ebay offer etiquette?
Adam- you are certainly free to disagree. Out of concern for space, I
abbreviated my remarks just to get the main points across. In answer
to yours:
1) automatic rejections- I have made offers that were a mere 10% lower
than the BIN- say, $360 rather than $400. They have been rejected, so
I messaged the seller and try to discern what they are looking for. Sellers
have directly told me that they reject offers under the BIN. So, why offer?
2) taking things off ebay- I have NEVER asked an ebay seller to end an
auction early. I ask them to contact me when/if the auction ends without a
bid (usually, this is for people whose sale price is far too high). Here's the
important part- when that auction ends, so does ebay's interest. Period.
Despite that reality, some sellers (not all, some) behave like it's heresy to
sell outside ebay. It's as if they've forgotten the main goal- to sell the card!
3) Buyers> sellers all day long. One thing sellers tend to overlook ( to their
favor, of course) is that buyers set card values, NOT sellers. I recall reading
an anecdote that a 1970 price guide listed the T206 Wagner as a $100 card.
Today it's a $1 million dollar card, and it's foolish to say that $1m today is
the equivalent of $100 in 1970. The point is that, if buyers "decide" over
time with their wallets/spending habits that certain cards are more or
less valuable, then sellers can't blindly stick to what they expect, or
demand, or- even worse- think they are entitled to. Getting back in
some way to the original motivation for this topic, I have consistently been
underwhelmed by the subject matter knowledge/hobby interest/ integrity
of an uncomfortable percentage of ebay sellers. Naturally there are some
good ones; however, I find it's better in many ways to fish in better waters
like net54, and establish relationships with folks I like or trust. That way, I
don't have to argue with some random dude who expects me to pay triple
shipping costs on ebay so he can squeeze extra profit- and who takes
offense when I call him on it.
Trent King
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