Welcome to the houston.forsale newsgroup! This newsgroups exists to
provide a place for people to sale things. The intention is for it to
be like an electronic for-sale ads one might find on a community bulletin
board. Articles posted here should be for items for sale in the Houston
Metropolitan Area only.

Information in this document are based on information from the misc.forsale
FAQ maintained by Daniel King (kingd at expert.cc.purdue.edu). This
document
was originally posted by Stan Barber (sob at academ.com).

Some General Guidelines

Before posting to *any* newsgroup, you should read the
articles in news.announce.newusers. These articles provide
much insight into the niceties of newsgroups, including
appropriate netiquette when posting.

COMMERCIAL and ENTREPRENEURIAL advertisements are a STRICT
NO-NO. One small exception does exist to this rule:
Occasionally, computer dealers are able to make a special
offering not normally available to the public. ONLY IF
the price of your computer-related item is SIGNIFICANTLY
LOWER than the BEST PUBLISHED PRICE in all national computer
magazines like Computer Shopper may you post your ad.
Many computer dealers occasionally offer surplus or
refurbished factory goods at excellent prices.
NO OTHER COMMERCIAL POSTS SHOULD BE POSTED TO HOUSTON.FORSALE.
(That means no books, no tungsten, no phone companies, nothing.)
Recommendations for certain companies are welcomed in some
groups, but are NOT welcome in houston.forsale. If someone
solicits one, please respond by E-MAIL only.

Chain letters like MAKE.MONEY.FAST are not permitted, and will
cause you to lose your account at many sites. Please keep
this in mind before wasting already-tight network resources.

NO DISCUSSIONS should occur in houston.forsale. Discussions about
articles posed in houston.forsale should happen in the newgroup
houston.general.

PLEASE--keep responses to others' ads to a minimum. If
someone offers something at a good price, and you MUST
respond that you know where there's better, then BE SURE
to include the following info: (KEEP IT SHORT)
The advertised price
The company selling it
An address/phone # to order the item

Wanted articles are not permitted on houston.forsale. Please
use the houston.wanted newsgroup for this purpose. Cross posting
between these two groups should never be necessary. Please don't
do it.

Posting the article

If you've satisfied the above requirements, then you're ready
to post your item for sale. Please post your ad with an
appropriate title, like "Household items for sale" if you're
selling an assortment of irons, vaccuums, pots, and furntiure,
or "204 meg Hard Drive for sale" if you're selling a hard drive.
Be as SPECIFIC yet concise as you can in the subject. In the
body of your ad, be sure to include the following:
Asking price (or say "best offer takes it")
Your true name and e-mail address
A complete description of the item
--technical details are good
Will you warrant the item?
(Standard is guaranteed to work on arrival)
Who pays for shipping?

You should set the "Folloup-To:" to to read "poster" so any
user that posts an article in follow up will generall only
send mail back to you instead of posting it to the group.
There should be no discussions in houston.forsale.

If you're selling multiple items, try to group them into
different articles as appropriate. Specifically, don't mix
hard drives, a surfboard, and a Sun Workstation in one article
which you post to 4 newsgroups. Break it into 3 separate
articles and post each appropriately. On the other hand, don't
advertise an SVGA monitor, 1megx9 Simms, and a 486 motherboard
in separate articles--this only wastes everyone's time.

ONCE SOLD, PLEASE CANCEL YOUR ARTICLE. At most sites this can
be done by pressing a capital C when you go back and reread your
article. Some sites, however, work differently. Please find
out how to cancel articles on your site *BEFORE* you post.


How to complete the transaction

O.k., now you're looking to buy something off the Usenet.
How do you complete the purchase? There are, in effect, 3
ways commonly used, and a third method for very expensive
items:

Method 1: COD -- Reccommended
The seller ships the item COD to the buyer,
who pays for it on arrival. The extra few
bucks are worth the hassle that could arise.
When the package arrives, pay by check or
cashier's check so that you can stop payment
in the unlikely event the sender sent you a
very expensive brick, instead of the hard drive
you ordered. Unfortunately, with UPS and the
USPS, you may not inspect the package contents
before paying.
Method 2: Payment by check -- Good for small items
The buyer sends a check, cashier's check,
or money order to the seller, who then
sends the item when the check arrives.
With big items, the seller may wait a
short time for the check to clear.
Method 3: Meeting somewhere in town --
Since houston.forsale is a regional newsgroup,
it may be possible to set up a meeting somewhere
to pick up the item and pay for it. Since Houston
is a large city, it is strongly recommended that
such meetings occur in safe places. Having the
meeting in the daytime in a place with significant
police presence is recommended.
Method 4: For extra protection in the case of
more expensive items, escrow is another
possibility. Your lawyer can do it, or
you can use a service like American Computer
Exchange. For a 5-8% commission (min. $50),
you pay AmCoEx by money order or credit card,
and the seller sends the item to them. When
AmCoEx has both in hand, they send the item to
you, and give you a 2 day trial period before
forwarding the money to the seller. I know
very little about them yet, so if someone uses
their service, please let me know how it works
out. AmCoEx can be contacted at 800-786-0717.
Note: this is an endorsement of the IDEA ONLY,
no implication is made as to the integrity of
AmCoEx at this time.



Paying half in advance, half on arrival is frowned upon.

Buying off the Usenet is relatively safe, as many thousands of
successful transactions have taken place. However, there have
been a small number of incidents of fraud, and, more often, of
gross miscommunication. We suggest the following precautions
as a guide--
--Keep records of your e-mail, checks, proof-of-mailing
--Insure your package adequately
--Make sure both of you are ABSOLUTELY clear on the
items and arrangements.
--Exchange and double-check addresses and phone numbers

If the items are terribly expensive, you may wish to have a
notarized bill of sale drawn up and/or other legal formalities.
Contact your lawyer for more information.

If something does go wrong, the best place to start is to
contact the other party--via e-mail or telephone. Again, the #1
source of problems is miscommunication. If this doesn't work,
however, and the deal appears fraudulent, contact the other
person's system administrator by e-mail at 'postmaster@[systemname]'.
Often times the threat of losing net access is enough to help
the process along. But please do this ONLY when discussions
fall through.

DISCLAIMER:
While rare, occasionally fraud does occur on Usenet.
It is ultimately the buyer and/or seller who must take precautions
to ensure that he/she is not taken for a ride. Presented here are
merely suggestions of means of transaction which worked for others.
There is no guarantee that they will work for you.