[23-SEP-2015] Avoiding group buy "price wars"

Hi everyone, I’d like to address an issue relating to group buys that has arisen from time to time.

First and foremost, many thanks to all of the hardworking people that tirelessly negotiate with vendors to offer fantastic deals to BLF members. They are very much appreciated!

From time to time I receive private messages about what could effectively be termed “price wars” over group buys. Again, I’d like to preface this by saying that I’m thrilled to see that vendors are taking notice of our buying preferences and are working with some of our members to offer exclusive prices for BLF members. That’s all well and good, and I applaud healthy competition.

But if you are organizing a group buy or have arranged for some other exclusive BLF deal, please be careful to not provoke a “price war” by posting links to better deals in other threads where a different user might be promoting a similar product at a different price. I won’t go into more specifics or lay down hard and fast rules. But just try to go by the spirit of the following guideline for commercial sellers:

It’s true that a group buy organizer might be able to arrange for a better price (which he is free to post in a separate thread), but BLF users are usually capable of finding the deal on their own without any hints being dropped in a competing thread.

Also, even if a slightly better price can be obtained for a given product, before posting it ask yourself: “Is this deal significantly better than the already existing one?” “Is it really worth invalidating the time and effort that another user has gone through to create a similar group buy?” “Could my deal be perceived as a hostile bid for business?”

Thanks in advance for reading this and making adjustments if necessary to promote a friendly, relaxed atmosphere here, together with great deals on fantastic flashlight products that will benefit all of our members. Have fun!


EDIT: This topic turned rather controversial, which is why I am locking the thread. Please don’t point fingers at anybody else. Please just take an honest look at your own behavior and attitude here on BLF relating to group buys and commercial interests. If you need to make any adjustments, please do so. The large majority of our users are just here to enjoy their free time, so please make sure it’s enjoyable for them. Thanks!

(quote=sb56637Is this deal +significantly+ better than the already existing one?" "Is it really worth invalidating the time and effort that another user has gone through to create a similar group buy?" "Could my deal be perceived as a hostile bid for business quote)

Well said sb and I hope members here understand what your saying. When I had a group buy on a particular light unbeknown to me another member here was organising a group buy for the same light from another seller. They had the courtesy to contact me and let me know what was going on and put their group buy of until mine had finished. Both group buys went well and there was no animosity.

A little communication and understanding goes along way.

Thanks Mr. SB

This place has become nasty for one main reason: While we all want a good deal for the value of our money, some members are into the amount of their “commissions”, and the fight over this over someone else’s spills into into each other’s threads, promotion, gbs, etc., making this site a rowdy marketplace of hawkers.

Perhaps dis-allowing the affiliate links and only allow non-aff links, and having vendors posting in the Commercial Sellers section in their OWN threads for their “Flash Deals or whatever”, as it is now, will make this site again peaceful and hobby-oriented, as it used to be.

Price wars AMONG VENDORS in itself is not bad, it’s even good for us consumers, it’s only the attitude and behavior of some over-zealous members in defense of their “commissions” that creates the friction.

My .02c

It is getting awfully sales oriented, we are even seeing personal logos showing up on the thread titles.

Maybe the affiliates should be required to have the word “Affiliate” underneath their Avatar so we know that they are an affiliate when they post links and try to organize a group buy or something?

In regards to the Luminitop SD75, I am very happy with the price war between GearBest and BangGood. GearBest was offering $129 and BangGood countered with $109. I think that is significant, almost 20%. If no one posted in the GroupBuy thread, then they wouldn’t know there was a significantly better deal available.

Having vendors competitively lower prices works for lower prices for us and this is *Budget*LightForum after all….

True, as that was a vendor’s war, but not entirely, because the one from BG has an affiliate link. I don’t know with the one from GB.

Also, when posters have little advertisements attached to every one of their posts as the “signature”, one can wonder if they are making lots of posts, just to get their ad in front of us.

It's funny that some people only think about the price they have to pay.

They don't seem to care much about how it has became that cheaper.

Some companies have people walking on the forum that earn money from their sales.

I think it's disgusting to see someone organizing a group buy, and the other quickly posts a Coupon in another thread, not once but many times. Examples.

TM16 group buy, few days later a coupon in another thread.

EC4 group buy starts, next day a coupon in competitors thread.

SD 75 group buy, after many weeks of getting it together Just before it's ready to launch, someone posts another Coupon. Without having the stuff even in stock.

And on and on and on it goes. It even appears in review threads, coupon,coupons, coupon. All under the name of: I do it for you....get better price...

No you don't, you merely do it for your own pocket....

So, why is it that only a few of those,so to be called great deals, get posted in THE BLF DEALS THREAD?

Question: what's the source of all this?

I think it starts with an A

“Is this deal significantly better than the already existing one?” “Is it really worth invalidating the time and effort that another user has gone through to create a similar group buy?” “

Im waiting for Neal’s puppet, to counter my latest deal, guess he hasn’t seen it yet :bigsmile:

Is the deal is better price than you mention before?

Don’t know and tbh, don’t care :slight_smile:

a little respect for people who create/organizing group buy.
if there is a cheaper deal on the current group buy, dont post it on the group buy thread. dont hijack the thread. PM those persons who are interested on the group buy and its up to that person which company to buy from.

dos sentimos

My first gb went that way, i had an idea for a headlamp, got the price, then “someone” came in and said he had a better price, until i got the best offer possible, then he gave up. It’s not hard, when u already have many interested people to hijack someones gb, just to make money from your aff links.

+1

puppet?

you need to go that low??

Oh no! Please, don't start lumens war III

So its begin…the civil war

Let me explain this to you: after the first banggood “giveaway” fiasco, where you could only participate, if you bought somwthing, you made another “giveaway” with the same rules, and you even used your aff links.
For that matter, i cannot find a word more appropriate than the one i used.