What about Jeff and his lumber runs?
Travis, you beat me to it.
There are differences between the burls and the lumber runs, but also similarities. Both the burls and lumber runs are commercial, recurring transactions. Technically, that means they should not be allowed as postings in the Classifieds or the Wood forum. What makes the lumber runs different is that they are infrequent and far more complicated than a simple "for sale". Logistics, quantities, species, lumber runs always require lengthy discussions via the forum.
Needless to say, the lumber runs are a big hit with our users here (myself included). So whatever policy interpretation/ enforcement/ clarification/ modification is required, I hope it won't interfere with that.
A listing fee sounds complicated. Would it be a fixed amount, or based on the price? The latter would make the lumber runs even more enjoyable, Jeff is barely able to figure out what to charge people (here, take some more!), so calculating a % is like bistrometry (read The Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy). A fixed price would probably be too much of a burden for smaller sales.
Another option would be to allow commercial classifieds for wood
only, provided the seller is a corporate member. I think that distinction is defensible. We don't want people coming here reselling tools from Harbor Freight or Amazon.com. But lumber is still mainly a local affair, primarily due to the prohibitive shipping cost.
The third option is to leave the Classifieds policy as is, but allow lumber sellers to ask for special dispensation for "events" - such as gathering an order of burls before/ after the picnic and lumber runs.
I think this is a great item for our new Board Of Directors to make a decision on
I'll bring the popcorn.
