an asking price.

[Ronnie]

I’ll chime in on that. 

New/Used will be the same as Dealer/Private. You won’t see New sales as Private sales. 

Malibu won’t let the Dealers post pricing. You can imagine the price wars they are preventing by this policy. 

[gorilla]

55 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

I’ll chime in on that. 

New/Used will be the same as Dealer/Private. You won’t see New sales as Private sales. 

Malibu won’t let the Dealers post pricing. You can imagine the price wars they are preventing by this policy. 

Actually, price wars would be a good thing....except for the BS of "We won't do warranty work on your boat since you didn't buy from us" mentality. This has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. I understand supporting your local dealership, but saying crap like that will make me NEVER buy another Malibu in the future. That argument has been played out a bunch on this forum, but I won't go into it any further. Luckily my local dealership is nothing but spectacular......great group of people.

[WakeGirl]

Don't shoot the messenger....

[Ronnie]

Let him fire away! He's speaking of his experience at the Dealer level, not the manufacturer level. It's a two side coin that many don't want to see, buyers look at it from their perspective and most times do not see it from a Manufacture or a different dealer perspective.

We're talking about listing pricing here.

List who a price war will be good for other than the buyer. 

Do you think that Malibu Corp's main concern is with you getting the best deal out of your region or protecting their dealers from going under?

Will it be good for the dealer that sells 5-10 boats a year vs. the one that sells 100 a year?

Will it be good for the dealer that has 3 employees vs. the one that has 20?

Will it be good for the dealer that has 4 left over boats at the end of the model year vs. the one that has 40 left overs?

[Pnwrider]

A rule that a price has to be listed just means the dealer can decide IF they want to continue to list boats here or not. 

[shawndoggy]

11 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Let him fire away! He's speaking of his experience at the Dealer level, not the manufacturer level. It's a two side coin that many don't want to see, buyers look at it from their perspective and most times do not see it from a Manufacture or a different dealer perspective.

We're talking about listing pricing here.

List who a price war will be good for other than the buyer. 

Do you think that Malibu Corp's main concern is with you getting the best deal out of your region or protecting their dealers from going under?

Will it be good for the dealer that sells 5-10 boats a year vs. the one that sells 100 a year?

Will it be good for the dealer that has 3 employees vs. the one that has 20?

Will it be good for the dealer that has 4 left over boats at the end of the model year vs. the one that has 40 left overs?

@Ronnie, we don't really have that many examples of Malibu standing up to protect a small mom and pop dealer like that do we?  I mean they put the knife in @SmoothWaterMan's back after all.

Doesn't Malibu also "prohibit" dealers from selling new boats out of territory?  So one wonders why the "big" dealers that advertise here, when their target audience is limited?  I mean these big dealers wouldn't sell to someone who lives in a small dealer's territory, right?

[Ronnie]

36 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

@Ronnie, we don't really have that many examples of Malibu standing up to protect a small mom and pop dealer like that do we?  I mean they put the knife in @SmoothWaterMan's back after all.

Who knows? I don’t know where or why Malibu draws the line? I’m sure someone there knows.

Doesn't Malibu also "prohibit" dealers from selling new boats out of territory?  So one wonders why the "big" dealers that advertise here, when their target audience is limited?  I mean these big dealers wouldn't sell to someone who lives in a small dealer's territory, right?

They evidently do not prohibit that as we see it from time to time. You would have to ask the advertisers here why they post ads. Do you think TMC should prohibit them from posting ads out of their region? I don’t feel that’s our place to police that policy between the dealer and Malibu, or the policy between dealer and dealer. They pay their Supporting Member money and get the same perk as the next Supporting Member. We’ve separated them from the others here for you so you don’t have to spend that extra few seconds looking to see if it’s a new boat or preowned. I suppose it was hard to recognize a dealer’s ad from a private sale when it’s the current model that’s for sale. Now you can look at the tag instead and you won’t have to look at the ads if you choose. I look at them all for examples of gel patterns and colors. I’m always looking for the next trend. I wish there was a place to look at all color and option examples. It would make decisions on ordering new boats easier for buyers.