I just traded boards with a guy on r/mm and it was a pretty bad experience. He was really bad with messaging so I thought he scammed me at first. I finally got the board he sent out to me (hhkb) and it is not working at all. Usually, my experience with r/mm is good but not this time I guess.
So I was wondering what you guys do to “trust” people on r/mm? Do you just trust everyone in the community? Or do you have something you look at for when you are on r/mm?
I’m actually new to r/mm and having the package checked properly is difficult for me since I’ll have it shipped to my US proxy address. To answer your question, I’d go stalking their profile and # of trades, if they seemed to be a douche(at my preference) on discussion about mechanical keyboard sudreddit, I won’t even start a pm on their post. Checking their posts and replies somewhat provide me information that they’re known among the in the r/mm or mechanical keyboard. So far, my best experience was when I badly needed an AEK and paid not via paypal with no possible way of disputing it or refund - my three days stalking on his reddit actually is aligned with great experience dealing with him.
I do all my trading/ buying and selling in Geekhack and have not done any via r/mm. I find that r/mm is very daunting - too many people I don’t know and too many listings and it is a recipe of a disaster … I’d rather stick to smaller community and it is easier to get to know someone that way.
I no longer trade on r/mm due to a small percentage of untrustworthy buyers/sellers who really spoil it for everyone.
My worst experience was selling quite an expensive board which was tested and working 100%. The buyer then claimed it was faulty due to a software/driver issue with their computer and wanted to keep the board, while also receiving a full refund.
My advice is to always check the Universal Scammer List before starting any trade. Also review their recent post/comment history to check them out.
Unforunately, trading is riskier than just straight buy/sell because there’s no third party protection. The safest way to trade is to just do two separate buy/sell transactions, then if the other party doesn’t ship or does something else weird, you have paypal buyer protection. This isn’t always popular though because both sides have to eat the PP fees.
Otherwise, just browsing feedback history, and their commenting/posting history can be helpful, as mentioned
Also, maybe its not fair, but bad communication in the early stages to me is a red flag
These days I only deal with people I know directly that I interact with quite often, so people on the discord servers I frequent or people recommended to me by other people.
I’ve actually had quite a number of good experiences on mechmarket so far, but you do have to look into who you are dealing with. And I’ve never done a trade since that seems like it would just double the chances of something going wrong.
I’ve had a several mech market trades and never had any problem. Just creep their account a bit.
While I have had a few good experiences selling on mm, I have also had some really bad ones. So I try not to do that unless absolutely necessary.
I’ve not had any problems with buying on mm so far. If I did, and it couldn’t be resolved any other way, I would dispute the payment with PayPal.
I like to check that the account is at least 6 months old, preferably a year or longer and some sort of post history if they have no confirmed trades. If they have like 10 or more confirmed trades I’ll look to see if they are recent or old ones from a dummy account (never actually encountered this). I usually like the have a real conversation with the person and talk shop so I know it’s a real person.
I will say that I am a lot more careful when I’m the seller and I screenshot every message, invoice, and PP email regarding the transaction. As a buyer, PP usually keeps me safe enough. As @PoochZag said, the best way to trade is to buy each other’s stuff. Eating the fee is a pain but worth it IMHO
ALWAYS check the more recent scammer list in the sidebar even though it doesn’t guarantee a good transaction it helps to weed out the easy red flags.
Stalking their profile seems like a great idea haha. Packaging does seem like problem around r/mm in my opinion. I see people who put their packages in poor cardboard sometimes with little to no bubblewrap.
I definitely agree with you . I prefer buying stuff off of small communities like people from the TopClack discord. How is the geekhack market place compared to r/mm?
I’ll definitely check their profile from now on haha.
The TopClack discord is a good place for mechmarket! I want to say that everyone there is cool!
Wow buying each other’s stuff sounds like a better way of trading. Maybe if I ever look around r/mm for trades again I’ll do that
Thanks, but of course as if grows bigger, you gotta be careful. Always check who’s who if you get the chance 
It’s interesting to hear that people have had bad experiences – I’ve had maybe 2 bad apples out of 430+ trades I’ve conducted on there. Communication and full disclosure is key before agreeing to any shipping; that’s for sure.
Never had a bad interaction, but I usually buy from people with a good reputation.
Im rather new but have made quite a few trades, so far havent had any bad experiences, but i have heard horror stories from quite a few people.
I’ve gotten lucky. Ive bought, sold, and traded on mech market with no problems. I always check the # of trades and the universal scammer list, though.