Welcome to the houston.wanted newsgroup! This newsgroups exists to
provide a place for people to let others know they want something. This may
result in others selling something to the original poster or giving it to
them. The intention is for it to be like an electronic want-ads one might
find on a community bulletin board. Articles posted here should be for items
that might be obtained from folks in the Houston Metropolitan Area only.

Information in this document are based on information from the misc.forsale
FAQ maintained by Daniel King (kingd@expert.cc.purdue.edu).

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.

Articles posted here should be for things WANTED. If you want
to sell something, please use houston.forsale. Cross posting
between these two groups should never be necessary. Please don't
do it.

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.wanted. Discussions about
articles posted in houston.wanted should happen in the newgroup
houston.general.

Posting the article

If you've satisfied the above requirements, then you're ready
to post your wanted article. Please post your note with an
appropriate title, like "Household items wanted" if you're
wanting things like irons, vaccuums, pots, and furntiure,
or "200 meg Hard Drive wanted" if you're wanting a hard drive.
Be as SPECIFIC yet concise as you can in the subject. In the
body of your note, be sure to include the following:
Desired price range
Your true name and e-mail address
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 generally only
send mail back to you instead of posting it to the group.
There should be no discussions in houston.forsale.

If you're wanting multiple items, post them as different articles.

ONCE YOU HAVE WHAT YOU WANT, 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 buy something via Usenet.

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.wanted 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.