Jump to: Can't Find the Marketplace? | General Rules | Rules for Sellers | Rules for Buyers
The Marketplace forums are provided as a service to qualified MacRumors members, allowing them to buy/sell/trade items they own with other members. The rules, which have been fine-tuned over time, are designed to make the Marketplace serve its purpose efficiently and to minimize problems.
All offers of items for sale or trade, or for free, or asking to buy or receive items must be posted in a Marketplace forum and are subject to these rules. Members not eligible for the Marketplace may not start threads for such purposes elsewhere in the forums.
The Marketplace is for individual-to-individual sales of personally owned items or items personally owned by and in the possession of a family member living in the same household. The Marketplace is not to be used by or for any commercial business, to sell items purchased for resale purposes, or to promote fundraising efforts. If you represent a business looking to advertise on this site, contact MacRumors.
There are other websites more specifically devoted to buying, selling, and trading computer equipment, and to tracking buyer/seller reputations. The reason we have our own Marketplace is that it provides more focus on Apple products and is convenient for members who have had opportunities to learn to know each other.
Although items in the Marketplace are primarily Apple-related, they are not limited to Apple items.
The Marketplace Archive 1, Marketplace Archive 2 and Marketplace Archive 3 forums hold Marketplace threads from previous years.
Can't Find or Access the Marketplace Forum?
Before you can access the Marketplace forums, you need a minimum post count of 250, as displayed in your User Profile, and you must have been a MacRumors member for at least 180 days (about 6 months). Posts in certain forums do not count toward this total. Marketplace posts do not count toward your total post count either. If you start a "for sale" thread or make other Marketplace-type posts in another forum to avoid the minimum requirements, your thread/posts will be deleted.
The requirements for post count and length of membership are designed to limit those offering sales, purchases, or trades to members who have been around the forums enough to become known and have an investment in their MacRumors membership that they are unlikely to want to risk. Although new members or members with fewer posts may be perfectly responsible buyers or sellers, other members have few ways to confirm that at MacRumors. The lack of a post history in the discussion forums has proven to be a detriment to successful dealmaking. The requirement for length of membership will not be an issue for most members, but discourages rapid posting by new members who might try to build their post count to gain Marketplace access quickly.
- Eligibility. To use the Marketplace forums (read threads, start threads, or post replies), you must be a forum member with user title 6502 or above, which means that you have 250 or more posts (messages) as displayed in your User Profile. This gives other members a chance to become familiar with you. To see your User Profile, click your name and then Your Profile Page at the top of a forum page. You must also have been a member for at least 180 days. If you have enabled the "Receive an alert when you receive a new trophy" setting in your Alert Preferences then the forum system will send you an alert when you are first eligible for the Marketplace.
- Forum rules. All regular Forum Rules apply to the Marketplace.
- Ownership. The Marketplace is for personal sales/trades of items owned by the members involved. You may not state that you are buying, selling, or trading on behalf of others, because it can interfere with responsibility and decision-making; YOU must be the sole party involved in the transaction with another forum member. You must be in physical possession of any items offered for sale at the time they are offered, and they must be available at the time you post.
- Commerce. The Marketplace is not for commercial business.
- Fundraising. The Marketplace may not be used for fundraising.
- Suitable items. The Marketplace is intended primarily for Apple-related and other computer-related items but is not limited to such items. We do not permit offers to sell/trade/buy hazardous materials, weapons, or age-restricted items that would be illegal for our members aged 13+ to purchase. We do not permit sales or trades that violate laws or items on eBay's Prohibited and Restricted Items list. When in doubt, contact us for permission before starting a Marketplace thread.
- Excessive sales. Excessive numbers of sales of new/unused items, or sales for excessive amounts of money - including gift cards - are not allowed. If the volume of sales is larger than would normally be expected for someone using the Marketplace only to sell personal items, then it's probably too much. The administrators have sole discretion for this condition; if you're unsure, contact us before you list. When in doubt, contact us for permission before starting a Marketplace thread.
- Terms and Conditions. The Marketplace may not be used for transactions that bypass, or are intended to bypass, the Terms and Conditions of a product or service. This includes rules about product resale, service transfer, and the iTunes Music Store requirement that each international store be used from within its own territory (example: iTunes U.S. Terms of Service).
- Jobs. Offers of employment are permitted only when you personally want to hire someone, e.g., to design a graphic for you. You may not make job offers on behalf of a business or another person. Personal job requests (requests for employment) are permitted.
- Feedback. MacRumors does not maintain its own feedback system. If you have feedback elsewhere, you can post a link to it (and mention the name you use at that site) as a way to convey your credentials to others. Site with feedback systems include eBay, HEATWARE, and Agora. Both parties to a completed or failed transaction may post in that thread to give credit to the other or to report problems. Members may not post feedback in other Marketplace threads. Feedback should be a statement of facts that you know first-hand. If the parties disagree, they should each state their point of view, then let other members draw their own conclusions.
- Disclaimer. MacRumors does not and cannot evaluate sales, items, sellers, buyers, or prices. These rules are intended to maintain order and to assist, rather than impede, personal sales and trades among forum members, but cannot ensure that every offer is legitimate or fairly priced. MacRumors is not responsible for the actions of forum members in carrying out the terms of sales, purchases, and trades.
- Common sense. Use common sense and be straightforward in your dealmaking. Observe the spirit, not just the letter, of these rules. When in doubt about a rule, ask a moderator. Before entering into a transaction with another member, look at his or her previous Marketplace transactions, feedback from others they have dealt with (very important!), and their forum posting history. Make sure you have contact information outside of the Marketplace forums before sending money or goods to another member.
- Payment method. Since MacRumors offers no protection or formal mediation help, we strongly recommend that members not choose payment forms such as PayPal "gift" payments, cash payments, or peer-to-peer payment systems such as Square Cash, Venmo, Facebook Messenger, or Apple Pay Cash. These methods do not permit formal recourse via the payment system in case of disputes. Members who arrange trades in the Marketplace should keep in mind that by their very nature trades aren't subject to the protections available through payment systems.
- Rule violations. If you think a sale, buyer, seller, or other forum member is breaking Forum Rules or these Marketplace Rules, report it using the Report feature. Don't police the sale yourself. If a member has a history of Marketplace problems or is involved in a disputed transaction, their other Marketplace activity may be frozen.
- Sincerity. Offer to sell or trade only if you are serious about doing so.
- One thread. Create a single thread for a given item or set of items to be sold or traded together. Duplicate threads are not permitted, even across different Marketplace subforums.
- Thread title. Use a short description of the item(s) as the thread title. A typical thread title might be FS: 15" 1.67GHz PowerBook. Your thread title does not need full system specs since you'll post details in the thread. If you are selling only in a particular country or geographic area, you might include that in the title, e.g., FS/T: 17" eMac (U.K.) Commonly used abbreviations include:
- FS: (for sale) -- same as WTS: (want to sell)
- FT: (for trade) -- same as WTT: (want to trade)
- FS/T: (for sale or trade) -- same as WTS/T: (want to sale or trade)
- FA: (for auction)
- WTB: (want to buy)
-
Thread content. Any item listed for sale in the Marketplace must be one of four things:
- Purchased by the seller for his or her own personal use (used by the seller);
- Given as a gift to or inherited by the seller (used or unused by the seller);
- Bought by the seller who now regrets the purchase (used or unused by the seller);
- Be personally owned by and in the possession of a family member living in the same household and who meets condition number 1, 2, or 3. In this case, the member who posts the sale is personally responsible as seller.
In addition:
- Separate threads are required for unrelated items;
- It is not permitted to add or remove items from the first post of a for-sale thread, because it can easily confuse users who are already considering or discussing your offer. Exception: You may add items to sweeten the deal without raising the asking price. Otherwise, use a separate Marketplace thread for new items.
- Feelers. Adding the word "Feeler" to the thread title invites others to comment on your proposal and critique your offer or price (see Buyer/Trader Rule: Exceptions below).
- Description. Post full description(s) of the item(s). Even if you post a link to eBay or other sale/trade/auction site, you must include the description in your Marketplace thread so that potential buyers/traders can evaluate what you are offering by what you post in the forums. The MacRumors Marketplace is not to be used simply for advertising your sales or offers elsewhere.
- Be clear what items are included or not included and what their condition is. Potential buyers/traders will respond better to factual descriptions (model numbers and specs) than to infomercial-style superlatives or posts in ALL CAPS.
- Price. For sale threads must include a price. Feeler threads are not required to post a price. You can set any price you choose, but we suggest that you ask for a price that you consider reasonable and will accept.
- Additional information. Members often ask for photos, your location, the reason you are selling/trading, methods of payment and shipping, and/or whether you have seller feedback from previous transactions. It may help you to anticipate these questions and provide the information up front, particularly if you are a lesser-known forum member.
- Licensing. You may not offer to buy/sell/trade any computer, hard disk, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, or other device containing music, video, unlicensed commercial software, or other software/files/data that is sold commercially. You should reset an iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, or similar device to factory settings before offering it for sale or trade. If you are selling/trading a computer with other than the software it originally shipped with (or free updates since then), you must explicitly state that master discs (CDs or DVDs) for that software will be included, as an indication that you are transferring the original installation media and the end-user license (EULA) to the other party. This rule is strictly enforced.
- You may not avoid this rule by claiming that software or music is to be erased by the other party or that it is for "testing purposes only".
- If you mention currently installed music, your post may be edited or your thread closed or deleted.
- If you mention currently installed commercial software (e.g., Final Cut Pro, MS Office or a new, more recent O.S.) and do not mention the master discs, your post may be edited or your thread closed or deleted. When you leave it ambiguous, you do not get the benefit of the doubt.
- Posting. Post in your thread for any of these reasons. Otherwise, wait for responses and accept that you may or may not get them.
- to answer questions or respond to posts by others
- to announce when the sale/trade has been made or the items are no longer available (so that other members won't continue to post or contact you)
- to announce a nontrivial price change (state the old and new prices) - for an explanation of "trivial", see rule 12., Bumps, below.
- to announce other nontrivial changes in the items, availability, or offer, stating what changed
- Bumps. As in all threads, "bump" posts (those that simply bring the thread to the top of the New Posts list) are not permitted because they are unfair to other members' threads. This rule applies not only to posts that say "bump" but to those with the intent to bump, including:
- Trivial changes to the offer - changing the price by either 5% or more (minimum $5), or $50 or more is fine, anything less may be considered trivial;
- "Last chance" posts counting down the time remaining;
- New threads started to sell the same items;
- "Message sent"-type posts. Since all interested parties should accept Private Conversations started by other members (as set in your Contact Details) and should be watching for and reading them (see next rule), there is no need for such posts.
- Messages. Make sure that the Accept conversations from... feature is checked in your Contact Details page. We suggest enabling the Receive email when a new conversation message is received option as well. Watch for Private Conversation messages, as well as posts in your thread, since potential buyers/traders may prefer to contact you privately rather than post in the thread. If you post your e-mail address in the thread, watch for e-mail too. Plan to respond promptly, after no more than a day, to offers or after a deal is made. Answer questions posed in the thread by interested parties.
- Interest. If you are interested in the sale/trade, you may ask questions or make an offer by posting or by contacting the seller privately through Private Conversations. If you have trouble contacting them or you don't hear back after more than a day, you can post in the thread to ask if they got your message (see Seller Rule: Messages above).
- Sincerity. Offer to buy or trade only if you are serious about doing so.
- Hijacking. If you have similar items for sale or trade, start your own thread. Do not post about your sale in someone else's thread.
- Offers. If you are an interested buyer/trader but don't like the price, make what you consider to be a reasonable offer or see the Non-interest Rule below.
- Non-interest. If you have no need for the items or don't like the price, items, payment method, or other terms, ignore the thread. Do not post negative remarks about the sale or seller based on their offer, or suggest to others that they buy other products or buy/trade at other sites. Do not post unsolicited price advice or comparisons of the offer with those from other sources. Do not try to derail somebody else's sale by posting in the thread. Let shoppers make their own decisions.
- Exceptions. Exceptions to the Non-interest rule:
- You may post comments about prices or comparable offers elsewhere for threads named "Feeler" or for which the thread-starter has explicitly solicited advice.
- You may send Private Conversation messages to other members to make an offer, and justify your offer based on comparable offers and prices elsewhere.
- You may send Private Conversation messages to other members involved in a transaction, including pricing suggestions to a seller, with the understanding that they are free to heed or ignore your advice and that you may not send repeated unsolicited e-mail to other members.
Links
- Marketplace forum (you'll get an error message if you don't yet qualify for access)
- Marketplace Archive 1 forum (closed)
- Marketplace Archive 2 forum (closed)
- Marketplace Archive 3 forum (closed; you'll get an error message if you don't yet qualify for access)
- Forum Rules
- Your Contact Details page
External Links
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.