When you write someone a letter and post it, do you then phone the person to say you sent a letter? why do people reply to a sale thread with PM Sent? if your negotiating a price, then why would you draw attention to the post? wouldn't you want to make a quiet offer in PM until you scored the deal?
My wife gets a text saying "Sent you an email" from her mum. Funny thing is that my missus has a smart phone with her email account linked so it's a race between email and the txt :lol:
There's a few reasons: 1. PM email alerts don't contain the content of the message - so a PM from "anyone" might be left until later ... but if that same person ALSO replies to the sales thread with "PM sent" (and most people selling will receive this as an email notification, INCLUDING the content of the post) ... then it's an alert to go check your private messages. 2. It also flags a quick public timestamp on when an offer "may" have been made 3. It might act as a flag to others that someone is already circling the product on offer (though it wouldn't bother me in the slightest - AND it acts as a "bump", putting in everyone's sights anyway) I'm sure there are other reasons the older hands here would contribute. Cheers! PS. I have also seen people say they didn't receive a PM - so again, it's a place to record interest, in case the PM got caught in a spam filter somewhere.
1. You would write the topic in the subject line of the PM so it would be easy to recognise as a sale enquiry. Like, Re: coins for sale 2. The time stamp is in a PM too, if that's the deal, 1st in ect you have times. 3. yeah that's right, puts it in everyone's sight! 4. it can be used to fend off potential real buyers whilst your stuffing sellers around with low balls, in the mean time a real buyer may just move on.
1. "You" would ... but if you are a busy seller AND the potential buyer has sent a non-descript headline, eg "Re: coins for sale" )) - if I have 6 sales threads going, all with coins????? And you didn't show your offer price in the subject line, so I still have to head over to my PMs anyway ... 2. Yes of course a PM has a timestamp - but only you can see that. As I said: "It also flags a quick public timestamp" 3. Agreed - sometimes I think it's better to be invisible, and from what GP indicates, there is a HUGE % of trading done well outside of what we see publicly. 4. Yes. Which is why sellers get hard-nosed and very specific about how they run their sales threads - way too much stuffing around. If it were me I'd be saying "Offers below spot ignored, don't even bother." There's also a tactic to keep your post # high and to "appear keen" on threads I guess. Also if the PM is not responded to, you can then post again saying "you didn't respond to my PM" (for a multitude of reasons) Doesn't really bother me either way ... sometimes I do it myself, sometimes not. After a while here, you get to know the good guys ... trading feedback is very helpful, as are the stacker meets.
Pretty much what Macros_The_Black has said. If you have a busy inbox you can't always see every pm that has come in at the appropriate time, whereas you can cross-check a notation on the particular sales thread to a user and find that user's pm more easily. Really it just gives the seller a heads up that you have communicated to them, as well as notifying others that a particular item is now probably under negotiation. I only use PM Sent though when a listing has multiple items and I'm interested in only one or two or maybe I need clarification of terms of sale - of course if I'm ok with everything in the listing I'd just BUZZ the sale (or the item I'm interested in) and then it's all done and dusted Finally, it gives a seller a quick way of finding you again when it's time to leave feedback - they can go to the thread involved and find you straight up - saves having to search PM's to find the user name to search in order to find a post so feedback can be left.
Yes ... even without a "PM sent" or "PM'd", I must admit I am not a fan of the whole PM system - waaay too hard to search in when you get multiple messages all with the same heading. Essential functionality for a buy/sell forum like this where privacy and anonymity is required, but flawed nonetheless.
Prompts the OP to check his PM Mailbox. Sometimes the notification is missed, ask any member of the 'early AM' crews how easy it is to miss a size-12 "(1)" at 4am.
Oh indeed Maggie - I dislike forums where the PM functionality is disabled. It's just so ... well ... "archaic" in today's threaded-farcebook-world!!!
Just making a comment that the PM system is one that works for many people, as it does for me. I do not use face book so I cannot comment on what I do not know about.
