I understand the problems with the buying and selling of items online and why our host would not be interested in entertaining such a thread, however, what if we had a thread where we could post an item we may be looking for. The rule would be that all discussion/contact must be done via PMs or email with no discussion about the item on the thread.
I have found items for people in the past who were looking for out of production items and they were thrilled I was able to help them out. I once found a Waltherās item in Germany for a guy who had been looking everywhere. I pointed him to the shop with a PM.
Just a thought, there are some things I want but when I post the items wanted on the WWW they are buried in short order.
Sounds good to me.
Iām sure Firecrown would want a disclaimer on every post that they are not responsible if someone cheats or doesnāt follow through with payments, etc.
How exactly would that rule be enforced, Brent?
It sounds like a bad idea to me for so many reasons.
Rich
Humans are perfect, Rich. They would read the rules and follow them to a tee. Whatās not to like about the idea? 
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Well, the idea is likeable, I guess. But the fault would be in the execution.
Besides, why have a thread devoted to a I Am Looking For This . . . or That?
Right now, you occasionally see a reply to a thread that says essentially that. Why not leave it at that?
Rich
I sometimes browse, and Iāve sold a few things, at the HOswap@groups.io | Messages site. It is set up to do exactly this. They have a āWLWā which translates to Wish List Wednesday where modelers state what they have been looking for. Of course you can always list āWanted to Buyā. This one is for HO only. I imagine there are ones for other scales?
Rather than clutter things up here, if anyone is really interested they can choose to use that site.
Regards, Ed
I have tried that site more than once trying to sell something with no success that I have then later sold on eBay. I have also posted on that site for something that I am looking to purchase with no success. So, while others may find HOswap useful, I have not.
Rich
Iām not implying it is any better or worse than eBay. Iām simply stating that with a site devoted to seeking and fulfilling modelerās wants already online why try to be redundant here? HO swap seems to get considerably more traffic than the MR forum, too.
The items I sold there happened to be models that others were looking for.
Cheers, Ed
Understood and agreed. 
Rich
In one of my other hobbies, the garden tractor, some of the forums allow buying/selling, others donāt. Or they have special classified section for that.
But most of the GRAVELY garden tractor crowd has moved to facebook groups. Nearly all of the these are private groups and they all allow free and open buying and selling. It does not seem to be an issue.
Some guy needs a part, he creates a post asking if anyone has it. People respond, deals are made by private message. I never hear any complaints.
Or, a guy has parts or a tractor he wants to sell, same deal. Maybe he lists them on Marketplace and in the private groups - presto - SOLD.
Years ago I sold all kinds of tractor parts, and few surplus train parts, on Ebay, but that has become big business, not the simple yard sale it once was.
Iām pretty neutral on this subject because Iām really only a buyer of model trains, not a seller. In 50 plus years I have only sold 3-4 locomotives I decided I did not want.
For a while I did sell surplus parts, like the basic DCC decoders I removed from about 25 Bachmann locomotives, inexpensive rigid plastic trucks I removed in favor of better ones, etc. But now that Ebay is so expensive, that ship has sailed.
I have never really been an impulse buyer, so I have never really had ābuyers remorseā and wanted to get rid of stuff. And I am pretty picky about what I buy, I seldom buy āusedā stuff - I do buy ānew old stockā stuff, but almost never buy āalready been played withā stuff.
I donāt see the harm, but I try to look for the good in people, not always good at anticipating the bad in peopleā¦
Sheldon
Someone might want to pose the question to Nick. Get managementās point of view.
Rich