Lost My Stuff Question

mike_i said:

I was reading someone's post here and they mentioned LMS website. It sounds like a good idea, it would be nice to be able to return someone's lost item. Have any of you guys/gals had any experience with them?

Click to expand...

Not me. I just check/use Craigslist.

I tried looking at that, years ago, and there were literally NO posts for my own area.

Skip

Yes, I have been a member of Lost My Stuff for about five years. Go to the lost my stuff web site, register as a member willing to help people who has lost something. If someone loses something within the area you say you are willing to travel to,LMS will contact you, give you the contact information for the person you need to contact to do the search. I have only been called called twice to go help search for lost items. I don't think too many here in Northern Utah know about LMS. Hope this information helps you. Happy hunting.

It’s a great idea. But as others have said usually no one in my area posts a lost.
Also requires a donation to get owner contact info now.
One donation is good for a year. Just fyi

I was a member for several years and found 2 items for people over that time, in one case getting a $100 reward. I dropped off the site when he required payment.

IMHO he should have asked for donations from people who's items were found, not from the people doing the work to find them, but I don't know enough about the operation to know if such a model makes sense.

Good idea, I'll check my local craigslist.

Skippy SH13 said:

Not me. I just check/use Craigslist.

I tried looking at that, years ago, and there were literally NO posts for my own area.

Skip

Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing that the people that lost their stuff should be chipping in a few bucks not the volunteer. The reason I'm asking is I see that there are two lost item reports in my area. I signed up a couple of days ago and sent a request for the reports but have not heard back. I just sent an email to the main guy so I'll see what happens.

randy said:

I was a member for several years and found 2 items for people over that time, in one case getting a $100 reward. I dropped off the site when he required payment.

IMHO he should have asked for donations from people who's items were found, not from the people doing the work to find them, but I don't know enough about the operation to know if such a model makes sense.

Click to expand...

I've never attempted a return. Finders keepers to pay for my time and effort. That's just me though.

I don't mind throwing a couple bucks in the pot to help offset the cost of maintaining the site. Had one loss in my area recently. She lost a ring in FEB and Posted the loss in August. He said she lost it in a paved parking lot. No I did not go detect the parking lot as if she did lose it there some one eyeballed the ring long before she posted the loss.

Just saw this lost ad posted about a month ago on craigslist. Talk about posting in a timely manner with accurate location information, it's got to be somewhere in the 950 plus square miles of orange county. I'll start looking.

Mothers lost PLATINUM, ANTIQUE, WEST POINT RING with DIAMOND.

It is of great sentimental value and was lost about 3-4 years ago in Orange County. Please call or text if you have any information.

I take that back I did attempt one recovery.
Gardener had been there I think it got mowed and bagged.
Didn’t help that loss location was along a coax cable putting out !!!! tons of emi

georgeinsc said:

I don't mind throwing a couple bucks in the pot to help offset the cost of maintaining the site.

Click to expand...

Yeah, except at 2800 members asking $2, he is asking for $5600/year for those things. What he is actually getting, who knows, but I suspect it is well in excess of the cost to operate a website of that nature (and that doesn't count what his sponsors are paying). I've actually operated or co-operated a few websites like that, and have been in the business since forever, and you can do it for under $200/yr if you know what your doing. $500/yr should be absolute tops.

Specifically he is asking "We require each of our volunteers to pay a $2 yearly Group Membership Fee. These fees are used to help us pay the Group's operating expenses (website hosting services, software purchases & updates, code changes and troubleshooting, domain registration, internet access, backup services, etc.)."

Knowing exactly what all that means, and exactly what all that costs, it looks like a case of "ye doth protest too much".

Whether he is simply incompetent, or is asking for way more than the cost to operate a web site of that nature, I personally am unwilling to subsidize either as a VOLUNTEER, as I am already volunteering my time, equipment, and expertise.

Its just me. If you find the site worthwhile or valuable, then send him some cash, of course.

But, you can look at it this way. In the past 90 days, there have been about 54 listings. So, an average of 200 a year. If you charge a flat $1 to list, you've covered your $200 operating budget. If you charge a $10 listing fee, you can have a $2000 operating budget, which should be way more than you need if you are truly believing in a VOLUNTEER service.

The real number is probably somewhere in between. If you lost a priceless ring (and the one I found, the owner claimed was worth $14,000 (no typo, imagine the temptation to just pocket it )), wouldn't you throw $5 away for a listing for the small chance of recovery?

And, under this business model rather than the volunteer pays business model, I suspect you'd get more willing volunteers. But, I have my own problems. Subsidizing him is not one of them.

And besides, its just bad juju to know someone lost a valuable ring, know a detectorist is in the area that could help, and withhold that information unless the detectorist pays.

I agree 100% with you. I'm lost faith and interest in lost my stuff. I haven't received the two reports I requested nor has he responded to my email. I'm not ready to call this a scam but the meter is moving in that direction. I filed a report with pay pal to get my 2 bucks back, we'll see what happens and if he responds. At the moment I give Lost My Stuff a thumbs down.

randy said:

Yeah, except at 2800 members asking $2, he is asking for $5600/year for those things. What he is actually getting, who knows, but I suspect it is well in excess of the cost to operate a website of that nature (and that doesn't count what his sponsors are paying). I've actually operated or co-operated a few websites like that, and have been in the business since forever, and you can do it for under $200/yr if you know what your doing. $500/yr should be absolute tops.

Specifically he is asking "We require each of our volunteers to pay a $2 yearly Group Membership Fee. These fees are used to help us pay the Group's operating expenses (website hosting services, software purchases & updates, code changes and troubleshooting, domain registration, internet access, backup services, etc.)."

Knowing exactly what all that means, and exactly what all that costs, it looks like a case of "ye doth protest too much".

Whether he is simply incompetent, or is asking for way more than the cost to operate a web site of that nature, I personally am unwilling to subsidize either as a VOLUNTEER, as I am already volunteering my time, equipment, and expertise.

Its just me. If you find the site worthwhile or valuable, then send him some cash, of course.

But, you can look at it this way. In the past 90 days, there have been about 54 listings. So, an average of 200 a year. If you charge a flat $1 to list, you've covered your $200 operating budget. If you charge a $10 listing fee, you can have a $2000 operating budget, which should be way more than you need if you are truly believing in a VOLUNTEER service.

The real number is probably somewhere in between. If you lost a priceless ring (and the one I found, the owner claimed was worth $14,000 (no typo, imagine the temptation to just pocket it )), wouldn't you throw $5 away for a listing for the small chance of recovery?

And, under this business model rather than the volunteer pays business model, I suspect you'd get more willing volunteers. But, I have my own problems. Subsidizing him is not one of them.

And besides, its just bad juju to know someone lost a valuable ring, know a detectorist is in the area that could help, and withhold that information unless the detectorist pays.

Click to expand...

I refuse to pay someone so I can help look for something for someone.

georgeinsc said:

I don't mind throwing a couple bucks in the pot to help offset the cost of maintaining the site.

Click to expand...

randy said:

Yeah, except at 2800 members asking $2, he is asking for $5600/year for those things. What he is actually getting, who knows, but I suspect it is well in excess of the cost to operate a website of that nature (and that doesn't count what his sponsors are paying)....

...Whether he is simply incompetent, or is asking for way more than the cost to operate a web site of that nature, I personally am unwilling to subsidize either as a VOLUNTEER, as I am already volunteering my time, equipment, and expertise....

Click to expand...

I've been a "member" of Lost My Stuff since soon after I started detecting, which has only been since 2017. To me, it's a great opportunity to help folks out, a chance to showcase metal detecting as a hobby in a positive way, and it can very easily lead to new property permissions. I don't have a problem with the fee and have gladly paid it each year - compared to the $60+ yearly member fee at the major competing find-lost-things site, $2 is nothing.

I really don't think there's much profit being made by the Lost My Stuff site - certainly not enough profit to believe the whole setup is either bumbling incompetence or a scam. I think the guy (and it is a one man show, btw) is honestly just trying to offset his costs on running the site. For what it's worth, in an email from late last year, he claims he is still taking in far less than he spends on the site. I believe it - although the stated membership is a little over 2800, it's highly doubtful that he's getting $2 from a very large percentage of that number. Just like this forum boasts almost 52,000 members, that total includes every person who ever joined the site - but only a very small portion of that membership remains active. I'll be amazed if Lost My Stuff is getting annual member fees from even 5-10% of it's listed membership. Heck, last year I forgot to pay my membership - and the only way I knew was that I tried to access a "lost report" and realized that the contact information wasn't viewable anymore. So you don't get "booted" if you don't send the fee. And even if he is making a modest profit, so be it. If he's putting in some time, effort, and incurring costs, I have no problem with him making a little profit in return - just like if someone offers a reward for finding an item, I'm not likely to turn it down.

I personally believe the site founder has every right to try and recoup the cost if he wishes. But as far as who should be footing the bill - we can argue that for an eternity. How should he do it?

You could charge the lister - but I suppose if I had lost something, I might balk at paying a fee to list the item and still have no guarantee that someone would even come look for it, especially since the "competition" doesn't charge a listing fee. Honestly, one of the real drawbacks that I see with Lost My Stuff is a lack of listings - the last thing the site needs is a financial disincentive for folks to list.

That leaves the members and sponsors. Since he only has one sponsor listed, I don't think he has much choice there...a small, local detector shop won't likely agree to foot the bill alone. Member funded becomes the next logical choice, especially since the precedent is already set on a larger scale by the "competition".

Just my opinion - I certainly understand that there are many folks who will disagree.

I'm sorry to hear that mike_i hasn't gotten a response to his email to Lost My Stuff. My experience has always been quite the opposite - I've always received prompt replies directly from John Hawken (the site founder) on the 2 or 3 occasions I've tried contacting the group.

Today's update: I spoke with John, the owner of the LMS site. There appears to be some type of email glitch that is preventing me from receiving emails from him. He said he is able to see my requests for the lost reports and his system emailing them to me but I'm not receiving them. He's working on the issue and will get back to me, he also offered to refund me the 2 bucks. More to follow.

mike_i said:

Today's update: I spoke with John, the owner of the LMS site. There appears to be some type of email glitch that is preventing me from receiving emails from him. He said he is able to see my requests for the lost reports and his system emailing them to me but I'm not receiving them. He's working on the issue and will get back to me, he also offered to refund me the 2 bucks. More to follow.

Click to expand...

Yea I emailed him a question today replied within a few hours.
Did you check spam folder? Sometimes if several come in auto kicks

Main problem I see is too few requests within a reasonable close range usually their half a state away.. least from me lol

The problem seems to be a problem between his ISP and my sbcglobal.net email. Instead of dealing with my ISP I'm able to log into his site with my wife's gmail account. I'll stick with this work around.

OneStudPuppy said:

Yea I emailed him a question today replied within a few hours.
Did you check spam folder? Sometimes if several come in auto kicks

Click to expand...

A 2 dollar donation is hardly anything to be upset about or care about. I have been a member for years but haven't had anyone lose something in my area for a few years.

I find stuff for folks all the time. I do very good at what I do and I am rewarded quite well.

My 2¢