Dealer mad for good reason?

[1952boyntoncollector]

When a card is listed with 'make an offer' on ebay..

and there appears to be a reserve with automatic rejection...

is it card collecting protocol to just make your highest offer on the card..or can you bid up incrementally (you only get 3 offers that can be rejected than you cant make an offer again for the forseeable future so it would not be useful just go up a dollar) to see what the lowest amount that gets past the auto rejection..

i had a dealer say that my first offer that was auto rejected (in which i made 2 increased offers without any counteroffers, the second of which got past the auto rejection) was a low ball offer..and since i make such low ball offers he was offended..

just trying to find out if first, you understand what im explaining happened and second whether you really take that first offer seriously that auto rejected when the buyer increased the offers to pass the auto rejection..


Ok now im going to hear it ..i not expecting great comments but hey..this stuff does happen....

[btcarfagno]

Offended? This is business. Who gives a crap if a dealer you don't know well is "offended" by an offer. If your offer is too low for him to accept and you cannot come to an agreement move on. Whether he is thin skinned enough to be offended is irrelevant. Apologize for having offended him and move on.

Tom C

[wondo]

You did nothing wrong. If the dealer doesn't want to engage you in negotiations, that is his perogative. Personally, I see no difference in what you did than in what a dealer does when he puts an aggressive list price on the card in the first place.

[Peter_Spaeth]

You're overthinking all this.

[1952boyntoncollector]

i not saying dealer has to sell...he can keep the card...but would a reasonable person in the business be offended with the scenerio i described

[Donscards]

I would say it depends on the card you are trying to buy if it is a high end card and you are lowballing, yes, he could be offended---The dealer most likely knows what he can get for the card at a show etc.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I get lowball offers all the time and while I'm not offended, I don't understand the point either. Offering 50 percent of what a card regularly sells for is not, in my view, a good faith negotiation.

[brewing]

I offend eBay sellers by asking the best offer they refused.

[Gradedcardman]

I use the buy it now/best offer most times. The buyer can make any offer he wants. If it is low ball it gets rejected. If it is within the realm of possibility I then review and either take it or counter. I don't get sent any notifications of offers I would feel are too low. Going back to review previous offers that were rejected is not something I even consider.

[Jobu]

I think the starting price is important here. I had a best offer of 50% of the asking price accepted (my first offer) but the card was also a good deal higher than it should have been. I wouldn't offer 50% of a fair price though. That said, while a 50% offer on something fairly priced should be rejected I see no reason not to counter or accept a later offer that you are happy with because of some perceived slight. The person showed their interest by making an offer so why not try to make a sale, it takes 3 seconds to counter. Listing it with a Best Offer option means you are willing to negotiate, so either get to it or take down the BO option.

[vintagetoppsguy]

I very rarely sell on eBay anymore. When I do, all of my listings are BIN with BO option. I don't have it set up to automatically accept or decline any offers.

In the description I clearly state "Serious offers will be considered, ridiculous offers will be ignored". If someone makes a ridiculous offer on my item, I don't get offended, I just ignore them.

And let me clarify that by 'serious offer', I mean I’m looking for a ballpark price that the last similar item sold for.

[Luke]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

I very rarely sell on eBay anymore. When I do, all of my listings are BIN with BO option. I don't have it set up to automatically accept or decline any offers.

In the description I clearly state "Serious offers will be considered, ridiculous offers will be ignored". If someone makes a ridiculous offer on my item, I don't get offended, I just ignore them.

And let me clarify that by 'serious offer', I mean I’m looking for a ballpark price that the last similar item sold for.

I do this same thing. If I have a $80 card listed at $100 obo and someone offers me $12 for it, I'll probably chuckle and shake my head, but I don't get offended or angry. It's not personal at all, because I'm obviously not going to have any kind of dealings with this person.

[Section103]

Considering that the offer was automatically rejected and (I think) took none of his time or effort, it seems a bit weird that he took it so personally. He's entitled to his own reaction so there's not much that can be done. Move along and let him enjoy the inventory.

[Fred]

If a dealer is offended by low ball offers then the dealer should either A) just start the auction at the price they're comfortable with, or B) get some thicker skin.

If I submit an offer it's the price I feel comfortable with. If the dealer is offended, then phuc'em. They can ban me from their auctions. If they do then that's their choice and I'd rather not deal with an a-hole like that.

I've seen offers accepted at 50% of the asking price and less.

[Runscott]

I've found that, as a dealer, you will upset certain buyers no matter what you do. I thought the low 'automatic reject' would solve the problem of having to interact with low-ballers, but found that some of them will do what the OP described, increasing the low-ball offer until they have used up all 3 offers. Then they will contact me and ask for my bottom-line price.

Peter summed it up well when he said that low-ball offers are not negotiating in good faith.

One more point - it's no big deal to get an offer of $15 on an $80 card. But when the same person puts in 5-10 such offers at the same time, it's a pain in the ass.

As a buyer, if you are going to make a low-ball offer and you genuinely are clueless as to the item's value, then just say so. The seller will almost always respect that. I've done it before and never gotten a rude response from the seller. If the item was genuinely priced ridiculously high, my 'clueless' offer is sometimes actually accepted.

This is all about being a human and interacting with other humans. Once you learn how to step over the genuine a-holes, it's not all that difficult.

[familytoad]

I only get offended when the offer doesn't meet market price.



(Actually I very rarely sell cards. I dont even do eBay as a buyer on BIN very often but I offer what I think I want to pay and if the offer is rejected, I just look elsewhere. I assume most hobbyists do the same rather than obsess with it)

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by familytoad

I only get offended when the offer doesn't meet market price.

I get offended when the buyer starts telling me all the things that are wrong with my item, and that it's worth less because of all the flaws they have found.

As a buyer, I have only been offended once. I wanted a card very badly because I needed an exemplar quickly. I offered the seller MORE than retail value and was rejected. I asked him via email (he was a dealer) what he needed for it, and he wanted the BIN price, which was about 50% over retail. I called a friend who knew him, and he told me that the guy never budges and that he eventually gets his '50% over retail' asking price. This was for a T206 common. I met the dealer at the National, and he's a great guy. Who can argue with a seller's strategy, if he's getting 50% over retail for T206 commons? He's a genius.

[uyu906]

Here is my story of an odd OBO situation. Last winter one of my white whales was put up on ebay as a buy it now or OBO. The buy it now price was 1K, about 2/3 higher than the last similar example that sold at auction for, which was about $325. I best offered three times with my last bid being $450. Seller declined all three of my bids. However, seller contacts me a couple days later and says he will take my $450 for it. I tell him no, you refused my offer of $450 and now my offer had dropped to $350 which was still $25 higher than the last comparable one that sold at auction. Needless to say he declined my offer with several expletives. But as far as I am concerned - he did that to himself.

Fast forward to this summer, same dealer has same card for same price on ebay. He has had no bids on the card since my winter time bids. This indicated to me that there is no interest in this card, particularly from where his starting price is. I place an OBO offer for $400 as I think this is the absolute maximum the card is worth. He responds that he will not take a penny less than $450 for the card, and that he would rather be buried with it instead. I shrug and go on with my day. The card still sits on ebay with his initial price of 1K with no recent bids.

This is just an example of my frustration as a buyer with OBO. Why ask for 3 times what a card is generally selling for with an OBO? Maybe you get a sucker to bite every so often if this is your marketing plan. But for most things don't you just sit on inventory?

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by uyu906

Here is my story of an odd OBO situation. Last winter one of my white whales was put up on ebay as a buy it now or OBO. The buy it now price was 1K, about 2/3 higher than the last similar example that sold at auction for, which was about $325. I best offered three times with my last bid being $450. Seller declined all three of my bids. However, seller contacts me a couple days later and says he will take my $450 for it. I tell him no, you refused my offer of $450 and now my offer had dropped to $350 which was still $25 higher than the last comparable one that sold at auction. Needless to say he declined my offer with several expletives. But as far as I am concerned - he did that to himself.

Fast forward to this summer, same dealer has same card for same price on ebay. He has had no bids on the card since my winter time bids. This indicated to me that there is no interest in this card, particularly from where his starting price is. I place an OBO offer for $400 as I think this is the absolute maximum the card is worth. He responds that he will not take a penny less than $450 for the card, and that he would rather be buried with it instead. I shrug and go on with my day. The card still sits on ebay with his initial price of 1K with no recent bids.

This is just an example of my frustration as a buyer with OBO. Why ask for 3 times what a card is generally selling for with an OBO? Maybe you get a sucker to bite every so often if this is your marketing plan. But for most things don't you just sit on inventory?

So he thought about your last offer of $450 and changed his mind and accepted it….and you got upset that he didn't accept it immediately, and ended up without the card that you really wanted? And he is in the same situation as he was before he ever heard of you, and probably has forgotten all about it.

I hope I don't have any customers that are still grieving over transactions with me that never occurred.

[frankbmd]

This thread deserves a commercial break from a real low-baller.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by brewing

I offend eBay sellers by asking the best offer they refused.

I like this approach. But does it work?

[tschock]

Are you still able to bid on other items or send BO requests to this dealer? If so, then he didn't ban you so he must not have been that offended.

[brewing]

Originally Posted by Sean

I like this approach. But does it work?

If they respond, it ends up in a sale about 33% of the time. But, response rate is lower than that.

One seller refused to tell me because I made what he considered a low ball offer. When I explained the GAI 7.5 didn't convince me of the condition because the photo wasn't clear and could he provide me a scan or better photos, he told me to have a blessed day. If I thought it would have crossed to a 7, I would have paid his asking price.