Question for you. While Morphmarket doesn’t recommend one vendor over another, there is a huge red banner in the inquire box when someone goes to contact a seller who is new to your site telling them that you don’t recommend buying from a new seller. I have been breeding reptiles for over 10 years, and have a Facebook following - I’m just new here.
It seems that I’m being set up to fail if you tell people I’m new, so they shouldn’t buy from me. How will I ever sell anything?
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You mean this
This seller is new to our marketplace. We do not recommend buying from new sellers. We strongly advise you to research seller reputations before buying. MorphMarket is not responsible for problems you may encounter with the seller.
I had never noticed until now
I know that no matter how long you have been a breeder there will be this message
We strongly advise you to research seller reputations before buying. MorphMarket is not responsible for problems you may encounter with the seller
I am sure @John will be able to shed some light on this subject since he owns owns MorphMarket and I am only a moderator on the forum with no involvement with the behind the scene of the marketplace.
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Thanks Stewart.
@john I have no problem with being flagged as a new seller, just the part that says that you don’t recommend buying from me. 
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Hi Scotty,
Since you both emailed support and posted this here, I am going to copy my email response here.
I understand your reaction. Of course this does not help you, being a brand new seller on MM. However, this is the same process all 2,000+ sellers on our site have gone through.
- It has nothing to do with you in particular, and most all users will understand this.
- After 30 days, this warning goes away.
- Unfortunately, this warning is not heeded very well by our users anyway, as I when the scammers pop up with some low price, I see the flood of inquiries they get.
The bottom line is that most of our scammers are new sellers, and inexperienced buyers aren’t good at assessing the reliability of sellers in general, so we believe that this is helpful guideline for them. More experienced users may feel the confidence to ignore this.
Seller can also not buy their way past it. The reality is someone paying $20 for a membership doesn’t really make them that much more credible either. Although, an annual membership would probably be a positive sign.
John
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I’d say it’s pretty fair. It specifically tells you to go research them, and it could save someone from getting scammed. You feel a certain level of comfort when buying from a site like this that could lead to you letting your guard down. And it tells you that you may want to take extra precautions if they haven’t been in the game for long. I am planning on purchasing from a “new seller” and he doesn’t have a website like most of the established people. So I made sure that I at least could find him on Facebook before I reached out to him. I was able to find him and see that he does have experience so it’s less likely to be a scam. Plus even if you are new you can add your Facebook link and put in your bio you’re new to the site not to the business of raising reptiles.
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It’s only 30 days and it’s not like you have to sell a pre-determined number of animals or maintain a certain percentage of positive feedback like most online markets. Sound fair.
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I’d say it was. Everybody starts the same. If you’re new, you have no reputation. People don’t know what to expect from you. So people trying to research you with no reputation, yeah they’re going to be hard on you until you get that first few customers, and some good reviews, to build your reputation up.
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A bit late to the discussion, and some people have already said similar things; but thought I would chip in anyway as a buyer.
I’ve bought from a new seller quite recently. Of course, my first instinct is to be weary of them because there is the potential to be scammed. But generally, if I see that they have a lot of animals for sale, that’s a promising sign for me that they really are looking to establish themselves on here as opposed to trying to get away with a one-time scheme. And extra big bonus points if they have an active Facebook page with a decent following + positive reviews on there.
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Some aren’t fair. Mostly cuz they are mostly isolated incidents, and stuff. Or if one little thing didn’t go their way, people immediately want to post bad reviews or warnings. It doesn’t matter how stupid the reason is either. Like, the breeder is a super robot, and isn’t allowed to make mistakes like the other human beings.
I think we’re getting off topic now. We’re talking about the default warnings MM posts for new sellers, not ratings left by users.
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I don’t think the issue here is educating the buyer to research and know the seller before purchasing since they’re new to the market. That’s great advice! I think the big issue is the platform specifically stating “ We do not recommend buying from new sellers”. That is very specific and is in addition to recommending to do your research. For a Marketplace platform to instruct buyers (whether they pay attention to it or not) to not buy from new sellers for any period of time is in fact counterproductive to what your platform strives to do which is connecting sellers and buyers. The platform should warn and educate but never state don’t buy from new sellers because everyone is new on the platform at one point. It’s just bad optics.
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The platform should warn and educate
Which it does already
Putting an emphasis for a month once new profiles is just a very good reminder especially for new buyers. I see it as an extra security feature.
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It’s not counterproductive for buyers or most sellers. It is a hindrance to new sellers for a short period of time.
I will reiterate what I said before:
We are making this general recommendation based on what we’ve learned is the typical buyer’s inability to do good research, despite the resources we’ve provided. If a buyer thinks they know what they are doing, they will have the confidence to ignore this warning. They can and often do, so new sellers do get sales. But when a scammer pops up we also see scores of buyers disregard the warning and purchase from someone who they clearly didn’t vet well at all.
I believe the benefits outweigh the costs here. The cost is for new sellers to wait a short time before being cleared of the disclaimers.
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No, its not fair. I get zero chance. I get a bad rep before I even get a chance to build a good one. Not fair at all. Morphmarket might as well recommend breeders if they want to fail new sellers out of the gate. I do have Instagram and my own Facebook page. I havent dealt with my snake facebook page, it’s too much for as small as I am, and since I am downsizing and focusing, I am about to get smaller
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How does something that appears a new seller’s profile for 30 days means having zero chance and getting a bad rep before getting a chance to build one???
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I’d have to ask the same question honestly.
I’m a new breeder as well, and I don’t personally see it as unfair in any way. I actually see it as a helpful reminder just in case!
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You get a chance, it’s just that THIS part of your rep takes 30 days to build. Is that so long? People with solid reps are doing this for years.
And, people who make this argument overlooked what I said earlier – lots of people buy from new sellers, even scammers, without giving it 2 thoughts, unfortunately.
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As a result of the feedback, I have made two changes to this warning. This is what the new one will look like:
- The language has been changed from “do not recommend” to “recommend being extremely cautious”.
- The question mark now links to this discussion so both buyers and sellers can understand the intent behind this statement.
Note that only the first two sentences are shown for new sellers – we show the last two for all sellers.
I believe this new wording accomplishes the same goals but make the intent clearer.
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Ok so I am head Admin on a 25,000 member reptile page. Have over 3,000 followers on Instagram. I would have to agree that you are judging people before you even know anything about them with that statement. It deters me from getting a subscription. Even though it is only 30 days real buyers still will remember I am new after the tag is removed. I don’t mind 30 days it’s just the lasting impression it leaves. I myself would be suspect of buying from someone with that statement attached to their profile. With Facebook eliminating sales I have to look at other avenues besides my website to sell snakes. I don’t know that I will get a membership. Me and my partner had decided to hold off for now even though we were making some good sales. I had a woman this morning go off on me because I wouldn’t sell her a Snake for half price and told me I should sell To her for half price because I’m a new seller and it’ll help out my account. So I’m going to take $250 off of Snake to make a sale.
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If that’s the case you should report that buyer.
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