Where did Gear Swap go?

[Ryan Dunne]

I've noticed far fewer items being posted on gear swap since BPL required a paid membership in order to participate. Any idea where the displaced sellers are posting their stuff now? Looking for a new (old) tarp and not many posts are coming up these days. eBay? geartrade?

[Jennifer McFarlane]

Out of curiosity I looked at the number of listings on 5/18 in2010,2011, 2012
2010: 17
2011: 22
2012: 33

[Jason G]

I've noticed gear swap is not what it used to be too. I am not a member so have taken my sales elsewhere as Im sure many others have too. the community is definitely suffering because of it.

[Rusty Beaver]

"the community is definitely suffering because of it".

Yep. Inscrutable to the business personality is that when a profit is the goal…or the bottom line is the focus…..somewhere along the line, something, or someone, or both suffer in some way. Externalities.

[Bill Law]

"the community is definitely not suffering because of it".

Nope. Inscrutable to the freeloader personality is that when a free lunch is the goal…or the bottom line is ignored….somewhere along the line, something, or someone, or both suffer in some way. Externalities.

Please don't be inflamed by my rhetoric. I use it just to make this point: clearly, based on the facts (gear swap postings up 50% from a year ago, yet the OP hasn't bought his tarp), the only conclusion one can accurately draw is that tarp users tend more to the freeloader mentaility than to profit motivation.

Or something like that.

[David Drake]

+1 for actual numbers, rather than just what folks have "noticed." (No offense to the OP) These numbers may be anecdotal; maybe more data would show a different pattern. But at least they aren't a WAG.

BPL is a for-profit business, just like most other magazines (online and off). I knew that when I subscribed. On the other hand, I doubt Ryan Jordan is on the verge of being the next Mark Zuckerberg (for-profit doesn't necessarily mean "profitable").

Edit: Near as I can tell, both eBay and GearTrade take a commission on sales. So no free lunch there, either.

[Link .]

I have noticed a lot of new members that joined to sell gear.People that had been selling for a long time and that was all they were here for(Brian Latta being just one).You can tell the new members in gear swap because the red M does not show up immediately next to their name and it appears that non-members are posting in gear swap but when you click on their name it show that they have just joined in their profile.I think they have had a lot of new memberships due to wanting to sell gear,and I have not seen a drop in gear swap over the years and I see tarps posted all the time,they usually go pretty fast .

[Michael L]

Chance to complain?

I've noticed no difference.

[Eugene Smith]

Meh.

"Displaced"?

Those non-member sellers had a choice, bend or break, some people chose to take their "business" elsewhere and that's fine, used gear isn't the reason most of us contribute to the forums anyways.

[diego dean]

I dont know iff gear swap is less now or not, but ive been dissapointed by the lack of articles and reviews coming out. Seems like if we are lucky something might be reviewed every third week or so. Ther is always something new coming out and id like to here from the pros their opinions on it. This 1 part in a series of 3 things is pretty rudiculous too, seems like filler for a lack of new material. Does the site have problems recruiting writers or is it just too expensive to test out the new gear?

[Ben F]

Oh hey, a one-day sample size. How telling. And is it proportional to the growth of the community?

[Stephen M]

Gear swap has differently got quieter, when I lived in Europe I used to pick up a lot of kit on here far cheaper than on my side of the pond.

[Michael L]

"Oh hey, a one-day sample size. How telling. And is it proportional to the growth of the community?"

It is a time series not a one day sample. And yeah we need more to make Amy kind of call. But at least a time series with three data points is greater than no data and just wild claims.

[Ben F]

You're right, I did phrase that improperly, thanks. But a time series of three days is so close to useless it's hardly worth discussing.
it's sort of liking saying "Albert Pujols had multihit games on April 14, 19th, and May 16th, so he must be having an awesome year!" Not.
And even if the trend is more absolute postings, unless it's proportional to the growth of the community it doesn't mean a thing.
So, more data please!

[Scott Simcox]

I haven't been around long, but there's a ton of new stuff being posted every day and practically all of it gets sold within minutes.
If the forum used to be better before, it must have been remarkable.

[Ryan Smith]

Personally, I haven't noticed a change in the BPL gear swap traffic, nor have I seen an uptick on other forums "for sale" sections. It's not my life's mission to track either, however, so take that with a grain of salt.

Ryan

[Mary D]

I mostly notice the number of Gear Swap items I have to wade past when checking "Recent Threads." It hasn't changed appreciably. Nor have I noticed more "For Sale" items on what I call "The other lightweight backpacking site" (backpacking.net).

[Ken Thompson]

Hey Ryan . I work in Arcata. What type of tarp are you looking for? PM if you wish.

[Matthew Nolin]

I picked up a MLD spinntex tarp recently off the gear swap. There were 3 others that I missed out on in the same week. Seems busy to me just have to act quick.

[mik matra]

I can't even post a WTB in gearswap which is a bit of a poo-y thing really.

Plus, have you guys got auto-emailing set up for key words or something to get notified when new posts are posted? EVERY time I click onto gearswap things are just sold….gone too quick.

[Aaron Sorensen]

Some people enjoy that the swap is only so so right now, (although it's not).

I only wish I could view recent threads while being able to select which forum I want to view in those recent threads.

It's not that I can't stand the swap, but if I don't want to buy anything then I don't want to have to decipher through half the posts just to see what I really want to view at the time.

What I can not stand about the swap is that people get a crazy percentage from the original cost after it has been used. All I ever see is barley used pieces of gear that they can actually sell here for more than they got at on a good sale.

I only see 1 and 500 swaps posted that are a decent price. This is why I don't like viewing them.

I can go to craigslist a get 50% off most items I see on the swaps here. Such as picking up a barley used -20 Marmot col eq for $200 or a never used 0* golite 800 fill adrenaline for $150.

On this site people say they purchase a bag for $250 when you can find it for $220 and they are selling it for $210 then back down to $190 and it sells.

To me this bag, even if it was barley used, should be going for $150.

So if you guys want the swap forums to start picking up then start dropping your prices!

[f b]

i would like to use the Gear Swap part of the site but if you don't sell a ton of stuff it's better to use ebay/geartrade or my favorite just CL.

In all honesty I don't see the reason to pay just to post in that section, if it was a business than it would be ok but it's private parties selling a few things. There is no buyer/seller protection so I am not sure why. There is no cost involved to allow users to sell.

[Ed Hayes]

I agree with Aaron. I'm surprised at the prices people ask for used stuff, and the prices they sell at. I wouldn't pay most of them.

Example: There was a recent post for a Marmot Precip Jacket for $69 (or about that). You can find these on sale at that price no problem. A lot of times you can get them cheap if you look around. I see similar examples all the time.

I also think it is dumb to pay to post a WTB, but that's me.

[Rusty Beaver]

"Near as I can tell, both eBay and GearTrade take a commission on sales. So no free lunch there, either".

Hey David,

Compared to here, Ebay is damned near free. I just sold my new Trail Gloves there for $75. The buyer paid via Paypal. Zero hassle. Cost me $.50. I'd be more than happy to give the owner of a forum like this a much higher percentage. But, the owner here doesn't give that option.

rusty

[Nathan Watts]

"Compared to here, Ebay is damned near free. I just sold my new Trail Gloves there for $75. The buyer paid via Paypal. Zero hassle. Cost me $.50"

Hmmm, I avoided using ebay because by my calculations this transaction would have cost me over $9 between ebay and paypal. Two or three transactions like that pays for a membership here. But that assumes 9% cut from ebay and 3% from PayPal. What's the trick to avoiding those fees? Haven't sold anything there in a long time.

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