Say NO to traders on Tennis-Warehouse

[Yevgeny2010]

Why am I saying this?

Just some feedback from a new user...

I posted looking for an old Yonex RD-7 the other day and noticed that I was approached by a few traders who (I think) had been banned on TW or were current new members on TW. It's not always easy to spot traders contacting you, must check their email address (which hardly ever changes) or their alias and compare it to those on fleabay or other places. They seem nice at first.

Why am I ****ed about this? Because these guys scoop email addresses from TW posts and buy up cheap from TW members, taking advantage of people's kindness to post items here and then flip the items on fleabay for a huge profit. Then they get angry when you try to negotiate the price, not knowing they are traders. Without knowing they are professional profiteers, you soon find out by their attitude towards you when you try to negotiate the price.

I'm also ****ed because these profiteers take advantage of the good folks here at TW who provide this free forum for members and tennis enthusiasts to exchange ideas and the occassional stick.

What would I do about it?

1) Advise TW members to always ensure they buy/sell from other members and not fleabay traders. Advise members to always insist on getting the other persons TW alias, so you can look them up on the forums and verify them.

2) Stop allowing people to post their direct email addresses on TW classified posts, this means they bypass all scrutiny by working outside the forum. Instead ensure contact is made via profiles.

If you think this is harsh and unwarranted then you have the option of listing or buying your items directly on fleabay and dealing with traders youself, don't expect TW forums to be the intermediary for doing this. It's like using someone else's shop to to sell your private items. Poor form.

[Yevgeny2010]

I'm not going to defame anyone here as I don't think I have the credibility on this forum to do so. However, based on my personal experience so far there is a shop in Germany/Denmark (.dk) and also a shop in the Big Apple that I think take advantage of TW forums, although I will leave it up to you to do your own research when the time comes.

The .dk shop even refused to provide photos of the rackets they were trying to sell me, giving the excuse that they don't have any photos of one racket and only small photos of another.

Good luck

[Kot_Bigemot]

This does not belong here. Should be moved to "Odds & Ends"

[Fearsome Forehand]

The OP means dealers or racket flippers not traders. Although there are people here who probably wish they had said no to traders (like the ones who did trades with scammers.)

There are a few sellers in Europe that flip a lot on fee bay; rackets24 and abc's of tennis (among others.) I have bought frames from both with mixed results. I have not run into them on TW though. Are they active here?

The worst racket flipper I have seen on fee bay in the USA that is/was active on TW is tennislicous (flea bay name, he used to be called summersky). Pure blatant profiteering on a grand scale. This is the same guy (TW name = theplayer2330) that was posting numerous wanted ads on TW for rackets $60 and under a while back. You might as well take your racket, multiply your asking price by a factor between 3 and 10 and put in on fee bay yourself and save him the trouble. :) He hasn't posted in a while so I wonder if he changed his TW user name.

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=293067

He changed his fee bay name a couple of weeks after these posters outed him as a racket flipper. Coincidence?

I don't think there is anything wrong with occasionally buying a frame and selling it for more than you paid if the market will bear the price. But, when you are in the business of doing so and are routinely buying hundreds of rackets for $50 and under and then putting them up for sale on fee bay for $150+ that goes against the spirit/intent of the TW Classifieds. Besides, anyone who has 500 rackets for sale (inventory at cost about $25K to 35K?) on fee bay (or anywhere else), and runs a tennis based business is a dealer plain and simple. They shouldn't be allowed to do business on TW Classifieds as TW prohibits dealers. If you run across a dealer on TW Classifieds, do everyone a favor and out them.

The OP should name the dealers that contacted him so we know who they are. He should also inform the admins if he has been contacted by dealers on this board.

[Purist]

Thank you for bringing this up as I may have just finished a transaction with one. He seems like nice guy and our transaction went smoothly, and I got what I asked for my rackets. But as he is in Europe, he asked if I would be willing to occassionally help him get stuff shipped to him. For my time he said he'd give me some commission. At first this seems like a great way for me to get some sets of strings or whatever but now that I read this, I will be having some conversations with him about this.

[vkartikv]

I wonder how much profit one can make by buying cheap here and selling on e--bay. Consider the cost of listing and those incurred in sales. Unless it's a really valuable racquet like a pt 630 or st. vincent (which would have cost you an arm and a leg in the first place), I don't see how this could be a profitable business.

[Richie Rich]

I wonder how much profit one can make by buying cheap here and selling on e--bay. Consider the cost of listing and those incurred in sales. Unless it's a really valuable racquet like a pt 630 or st. vincent (which would have cost you an arm and a leg in the first place), I don't see how this could be a profitable business.

when you factor in listing fees, buy it now fees, ending auction fees, paypal fees and potentially reserve fees it doesn't amount to much profit for the amount of time involved. if you are selling 50 frames a month and making $10 it's an extra $500. seems like a lot of work but it's obviously worth it to some people. maybe they make a lot more profit by marking up the shipping?