[Eric72]

I got a PM. Someone wants to sell a collection. These aren’t sports cards, it’s a collection of vinyl records. I’m not actively buying collections at this point; however, my eBay store has about 1,000 records. So, it makes sense that someone would reach out.

I told him I wasn’t actively buying collections, but I’d be open to suggestions. I asked him what he had and how much he was looking to sell the collection for.

His reply gave me a good idea what was there. That’s a good start. There was no mention of a price, though. So, I asked again…how much are you looking to sell this collection for?

His second reply didn’t answer the question. Instead, he just wanted to email me pictures to see if I was interested.

I told him that unsolicited offers, such as his, occasionally work out; however, I’d pass. I didn’t have time to evaluate his collection without knowing a ballpark figure going into things.

Given his reply, he apparently took offense. Maybe I’m wrong here. I can be a bit odd at times; I get that. Still, I’m not buying collections right now. It takes quite a bit of time to properly evaluate a record collection. Without knowing the ballpark figure in advance, I could wind up wasting all that time…only to find out the asking price is too high. Even worse, I could wind up doing a free (time-intensive) appraisal for someone.

The last time I picked up a record collection was about 15 years ago. I never said I was looking to buy one. If someone is going to PM me because they want to sell, I think (in this case) they should at least throw a number out there. Or, they should approach someone who is actually buying what they’re selling.

So, am I the a**hole for wanting to know how big a purchase he had in mind?