Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Face book the new ebay or Craig's list

What ***** me off about buying on FB,is the sellers can & do delete their ad hours after you buy something.Which not only is suspicious, but makes it hard to dispute with paypal later on.
But I was successful 3X so far as 3 sellers mis-represented their items to me and sent me incomplete items than originally shown.One harvested parts off something as listed/shown complete.
I was upset to say the least and luckily I saved their photos in my browser and did not pay via friends/family either.
In 2 cases the sellers never replied to paypal,making paypal take my side eventually and giving me a full refund.
The 3rd seller argued I was wrong,yet paypal saw the photos what he posted vs. what he sent me,(I took the minute I opened the box),and refunded me a portion of my $.
In my eyes,FB is mostly for the hit & run artists who you'll never hear from or form a relationship with.

Thank you for your responses, needed to know more as Old gas questions and for sales have not as they were in the past. Time marches on I guess and being older, harder to change.
Many say that the face book will be the way of the future, probably for buying and not the information many of us need for help though.
Where an earlier post about DB seemed correct to me also, we all looked to see what banter DB would put out and got a laugh from it.
THE BIGGEST PROBLEM FOR ME IS THE PICTURE RESIZING AS STATED BY ANOTHER POST. JUST CAN'T GET IT.

TOO OLD I GUESS

I got on FB about a year ago. I have yet to buy or sell anything off of it. The pages have no organization as to the posts. Some posts that have had nothing new posted appear at the top of the page and something just recently posted my be clear at the bottom so you have to look through everything. Also by the time I find something I am interested in, tons of others have already seen and bought it.

It also seems it is more of just a For Sale site rather than the discussions on here. Also everyone there seems to want to know it something is a good deal before they buy the item rather than doing their own research and building their own knowledge. The pickers that use to be on here so bad have moved on to FB.

Ebay has seem to gone to heck too being so much repop and fake stuff. I still watch some Ebay and FB but Oldgas is my favorite by far. Rock on Oldgas!!

I say this site has the most trustworthy people, who get to know each other (and in many cases become friends).

This site also has the most knowledgeable people who provide feedback and are willing to help others.

And this site is definitely the most organized and well monitored.

The picture sizing can be an issue (especially for those who are not good with computers), and even if you know how to do it, it can be time consuming. Jim, will there ever be a day we can just drag photo's from our hard drive and into a post (similar to Craigslist) or just have an attachment button (paperclip icon) for posts? Maybe an attachment button that will automatically resize if too large?

All in all, this site is a great site and I very happy to be a member of it. Jim, you do a great job.

Well I do enjoy the people on Facebook but because of this one site I have cut back on selling there. I had a few items listed on 3 sites that ended up selling but sometime in between with out any warning or heads up, I got blocked from the one public site (GAS STATION / COUNTRY STORE AUCTION)I was using. I can no longer see the site or did I ever find out why. I have no clue who started and controls the site and have no way to know what happened or why???? And like E-bay, Nobody is there to just say "can I help you with a problem". LOL

These are all very valid points. Oldgas is the place for the hobby . I am 61 and have been on facebook for a year so am still learning how to do it but I love it also. There is a lot of great pages and information about other hobbies too like hot rods , railroads, old highways, soda and advertising in general . I have sold 6 globes and signs through facebook and bought 20 + in the last year. Have not had any problems and several transactions were with oldgas members who are on there. It is where the young generation who are getting rid of grandpa's collections are selling. Maybe they lack the social graces we were raised with and are looking to just sell but the majority are collectors just like us. I enjoy both oldgas and facebook and check both several times a day. Gotta keep moving or life passes you by.

Mike, Gas Station/Country Store, is run and controlled by ONE person, Roy McNeese. unlike other sites that have umpteen administrators

I am on both sights a lot. Honestly they are both nice. But in my opinion, OldGas is and always will be the best place to be for the hobby!

I can name two members off the top of my head who have posted and get a lot of responses with interesting facts and great stories: Kevin and Steve C. Braden and Matt A. posted some too (and I know there are others who I have not mentioned). Even Jack Sim was posting stuff regularly...but some of the fun about posting is knowing someone appreciates what they read. I'm not say this should devolve into everyone saying 'nice!' but it helps to encourage people, especially those not as well known, so they will do it again.

And some of the personal stuff is in the non-petro page. When's the last time we've had a bunch of folks write in the 'what's happening Monday' type of posts?

DB did a lot of posting and the people who followed db, would often respond on a thread, that he would have a comment on.

So perhaps more looking a posts, and thinking what would DB say, and writing that (the rated G version) might help???

I know a lot of people are bitching about uploading pics. I have an Apple iphone and use it to take my pics. I do send them to my home computer to upload and if you send them medium size "boom" there usually below 150k and you're good to go!

Good advice. I'll have to try it.

Well I thought it was just me but I see that I am not alone, I too am a bit baffled by Facebook.

I finally broke down and signed up for Facebook to see what it is all about and quite honestly I wish now I hadn't. My main problem is since I retired my gas pump parts business has soared beyond what I could have imagined. I am a one man show. I have customers tell me they were referred to me for original parts by all the major suppliers in the hobby and for that I am very grateful, I can't thank them enough. However I can't keep up the way I would like to, I get phone calls on my cell, messages left on the shop /home phone, emails, text messages, PM's thru Oldgas, the last thing I need is another site to keep up with so to date I have not responded to any messages thru Facebook, I have not even setup my profile or added a picture.

I have a hard time understanding that with such a great site as Oldgas why anyone would need to go someplace else....I do understand that Facebook reaches a much wider audience hence the appeal and also seems to be more instant.

I am an avid mountain biker and have noticed the same thing over there. There is a web site/forum for mountain biking in Indiana that is great but to get the most up to date information on trail condition it seems like you have to go to one of the trails Facebook pages, here again I just don't quite get it, why not just post an update on the forum.

Ok I feel better now...I'm not alone...I better get to answering messages or somebody reading this will wonder why I am writing this and not getting back to them.

Tom.

I completely agree Tom.There is a lot of maintenance to staying in touch with so many people on social media.
Like most social media places today,Facebook is instant,"right now,no wait".People on it are usually younger & in a hurry and that's the "right now" crowd.
I came across a 20 something boy cleaning out his Grandfathers garage on FB last winter full of somewhat common gas station items.He only wanted $5 per item,so I paypaled him the amount for the things I wanted.Once they arrived,I wanted to go back & buy more that he initially offered,only to find he deleted the ad and was gone off FB..Luckily I had a return address on the package & contacted him.He told me EVERYTHING he had was long sold.
That's typical of the younger generation & social media today.

I read all the posts and appreciate all the input. I am an old guy who is relatively new to Old Gas...just a couple of years. But I have found it a wealth of information and a tremendous resource for verification etc.

The guys who are really the experts to our hobby are really good to share their insights. Thanks to all of them!!! I guess my problem is that I am somewhat tech challenged. I have started to try to sell things on our site but could not figure out how to do so. Also, downloading pics has been a challenge for me. It may be more my own fault than anything.

But....you can have Facebook! A site that allows folks to say whatever they want without any accountability is a large problem. Because we have guys who are knowledgeable and a culture that to a large degree regulates itself....well it is refreshing to me.

And one other thing. Even though I have not been at this a long time it seems to me that there are more folks on the site looking through the posts than a year or two ago.

Thanks!!!

I took over one Face Book group that was old service station related and I made it known the group wasn't going to have Buying or selling . I also had a smaller group dealing with the same thing also , a "NO Selling " format . I already own a Diorama group and a vintage Pick up truck group that do allow such to go on . My objection to buying and selling is this . The groups that do have buy and sell have become Classified advertising and little else ! I certainly don't learn anything off these sites except who is financing their retirement off the back of someone else