The 800lb gorilla in the room...ebay

[Fishooked]

Ok, let's all hash this out once and just be done with it.


First off, I don't want any of this drama - I don't want it, I don't need it. I've got enough personal issues going on in my life, coupled with a day job I can't stand, and hobby that lately has turned into more work than fun.

The last thing I want to be is a mediator, but unfortunately it looks like that's the position I'm in.

If anyone doesn't know the story, this was prompted by this thread ->>> www.rapalanation.com/index.cgi?board=generalconvo&action=display&thread=10063

I lost a good, passionate moderator over this fiasco. What was even more surprising was seeing some board veterans seemingly take sides up with some guy that signed up like 4 days ago...and that they know nothing about. My apologies if this may offend...but that's what it looked like to me.

I wasn't crazy about the way Ryan called the guy out, but frankly yeah, it had to be done sooner or later. Let's be honest here folks, if he's saying he's going to list a lure for 45.00...then does it really matter what any of us thinks he should sell it for?

Personally I've grown weary of people dropping in to drop their auction links and then disappear forever. And yet this doesn't seem to bother too many people.
It really doesn't add any value to the board at all, really.

All it does it pit people against each other for the same lures, and drive up the sale price. The only people it benefits is the seller. If you folks want to bid against each other for some strangers lures, then that not really any of my business, but its certainly not helping anyone's wallets (except the seller).

There have always been two topics we don't discuss here on RN, politics & religion. Now it seems that the third one is money (or ebay).

This may have started out as a 'collecting' site, but that doesn't mean it has to stay that way. I've been trying to slant this site more towards fishing these lures than collecting them. putting more of an emphasis on newer lures instead of the older stuff.

Why? Because collecting can get ugly. Part of it is because folks are driven, obsessed even when it comes to collecting, and since there is usually money changing hands...well, there you have it.

Which pretty much brings ebay into the picture. I've seen a lot of disputes from ebay find their way into this site, and vice versa.
I never had a problem with established posting their own links, it's everyone else that I'm concerned about.

So until I can figure this out, the ebay section is 'on hold' for now - nothing has been deleted or anything, it's just in limbo.

This site may have sprung up from using ebay, but I really don't think it needs ebay anymore. Again, this isn't an ebay site; ebay their own discussion boards.

Maybe it gets rolled into the collecting section, and maybe you need a certain post count to post or view links. I'm not sure, but frankly the discussion is tiresome and I don't have the energy right now.

I'll leave this out here for you folks to discuss...and let's keep it civil.

[jmcfish10101973]

hi all it's john will i guess i will start off by saying that all of this makes me very very up-set and i could all most cry.i think of all of you guys and girls as family.

ted and the board work very very heard on this site to make it very fun and enjoyable to come to and talk just about anything fishing and or hunting ect.........

i think we should not care about what people are selling thier lures for at all.if it sells for that price good but if not oh well.

people have the right to ask anything the wish to get for lures.

i also thing that if you do not know something about a lure and or rapala just ask someone first.i am 110% sure someone here has the ans. and or can find out for you.

this site is a very big help and a great data-base for anything rapala.the more people post and up-load photos it just makes it more fun and a great place for color codes and to look at very rare and rare rapalas plus also none-rapalas as will.

all people are the same if you have been here from day 1 or just joined.me can all learn something from anyone.each person brings something to the site.if it is info and or photos and or color codes.

i have made alot of friends and got alot of leads to rapalas and other things for this site and when you lose someone in the family you take a very big part of the heart with it.

just think of loosing a link of chain on the chain is broken we are all links here and the chain just keeps getting bigger and bigger but when you loose o link it is very heard to get that link back.

i think we should not have e-bay on this site at all it just makes things very heard for all of us.like sometimes we know if some is bidding on something on e-bay and we know the other bidder.than you get a p.m. that says what did you bid me up.

alot of us know each others e-bay name so that is why i think e-bay should be on the site it all.i think it will just make it very heard for years on come.

thanks
john

p.s. i am very sorry to here about all of this

[Jcbyrne]

Well, will start buy saying I like Ryan and consider him a friend.

Was not trying to take sides, sorry if it came out that way.
What I don't like is someone getting upset if someone asks what a color code is or what the value of a lure is.
Though that's what part of the nation was about, helping people figure out what they have.
You can not control what they do with the information or there lures.
I think a few of us have lures in are collection from one time posts.
Don't understand how one timers hurt the nation, it would be great if the stuck around.
But they don't, they just found some rapala and tried to make a few bucks.
Cant blame someone for trying to make money.

Ted, you know I love this place and whish I had more time to contribute.
The auctions for the cast for kids was great stuff ! glad I got in on them, and maybe when life dose not get in the
way we could do something like this again.
Hope the nation sticks with the collection stuff, this is way I come to the site.
The drama on fishing sites sucks, you post a picture of a fish and people bitch that you took it out of the water.
Or you talk about a place to fish and people bitch about that was there spot and now there are more people.


Hopefully Ryan will come back and help out, he is young and has the collection bug bad.
It is nice to see younger people into hunting, fishing and collecting rapala !


As far as the ebay at the nation, I could care less. I come to the site to see the crazy rapala that crazy people from
around the world find ! have not been disappointed and a have made a few friends along the way.
That's up to you Ted, it is your site. hope you get it worked out without adding a few more grey hairs.

[007fishfingers]

i agree with you john, i dont care for ebay, on here, maybe keep selling within the nation then all sales and deals are done in private by email or PM's, just by listing lures you have to move on, as far as can see we are all fishermen and love our lures but its a shame things can turn out like this,

[cdj711]

Hello Ted.

we are RapalaNation, you are the boss. do whatever you think may be needed.

in the last 5 or 6 years we had maybe one or two cases like this,
not exactly the same, but in a similar direction.

more recently, i get the impression that more posts are showing up which make emotion flying high - and even if we are not allowed to talk politics, or religion, or more recently, money and ebay here, i think these strong emotions may have to do with the current economic situation the world all over.

i can fully understand your efforts to get this site away from just collecting, and you may be disapointed when not all your new, more fishing-related topics dont get that much of attention.
but please think about it:
there are so many fishing-related boards out there, you got some for bass, walleye, pike, fly fishing, whatever ...

but we only got one RapalaNation - long it may live!

wolfgang

[bacon]

well, after looking over this since it all went down, i keep looking at it as 'how could we have handled it different". i cant help but thinking that i had as much to do with Ryan's(bulldog21) departure as did our newest liar... i mean member. and for that i feel terrible, it could have been handled better by everyone. when i posted my retort in that thread, i really considered doing basically what ryan did, and make it my last post and walking away for a while. still might. but like ted said, we need to clear the air. im afraid that alot of what is said in these threads can be misconstrue for lots of reasons. humor, sarcasm, emotion in general does not come out well in type. mix in lots of language barriers from all over the globe and there can be so much confusion its sometime hard to tell. im not saying thats what the problem is here now, but just posting my point of view.

i have to preface this a little bit with a past disagreement between ryan and i on this topic. Ryan has on occasion commented at other members (new or otherwise, i can not say) asking for values of lures and then selling them on ebay. my response to Ryan was simply "SO". i wasnt ripping on him, but in retrospect, its not hard to see that it would look that way. Ryan is a Ebay hound. buys and sells frequently, and i dont have any problem with that at all, like i said in the other post, been there, done that. most of us have been, many are still in been there stage. what i had a problem with was him appearing to attack new members(or old ones too) who also wanted to sell on ebay. THAT BEING SAID, IM NOT SAYING HE WAS ATTACKING THEM. what i said was that it appeared he was, not to me necessarily, but it could be seen that way, especially to those new members that have not picked up on all the mannerisms of the Nations members. It greatly bothers me how this worked out, in light of how this all happened. I can not say i ever actually had an dealings with ryan via ebay or on the nation, but he was one of our brothers. period.

as far as this new member is concerned walleyewhateverhisnamewas, im guessing we wont hear much more from this liar, and i feel like the turd in the punch bowl for going to bat for this idiot. i didnt take his side, but i at least was trying to stand up for his right to do what so many here already did, sell his lures on ebay. it was clear what he had said about not selling and the fact that ryan found his listing shortly after, but i figured it would at least be prudent to get this guys response before lighting him up. maybe he had gotten a PM from a member with an offer or price estimate that was false or out of line, and then choose to list it because of it for example. but as i had stated then, this guy seems to know what to ask about, or at least had enough knowledge about them already it didnt warrant his questions to even be asked, i think its much clearer now he was much more intrested in fishing for a buyer then he was fishing for info. every post he made compounded lies, the more i read them, the angerier i get. what it boils down to was that he was doing the same thing everyone here does, buys to sell and maybe collect, but he couldnt come out and be one of us and be honest about how he was doing it. i rescinded my welcome to him.

i could be quoted as saying that ebay is as much a part of this site as some of the members on here. but i understand how the separation of site and ebay has its advantages. when this site began, as we all crossed over from the cove to this site, everyone knew everyone. there were a dozen or so of us who knew each others names, we knew each others ebay names, and we knew when one of us were bidding on a lure, and most times, intersting lures were brought up on in the threads, and there was alot of the time a bit of insider trading. i knew that steve (guru) was looking for X, and wasnt going to step on his toes to get it, and shane knew i wanted Y but didnt see me bid on it, so he won it for me and we traded. this sort of thing happened all the time. im not really sure when the shift to backstabbing and non-communication happened, probably about the time that ebay hid the buyer usernames from full view. its maybe time that ebay and this site part company. there will always be the connection for the collector to ebay, there is now way around it, without ebay, there would be no collecting of rapalas to the extent the we see it here today. and thus much less traffic to the site. killing the relationship between the nation and collectors would be to kill the Nation. some of ebay is going to always find its way into the threads. found a new lure youve never seen, did you see the price on these lures, that sort of thing is always going to trickle in, but wholesale auction marketing could go. its hard to regulate new members from doing it when older members are, so i would say either all or nothing.

as i have stated many times, as far as collectors go, the info piled within this site, and within its members is basically the baseline for collectors. there is no price guide to be found, we are it. we could try to embrace that about us, and use that to our advantage in the way of membership. there must be someway to benefit from it without it being the focus, and without losing that part of us by being just a new lure focused site.

this is where i stand on things. like i said, it makes me a little sick how this all worked out, and blame myself a little for what happened.

ted, i do not know what ryans email was, could you please PM it to me if you have it, i would like to send him an apology and explain this to him.

Bacon

[cdj711]

well, i see that all people responding to this one so far are going somehow in the same direction.
i also remember that some time ago we had collected money to help the site survive; i was not giving any at this time.
but i think i may have a solution or maybe just an idea for keeping one-timers out of here; and i hope that all the others here agree with my suggestion; or at least openly discuss of what they think about it.
and i know this may result in fewer members around here, and still, this might help to bring the nation back to what it once was, without changing much anything here but just one thing:

how about asking a membership fee?

it doesnt have to be much, maybe like $5 per year. this would keep out all the people posting just one time a question about a lure or whatever. they will think twice if it is worth to spend $5 for one question.

of course this will bring (again) a lot of work for Ted; or maybe we can find someone else to handle this. and it will bring down the number of members, but what is a 2000 count good for if from about 1800 of them we hear only once?

and it is true that in here is available a lot of valuable information for free, and this is the philosophy of this board. but as we have just seen (again), there are too many people out there taking this valuable info for free and trying to make money on it.

and i am fully aware that most of us got dragged into this in the beginning by getting all this information for free. and i am the last one having anything against making money. and i am quite sure that most people here have had the same experience than me: you can not make money by collecting rapala!
only people who do not seriously collect can make money on rapala by getting all our knowledge for free.

i just learned that Jason removed all pictures from his gallery cause he got sick of people stealing his pictures. if i understand he is going to put a signature on all of them. this will not prevent much, but at least the one looking at them will know where these came from originally. and i have seen some of my pictures popping up somewhere on the net which had been stolen from my homepage. i would not mind to grant permission to use a pic or two out there if people were asking, but it is so much easier to just take without asking.

if it should turn out this idea will be accepted ... welcome to the club!

wolfgang

[keesvanderlaak]

I really don't like the idea of having to pay for a board.
Call me cheap but I will have to leave when I have to pay for it.

And I am not a one post member as we speak.

I just don't have the ability to transfer money across the big pond. and I think I am not the only one so that will cancel a lot of other contributing members too!

I think we could have big parts of this board closed for new members that have to earn to watch there by posting a couple of contributing posts. or something in that matter.
Like, they have to anounce therselfs before posting anywere else.

I can agree with canceling the whole ebay part here to keep out onetime users.
And, maybe a policy of "instant ban with spam or for sale posts"

[nathanha]

I've been away a while and just came back but I am sorry to hear what happened. I would love to see the site become more fishing focused but I understand the need for the collecting as for many its a hobby and a way to make a little money.

But lets remember fishing is about fun and family first.


I am so thankful for Rapalanation. This site help me track down a lure my aging father uses nearly all of the time. He was so upset when he lost his last one. But thanks to members i have a few to keep him fishing.

Through this site I have meet so many great folks who have helped my obtain lures I needed for fishng, paint custom pattterns if lures could not be found or purchased lures from me that they need for fishing. Its also been a great way to learn more about fishing.


Please lets all remember were all on this site because you either love fishing or you love the lures.

Family and Fun first.

[omigosh]

I am addicted to fishing & collecting. I have been collecting fishing stuff since I was about 10 years old and I am now 50+. I am however not a feverish collector. I guess you could call me a seasonal collector. I fish spring, summer, and fall. And I get a little more serious about collecting in the winter when I cannot fish as much. This site has been wonderful for both addictions. I of course love to tell and read the fish stories along with getting tips and advice. My collection has not only grown in volume since finding this site, but it certainly has increased in quality! I am drawn to this site because it has managed to find a balance between the two. As has been mentioned earlier, some of the fishing sites are really quick to throw out negative statements and give you the feeling that the site is very "clickish" (if you aren't one of us, your opinion does not count). I have never had that feeling with this site.
This site ain't broke! I don't think it needs fixing. If you want to leave ebay out of it, OK with me. That is not the primary focus of this site anyway. If we try to "fix it" too much that just creates more work for Ted which he does not need. This has been a rare incident. People have learned from it and have moved on.
I really enjoy communicating, sharing, trading, laughing, and hopefully someday even fishing with the members.
Ted, this is a great site! Be proud of it, enjoy it, take pride in what this site has done for the membership. In case I have not said it in the past, THANK YOU!! There would be a void in my daily activities if I did not come to this site.

[bacon]

i guess i have a slightly different take on the membership numbers. the non-posting members are really of little consequence to the site. its annoying having those members look around and not say a word, but its ultimately not a big deal. maybe a time limit on them, one year after signing up and not posting and they would just fall off. the total membership does allow a mass emailing in the case of special events that might draw a few people to go from lurking to posting, but it still doesnt seem to help alot the times it has been done. but, simply finding ways to limit our numbers does not help either, if we only get 1 out of 30 that stick around and are long term contributors to the nation, i fear all we will do is make that more like 1 in 100 or worse.
i have donated money to this site, several times, and i have encouraged others to do so also, but a mandatory fee to be a member will be the last you would ever see of me. not only because im cheap, but because we would end up with about 7 (or fewer) people paying money to talk to each other, ultimately pointless.
this site, like most of us, are going though a rough patch, but as history has shown, things will always turn around. the economy with improve eventually, fisherman will return to filling there tackle boxes and contemplating collections. it would be best to just ride it out and keep our friends here as best we can now.
discouraging new or newer members will do nothing but discourage a new future regular contributer. i would gladly put up with a couple of new deadbeats and the occasional liar for another Jason, Bulldog_21, or muskyhunter. its a small price to pay.

bacon

[keesvanderlaak]

Bacon, I could not agree with you more then I do now. you are so right!

[Fishooked]

Guys I've been busy with my daughter's birthday this weekend so needless to say, it's been a little

Let me get a chance to read these and I'll respond later on

[happyshad]

Please let me preface this by saying that the typed word often gets taken out of context.

I see this issue as pretty simple: "Follow the golden rule."

I get value from all of the "regulars" posters. I've learned a ton about Rapalas - especially the older discontinued and "limited edition" lures. I have also made what I would consider friends and some great acquaintances. I have made some trades and only a few (and I mean count-on-one-hand) sales. Losing the ebay section will not effect my income - nor my expenditures - I know how to find Ebay - Most times I would be better off if I forgot how to navigate to that money/time wasting site - other times I really dig it!

Let he who is sinless cast the first stone: Meaning - walleye72 is gone - if he wants to come back - I am certain we would all be willing to give him another chance. Maybe he was having a bad hair day? Ryan - Please come back - apologies have been given. Took a set of stones to call that guy out - thought about it myself - but maybe next time we will all give someone like that the information he was looking for - and wait to see if he is going to support the nation - or just use it.

NOW FOR MAKING THE BEST out of this: Ted needs help. Very few moderators left on the site.
* If anyone knows Ryan - email, call or contact him - lets get him back.
* If you have time - offer it.
* If you don't have time - offer money.
* If you don't have time or money - offer something.
* If you don't have time money or something - offer positive support.
* If you can't be an athlete - be an athletic supporter! (OK - I had to lighten my mood a little)

We have a lot better things to do than argue amongst ourselves - like where the hey all is "Steve Muskiehunter" or numerous others and how are they doing. Maybe the primarys are "rubbing" off on us.

Here's some good news - Rapalas are $4.99 at Cabelas - plus I think that if you buy 5 - you get one free.

Oh - and someone bought the GRRRRR lure and I wanted it - to send to another member as a joke - NOT TOO HAPPY About losing that one! But I am still Happy Shad - and I am still happy to be a part of the nation!

Shine On!

[qbert]

I guess I am one of those alleged "MORE THAN LIKELY FULL OF SHYT" members who doesn't profit off of their lure addiction. I am currently selling my first lure ever, only in hopes of using the money for a lure I can use(other lure was a gift and dives too deep for me).

I don't look at this site as a source of profit, but more like a community of like minded people with similar interests. Before I found RN a few years ago, I was alone in my hobby. None of my friends or family share my love for Rapala's, few of them even fish!! Then I find this place and realize I am far from the only one, and far from the worst!!!

Now, I fully understand that plenty of us are making money off of each other and others, but that isn't the ONLY reason we are here!!! That's where I have a problem!! If that was not Mr. Walleye's intent, then he should not have lead with that as his first post because that's how it seems. I have no problem with someone asking a lure value, if they ACTUALLY want to know a lure's value!! But to throw a few words together disguising the fact that all you're saying is buy my lures on ebay, is just insulting. And then to actually insult the entire board just shows what type of guy he really is, but he is irrelevant at this point.

Losing Ryan however, is not. I am well aware Ryan makes plenty of his money from people on RN, but that's not the sole reason why he's here. He was a large contributor to the site in many ways and I for one hope he comes back. I understand his comments completely. That guy was talking B.S and trying to be manipulative as if we are all stupid. His post says he isn't selling them and then Ryan finds them on ebay minutes later. They could have been 50 cents and I would have been angry. I've got hundreds of posts and have not lied to you guys in a single one. This guy starts his very first post with lies intend to profit of off people, that Ryan(if he feels like I do),
considers to be his peers and in many cases his friends. Personally, I have no problem with him calling him out.

I really don't know how it helps to have a one time post member who just lists an ebay item. I think we all know how to get to ebay on our own and find what we want, no link needed. If we just had a page where members could just list their ebay name and nothing else, I'd be able to find their lures on my own. Maybe have a post count eligibility to appear on that page only or something, thus eliminating the one post salesman from the equation!!

All I know is I absolutely love this site, and I for one would be devastated if it were gone!! I really appreciate all the work that Ted and others put into this site, and hope we can figure out ways to continually improve the Nation!!

Wish it wasn't 30 degrees outside, all this crap has me stressed, a little fishing would do me right about now!!!!

[Fishooked]

Hi all,

I'll admit I've been somewhat out of touch with the goings-on here as late, which is unfortunate on many levels. But I will admit that I haven't been as actively attempting to garner new members through other outlets (Facebook, Twitter, etc) because I've just lost interest in trying to get more traffic here.

There are lots of reasons, mostly time & family related really. The day job is the one that pays the bills, and I need to direct a lot of my extra energies towards my 'real' career - unfortunately. If I could make my living involved in the fishing industry somehow I would do so in a heartbeat. But having a family and others who depend on you limits the choices you can make, or at least the risks.

Anyway before I wander way off topic, I don't think setting up a 'membership fee' is the answer, I am kind of a cheapskate myself and I'm not sure there is even enough content here to warrant it.


The following are some ideas I'm kicking around:

-changing all or parts of the site where you cannot view any posts unless you register. This doesn't fix much, I guess it will end up creating even more single or zero-post account it will make you register before you can even view anything. The downside is that I personally find it annoying if I am checking out a new board to see if I wish to join up or not, and I cannot even catch a glimpse as to what the community is like, chances are I would probably move on if I received a 'you must be registered first' type of message.

-implementing post count or membership ranking in order to view/post threads in certain boards - mainly the ebay & collecting board. There are features already in place that would make this fairly easy to implement. There may even be a way to boil it down even further to where you can only view posts at 10 posts, reply to posts at 25 posts, be allowed to post URLS at 100 posts, etc. -

- I can also implement certain username title modifications such as 'RapalaNation VIP' or something of that nature so folks would know the currently level or standing of the person they are dealing with (again, most can figure this out just by post count and or length of time here anyway) I have also seen other trading boards implement a 'member references' section so other people who have traded with you can add their 'feedback

-As always, and this is already a rule, but any trade disputes should not be made public and discussed on the boards.

-If I implement this then newer members will need to be policed so that they aren't spamming the board with auction links, etc.

While we're on topic with 'board things' I'm aware that some of the lure subsections needs some additions or revisions, so that is one thing I definitely need to address. But I have seen a lot of posts ending up in 'General Conversation' that frankly don't belong there, please ensure that your posts end up in a place where someone else is most likely to find it in its appropriate category. If something is missing/misleading etc please PM me and I'm sure I chance make changes or additions. I know Im just being anal but it think it helps folks find older posts down the road (the search function on this site leaves much to be desired)

Also since I am kind of a control freak I have been reluctant to give up 'control' by assigning moderators to certain boards, etc.
I still need to work out to how handle this moving forward.

Let me know what you guys think.

[bacon]

Ted,
i agree that the mandatory registration would turn me away, prospective members might be more inclined to post and participate if they can search around and find some inspiration without being hassled into joining up just to see anything. if they just post as a guest once, then you can kinda expect that they are one and done.
The post limits for certain categories or privileges are good ideas, but i do worry a little that we will get a lot of "nice", and "good" type of posts from people in order to reach the limit, however, at least they are posting, and even if most of them are little junk post, maybe they will be more inclined to also post meaningful posts. kind of a spark of conversation type of idea. might be interesting to see how it works out.
i know you are busy, and it sounds like life is taking its turn at kicking you good and hard, sorry to hear it buddy, but THANK YOU for this site, even with all the drama as of late, its still a great place to hang out.

bacon

[keesvanderlaak]

Ted, If you need moderation in the timezone that you are sleeping on the other side of the big pond (because of the time offset)
I am willing to help out!

[happyshad]

I feel that mandatory registration to view the full board and post should be a requirement - but you could also allow "guests" to view the "Welcome Guests" or a special section that introduces them to RN, giving them a chance to check it out!

There are scenarios where someone could work around the system - but I feel that the people wanted on the "Nation" are the people that will take the time to register on the site, and invariably spend time making valid posts and bringing value to the community.
I was referred to this site from a friend - and on my first visit I registered.

I agree with Bacon on post counts and to me they mean nothing. Jason, Bacon and a few others have been here from the beginning, but could be passed by an overzealous poster within a year or two (or less) - I have watched members come on here - ask the "I'm starting to collect these - are they worth anything?" questions, then they become a "full-blown-broker", sell some lures, then sell their "collection", then they have disappeared. Human nature to "get hot on something and then move on" yet I feel that quite a few on this site will collect Rapalas and other lures for many years.

At the end of the day, this forum - just like all the others on the internet - will be somewhat controlled by the "community that it is comprised of" similar to how other social structures work: Kids at school; Juveniles cruising the strip; Adults at work; etc. In the case that started this whole "discussion" we may have had a few members get a little "overzealous" towards each other, but in the end, the "camouflaged broker" took his ball and bat and went home - and RapalaNation will become stronger.

The only tragedy so far in this, is that we lost (hopefully just temporarily) a very passionate and serious member/moderator/collector that we all enjoyed in many aspects. Just as it is the members responsibility to police "socially unacceptable behavior" on this site - it is now our responsibility to bring back that member. Again, in the end we will all be better from this.

My closing thoughts:
1. Maybe we as regulars try to "call out" or "question ones intentions/behavior" through pm's.
2. Maybe the next time an "assumed camoflauged broker" comes onto the site asking the obvious questions - we answer them - who knows - they may get "bit by the bug" and settle into the community.

[Fishooked]

It's also going to be awfully hard to figure out (at least initially) who is here for what reason - I mean, I don't want to interrogate every new poster that asks a question (but I did this morning, against my better judgement, sorry about that ) - how else are folks going to know which sizes and colors to look for their collection(s) if we're not here to help?

We've always been a friendly board and I'd rather it stays that way.
But I do think that being allowed to post your auction links on here should be earned, and not an automatic right. The trading post.....a different story I guess...not quite sure how to handle, I don't want any involvement in anyone elses' trades or dealings.

[90collector]

I would be willing to offer time or help if needed

[jmcfish10101973]

hi all it's john i think we all should be very carefull about what we say do.you really do not know what kinds of moods and feelings people are in anymore.i think we can all help people in some way on this site.i also would like to say that collecting rapalas is fun and very enjoyable and should not be a war of words and fights.i know i have most likely said and and or did some things on this site to up-set people but i have learned from that.i think if me all ask (?)'s first than post stuff i would help out ted and the board.i am willing to help anyone and everyone with anything just ask me and i will try my best to help and find things for you.i will do my part as a member of rapalanation not to make people up-set.

about e-bay and selling rapalas and other stuff that is getting to be very hard and painfull.with the prices of rapalas and most of all the highly collectable ones is getting to be very high in my book.

here is something i was thinking about over the last 2 or 3 weeks if ytou have something for sell or trade just post it and keep all info between the seller and the buyer and do not put any info in the post just let all of us know if it is sold and or still up for sell or trade.

i myself do not like to see people get mad and or very up-set to the point of leaveing this site.i think if you need help with priceing and lure values please ask first thier are alot of people on rapalanation that can you and i am one of them.i am all most sure that no one would steer you in the worng way.

i love to come here and relax and get very helpfull info and would like to thank the following people for this.

ted
jason
jim
jeff
ryan
matt
kee's
josh
tom s
wolfgang
johannes
steve

just to name a faw and i would like to thank all the 1800 plus members for makeing this a home for something me all love the RAPALA LURE.

so please lets not fight and get up-set lets just have fun and learn from one another and keep growning and helping people.the more people we meet and join the more info comes in for all of us.we can all learn something from someone.

i am here to grow and help not fight and make people up-set.so lets have fun and try to put this behide us and learn from it.

thanks to all

john

p.s. I AM HERE TO HELP ANYWAY I CAN

[cdj711]

hi all.

well, i am sorry to tell you i am not here to help anybody.

i am here casue i like to fish and i like rapala and i like collecting rapala and talk to people who also like what i like.
we have heard this before, even when most of us have never met in person, there are a couple guys out there which i would call friends.
there may be even 2 or 3 where i could knock on the door and ask if i could spend a couple days at their place, fishing a little, and talk about rapala, and life and such.
well, of course they all know they are quite safe with me being about 5000 to 8000 miles away ... LOL

and even if i am not here to help anybody, it may have been that once or twice it happend anyway.

and while i am here and talk with people about things we like or even love, i do not want to have to think twice or even more times of what i am saying. if we have to weigh each word if it might hurt anybody, expecially a newcomer, i rather stay away.

i think i hurt Jason by saying he "invented" the citrus shad, and we never talked this out, and i hope all is fine even if we didnt.

if we have to be that careful with our words, and can not say what we want to say, it may happen that somebody does not understand what we want to tell just because we tried to be polite and careful or whatever.

when i go out fishing with a friend, i want to be able to tell him what i think, even if i think he can not fish, and he should be able to take this.

then, if we have made some friends here, i think it should be possible to talk to each other as friends and should not think so much of who might be hurt by any of our words.

thats just my thoughts and i hope nobody gets upset when i let all of you know what i think.

forget about all this we-are-here-to-help business, we are here to find rare rapala and have some fun on the way.

we are all one rapalanation!

wolfgang

p.s.: i just realized this is a total off-topic post - nowhere mentioning the word of the thing which should not be mentioned anymore - and did i tell you that all last year i sold maybe 3 or 4 times there - very much prefer trades and business outside the bay-thing.

[cdj711]

and i got the message that nobody wants to have a membership fee here, cause we are all cheap skates.
i spent well over $700 alone on shipping out rapala in 2010, and my wife says the only one earning money with rapala is the post office.
so why do all the newcomers make the big money with their rapala and me having trouble selling some rare ones at retail price ...?
well, i guess off-topic again.
best,
w.