Commercialism

[TheBadJoker]

Good Afternoon Fellow Collectors and Playing Card Enthusiasts;

My question is this. Would any of you on this Vintage thread have an objection to my posting every few weeks a few of the great decks that will be auctioned off at Potter & Potter the last weekend in May?  Mr. Administrator, Mr. 52 + Joker and any others, your thoughts please.

[52plusjoker]

Larry
It is a free world and lots of promotion on this site. We try and avoid posts that look like advertising. I'd say, thanks for asking and a few posts with cards is fine. I would be happy if you waited until March 17th when the club auction is finished.
Tom

[Don Boyer]

I would add to Tom's comments that we actually have a board for the promotion of such sales - the STISO board.  In addition to handling direct sales and trades with fellow forum users, people have been posting eBay auctions and sales for a long time now - I see no reason why an auction with another site should be treated differently.

Please READ THE RULES for the STISO board before posting anything - there is a "sticky" topic at the top of the board's topic list, you can't miss it.  You only need to read the first post - it's kept edited and current at all times and contains all rule changes.

If you are passing on valuable information about a vintage or antique deck, A Cellar of Fine Vintages is the perfect place to create a topic for it or add to an existing one.  If you're planning to sell said deck at auction, the STISO is the better location.

Also, as Tom requested, I respectfully request that you hold off until after the Club's auction is completed.  Not an order, just a request.

Thanks for bringing the question to our attention prior to posting - it's much appreciated.

[athomas16]

I may be in the minority here, but I WANT to know what you guys are selling.  To protect the board from getting cluttered up, all member auctions could be kept to one thread.  Below you will see an example of how another forum handles this issue.

I propose that as soon as the club auction ends, Tom start a Member Auction Thread in the Cellar.  This will allow those of us who buy/sell on EBay (or other auctions) to communicate with each other and keep the board clean.

[52plusjoker]

This has merit - let me discuss with Don & Lee and we'll figure out the best way.

[Don Boyer]

Athomas16 - have you seen the STISO board?  "Sales, Trades and In Search Of."  People post personal one-on-one sales and trades there all the time, side-by-side with notices of auctions taking place on eBay.  It seems a little silly to have TWO marketplaces (one for 52+J members only, one not) rather than just the one.  Worse, posting a sale or auction on a 52+J-only topic limits potential buyers only to the dozens of club members who've signed up here rather than the thousands of people, members and otherwise, that are forum users, of which several hundred are quite active.

Many board users have used the STISO board for selling vintage decks as well as modern custom models.  A few users there are a little lazy about using good topic labeling, but most of the time when a vintage deck is up for grabs, that seller gives a better description in the title of the topic.

Here are a handful of sales topics that were posted listing vintage decks:
http://www.playingcardforum.com/sales-trades-isos/(saletrade)-vintage-bee-squeezers/
http://www.playingcardforum.com/sales-trades-isos/(sale)-bee-and-tally-ho-vintage-decks/
http://www.playingcardforum.com/sales-trades-isos/(trade)-swapping-a-couple-of-older-bicycle-lotus-and-club-back-decks/
http://www.playingcardforum.com/sales-trades-isos/(sale)-sealed-vintage-gemaco-gemback-casino-pro/

Please, take a look at that board and let me know what you think.  If you know of ways that can be improved, I'm all ears and I want to know.

Edit:

Here are the stats on board users.

25 ranked as 52 Plus Joker Member (does not count forum staff)

121 users who've made at least 100 posts
293 users who've made at least 20 posts
768 users who've made at least 1 post

102 new users since the beginning of the year

[athomas16]

Thanks for the responses fellas!

When I look through the 52+J auction sheets I'm constantly thinking, "I wish I knew more, I wish I knew more!".  I own a Hochman, but I haven't had time to memorize it yet.  So I'm afraid that I may skip bidding on a great deck because I don't appreciate how special it is.  MyBadJoker's question, if I understand it, is can he do some write ups on some of the better decks in the P&P auction.  When I came to the thread, it looked like Tom and Don were not wild about the idea.  Which is understandable because you probably already know a lot about the decks that P&P is selling (and have an obligation to keep the board clean).  So I spoke up to encourage MyBadJoker to follow through. 

I don't have any objection to "advertising posts", but I can understand why some might.  From my perspective MyBadJoker will not only educate me on some decks, but also give me a chance to but them.  In that same line of thought, Tom of Judy might like to do some quick posts on some of the 52+J items.

As for the business about when/where a this type thing should be posted, I don't have a dog in that fight.  My personal (mild) preference is to keep it in the Cellar so I only have to stay on top of one forum.  From the standpoint of the seller, it does seem to make some sense to do it where it would be seen by the most people...

Either way, I'm so glad we found this forum.  A couple years ago I was begging Judy for this very thing.

[Don Boyer]

I'll try to make this simple for everyone.

ANY member can post information about ANY fantastic vintage deck design that he knows about in the Cellar.  We welcome that with open arms.  If he posts information about a deck design that just so happens to be at auction somewhere, well, so be it - the situation remains the same.  The auction link can be included at the end, no big deal.

If he was either the seller of the deck or if his primary reason for posting was to promote the sale of that individual deck rather than passing on information about that deck design that would apply to MOST or ALL examples of that deck, that's something that's better placed in the STISO.

Examples

Cool reference article with images about Joe's Widget Company ad deck circa 1927 - Cellar

Cool article displaying and describing a specific Joe's Widget Co. deck for sale at "CardAuctionsRUs.com"- STISO

Cool reference article with images about Joe's Widget Company ad deck circa 1927 which also mentions in passing that there's one for sale on CardAuctionsRUs.com - Cellar (though it is recommended to post in the STISO as well in order to reach a broader audience).

That's how I see it, since that's pretty much what we've been doing with all decks before we created a specific board just for the vintage models.  Of course, Tom or Lee may weigh on this, should they feel differently.

There's always going to be a degree of overlapping into other boards - for example, when talking about a great new designer deck that just so happens to also be a marked deck; is it something that goes in the Playing Card Plethora or in the Magical Cardistry Bonanza?  But this is how you should look at it: the Cellar, just like the Plethora, should be a home of worthwhile information about a deck design in general, the kind of place that a future card historian might refer back to when seeking information about this deck design.  The STISO is the better place for the posting and promoting of a sale of one or more specific decks in that design.  That information wouldn't necessarily be as valuable to a researcher, unless the subject of research is the economy of ad-hoc marketplaces online.

[athomas16]

Perfect