Silk Road forums
Market => Rumor mill => Topic started by: bolshytrout on July 18, 2012, 02:22 am
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As buyers I think it will be useful if we could summarize here what for us makes a good vendor. Hopefully this will help vendors to become more likeable!!! I have used SR for just under 2 months and have tried over 10 different vendors. So maybe not as experienced as many other buyers here but as I couldn't find any such thread I thought by summarizing few points maybe the more experienced buyers will be encouraged to share their views.
1. A Good Communicator
On an anonymous market good communication is absolutely essential. Vendors who are not prepared to communicate a lot more than they usually do should not come here! On the street no more than couple of sentences need to be exchanged between a buyer and a seller before a transaction but here buyers have lots and lots of questions: before the transaction, during the delivery process, and even after delivery.
Even in my short experience here I have noticed how some of our vendors forget this fact especially as soon as they become successful!
2. A Good Educator
Vendors here have an added responsibility of educating the buyers about their products. They are not simply selling to those who know what they are buying. Buyers coming onto this market suddenly come across a whole range of products (even within the specific type that they are looking for) which they have not tried before or may have not even heard of. So we are naturally drawn towards trying new things. So dear vendors in your profile page and product pages instead of childish sales pitch please be more descriptive and educative.
3. Cheaper than Street sellers
Vendors incur a lot less overheads here than on the street so this should reflect in cheaper prices. Just because buyers are prepared to pay a little more for delivery to their door does not mean SR is the best place for rip off. Here in the UK we probably have the shittiest drug market. Exorbitant prices, untrustworthy sellers, and to top it all shitty products. But some of the shit I have seen here is even worse. Come on guys, what are these ridiculous prices you are asking?
(Well I am sure a lot more can be said, but here is 3 to get your teeth into.)
I forgot to add one more point on security: as far as us users are concerned a good vendor here is one who respects buyers security. Of course all vendors take a risk too and are perfectly aware of the problem but the one major point that I have noticed a lot of them miss is to vary their shipping methods. If you stick to the same type, same return address, same business cover or same packaging and worst still keep on posting from the same post/delivery office, you are asking for it? You are making it so easy for anyone to pose as a buyer and work out every vendors shipping method. So the 4th feature of a good vendor is:
4. Uses Variable shipping method
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Hey Bolshytrout,
I agree with your points 1 and 2 - communication is HUGE and sellers should know what it is they are peddling especially for some of the more rare substances that aren't easily found out there.
I have to disagree with item #3 though. Sellers have a fair amount of overhead that you may not even now about -- right off the bat we've paid around $150 to have a seller account, and then 5-10% off the top of every transaction goes to SR as a commission. We stock and constantly research shipping materials, stamps, labels, and other supplies. When we want to get bitcoins converted back into currency to resupply, we typically pay around 10% in transaction costs getting funds back out.
So at best vendors actually get around 70-80% of what you paid by the time it makes it to them.
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Angelina, for small vendors you are right the overheads could be daunting, but bear in mind SR offers vendors an opportunity for much larger sales without leaving their sitting room!. If you have a well supplied good product and a reasonable price then you will be successful.
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Angelina, for small vendors you are right the overheads could be daunting, but bear in mind SR offers vendors an opportunity for much larger sales without leaving their sitting room!. If you have a well supplied good product and a reasonable price then you will be successful.
This is partly true but in my experience there's a lot bigger market on the street than on this site.
It is, however, very true that doing things here makes things very easy.
And Angelina, if your cashing out for 10% you're getting a better deal than I am. Good job.
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As buyers I think it will be useful if we could summarize here what for us makes a good vendor. Hopefully this will help vendors to become more likeable!!! I have used SR for just under 2 months and have tried over 10 different vendors. So maybe not as experienced as many other buyers here but as I couldn't find any such thread I thought by summarizing few points maybe the more experienced buyers will be encouraged to share their views.
1. A Good Communicator
On an anonymous market good communication is absolutely essential. Vendors who are not prepared to communicate a lot more than they usually do should not come here! On the street no more than couple of sentences need to be exchanged between a buyer and a seller before a transaction but here buyers have lots and lots of questions: before the transaction, during the delivery process, and even after delivery.
Even in my short experience here I have noticed how some of our vendors forget this fact especially as soon as they become successful!
2. A Good Educator
Vendors here have an added responsibility of educating the buyers about their products. They are not simply selling to those who know what they are buying. Buyers coming onto this market suddenly come across a whole range of products (even within the specific type that they are looking for) which they have not tried before or may have not even heard of. So we are naturally drawn towards trying new things. So dear vendors in your profile page and product pages instead of childish sales pitch please be more descriptive and educative.
3. Cheaper than Street sellers
Vendors incur a lot less overheads here than on the street so this should reflect in cheaper prices. Just because buyers are prepared to pay a little more for delivery to their door does not mean SR is the best place for rip off. Here in the UK we probably have the shittiest drug market. Exorbitant prices, untrustworthy sellers, and to top it all shitty products. But some of the shit I have seen here is even worse. Come on guys, what are these ridiculous prices you are asking?
(Well I am sure a lot more can be said, but here is 3 to get your teeth into.)
I FULLY agree with your above post.. However when you mention #3 - Cheaper than Street sellers, this should be the rule, however, depending on which market you cater to the product on SR could be "double" what you pay on the street if the quality is higher 8)
This is a good rule of thumb, however not everyone thats a vendor on SR would ever abide by all 3 'golden rules' of being a vendor.. I like your ideas though ;D
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Until you vend on SR yourself you will never realize how much harder it is than selling it on the streets. I work both IRL and on SR and while I ENJOY working on SR more than F2F it certainly requires much more effort than F2F.
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Yes limitless. I can agree with that.
I sell some things on SR and some different ones on IRL.
Getting shot on SR isn't so easy. Lol.
That's why I'm here!
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Yes limitless. I can agree with that.
I sell some things on SR and some different ones on IRL.
Getting shot on SR isn't so easy. Lol.
That's why I'm here!
No one pointing a gun to your head on SR.. that's the difference.
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Yes limitless. I can agree with that.
I sell some things on SR and some different ones on IRL.
Getting shot on SR isn't so easy. Lol.
That's why I'm here!
I do wholesale IRL and all amounts on SR. The people in IRL are people I have known for years and I am not looking to add to them. SR is a way to expand relatively safely. :)
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All very true.
The people I deal with IRL are all known to me too.
And I wouldn't trust any one of them as far as I could spit them 8)
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As far as what a 'Good Vendor should be', there is only one thing that counts, and its the opposite extreme of what would be universally considered a 'Bad' Vendor'=Scammer:
Honesty. That's the only thing. Honest about the quality, the communication time windows, the shipping time, etc. This is what you can get on SR that you can't get IRL (as an open market, anonymous community volunteering services, time and money, and some how making reputation stick and encourage trust among strangers).
It didn't bother me when one vendor didn't ship my order nor communicate for many weeks, he was upfront about it on his profile. It irritated me when another vendor kept making excuses for the delays, but when he finally confessed about the delay I didn't have any problems with him.
Of course it would be ideal and lovy dovy if we could say vendors should be quick with responses or encyclopedias about the chemistry interactions of the high (google exists) or that it should be cheaper, but that's nonsense. This site takes up alot of time and if the process is as slow on the vendor's side as it is on the buyer's, then you can't make such demands. The Pfand boom is a good example; he can either custy service all day or fill orders. To do both he'd have to hire more hands, resulting in higher costs and prices. Hopefully things will settle down, and later he'll probably need to make some policy changes on his page to stay on top of it, or crumble.
Their is only one duty of the buyer: to report whether, how or to what degree the vendor kept and followed through on his word, whatever it may be. The 'Good' or successful vendor will be the one that does, and that will be reflected by the numerous, anonymous words of others.