Make an offer? WHY?

[Theoldprofessor]

I see this sort of sale more often than I'd like:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-topps-D...item4cfa33b433

I made an offer and was instantly rejected. So I made another, and another, and got the same response. Finally I undercut his price by just $10, and was still immediately rejected! So I thought I'd ask him why he chose to list the card this way. But he's not receiving questions right now...

And if you're wondering why I was so idiotic as to bid to within $10 of the BIN price, I really "knew" at that point, having been rejected on so many lower, but still reasonable bids, that this one wasn't going to meet his standard either.

The conclusion on this one is that an offer of a very few bucks less than the $900 BIN will meet the standard, but nothing else will. Now why would the card be listed this way?

[sflayank]

i think the bigger question should be why is the card not marked oc when its 85/15 at best

[ALR-bishop]

I am not a graded collector but agree with Larry that it looks OC.

I don't know why he would do it unless he just wanted to see what kind of offers he would get below his asking price...what range....and did not want to deal with rejections or correspondence with rejected bidders. If so, you certainly helped him get his range.

[Theoldprofessor]

I agree with both comments, most especially with the observations that the card is way off center. But that's PSA's problem, not mine. And I'm not about to make it mine.

As for giving him information about bidding, anything he might read into my bids is of questionable value. Was I willing to pay only slightly less than the full value? Well, yes, but only because my curiosity got the better of me. Would anyone else do the same? Maybe, and maybe not.

Anyhow, thanks for your responses.

[Brianruns10]

I feel for ya. When I was just starting off my '52 set, I tried the "best offer" option for good ole 707 sportscards, whose idea of negotiating was to knock off an amount from the asking price that I doubt would cover bus fare in most cities.

If 707's goal was to establish a permanent virtual museum to Topps on ebay, they're succeeding.

[ALR-bishop]

With all the helpful advice and criticism Levi continually gets concerning how he prices his cards and pursues his business plan, he is bound to be successful someday. Maybe then he can afford a better hat

[Brianruns10]

Maybe he has a great bricks-and-mortar business...because those '52s on ebay sure ain't movin.'

[alanu]

I thought you could only make 3 offers on any item.

[Volod]

Maybe eBay should assess a fee on sellers for using the make an offer option if the auto bid rejection was set at a figure more than, say, 90% of the BIN price?

[tonyo]

I made on offer recently and the seller countered with the BIN price. I thought that was a little odd.

[David W]

I've had a card on my watch list for a year, 67 OPC Cards Clubbers.

The seller had a price of $21 or so.

Twice I offered $1 less, just because of his best offer option, and twice it was declined.

I ended up getting the card elsewhere anyway. I think the card is still on ebay going on like the 5th year.