Correct me if I am wrong....

[iwantitiwinit]

Originally Posted by xplainer

I have a few cards on ebay. I normally list my cards at BIN and higher than what I expect to sell for, and then have the Best Offer option. That leaves me wiggle room.

Well, I have a T206 EPDG PSA 2 listed and asking 50 bucks. A rather fair price I would think on that back.

I get an offer for $27.50, and quickly decline.

Then another guy offers $35. So I counter with $45. Still a decent deal to me. In my comments I said " It's a PSA 2 EPDG back...so. Thanks."

He counters with a $40 offer and says "You are welcome?"

I declined right there.

I based my pricing on closed auctions/BIN prices. I add a little for a fudge factor. Then, get low-balled about it.

I am doing something wrong? Or is this people looking for a bargain to flip?

I am a big boy, so let it rip, 'tator chip.

I know I can set parameters on the BIN and will in the future.

So, just venting and open to comments from you guys.

-Jimmy

I don't think it's for a flip. After fees what could they expect to make. They simply want to pay less than u are willing to take. There are a lot of cards for sale and why pay more than u have to. I wouldnt worry about it, it's a $5.00 difference who cares.

[JoeDfan]

I am pretty much a buyer, and I think I have only sold once. Too much of a pain for me.

I love the buy it now/make offer options. But I try not to offer some stupid price, because (in my opinion) of course that is not fair to the seller.

That said, I start as low as I feel is reasonable, and if they decline, I use it as a good opportunity to open a discussion with them. Some of the best deals I have ever made were done that way, and a lot of the cases, we end up doing lots of business together.

[Head928]

I guess I don't really see the point of even accepting best offers if you are only willing to knock $5.00 off a $50.00 card.

In my opinion the time spent going back-and-forth in emails as well as posting frustrations on the deal add up to more than $5.00.

But I understand your frustrations and not every card has the same "wiggle" room either. Either way you should not have trouble getting what you want for it as it is a fair price.

[pokerplyr80]

I think 40 seems reasonable for a card priced at 50 OBO. As a buyer I would not be pleased if a seller was only willing to go down 5 bucks.

As a seller I would started a little higher if 45 was my minimum. 60 or 70.

[bcornell]

There was a time before all of the current BIN/Best Offer nonsense when, as a seller, you had to run auctions on eBay. And everything was okay, because there were a lot of motivated buyers that didn't let stuff go for cheap.

eBay destroyed this by pushing sellers to the fixed price format. Sellers throw inventory on the site and can re-list it forever with no fees. If eBay can ever remember the differences between commodities and collectables and act on it, the hobby would be in much better shape.

Bill

[Peter_Spaeth]

After I burned my best offers on a card today listed at 325 OBO, which were auto declined even though I wasn't that far away, I emailed the seller and asked him what he was looking for. He said 325. I responded why do you have a best offer then? He didn't explain.

[midmo]

I start with low offers quite a bit. You never know, sometimes they're accepted. I hate it when a seller doesn't respond at all. Just send a "sorry, I can't budge" or "this is my bottom dollar" note so I know where you stand.

As a seller I always set the auto accept/decline options so I don't have to fool with it. As a buyer I prefer that as well so I don't have to wait for a response.

[tab]

There are TONS of cards on ebay that are way overpriced! As a buyer it gets old seeing the same stuff over and over and over...... I hardly ever pay the BIN price because of all the overpriced cards(unless it's something I feel I got to have!)If something has a best offer option I will make an offer of what I'm willing to pay. If they accept all is good. If I get a counter offer I usually decline.

Need more auctions and less overpriced BIN prices!

Wish ebay had an option delete each item (once I've seen it and don't want it) out of my search. So I only see it when it's first listed and keep it out of my search once it is relisted also.

When you pointed out that it was a EPDG and said thanks the guy probably took it as you being an a**. When he said your welcome you might have thought the same. In my opinion accept or decline would be best.

[arc2q]

I like using the OBO option on items where the value is less precise or where the market is not quite as active. In some circumstances, sellers are not entirely sure if the price they want on an item is realistic, so they can set the price but invite offers to attempt to gauge the market. T206, though, is such a well-defined and active market that there is very little variance or room for negotiating on lower-end stuff. As you say, it's a PSA 2 EPDG which implies you expect the buyer to know what that's worth. If everyone has the same knowledge of values, or is expected to, why bother with negotiating? $35 for a EPDG / 2 would have been a great deal for the second guy who offered, but his throwing that out as an initial bid is hardly an insult.

[mechanicalman]

Has anyone ever tried to offer a price on a 707 card? In my experience, it's pretty frustrating. They rarely accept a price even a couple percentage points below the BIN. As others have said, they should just offer the price they're willing to accept so both parties don't waste time. Per the rules, Sam Swartz.

[glchen]

Originally Posted by Head928

I guess I don't really see the point of even accepting best offers if you are only willing to knock $5.00 off a $50.00 card.

In my opinion the time spent going back-and-forth in emails as well as posting frustrations on the deal add up to more than $5.00.

But I understand your frustrations and not every card has the same "wiggle" room either. Either way you should not have trouble getting what you want for it as it is a fair price.

I agree with this. I think you should have just accepted $40. Otherwise, why bother with the best offer. That is probably what the buyer was thinking. Why even bother w/ B.O. if you're not going to budge much? Basically, as a buyer, when I see a best offer for a card that I am interested in, I start off by trying 50% off the current price. Basically, I'm trying to get to around 80% of so of the current price, but set the first offer to low to be prepared for the counter. He will counter, I will counter and so forth. Sometimes the seller will get straight to the point and stated this is my lowest price that I can do, and we can stop the dance. Basically, that is the price that I am trying to figure out. What's the lowest price from the seller and is that something that I think is a fair price?

And why lowball Best Offers? Frankly, I have seen a number of cards that I have been interested that have sold for really low prices that I could not believe the seller accepted. The seller would have a huge, overpriced card with Best Offer, so huge, I would figure that I shouldn't even bother sending a best offer. Then the seller actually accepted a really low and reasonable price that I would have given a higher offer for. I think this is what a lot of low ball buyers see also.

[Gradedcardman]

I always use the decline if offer is below x and accept if above x. Between the 2 should be the sweet spot. buy it now with best offer. I agree that a $40 offer for a $50 BIN is pretty damn good. $45 offers to little wiggle room.