Hi,
Had anyone else seen this
www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=793147
Talk about a peculiar way to run a site, now I find tonight that when I try to log in, that its telling me my subscription has expired and I got to pay now to view ads, Herb strikes again.
well, I dont think I'll be doing that anytime soon,
If he runs this to the end, amart might no longer be with us in the not too distant future I think, who is going to put up an add that few will be able to see or respond to ?
Cloudynights, here we come.

Wow....I am speechless.
To be honest I found cloudy nights to have much more ads anyway so defo ain't going to pay.

Sad to see that happen though I've only bought from it a couple of times. I could kind of see what they were trying to do with bringing in a fee to join - help with the costs and ensure that buyers and sellers were serious. But an annual subscription? I think cloudy nights will be getting more popular.

Mind you I still seem to be able to view ads on astromart. If there is something you are looking for Dave, I can act as a go between for a small fee

no probs,
although its 'll be soon enough that all second names ending with W will be locked out,
so why cant Herb make the advertisers pay for it like other sites.?

The same thing happened to me a couple of weeks back and decided not to pay, and I won't be paying.

I love the statement that says join now and beat the rush, I think the rush might be for the door.

Paul

Astromart is a great service if you are looking to buy and sell astro equipment. When you look at the cost of the annual sub versus the likely saving in buying one decent eyepiece secondhand from the US, the savings are likely to pay after only one transaction. However, I can understand that for some people, if may not suit their needs. However, I can perfectly understand why Astromart have to introduce it. At the end of the day, they have to cover their costs and make a few quid. IMHO, given the ratings system it has, I feel a lot safer buying and seelling gear on Astromart than on the likes of UkAstroAds for example.

Think my mind is going, but astromart introduced this some 18 months ago or more and there
was a big discussion on Cloudy Nights then, I know when I tried to view ads for sale at that
time i got that request but I think it was $ 10 subscription and now it’s $15.

Pity …because it was great just to browse the site and see what was on offer and drool over
all the eye candy at prices we could only dream of over here.

I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or not to charge but I never signed up.

I think H**b is in his own place if you get what I mean.

I can completely understand that the site needs to be paid for.
Given its popularity, I cant see why its cant be run on an advertising basis. Advertisers must be scrambling to get in there.
In the past, Herb has said that the site is a burden on his shop so he has to charge for it, cant see why any shop would want to run a secondhand buy and sell site, how could could it ever help his business.
I think the ebay model is far batter, where ebay get a cut of the sales price, although I'm sure its a level of complexity far above whats been currently run so might never happen.

In the cloudynights classifieds, you can see reviews of the seller in their previous adds by the buyer, it gives some sense of security. Ukastrobuyandsell is always a risk though...

Gave up on Astrofart a couple years ago when I was told my account was deleted and had to pay to sign up to 'renew' it.

Seanie.

Yes Dave I agree that the site /service have to be paid for, and yes I think the ebay system works.

Now the way I see it is, maybe astro sites including this one should have a charge for adverts,
small as it may be for this site (small community) but I would imagine a substantial sum for astromart.

Say a sliding scale of some sort.

So seller pays a fee for their ad and has to have a paypal account or something similar for security
reasons which would reduce fraud and scams. And potential buyers are free to browse.

I have bought from astromart and uk buy and sell in the past and never had a problem.
I always check the sellers history for older ads, when they joined, paypal and so on….

This info is nearly always available if you search for it.

Also I believe if this discussion was happening on astromart, (which it wouldn’t) Herb would
probably ban you, me and everyone else for life for taking part.

Tony

IIRC Astromart has been like that for a year? Still seems popoular, if anything the asking prices are lower on astromart than cloudynights.

well, if you look at the below link, you'll be able to see people who've subscribed to the site, they come up as an announcement, I really don't think I'll be doing it unless I'm badly stuck for something....
www.astromart.com/classifieds/list.asp?c...ategory_id=15&page=1

I think that's a list of supporters who give additional financial support in exchange for certain benefits.
www.astromart.com/aboutus/supporters.asp