London Marathon Entry on Ebay

[Deleted User]

Great fun reading and following the event of the day.
I can admit to selling my jacket ... For size small - it was HUGE. The person who bought it offered me a price on the day I put it on to ebay. Thankfully he paid higher at the close of play. The money went to the charity I usually run for. There is no way I would sell (or buy!)medals.

[Deleted User]

I have just received this message from seller -


'This was actually an attempt to raise money for my own choice of charity who I have personally let down by not being able to run this year.

I have removed the entry for sale and have informed the London Marathon that I will not be using it.

Apologies'.

He/she has been persuaded by you lot to cancel The power of RW.

[Deleted User]

Uh so he did't think to defer?

[Deleted User]

he couldnt defer-he had already done it once

[Deleted User]

AH!
I stand corrected

[Deleted User]

If you take a look at the item description there was no mention whatsoever of the proceeds of the sale going to charity.If the seller was trying to raise money for his/her charity, don't you think it would have been mentioned? Quote: "this entry comes with no financial obligations to any charity". Think someone is telling porkies perhaps?

Night Nurse

Totally agree, I had an email from the seller too, I explained to him her there are other ways off raining money for the charity if they are feeling that bad about letting them down, organise fun run sponsored swim cake stall bootsale whatever, Selling FLM numbers is not allowed whatever the reason

Kryten

Agreed. If he thought what he was doing was legit then why did he cancel the item? He could have had £175 from me!

So he knew that he was up to no good. He knew the only way he was going to make any money was by ripping someone off.

“…my own choice of charity…” – lol

Tmap

Sorry to break up the general mood of pious self-righteousness here, but if you have a place, and you can't run and can't defer for any reason, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to sell it at cost price if the FLM is unwilling to operate any kind of transfer or waiting list system itself.

The usual objection is that the person you sell it to might keel over and die, and your wife will think it was you. Yeah, right.

The FLM themselves don't seem to have any qualms about selling their places to the highest bidders (which is essentially the Golden Bond scheme), so why should places go unused?

And phoning them up to snitch on ebay people is just mean.

Kryten

"And phoning them up to snitch on ebay people is just mean." - good fun though!

[Deleted User]

Tmap giving someone else your number without the organisers consent also messes up the race results especially if I gave my number for for a F50 to a 20something male club runner who could fairly easily get me a GFA qualifying time. That isn't very fair is it?

dave wood 4

T-map, I totally agree with you, and have raised this in the past. There is no difference, in my book, between an individual selling a place or a charity "selling" a gold bond for profit. Surely it is better to use a place than to lose it?

[Deleted User]

I think part of the problem is that FLM apparently assume a certain number aren't going to run, so if all those places were transferred they'd have to sell less in the first place, and it would be a bit of nightmare transferring those that dropped out.

Seriously I think it should be that way, and gold bond places should be the same price as others (even if that means increasing the price of ballot places and club places...). But I also think this person should have bitten the bullet and bloomin well walked it if that's what it took. Especially if they were raising funds for charity.

m.itten

Isn't it 'rule' with most races that you can't transfer your number, so if you're injured you're out (I've lost money on a few races due to this).

I know some clubs do allow changes but isn't generally the norm that you can't?

I think allowing people to defer for one year & then giving up the place is fair enough.

I'm sure, however, that plenty of people do pass their places onto other people or sell them through difference means.

[Deleted User]

Tmap makes an interesting point about selling an FLM entry (particularly the "cost price" bit) I believe one of the reasons why FLM don't allow transfers is in case of medical emergency as well as the accompanying administrative headache. If people were allowed to sell on their entry then ebay would be flooded with the things from people trying to make a profit, also it would encourage non runners to apply in order to sell on an entry and make themselves a profit such is the popularity of FLM. If this were the case methinks the chances of getting in would be even slimmer because of lots of people applying with no intention of running and trying to make a quick buck. People "shopping" the seller to FLM is, in my eyes not being self pious or mean - more a case of annoyance at someone trying to profit by breaking the rules and potentially wasting a entry by committing such an act.

[Deleted User]

Tmap may have a valid point, not one I agree with but ...
Yes there are golden bond places for 'sale' at ludicrous prices. Is that not buying a place to run? At least a portion (what percentage?) goes to the charity. The place on Ebay appeared to be going straight to a pocket.
I run for charity, but directly. All the money I raise goes to the charity and I get nothing back from them, apart from grateful thanks for my support.

[Deleted User]

Tmap, if people were allowed to sell their places, a higher percentage of places would be used on race day. The FLM people would therefore need to accept fewer people. Those who buy or sell entries are cheating others out of places. Simple as that.

Tmap

I can obviously see that selling places is fraught with problems. I just find it baffling the strong emotions that this topic always raises. It's like being in favour of whaling, or saying mean things about Princess Diana.

I have plenty of strong opinions about Britain's charity industry too (not just the FLM), but that's a different argument.

Kryten

This has been discussed on the forum many times before.

If FLM allowed people to transfer their numbers to someone else at cost price, then there would be no places lost due to people dropping out and so FLM would simply have to allocate less places to start with. There would be no benefit as the same number of people would run but there would be much more administration for FLM (and higher admin costs passed onto the runners presumably).

If people were allowed to sell their places to the highest bidder then you would have thousands more people applying through the ballot in order to make a profit. Alternatively FLM could just get rid of the ballot and charge the market rate, i.e. raise the price until only around 30,000 people could afford to apply for a place. Either way you would have a situation where many people could not afford to ever run the marathon whilst those that are well off could run it every year.

Of course, you will always get a few people that think they can break the rules and make some money. When they do, I think it is good fun to wind them up a bit; after all no real harm was done was it?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

Just seen this thread. Can't Charities transfer the place? I think Running clubs can. Last year I ran on a club place, and I think there was a certain date that they could transfer the place to someone else if for some reason I couldn't run it.

I don't think it's mean shopping someone for that. I agree people would be just taking places from those who want to run it.

Kryten

Someone else trying to sell their place on eBay.

Tim of MK

Terrible somebody potentially making money out of a willing buyer by selling them an FLM07 place.

But maybe no worse than FLM itself selling Golden Bond places for hundreds of pounds to charities?