The Classifieds Board Is Live — Here's How It Works

Gear for sale has moved off the forum and onto a proper board at rpls.com/classifieds. That forum is now read-only — nothing's been deleted, every old link still works, but new listings go on the board from here on.

Here's what changed, and why.

Why bother

Selling gear in a forum thread works right up until it doesn't. Threads scroll away. There's no telling a total station that sold last spring from one still sitting in somebody's shop. You can't look for a data collector without reading nine months of posts to find out which ones are still available. And if you wanted to know what was for sale within a day's drive of you — tough.

The board fixes that:

• Available listings sort to the top, and every one carries an Available or Sold badge. Mark yours sold when it's gone and the calls stop.
• Photos that do the work. A main photo plus a gallery. Nobody buys a $20,000 instrument off a paragraph of text.
• Browse by category — total stations, GNSS/GPS, data collectors, levels and theodolites, drones and 3D scanning, field gear, software, books, vehicles and trailers, even whole businesses for sale.
• Browse by state, so you can find the stuff that's close enough to go put your hands on before you buy.
• Serial numbers right on the listing. Put yours in and a buyer can run them against the stolen-equipment databases before they hand over a dime.
• Google reads them properly now. Listings are marked up as products, so your gear can turn up in search in front of people who've never heard of this place.
• Anyone can read the board. No login, no membership. That's on purpose: more eyes on your listing is the whole point of listing it.

Where your old post went

Some of the recent listings were brought over to the board. Not all of them made the trip.

Have a look at https://rpls.com/classifieds/ for yours. If it's there, you're set — you can edit it from your dashboard. If it isn't and you're still selling, list it fresh; it takes a few minutes. The old threads stay right where they are either way.

Listing something

Head to https://rpls.com/classifieds/ and hit Post an Item. You'll need to be logged in. New listings get a quick look before they go live — same review we've always done on first posts.

The form asks what it is, what you want for it, what shape it's in, where it is, and whether you'll ship it or it's local pickup. A few things worth knowing:

• Put a price on it if you can. You can mark it Or best offer, Free, Trade, or Contact for price instead — but a listing with a real number on it gets taken seriously.
• One item per listing, unless it's a genuine package deal. Selling an instrument and a truck? That's two listings.
• Put in the serial numbers. Costs you nothing, and it tells an honest buyer you've got nothing to hide.
• Buyers reach you through Contact the seller — it lands in your inbox without your email address ever appearing on a public page. Add a phone number if you like; that one does show publicly, so only put it up if you don't mind it being out there.
• Mark it sold when it's sold. It's the kindest thing you can do for the next person who finds it.

Listings stay up about six months. After that they're marked expired, and they come off the board a month or so later. Still got it? Post it again.

The verification photo

You've been doing this for years already: the item, a scrap of paper with your username and the date on it, all in the one shot. That part isn't new and it isn't changing. It works — that's why it stuck.

What's new is the process around it.

• It's part of the form now. The photo goes up when the listing does. Same sitting, no coming back to it later, nothing to remember.
• Every listing needs one. Not only when somebody asks, not only when something smells off. All of them, every time.
• Nothing goes live until it's checked. Before a listing publishes, it gets a look to confirm the photo shows the items actually listed, with your username and a fresh date.
• It stays put on the listing. Its own spot, labeled — not mixed in with the product photos, not buried nine replies down where nobody scrolls.

Which adds up to a simple thing: what you used to do to show you were on the level, you now don't have to think about. It's just how listing works.

Worth saying plainly why it's worth the bother. A buyer three states away is about to wire real money to somebody he's never met, on the strength of a photograph. A picture pulled off the manufacturer's website proves nothing at all. A picture of your instrument with your name and today's date in your own handwriting beside it proves you've got the thing in your hands right now. Low bar if you're honest. Hard one if you're not.

That's as far as it goes, though — RPLS.com isn't in the middle of the deal. No escrow, no payments, no guarantees, no cut. It's still two surveyors making an arrangement, same as it's always been. The photo just raises the floor a little.

The rules that carry over

Private parties only. Surveyors selling their own gear. No dealers, no developers, no manufacturers. That's what's kept this board worth reading, and it isn't changing.

And the original one, same as it's been since day one: be nice. Deals fall through, gear shows up with a scratch nobody mentioned, somebody's slow returning a call. Sort it out like grown-ups.

On membership

Memberships start August 1, 2026. From then, listing an item is a member benefit. Reading the board stays free to everyone, always — no login, no membership, and that isn't changing. Until then, everything works as it does today. Saying so now so it's no surprise later.

That's about it

Old threads stay put for now. New listings go on the board. Mark them sold when they're gone.

Questions, or can't turn up an old listing of yours? Reply here and I'll sort it out.