After a long road and a lot of work, the new Equipment Exchange (EE) is ready and live!

I want to quickly go over the new system changes and set a baseline on what to expect. I also want to ask folks to be patient and give it a chance before the generic "I hate it" feedback begins. Yes, change sucks and often times is aggravating, but we feel the benefits far outweigh the pain of change. We ask that you please take time with the new system and provide feedback on everything big or small, likes and dislikes, annoyances, requests, etc. This is day one, so expect changes based on feedback. This is your chance to help shape the system for years to come.

Basics
- The first thing to realize is this is a transactional system (finally!). This means with each sale we have a process to make that transaction easier from start to finish. This includes a 1:1 feedback, offers, sales, images for every item, historic data to compare to, improved tools, and more! In short, this opens a lot of options because of the way we handle the listings. As a byproduct of these changes, the EE will have more security and protections in place and an easier way to expand on those.
- Images are now uploaded by EVERYONE who wants to sell. This allows non-team to upload images and ensure the majority of listings have images. Images will be shown in previews, so folks can shop with photos. (Welcome to 2005 I know.)
- Listings will be created by a form. No more free wheeling text box. You now create a title for the specific item (1 item per listing, multiple quantity allowed) and enter quick information for it. So things like item brand and if it is NEW/USED. These data points help you with everything from brand filtering to searching for specific items.
- Feedback is updated and works off the transactional system. That means 1:1, email notifications, etc.
- Security is much higher with the ability for us to setup companies and volume sellers at a much more automated manner.
- Listings are limited to Fixed Price or accepting offers. There are no auctions. You will decide if your price is firm, or if you are open to offers. You will accept the offer you want in a private setting.
- Listings show a "PLACE OFFER" button. Anything fixed price means your offer is what they are asking. For any listing that is accepting offers, you will be prompted to enter your offer amount.
- Sellers can manage their offers and reject or accept anything they want. It is NOT a first come first served. The seller can decide based on feedback, previous history, or higher offers.


Tools
- A whole set of new user and admin tools have been created to make the experience easier. Feedback management, offer management, item management, user "stores", and help with listings.
- Users have insight on all their offers received, offers made, and items purchased. (items accepted/purchase history)
- Users will also see all their listings, items closed/removed, and items sold.
- Bumping is a thing of the past as items will be "auto" renewed on a set timer.
- Partners will receive "highlighted" or "promoted" listings which will show more prominently and with normal result pages. (Extra views!)
- Users will be able to upgrade to a "power seller" account to open up more listings and options. (Automated management!) Companies will pay a per sale fee in the future versus a monthly fee.
- Future charges will NOT be a high percentage like a Gunbroker (18%+) or EBay (12%+). You can see the fee schedule here: EE How To Help These small fees will keep most of the money in people's pockets while allowing us to continue development! The plan for now is to not charge anyone and keep the EE free and fix any issues. The folks who sell in volume or are established companies will see an easier path to sales without a commitment ahead of time and simply a fee when items sell. This should encourage more sellers and a more competitive marketplace. For non-team folks, there will be a CC check and nominal yearly fee to validate their identity and allow them to sell. Again, for most folks, there will not be fees!


Existing (OLD) EE Listing
- Your old listings will be accessible like normal, but you can't bump them anymore. You can mark them closed or sold.
- If your listing is better suited for the new system, please recreate it there and set the old one CLOSED.
- OLD system will function as it did before, but you can only see them in the classic view. New listings will show in both systems.
- OLD listings will be around for a month or two, but we want to retire the system and they will be retired. (We will give warning.)
- Even if you use the old view, creating new items will use the new listing system.


I think this covers the basics. We want to ensure everyone enjoys the new EE and that it is an improvement across the board., If there are things you dislike, or may not work properly, please let us know and we will do everything we can to make it better for all!

Thank you for your continued support and expect more site updates this year. Please focus on the EE for this thread and we can discuss the next major changes soon!


THE MAIN LINK TO THE EE WILL TAKE YOU TO THE OLD VIEW, BUT WE WILL CHANGE THAT SOON. WE WANTED FOLKS TO BE BROUGHT BACK INTO THE OLD FORUM VIEW WHICH WILL REMAIN, BUT USE THE NEW SYSTEM BEHIND THE SCENES. AT THE TOP OF ANY EE PAGES WILL BE A BUTTON FOR THE NEW EE VIEW. ONCE IN THE EE, YOU CAN PICK TEXT VIEW IF YOU WANT TO RETURN TO THE OLD EE FORUM STYLE VIEW. THE NEW SYSTEM IS MUCH EASIER TO USE!!!!

LINK: https://www.ar15.com/exchange/


Edit to add info below!
Answers to Questions that are being asked. From a different post:

1) The link above will be made the main link shortly and jumping into the old view is an option on the right menu by filters called text view. Jumping back to the new EE view is at the top bar of the forum pages "NEW EE VIEW".

2) Feedback and user tools (manage ads, manage offers, track purchases, etc) are all in the MY TOOLS button on the new EE. You should be able to find everything you need there.

3) There are no per sale fees for selling for either team members or non-team. Non-team will eventually be required to pay a small fee for a simple CC address check to cut down on scammers. (This is only to sell/wtt/wtb and not to buy.) Volume sellers ("Power Sellers") will replace the dealer program and allow for small and large dealers to play in the same pond with fees based on what you sell, not a yearly fee. This means small folks will pay a lot less and from proceeds of sales AFTER they sell. The proposed fees are shared in the how-to help file and are roughly 1%-3% based on the items sale price. Again, ONLY FOR DEALERS and most will be around 1.5%, not like gunbroker's 18% or ebays 12%.

4) Right now the goal is to NUKE user data when things are sold. We are not here to collect data on you folks. There's a lot of fear mongering going around about charging people crazy amounts (see above) and tracking data. We have NEVER tracked information on people, do not require your name or any personal info to use the site, and we do not intend to change this. Our goal is to make the EE easier to use and MUCH easier to manage. Collecting your personal information on EE transactions is not going to happen. We have a history of protecting you all and will continue to do so to the best of our ability.

5) The multiple listing per post is being addressed and I ask for time to correct the issue. We will make it so you can do a "clean out" type ad for your small stuff. We still want to see big items listed individually (lot/sets are fine) because those drive traffic and are easier to see, buy, and sell when they are the focus.

6) Quantity is being addressed and should have a fix this week. This will be for smaller ticket items like magazines, where individual listings makes ZERO sense. Again, this is on us and we will get it right. There will be different quantity restrictions, as there are now, for team and non-team. If you are planning to sell large amounts, please look at a volume seller account to simplify things for everyone.

7) The old EE view is going to be less helpful and useful than the new one. We recommend using the new system to see new listings as well as moving your old listings to new style. If you have bulk "clean out" style posts, just give us a little time to create a better system for you folks.

8) The NEW EE has it's own simple search as well as FILTERS on the right of the main view bar. This allows you to filter by state, manufacurer, etc.

9) If you find manufacturers that are missing, let us know. The list is huge, but it is obviously not complete. It's easy to add more to it, please just let us know!

10) HOW DOES IT WORK
- So the basics are simple. Create a listing with either a fixed price or accepting offers. If you are doing something where you are dead-set on a price, then fixed price it. If you are ok with options or have item with quantity and discounts, then do accepting offers so users can send those in.
- Once a listing exists, you can click the PLACE OFFER button in green to make an offer to buy an item. The seller will be sent notifications on all offers submitted. Sellers can interact with users and decide WHO they want to accept an offer from. Once it's accepted the deal is agreed to. So make sure you want to place an offer you are going to honor, otherwise comment in the listing or message the seller. Anything with multiple quantity will only lock down the quantity the buyer is trying to get. So if it's a single item or multiple, the quantity will be adjusted once the offer is accepted.
- If you have an issue with anything above, you can request help from admins. For example if an accepted offer is welched on, you can report it and an admin to remove it and restore your listing.
- If there are any other issues or question, post here and we will monitor this discussion to help!!!!
- Once a transaction is completed (offer made and offer accepted) then you will see the item in sold/purchased list and be able to leave feedback for each other. Since this is a transactional system, feedback can't be manipulated or extras created. Each feedback requires an item to be listed and agreed to be sold.

ONCE AGAIN, we do not plan to save historic data on users. I don't care if you bought a gun 3 years ago from someone else. We plan to wipe all of the user info after a 30/60/90 window. (Haven't decided 100% but leaning towards a 60 day window to allow for after sale disputes to be handled. Once user data is gone, it will be GONE.)

Hope this helps and I'll run through the thread again to try to answer other questions posted that I may not have addressed.

Very happy to see that it's finally going live.

We need to go to lunch soon as I'm not sick! (Been over a month already!)

You know I'm down.

Editing old ads had a bug, it should be fixed now. It's the same as before. You can only see old ads in the text view (old forum view).

As to the new listings, the number of benefits far outweigh the growing pains of change. I'm sure change sucks, but provide feedback on the things you specifically would like to see changes/improved and we will do our best!

The category is still there. No categories were removed other than WTS/WTB because those are listing options and can be assigned to any category now. You can also see them all if you click the WTS or WTB listing type at the top.

Found an issue with your editing link and should be fixed now. Sorry.

Is the error in trying to list the ad or are you trying to add a quantity higher than 1 to the item?

Nobody is a nobody. Please give this a chance. Again, I know change is often a pain.

So for non-team there is a limit of 1 quantity of item per listing. There is larger quantity limit for team members.

OK we will look at mobile menu issues and fix it.

Click on the filter button in the new EE and you can filter by a number of options, state is one of them.

Mobile menu bug now fixed!

No and no fees for team members. This will replace the old DEALER program to sell in the EE. This way we don't have to worry about managing small, mid, large dealers anymore. Whatever a volume seller sells will dictate their fees, so a table dealer who sells 10 rifles a year will pay a much smaller amount than what the dealer program charged. The fee schedule is posted and under the help -> how to and I believe they are under 3% from lowest to highest amount. Right now we wont be collecting fees even for volume dealers as we continue to fine tune the system.

Listing limits can be found on the help page.

https://www.ar15.com/exchange/help.html

Active Listing Limit

Non-Team - 10
Team member - 20
Power Seller(Dealer/IP accounts) - Unlimited

Maximum quantity Limit.
Non-Team - 1
Team member- 10
Power Seller(Dealer/IP accounts) - Unlimited

The new EE tools will track everything for you. All your listings, all offers coming in, feedback, etc. Users can even look at all your items at once by clicking on your name in a listing (or the main listing page). For example, for you, I can check all your stuff here: Charliedontsurf Listings

We have thought about items like mags and need to find a solution that makes sense, but you are right for some items a higher quantity is logical. Right now the plan would be to re-list the ad once it's sold. Users can also sell them as a lot, if you had 10 mags you were selling as a single listing. "Pack of 10 Magpul Gen1 Magazines (Black)".

The best long term solution would be to limit quantity based on item value. So an item of less than $10 can have a max quantity of 20, but an item of $10-$20 has a quantity limit of 10. We will play around with it and see what makes sense.