eBay offer etiquette

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Quote recent auction prices and make your case.

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

[luciobar1980]

I usually offer what I would consider a "good deal" for me, and go from there.

[timzcardz]

Interestingly, this week I put two items into my watch list, mostly to consider if I really wanted them.

The prices (magnitude) were not significant enough for me to be bothered with haggling, I just wanted to wait and decide if I really wanted them.

Shorty thereafter I received offers from the seller on both of them at 50% of their BIN price!

[esehombre]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

My thoughts exactly--those types of responses come off to me at best arrogant. If you can find it at that price, go get it! They get ignored or blocked.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

Originally Posted by esehombre

My thoughts exactly--those types of responses come off to me at best arrogant. If you can find it at that price, go get it! They get ignored or blocked.

A huge +1 to this. I don't mind a offer but telling me what it is worth and why with details will definitely get someone added to my ignore list.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

I'm not talking about educating anybody or telling them what their item should sell for, I'm talking about supporting the reason for my offer, which is what OP's question was. You can set your price and refuse to budge, that's your prerogative. There are a lot of sellers that throw way above market prices out there for any number of reasons, arrogance, ego, greater fool, or just to show off their collection. Doesn't matter to me as a buyer. If we can come to terms we come to terms if not no harm no foul.

[bks14sr]

I find a lot of enjoyment offering 10-20% for 52T Jackie cards listed for ridiculous prices. If a seller is putting some desperate price on a listing, there is not etiquette.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

I'm not talking about educating anybody or telling them what their item should sell for, I'm talking about supporting the reason for my offer, which is what OP's question was. You can set your price and refuse to budge, that's your prerogative. There are a lot of sellers that throw way above market prices out there for any number of reasons, arrogance, ego, greater fool, or just to show off their collection. Doesn't matter to me as a buyer. If we can come to terms we come to terms if not no harm no foul.

The only reason for supporting your offer with evidence is to try and convince the seller to accept your analysis and give you the item at your price. There is no other reason to do it; to me it is the equivalent of arguing balls and strikes. It is especially annoying when I get one of these emails via eBay because I have already stated that I am not interested: in effect the wannbe buyer either didn't bother to read the listing or decided to ignore what I said.

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

I hate the "I'll offer you $100 because there are 3 others on Ebay at that price"
Really? Why waste time haggling with me then?

[ClementeFanOh]

The different perspectives between the commenters who sell a lot on ebay,
and those who buy, is profound. I am a 21+ year ebay member (perfect
feedback, almost all as a buyer) who has tired of ebay and most often won't
buy there anymore. A few observations/ pointers from my experience:

1) There is nothing wrong with contacting a person with a card and
making an offer that reflects fair market value, especially when there's a
Make Offer option. I typically don't inundate the seller with sales data unless
they open the door with their own commentary ( "It's a fair price"..."I see
great potential for this card increasing value"... or my personal favorite "I
paid too much for this card and can't go lower"). Sellers who insist that their
$200 card is magically worth $400, despite overwhelming evidence to the
contrary, deserve at least a "scared straight" tour of card collecting hell

2) Someone was throwing around the term "tool" in reference to buyers.
Here are some indicators from a buyer's view, that the seller may be a
"tool":

a) endlessly cycling the same card at the same price for YEARS, without
changing the price (hint- your price is too high)

b) enabling Make an Offer, then automatically rejecting any offer made

c) behaving like ebay owns your cards, rather than you. The amount of
sellers who won't discuss sales outside of ebay- even after the auction
ENDS without a bid!- is astounding. Ebay is a clown show in most cases,
and the desire to transact on venues like net54 instead is a wise one. I
suppose the best way to say this is, 2 party sales are preferable to ones
involving a third party.

In the end, I think sellers would do well to recognize that potential
buyers are a wee bit important in this equation- especially when the seller
has been a buyer himself time and time again. There is nothing wrong
with wanting fair treatment from the seller when you are buying (ie,
accurate shipping costs, clear communication, and realistic price tags).
After all, it's what sellers expect when the shoe is on the other foot.

Trent King

[hcv123]

Originally Posted by ClementeFanOh

The different perspectives between the commenters who sell a lot on ebay,
and those who buy, is profound. I am a 21+ year ebay member (perfect
feedback, almost all as a buyer) who has tired of ebay and most often won't
buy there anymore. A few observations/ pointers from my experience:

1) There is nothing wrong with contacting a person with a card and
making an offer that reflects fair market value, especially when there's a
Make Offer option. I typically don't inundate the seller with sales data unless
they open the door with their own commentary ( "It's a fair price"..."I see
great potential for this card increasing value"... or my personal favorite "I
paid too much for this card and can't go lower"). Sellers who insist that their
$200 card is magically worth $400, despite overwhelming evidence to the
contrary, deserve at least a "scared straight" tour of card collecting hell

2) Someone was throwing around the term "tool" in reference to buyers.
Here are some indicators from a buyer's view, that the seller may be a
"tool":

a) endlessly cycling the same card at the same price for YEARS, without
changing the price (hint- your price is too high)

b) enabling Make an Offer, then automatically rejecting any offer made

c) behaving like ebay owns your cards, rather than you. The amount of
sellers who won't discuss sales outside of ebay- even after the auction
ENDS without a bid!- is astounding. Ebay is a clown show in most cases,
and the desire to transact on venues like net54 instead is a wise one. I
suppose the best way to say this is, 2 party sales are preferable to ones
involving a third party.

In the end, I think sellers would do well to recognize that potential
buyers are a wee bit important in this equation- especially when the seller
has been a buyer himself time and time again. There is nothing wrong
with wanting fair treatment from the seller when you are buying (ie,
accurate shipping costs, clear communication, and realistic price tags).
After all, it's what sellers expect when the shoe is on the other foot.

Trent King

I have done thousands of transactions on and off Ebay over 30 years as both buyer and seller. I think a really great point you brought up is the use of the "make an offer" option. If a seller uses that, they are inviting an offer. If they don't want an offer - pretty simple - don't use the option. At best I would send a note asking if there is any "room" in an asking price to the seller of a listing with no "make an offer" option.

As a seller, I usually use the "make an offer" option. I often receive offers that I see as ridiculously low and simply decline them. I've also started to use the "automatically decline offers below....." option.

One thing I have learned is the market is a very inefficient place - a single sale at a particular price is not always a good or fair indicator of "market value". For more regularly traded issues with multiple recent sales all in a similar price window - that is what I would call support for a particular price point and that too not without exception.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by ClementeFanOh

b) enabling Make an Offer, then automatically rejecting any offer made

I think it has been mentioned on other threads that eBay will sometimes add the Make An Offer option to listings that have been up for a while without the seller knowing that it happens. If that is true then that could be a reason why all offers are rejected.

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by jayshum

I think it has been mentioned on other threads that eBay will sometimes add the Make An Offer option to listings that have been up for a while without the seller knowing that it happens. If that is true then that could be a reason why all offers are rejected.

Ebay will send an email when they do that and it takes 10 seconds to turn offers back off again.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Jim65

Ebay will send an email when they do that and it takes 10 seconds to turn offers back off again.

For sellers with a large number of listings, it's probably not worth their time to go and turn them off.

[Exhibitman]

"2) Someone was throwing around the term "tool" in reference to buyers.
Here are some indicators from a buyer's view, that the seller may be a
"tool":

a) endlessly cycling the same card at the same price for YEARS, without
changing the price (hint- your price is too high)

b) enabling Make an Offer, then automatically rejecting any offer made

c) behaving like ebay owns your cards, rather than you. The amount of
sellers who won't discuss sales outside of ebay- even after the auction
ENDS without a bid!- is astounding. Ebay is a clown show in most cases,
and the desire to transact on venues like net54 instead is a wise one. I
suppose the best way to say this is, 2 party sales are preferable to ones
involving a third party."

Hey, Trent, gotta disagree with you on some of this.

eBay allows an automatic rejection on best offers below a certain level. I use it to weed out lowballers. My main issue with eBay is that the anonymity allows for behavior no one would engage in at a card show. I mean, if you were at the National and you saw a Babe Ruth card for sale for $3000 would you go up to the seller and offer $300? Of course not, you'd be embarrassed to even try it.
Yet that is exactly what I get on eBay all the time. Same with arguing the price. No one at a card show would do that, so why do it on eBay?

As far as taking things off eBay, it could get the seller in trouble, as noted above. The polite way to do this is to contact the seller through N54 rather than through eBay, so that the eBay thought police don't come down on the seller. Demanding an off-eBay transaction through the eBay PM system is inconsiderate to the seller.

i also disagree with the idea that the buyer is more important than the seller. They are equals. I don't need to sell a specific buyer anything and I am tired of buyers acting like they are doing me a favor by making low offers on my inventory, especially in a seller's market like the last year.

[Gary_Carter_Rookie]

Originally Posted by jayshum

I think it has been mentioned on other threads that eBay will sometimes add the Make An Offer option to listings that have been up for a while without the seller knowing that it happens. If that is true then that could be a reason why all offers are rejected.

...And it defaults to 50%! That is a dirty little game the seller's "partner," eBay, is playing.

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by ClementeFanOh

c) behaving like ebay owns your cards, rather than you. The amount of
sellers who won't discuss sales outside of ebay- even after the auction
ENDS without a bid!- is astounding.

Its against Ebay rules to takes sales off Ebay and your account can be suspended. A 30 day suspension could be devastating to some sellers so its not worth the risk.

[UKCardGuy]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

While I understand where you're coming from...like others, I would prefer to explain the logic of how I came up with a price in my offer. That's especially true if my offer is a lot lower than the asking price. Not trying to "educate" anyone....just explaining my logic as the basis for a negotiation.

Sometimes this goes down well...other times I'm met with a rude response - which really isn't necessary.

I've seen so many cases of a seller flipping an item that they just bought in another auction. If they're adding 10-15%, I get it. But more often than not they stick a BIN at double the price. I mean, really? an auction just finished and determined the value was X and then seller decides to chance his luck at twice that.

Fair enough if that's what they want to do...but there's no reason to be nasty about it.