Tip of the Day – 11/13/2014

Here is a bit of advice that doesn’t necessarily deal with aquarium keeping, though many aquarists experience it on a regular basis. It is really common for aquarium keepers to unload used aquarium equipment on local forums. It happens day in and day out. While most of the interactions go smoothly, it’s still quite often that one of the parties involved gets burned in some way. One such instance centers around “flaking out” on a deal. When this happens, the buyer and seller agree on a price/location/or some other detail of the sale and it looks like a done deal when one of the two backs out at the last minute. But it’s not just the backing out that’s frustrating, but usually how it is done. The frustrating part of these flake outs is that all communication (emails, text messages, etc.) are totally ignored. The party backing out of the deal just flat out ignores it all, like none of it existed. It has happened to me a time or ten, and it leaves hobbyists frustrated, jaded, and just irritated in general. So, long story short, don’t be a jerk when buying or selling stuff on local aquarium forums. Be nice to your fellow hobbyist and don’t burn bridges.