Pay it Forward Thread

[twertsy]

Ladies and Gents,
I've seen this done successfully on other forums, and envision it doing very well here on GJ given the incredible amount of traffic, the great and helpful people, and numerous collectors that frequent this particular forum. I'd like to propose it, along with the rules listed below, here in the General Tool Discussion area. I know there was one about a month or so ago that kinda dwindled out over in the Vintage Tool area, but suggest that area is not as "well traveled" as here.

Before I start a thread however, I for one would like to gauge interest by hosting a poll. So, please indicate willingness to participate. I have a "threshold result" in mind where, when that level of "Yes, I'd participate" responses is reached, we'll go ahead and create the thread.

I'll go first, offering up a tool, for free (you guys will stumble over yourselves for my first offering......hint: very old, quite rare, "truck brand")

Rules:
1. A tool (or group of tools, whatever you want) is offered up for free (this can be anything like a set of screwdrivers/wrenches/sockets, a wrench, ratchet, whatever)

2. First person to PM the offerer gets the tool

3. Claimant/receiver pays for shipping (figure it out via PM please)

4. Once your PM is identified and the first offeree, and told by the offerer you get the tool, you (as the winning offerer) MUST offer up another tool to start the process over again. Preferably within a day, I think that's a fair amount of time.

 

[rslaback]

I don't think you are going to get a lot of participation if the offerer pays shipping. I might be wrong but as cheap as some of us are, paying to get rid of something to a GJ member that I could just post as free on CL or donate to Goodwill isn't going to happen.

I get the PITA it is to have the receiver pay the sender to ship. Why not just have the receiver purchase the shipping label, save it as a PDF and email it to the sender?

 

[Duct Tape Man]

Unless the item is HUGE and would require a lot of shipping costs, I think having the offerer pay for the shipping is fair. It all works out in the end - those who offer things for free and pay for the shipping, often times get things from others as well. So you may think it's unfair for the offerer to pay shipping, but the circle of life will take care of you in the end, if you are on the thread often.

I think it's a great idea, and I'll offer things as often as I can. I get lots of neat things that I think others can use.

 

[SEV22XS]

Yeah seems like looking a gifted horse in the mouth to offer something for free then I get to foot shipping !

 

[Evan(CA)]

I like the idea but the recipient should definitely be paying the shipping. Especially considering it might be international shipping or a large, heavy item. I would think this would help out with what derailed the previous attempts at this as well.

 

[twertsy]

Some of us/you are fine "saving the label as pdf and sending it to blah, blah," but, I read the other thread in it's entirety and shipping seemed to be the single biggest PITA. Can you send me this, how 'bout printing that, email me something else. That rule quite simply makes it much easier. Besides, yes you're paying to get rid of something, but you're also GETTING stuff if you're the first offerer. For my money, it's a wash. I'd envision over time there'll be pretty much the same bunch getting and offering.

 

[twertsy]

I like the idea but the recipient should definitely be paying the shipping. Especially considering it might be international shipping or a large, heavy item. I would think this would help out with what derailed the previous attempts at this as well.

Ok, CAVEAT: North America only, offerer pays shipping. International works it out. Completely slipped my mind..........sorry!

As an aside, on our golf trips if someone says "caveat," everyone drinks.......no clue why but thought it funny.

 

[Craptain]

The way it works in a motorcycle forum I belong to is that you offer what you don't need or want. Someone pm's you and you work out between yourselves how to handle shipping costs. No-one is REQUIRED to foot the bill you just act like gentlemen. Also no requirement to post up something else. Posting is as and when you have something. Some items are up for minutes others for days. No-one worries about it.

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

 

[Bran Diezel]

Ok, so if people are going to offer things free and pay to ship them to me...

I OFFICIALLY CALL DIBS ON EVERYTHING ANYONE OFFERS FROM NOW TO ETERNITY.

lol

 

[woody 73]

I have a teenager that I will ship for free but I must warn you he eats like a linebacker, moody 24/7, sleeps all day and tends to snap a lot; oh and before I forget college is coming up for him this fall so you might need to start saving some extra money before you take me up on my offer!

PS: He is potty trained...

 

[twertsy]

Well said Duck, agree wholeheartedly. I'm certainly willing to pay to ship whatever I offer up. Then again, I intend on snagging me some tools too!!

 

[twertsy]

I have a teenager that I will ship for free but I must warn you he eats like a linebacker, moody 24/7, sleeps all day and tends to snap a lot; oh and before I forget college is coming up for him this fall so you might need to start saving some extra money before you take me up on my offer!

PS: He is potty trained...

You're on! In return you'll be getting a 15 yr. old female teenager, 16 in 3 weeks, 24/7 PMS. Good luck.

 

[Evan(CA)]

In running this though my head some memory popped up.
During secret Santa, which is considerably like this proposed program, some of us fell victim to a few posters who almost never posted anywhere except for secret Santa and sent literally a handful of floor scrapings as your gift.

If the sender pays shipping there is going g to be a similar of same group that haunts the thread and never posts jack for free so they won't have to pay anything ever. .

I know in the spirit of ss you sent what you could, but some were literally floor sweeping hoping for a sweepstakes win.

I'll mention no names.

So, I'm changing my mind based on that group. Claimer has to send postage.

The guy that called dibs jogged my memory of this.

I say name names. The only way to get rid of the aholes trying to take advantage is to bring their shady ways to light and let everyone know. Eventually people will recognize their names and not deal with them and we are left with only the honest and legitimate participants. I missed out on this years SS unfortunately but I remember the year before thinking the same thing as you. Some people obviously got people's junk while others ended up with awesome stuff.

 

[twertsy]

Ok, the general consensus is that the "dibber" pays shipping. Note the first post, I changed that rule to read that the parties work it out VIA PM. Don't clutter the thread with haggling. BUT, the dibber MUST post an item after winning the previous one.

 

[twertsy]

I say name names. The only way to get rid of the aholes trying to take advantage is to bring their shady ways to light and let everyone know. Eventually people will recognize their names and not deal with them and we are left with only the honest and legitimate participants. I missed out on this years SS unfortunately but I remember the year before thinking the same thing as you. Some people obviously got people's junk while others ended up with awesome stuff.

Good call Evan, we should be doing that anyway! Wow, I just noticed, a good idea came out of Cali! kidding of course.....

 

[warmpancakes]

Ive sent some things i had lating around to members that needed them and I even covered shipping, but I agree there needs to be some safe guards in place to help prevent abuse, Ill participate because I have a pile of random items that need to find a new home.

 

[toolmutt]

I'll play. I have seen it work on another tool forum. However, that was a much smaller population of like minded folks. I understand the spirit of the concept as one offerer, one receiver, then the receiver becomes the offerer and so on down the line. You pay shipping to send the item you're getting rid of because you just received something for free. There's your wash. I think some here are envisioning a wholesale "For Free" page where any and everybody offers there free stuff and the claimer has no obligation to continue the chain.

 

[1foxracing]

I'd rather see just a swap section. You have something to trade and another person has something you want. Each person pays to send their own package out, pretty simple. My birthday was last month, my wife go's into my Amazon wish list and see's some stuff and go's and order's it for my birthday about 3 weeks in advance. 1 week before my birthday I ordered the tools myself. So on my b-day the wife hands me a box of stuff I just purchased myself a couple days previous. For whatever reason I didn't send it back for credit and never opened the stuff.

 

[twertsy]

I'd rather see just a swap section. You have something to trade and another person has something you want. Each person pays to send their own package out, pretty simple. My birthday was last month, my wife go's into my Amazon wish list and see's some stuff and go's and order's it for my birthday about 3 weeks in advance. 1 week before my birthday I ordered the tools myself. So on my b-day the wife hands me a box of stuff I just purchased myself a couple days previous. For whatever reason I didn't send it back for credit and never opened the stuff.

I asked about that a while back and I agree, we DO need a swap section of the forum. This is a little different though......

 

[rockinacummins]

I definitely like the idea of pay it forward... But I also see the issue here with some people who would only wanna receive and never give back... And that's not really "paying it forward". So I'm not sure how that will turn out...

As far as the shipping issue, I have mixed feelings. Say I was to offer a 9/16 Proto wrench, the cost to ship it frat class within the lower 48 would be around $2.50. I would gladly pay that and send it on its way. However, for a handful of Proto wrenches that weigh over 13 ounces and are too long to fit in a small flat rate box have to go in a medium flat rate box that's gonna cost about $11.30 to ship. Which wouldn't be quite so fun to ship.

Personally, I'm a paypal kinda guy. So if they wanted to paypal me the shipping cost plus the fee that would suit me fine. But there agin is the hassle of send me this, email me that. And not everyone does PayPal anyway.

And as for me, I'm a trader. I would rather trade two wrenches I don't need for one wrench that I do need. I prefer this to selling (or receiving the amount of shipping cost).

On another note, the free socket thread that is basically the same concept has kinda gone dormant from what I can tell...

But, if everyone can be professional about it, I'm in!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I would play if rule #3 read, "Claimaint/receiver pays for shipping." If someone is going to be kind enough to give me an old tool I need for free, I will glady PAY for shipping. If I am going to be kind enough to give away an old tool that someone else needs for free, that guy should be glad to pay for shipping only. I will make a boat anchor or some folk art out of my old tools before I PAY to ship them to someone else for free.

 

[twertsy]

Well, seems to be (whoda thunk?) a fair amount of opinions. So, let's go with claimant/receiver pays for shipping as a rule then. I'll change it to that text now.

 

[rslaback]

I feel like I'm thread crapping, but I'd like to see the requirement done away with that the giver has to pick the first receiver. I see a few issues:

1. There are people who have jobs (or daily expectations) that allow them to just sit on the computer all day. All it takes is a thread update alert and I can be the first in line for nearly everything.

2. There are some users I have blocked from view. If one of them were to ask for my stuff, I'd have no idea.

3. Like anywhere there is a group of people, personalities are shown and some of those clash. As a potential giver I would prefer to choose who I want to give to based on what I know about them. I'm not big on the idea of you asking me to forward an item on to someone I may have reservations about just because they typed the first reply.


I would suggest asking receivers to PM the giver just like is done in the for sale thread. When the giver is good and ready, they can go through their PM's and select the person they wish to forward it to (a person who has listed items to be given away a lot but never received for example) and then complete the swap in PM's so as to not muddy the thread.

 

[twertsy]

I feel like I'm thread crapping, but I'd like to see the requirement done away with that the giver has to pick the first receiver. I see a few issues:

1. There are people who have jobs (or daily expectations) that allow them to just sit on the computer all day. All it takes is a thread update alert and I can be the first in line for nearly everything.

2. There are some users I have blocked from view. If one of them were to ask for my stuff, I'd have no idea.

3. Like anywhere there is a group of people, personalities are shown and some of those clash. As a potential giver I would prefer to choose who I want to give to based on what I know about them. I'm not big on the idea of you asking me to forward an item on to someone I may have reservations about just because they typed the first reply.


I would suggest asking receivers to PM the giver just like is done in the for sale thread. When the giver is good and ready, they can go through their PM's and select the person they wish to forward it to (a person who has listed items to be given away a lot but never received for example) and then complete the swap in PM's so as to not muddy the thread.

Well, couldn't you have just done that without announcing it here

Personally, mine will go to the first taker (assuming it's not someone named Tronysomething), but to each his own.........

 

[JUNK-MAN]

I know someone that participates in a pay I forward thing, this is how it works there: Somebody puts up something they want to get rid of and has no use for, then the first person that sees it and wants it PM's the guy and usually gets it unless someone has already claimed it then whoever wins the item pays shipping and puts up something else to give away and so on and so forth.

If this ends up happening I may want to participate if I can find something to part with hence the name rarely get rid of things .

 

[rslaback]

Well, couldn't you have just done that without announcing it here

Not with the way you presented the expectations of participants I couldn't.

 

[twertsy]

Not with the way you presented the expectations of participants I couldn't.

Agreed rslaback, I for one am a big fan of integrity. It just seems to me people would be picking and choosing at their own whim. Of course, we have no way of knowing if they did that or not.

 

[jlh92]

I'll play. I always have extra **** laying around to get rid of.

I think there should be a minimum post count for everyone involved in this though. I'd hate to have people join the site just to grab a "free" item then disappear.

 

[twertsy]

I'll play. I always have extra **** laying around to get rid of.

I think there should be a minimum post count for everyone involved in this though. I'd hate to have people join the site just to grab a "free" item then disappear.

Might not be a bad idea.....opinions?

 

[twertsy]

Holy ****, 500?

 

[jlh92]

I really hope I didn't just help make a rule only to be disqualified because of it.

 

[rslaback]

Isn't that where discretion could come in if you aren't expected to send it to the first responder?

A low threshold means people can join just for the free stuff.

A high threshold means that some kid who is just starting out can't be a part of the game.

 

[pi_guy]

My .02 cents I would rather see it go to some one who needs it vs somebody who just collects tools or monitors the thread.
It is hard to come up with a method of determining who is starting out and needs the assistance verses somebody who is just building their collection.
I know this is not helpful but if somebody can come up a method that helps those that really need it I would assist.

 

[rockinacummins]

What if everyone had to put an item up first before they were eligible to claim one?

I still ain't sure how to solve the shipping debate...

 

[rslaback]

What if everyone had to put an item up first before they were eligible to claim one?

Assuming the thread lasts more than a week that would be a nightmare to police.

 

[Bagherra]

I'm in...

The motorcycle forum I belong to is similar. But you have to offer up something in order to take something.

 

[twertsy]

I'm in...

The motorcycle forum I belong to is similar. But you have to offer up something in order to take something.

I actually could get on board with that one! In other forums, I put mine up in the same post I claim. I think that's a great idea!

 

[MrWrencher823]

I'm in. i got a few extra sets of sockets and extensions laying around... probably lots of other stuff too.
I also agree with pi_guy. I would rather give my stuff to someone who's fresh into wrenching or in school or something. rather than someone who makes $70K a year and can afford to drop the cash on it without a sweat.

 

[twertsy]

Ok, so at noon EST tomorrow, I will kick off a new thread with a couple/few items. I will also post the rules, based on feedback here. I'd also love to hear ideas about how to potentially identify people who "need" the item(s) vice those of us who simply collect. I'm ALL FOR this being as much charitable as it is fun. I have more than plenty in terms of tools and would certainly have no problem getting my extra stuff to those in need. It does cause a bit of a conundrum however, when I plan on offering up collectible items....absolutely serviceable, but collectible.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I am in. I used to give a few tools away on this site...Rich
Or you could set it up as a trade site, you post up what you have to get rid of and the person who wants it post up what they will trade you for your item. They you get to pick what you can use by what is offered up to trade. Just another ideal. One of our local radio stations used to have a 30 min. show that they called tradio...