for sale section. Yes I know why I can't see it, I think its stupid though.

[Jody_S]

I personally object to the notion of granting read-only or public access to the For Sale forum. Why? I don't want this relatively obscure and unimportant sub-forum to become a price gauge for people selling their crap on eBay. The For Sale forum is more of a privileged semi-private place for members to deal with each other, exclusively. Prices asked, and realized, are not indicative of any particular gear's worth. For the items that matter (SF lenses), realized prices are already posted in the public area of the forum.

As an aside, I find this hilarious:

I spent a lot of time over the last few days researching via...

Plus, you're on location for another 2 months? I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, no one but an idiot savant has ever mastered large format photography in that sort of time constraint. If you really want to learn this, you need to budget your time in years.

[Kirk Gittings]

The way Bugs Bunny used to do it, Albuquerque was only one wrong turn from ANYWHERE.

Jonathan

It is!

[John NYC]

To the original poster, KEH -- in my experience -- is a much, much more reliable way to get good equipment than here, in my experience. You might pay a little more, but you know what you are getting as their ratings are usually spot on or even better than what you would expect. Anything in LN- or EX+ condition in my experience looks fantastic, and literally like new to lightly used at worst. I have also had great luck with EX condition. Even their BGN condition sometimes surprises me.

[welly]

Thank you for that info Leigh,

I usually search and add 2011 at the end of the search term, didn't even think to advance search for this topic. Thank you very much.

I actually hoped to get access to the classifieds earlier for myself and others in my situation, and to get things sold in the classifieds section quicker. Basically I was trying to contribute positively to the forum.

Not sure if it's a rant or a reasonable discussion between adults about a subject for the improvement of the forum as a whole.

Dan

With all due respect, this system has worked well for X years and I believe there has been very, very few occasions where a sale has gone sour. For the same reason buyers want to be protected against buying from a scammer, sellers want protection to know the buyer is at least somewhat trust worthy.

[rdenney]

Just to add my $.02 as a new user who experienced the same frustration at first - being able to read the classifieds forum and search it gives some idea of what's available and what reasonable pricing is for those items. I purchased a camera on ebay and wasn't able to take advantage of the forums for historical context for the pricing - thankfully some of the members here are very kind and were willing to share some thoughts via PM.

I have been a member of other forums where it was read only for the first 30 days, and I think thats very reasonable.

I dont think the wait is unreasonable, but there is some research advantage to being able to read it before 30 days. After all, we're all here to learn.

Kristen

The for-sale forum's purpose is not for research. I can see how a person might think so, especially when they can't yet see it, but it's much more reliable to do pricing research at places like KEH and eBay.

If one needs guidance on what sort of camera might be suited to a specific application, and even how much a specific camera might be worth, that can be provided in the regular forum. Mostly, we find that folks haven't much thought beyond "landscapes, and maybe a little archicture" when asked what sort of photography they intend to do, and there is nothing in the for-sale forum that will provide any useful research in that case. When I first joined, I was also looking for a camera, but my needs were specific: I wanted a camera that would allow me to use a 47mm lens, with movements, using a roll-film holder. I asked that question in the regular forum and got what I needed to make a decision. After making that decision, I could then research prices.

Also, there is an element of protecting the forum members who do post ads in the for-sale section. Just because a person with read-only access can't post in the for-sale forum doesn't mean they can't PM the seller or email them. That puts the seller in the role of trying to figure out if a person who registered for the forum yesterday and has zero posts is for real. We weed a lot of people who are NOT for real with the waitiing period.

Rick "finding the for-sale forum a poor tutorial for anything" Denney

[Ken Lee]

"finding the for-sale forum a poor tutorial for anything"

Ditto !!!

[Terry Christian]

Learning how to manage and shoot LF generally takes more than 30 days. Use that time wisely in learning from others' mistakes while you're waiting. Screwing up LF shots is frustrating, and depending in format, can be rather expensive.

[Ralph Barker]

Kirk has initiated a discussion of the read-only option among the moderators. It should also be remembered that "Newly Registered" members also includes nefarious types - spammers, data miners, malicious code propagators, etc. Thus, administratively, the issue is somewhat more complex than it might appear on the surface.

[SergeiR]

Well.. its not that hard to wait and learn for 30 days. Come on. main purpose of forum is knowledge sharing. And it is absolutely brilliant for it. learning to be patient is one of important things with LF.. so there you go.. think of it as training.

[Leigh]

For the same reason buyers want to be protected against buying from a scammer, sellers want protection to know the buyer is at least somewhat trust worthy.

I always state a minimum post count (over 20) for buyers when I sell something.

I just got an offer on one of my FS listings from a guy with a 0 post count. No way in hades.

BTW, Welly... How does your hat taste?

- Leigh