I've noticed far fewer items being posted on gear swap since BPL required a paid membership in order to participate. Any idea where the displaced sellers are posting their stuff now? Looking for a new (old) tarp and not many posts are coming up these days. eBay? geartrade?

Out of curiosity I looked at the number of listings on 5/18 in2010,2011, 2012
2010: 17
2011: 22
2012: 33

I've noticed gear swap is not what it used to be too. I am not a member so have taken my sales elsewhere as Im sure many others have too. the community is definitely suffering because of it.

"the community is definitely suffering because of it".

Yep. Inscrutable to the business personality is that when a profit is the goal...or the bottom line is the focus.....somewhere along the line, something, or someone, or both suffer in some way. Externalities.

"the community is definitely not suffering because of it".

Nope. Inscrutable to the freeloader personality is that when a free lunch is the goal...or the bottom line is ignored....somewhere along the line, something, or someone, or both suffer in some way. Externalities.

Please don't be inflamed by my rhetoric. I use it just to make this point: clearly, based on the facts (gear swap postings up 50% from a year ago, yet the OP hasn't bought his tarp), the only conclusion one can accurately draw is that tarp users tend more to the freeloader mentaility than to profit motivation.

Or something like that.

+1 for actual numbers, rather than just what folks have "noticed." (No offense to the OP) These numbers may be anecdotal; maybe more data would show a different pattern. But at least they aren't a WAG.

BPL is a for-profit business, just like most other magazines (online and off). I knew that when I subscribed. On the other hand, I doubt Ryan Jordan is on the verge of being the next Mark Zuckerberg (for-profit doesn't necessarily mean "profitable").

Edit: Near as I can tell, both eBay and GearTrade take a commission on sales. So no free lunch there, either.

Edited by DavidDrake on 05/20/2012 11:23:54 MDT.

I have noticed a lot of new members that joined to sell gear.People that had been selling for a long time and that was all they were here for(Brian Latta being just one).You can tell the new members in gear swap because the red M does not show up immediately next to their name and it appears that non-members are posting in gear swap but when you click on their name it show that they have just joined in their profile.I think they have had a lot of new memberships due to wanting to sell gear,and I have not seen a drop in gear swap over the years and I see tarps posted all the time,they usually go pretty fast .

Chance to complain?

I've noticed no difference.

Meh.

"Displaced"?

Those non-member sellers had a choice, bend or break, some people chose to take their "business" elsewhere and that's fine, used gear isn't the reason most of us contribute to the forums anyways.

I dont know iff gear swap is less now or not, but ive been dissapointed by the lack of articles and reviews coming out. Seems like if we are lucky something might be reviewed every third week or so. Ther is always something new coming out and id like to here from the pros their opinions on it. This 1 part in a series of 3 things is pretty rudiculous too, seems like filler for a lack of new material. Does the site have problems recruiting writers or is it just too expensive to test out the new gear?

Oh hey, a one-day sample size. How telling. And is it proportional to the growth of the community?

Gear swap has differently got quieter, when I lived in Europe I used to pick up a lot of kit on here far cheaper than on my side of the pond.

"Oh hey, a one-day sample size. How telling. And is it proportional to the growth of the community?"

It is a time series not a one day sample. And yeah we need more to make Amy kind of call. But at least a time series with three data points is greater than no data and just wild claims.

You're right, I did phrase that improperly, thanks. But a time series of three days is so close to useless it's hardly worth discussing.
it's sort of liking saying "Albert Pujols had multihit games on April 14, 19th, and May 16th, so he must be having an awesome year!" Not.
And even if the trend is more absolute postings, unless it's proportional to the growth of the community it doesn't mean a thing.
So, more data please!

Edited by tekhna on 05/20/2012 14:12:24 MDT.

I haven't been around long, but there's a ton of new stuff being posted every day and practically all of it gets sold within minutes.
If the forum used to be better before, it must have been remarkable.

Edited by Simco on 05/20/2012 15:24:09 MDT.

Personally, I haven't noticed a change in the BPL gear swap traffic, nor have I seen an uptick on other forums "for sale" sections. It's not my life's mission to track either, however, so take that with a grain of salt.

Ryan

I mostly notice the number of Gear Swap items I have to wade past when checking "Recent Threads." It hasn't changed appreciably. Nor have I noticed more "For Sale" items on what I call "The other lightweight backpacking site" (backpacking.net).

Hey Ryan . I work in Arcata. What type of tarp are you looking for? PM if you wish.

I picked up a MLD spinntex tarp recently off the gear swap. There were 3 others that I missed out on in the same week. Seems busy to me just have to act quick.

I can't even post a WTB in gearswap which is a bit of a poo-y thing really.

Plus, have you guys got auto-emailing set up for key words or something to get notified when new posts are posted? EVERY time I click onto gearswap things are just sold....gone too quick.