Melbourne Missionaries

[jaydisc]

I'm bringing this over from the old board as I think it was/is quite successful:

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Hey Melbournites,

If you're anything like me, you enjoy a healthy dose of the hunt as much as you enjoy the results. I even get my satisfaction if I find something that I know is needed by a friend or fellow hunter. I know many of us on the board have experienced this type of pack-hunt-and-share methodology.

Now, when I'm on the hunt, I usually have my phone logged into email and OzFormers for any up-to-the-minute sightings and also so I can post back my own sightings in real time. I've even encouraged others to PM me quickly an I can make the purchase on their behalf while I'm still at the shop.

So, here's my idea. I know there are more hunters in Melbourne besides myself, STL and Iceburn. So, I was thinking we'd use a thread here to actively maintain our current want lists... retail stuff only... stuff we're likely to find in the shops. And, if one of us sees something on another's list, we grab it and notify them.

Now, of course, I don't expect everyone to be online while hunting, so just come here and have a peak at this one thread before you go out hunting.

To work successfully, I think we'd need to understand a few things.

1. No one expects anyone to have the extra money to buy someone else's desires. If you do, great. If you don't, don't feel bad. I've got good enough cash flow that I can do this. I don't expect anyone else to. No guilt allowed.

2. You've got to come back here and update your list when you get something via other means, because the last thing I want to do is come home with three Rescue Ratchets only to find out that you've gotten them elsewhere. Keep your list up to date or remove it.

3. Make sure that if you do purchase anything on anyone else's behalf, make sure it's refundable, in case rule 2 was applied to late or for any other reasons. And don't be upset if this happens. Personally, I know I'll be back in any of those shops soon so returning it really isn't a hassle. Be prepared for and forgiving of mistakes.

So, what do you think? Is anyone interested. Any further suggestions to polish the concept?

EDIT: December 6th:

OK, we've been doing this for a bit now and I think it's quite successful. Here are some additonal enhancements and suggestions which have organically arisen since this idea's inception:

4. Please post the maximum you're willing to pay for an item.

5. Let's try to keep this topic focused and efficient. If you enter into a discussion in this topic and it gets resolved, let's delete out those old posts. In theory, each of us should only have one post in here, so when it comes time to shop, it's relatively painless and easy to see what everyone wants. So, chat if you must, but when done... clean up your act

Added By Griffin 10th December 2008:

I notice that most of you already do this to an extent, and to try to avoid future issues of people missing new stuff because they weren't able to be informed - include all the items in your want lists, of stuff that hasn't yet been released.
Maybe in your posted listing, have 3 sections - one section of old items (pre-the-current-year), one section with current items (the current year), and one section with the unreleased stuff we know about. You can get the list of future stuff from here:
http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=561
I will try to keep it up-to-date more often to help out, but if you see something that is to be released in the next few months that you definitely know you will be getting, have it on your list. With the recent Animated 2-pack situation, some people were at home when they left for them, so they could have easily just seen here who wanted them.

Just keep the sections split up or even colour coded, to make it easier for others to browse through easily.
And try to keep your listings as cleaned up as possible, so that the items you want aren't missed amongst heaps of crossed out items.

One of our community's best assets is the way a lot of us do go to the trouble of getting new or limited stuff for other members, if we can, before the toy scalpers or 'unappreciative' kids/parents. I don't want to see this cooperative concept be shelved or go underground, just because of one or two bad outcomes.

Added: July 2, 2009

6. Addendum to point 5. A lot of us strike-through already acquired items along with a tip of the hat to whomever helped as acquire it. I think this is a nice gesture, but let's keep these within reason. We don't need to stay aware of what someone got for you months ago. We can browse acquisitions for that.