TAG Sellers…..
Adam Wrote
People come on here and sell their wares and services and good ole Tony pays the bills and they are getting a free ride and often are competing directly against Tony and getting a free ride on his dime and they are only really here to make a few quick bucks.
Something is going to have to change around here.
This is becoming a more serious issue everyday.
Its becoming a little more personal to me every time the billing cycle comes up and I have to pay for others free advertising.
We are all so proud of our TAG and it will be here for a long time, but some changes will be made.
Thanks Tony
All Replies
The biggest airgun forum this side of the pond is airgunbbs.com.
There is a section for members to sell their “one off” bits and pieces, guns scopes etc as individuals.
They have a separate section for new items and in order to post something up their post/advert has to be approved by a moderator.
Could something like that be put in place here?
Whether a fee is charged for advertising in that section or not is up to the admin here, but at least there would be some control and you could simply not approve adverts for things that you feel are ripping off others work.
I have several other designs for shoulder pieces. I just don’t think there are many who are going to pay what would need to be charged for them…
One of the hardest thing in coming up with the Wokbutt was to keep it simple and yet functional. It is a very simple design that only took years for someone “ME” to come up with….lol
I have a really cool design that clamps to the bottle and can be extended and retracted and adjusted in many positions. The thing is the machine time to make it right drives the price up. The part that sucks is one person can do all the R and D and then “Joe Blow” shows up and knocks them off and the only reason he can do so is the hard work was done already.
We should reward those who do the work and not punish them by watching others take their ideas and make them their own. We can not stop people from from doing so all over the world but we can stick together and support each other here on the TAG.
Maybe just talking about it will help and motivate people to clean up their act and take care of their customers and not copy and imitate another craftsmen here on the TAG but do original work and have a new idea instead of just trying to turn a buck.
Right you are… I just like taking credit! haha… 😆
WOKs version is his own. There were many other butt plate designs that were built though. There were also other trigger guards, trigger shoes and other folks who put AR grips on their guns with adapters.
Also, the one you pestered him about isnt the one he ended up producing although it is similar ). His old design was actually more original than the one he produces now. I dont know anyone else who used pipe clamps to attach it to the gun but I do remember quite a few who used a screw on the back with an adjustable butt pad. There were a few guys who even epoxied the nut or a disc to the back of the tank.
Thats all besides my point though. The market will determine whats sold and what sits on the shelf. WOK makes some nice pieces and tries to sell them at a reasonable price. A guy would be hard pressed to make them as nice or cheaper. Is anyone who starts building adjustable butt pads going to be branded as stealing the idea from WOK? I see allot of room for improvement or differing designs possibilities in that department. I dont think because one guy sells one version of something that everyone else should be shut down.
All of my stuff is original thought and design. Sole authorship from design to production.
Thank you very much 😀 😀 😀 😀
I’ll vouch… WOK knows I pestered him for years to make me a buttpad like his….haha… and I’ll never let him forget it! 😀
All of my stuff is original thought and design. Sole authorship from design to production.
Thank you very much 😀 😀 😀 😀
Peter,
I believe you, Brad probably screwed up your address or maybe even didn’t send the email right away. But, you got the valve on the 10th and you were being “ignored” by the 11th. I think that’s a little quick to be causing a rukus.
the only reason why I brought up the conversation was because i was told that i will get instructions for the valve through my email. I have sent him my email atleast 2 times because even til now i havent gotten the email…and yes i have checked my spam box. That is the only reason why i believed i was being ignored. Therefore, I asked for help from here…not meant to cause the biggest stir up of the year here.
Heres my take on it. Rob is on the right track as well as others. This site is an Airforce Airgun site for the enthusiasts who love them. It is sponsored by Tony of Talon Tunes who has a separate site where he conducts his business. He does display his wares here as do many members which contribute to sales for those folks. I think it should remain as it has always been and not have restrictions put on it. The members here have always regulated this site with help of the moderators. This is how the old site was until the new owner/operator decided he needed to make a profit from the site. The old members all know how well that worked out.
If Tony decides he needs the members here to help with the monthly’s then he should ask for donations/contributions. He shouldn’t do it by putting limits on the competition. The free market will determine who sells what and for how much. One guy may be cheaper while the other guy has better quality. I have yet to see anything sold on this site that wasnt already done somewhere else first. All you have to do is leaf through the old photo gallery (damn I miss that) and you would see every product sold here has already been made in many different styles and forms. The big difference is that some folks here have refined and marketed them.
Adam,
I can see how that additional information combined with Peter’s post to cause real concern. I was just commenting on the information apparent to me from the most recent threads.
Going silent is a huge red flag. It almost always means the guy with pending obligations is skipping out. There have been a couple cases I’m aware of where a guy had a serious accident or trauma and came back but long silence usually means someone is getting hosed.
Not to pick on Brad but I was contacted by several people whose PM’s for missing valve were going ignored for weeks and it was not until it was brought to light on the forum did the missing valves appear and finally got sent out.
Ignoring members for weeks is always sends up a RED FLAG no matter who you are.
Well, the term ‘debacle’ wasnt laying blame on the seller….but the situation itself did turn such…haha
I think you’re on track there Rob. I don’t think the thing with Brad was a debacle though. It seems more like Peter jumped the gun on claiming he was being ignored and created a false impression that Brad had pulled a dong. That combined with fresh memories of dongers stirred the pot up good!
I’m going to chime in on this one….
I’ve been around as long as most here back on the TOG days. The TOG and now the TAG has always been in the spirit of sharing information and allowing folks to sell whatever.
I’m only going to speculate here as I’ve not spoken with anyone regarding this….
I’ve seen a time when if someone needed their gun WORKED on, someone on the forum would offer to do it for them. This still happens now on occasion.
BUT… what happens more is that someone has a problem with their gun and then so and so offers to ‘tune’ it for them. Often, that ‘tune’ job is just sorting out a gun, something that should have been done for free. These ‘tuners’ do take away from Tony’s business.
The same as when there was a copycat WOK-Butt out there. It clearly took away from WOK’s business.
Shrouds, etc… well…. those have been around forever and I dont think it’s a bad thing to make and sell shrouds…. wanna know why Tony charges more for his…. look at one. I’ve got a TT shroud and I’ve got another shroud I got in a trade on a full Condor. Functionally, they both work… just like a Beeman and a Gamo both work…but one is worth the extra coin.
As one person already said…. the market will decide…. but I think the real problem lies with folks reading about someone having a problem and then immediately IM’ing that person to offer to ‘tune’ their gun for them. We’ve had several people do this and hose folks…. not saying everyone who does it will hose someone, but it’s been commonplace enough to raise concern.
This latest debacle with Brad only raised awareness a bit.
What should happen? Nothing. People will be loyal to whoever does the best work for them.
IM should be a privilege, not a right…. if there is a way to restrict it, maybe that should be looked at…
and lastly…. Andrew would do a call to raise funds for upkeep of the site…. Tony, I know I sent some TAG shirts your way and proceeds from them for upkeep… I know that I and others have asked if you wanted help on the site…. you’ve always declined payment for the site, and I can applaud that, but maybe it’s time that once a year, you ask folks… might surprise you and you can take whatever is left over from the upkeep and buy yourself, WOK, Tron, and YN a 6 pack of good beer or something…. yall deserve it.
…just my .02.
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I agree with Rob.
I perhaps jumped the gun a bit when I saw the possibility of some kind of extra restriction’s which in general I am against because that was the beginning of the end on TOG.
The sneaky PM bastards’s piss me off…. Dong was PM’ing people left right and fucking center soliciting work behind the scene’s and “we” didn’t want to say anything because we thought it would make it look like we were protecting Tony’s business – lo and behold the little bastard gets in too deep and takes people for their guns, time and money.
Not sure how to help prevent the problem were seeing and before you say there isn’t a problem, as mod’s we get tons of PM’s with people’s problems with other members and seller’s that are not often posted about and we work to resolve them behind the scene’s.