eBay: people who ask for discounts on fixed price listings

Fred · #1 09-14-2025, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

One has to remember, when a seller has a ridiculous selling price on an e-bay listing, it is not always the buyer making the offer that is unreasonable if below 50% of asking. The buyer offer may be much more in the ballpark of market value than the seller asking price. Buyer isn't always the one in the wrong with these scenarios. I've done that a number of times, with my main intent being to stress to the seller that their asking price is way out of line. I have no delusions that they might actually accept my offer. Although I have seen best offers accepted at 25% of BIN price on occasion (when the seller knows they are shooting for the moon and agree to take just reaching the clouds instead).

Phil - you get it! I've had offers of 33% lower than the listing accepted on the OBO. The price I'm offering is reasonable because the offers are being accepted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardPadre

Most unsolicited offers I receive are not even in the form of a sentence, or not formatted as a question, or not even formatted as money�those annoy me and are an instant block. Example on a $6k card::

Some idiot: 4200

If they can write an actual sentence I will usually reply.

William, I don't know what you were selling for $6K and had an offer of $4.2K so it's probably not good to speculate if the offer was reasonable. Reasonable is obviously "subjective", just like grading. Just curious, what's your ebay seller ID, who knows, you might have something I could use and if the price is too high (my opinion), I can always send you a N54 offer (probably your asking price minus all the ebay fees).

To all -

Besides that resource (Vintage Links) which has ebay users, is there a list anywhere else in N54 which allows N54 members that ACTIVELY sell on ebay to make themselves known? Hey, I understand that ebay needs to make money, but they make a ton already - why not offer the stuff in the BST with a prices sans the reasonable ebay fees.
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CardPadre · #2 09-14-2025, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred

Phil - you get it! I've had offers of 33% lower than the listing accepted on the OBO. The price I'm offering is reasonable because the offers are being accepted.

William, I don't know what you were selling for $6K and had an offer of $4.2K so it's probably not good to speculate if the offer was reasonable. Reasonable is obviously "subjective", just like grading. Just curious, what's your ebay seller ID, who knows, you might have something I could use and if the price is too high (my opinion), I can always send you a N54 offer (probably your asking price minus all the ebay fees).

To all -

Besides that resource (Vintage Links) which has ebay users, is there a list anywhere else in N54 which allows N54 members that ACTIVELY sell on ebay to make themselves known? Hey, I understand that ebay needs to make money, but they make a ton already - why not offer the stuff in the BST with a prices sans the reasonable ebay fees.
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Even if $4200 was the price I�d actually sell for, I would not sell to someone who could not write a sentence or format numbers as a price, or format their offer as a question. But I�m not a dealer and nobody needs to buy stuff from me anyway, I just don�t care.

BobbyStrawberry · #3 09-14-2025, 03:39 PM

I appreciate all the replies. It's interesting to read different perspectives.

If someone offers me a price close to asking, unless it's a brand new listing, I will not get annoyed and will often accept it.

The ones that I don't love are:

- Just a price, like CardPadre mentioned ("$300?")
- "Will you take less for this?" (or some variation, not actually offering a price)
- Ones that want to debate you about your price ("This other one just sold for $X") - OK, but mine is nicer!

To NiceDocter's point: if my listings were in the "museum' category, I would definitely be more open to lower offers. However, I try to be conscious so as not to be that seller. I don't think I've ever had a listing up more than a few weeks without doing some sort of adjustment to it. In fact, I tend to take things down if they don't sell after some period of time.

Also, if someone offers me a lower price on here, I'll always entertain it. Buying and selling here feels more like an in-person environment where you are dealing with real people. There's a kind of anonymity to eBay where I feel like people act a way that they wouldn't in person.

raulus · #4 09-14-2025, 04:16 PM

The only ones that are annoying to me are messages asking me what my rock bottom price is.

Make me an offer!!

I�m not going to bid against myself. So typically I will let them know that my asking price is already listed, but invite them to make me an offer.

Orioles1954 · #5 09-14-2025, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raulus

The only ones that are annoying to me are messages asking me what my rock bottom price is.

Make me an offer!!

I�m not going to bid against myself. So typically I will let them know that my asking price is already listed, but invite them to make me an offer.

I had a guy ask me what my "rock bottom price" was on a $10 card.

raulus · #6 09-14-2025, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orioles1954

I had a guy ask me what my "rock bottom price" was on a $10 card.

Rock bottom: $9.99

UKCardGuy · #7 09-14-2025, 04:48 PM

I don't get the hostility to getting offers. I regularly get offers that are ridiculously low. I use it as a point to start negotiations. I explain that their offer is way too low and potentially point out recent comps. Sometimes they respond positively... Sometimes they don't. But I'm no worse off.

As a buyer, I'll make offers on fixed price listings... Especially if they've been up for a long time. But it's disappointing how many times sellers are just rude.

hammertime · #8 09-14-2025, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raulus

The only ones that are annoying to me are messages asking me what my rock bottom price is.

Make me an offer!!

I’m not going to bid against myself. So typically I will let them know that my asking price is already listed, but invite them to make me an offer.

Yep. I have "best offer" activated on all of my listings but I still get multiple messages like this per week. I just tell people I don't negotiate over messages, if they want to make an offer they can. I'd say 90% of the time I never hear from them again.

Knightlax5 · #9 09-15-2025, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred

Phil - you get it! I've had offers of 33% lower than the listing accepted on the OBO. The price I'm offering is reasonable because the offers are being accepted.

William, I don't know what you were selling for $6K and had an offer of $4.2K so it's probably not good to speculate if the offer was reasonable. Reasonable is obviously "subjective", just like grading. Just curious, what's your ebay seller ID, who knows, you might have something I could use and if the price is too high (my opinion), I can always send you a N54 offer (probably your asking price minus all the ebay fees).

To all -

Besides that resource (Vintage Links) which has ebay users, is there a list anywhere else in N54 which allows N54 members that ACTIVELY sell on ebay to make themselves known? Hey, I understand that ebay needs to make money, but they make a ton already - why not offer the stuff in the BST with a prices sans the reasonable ebay fees.
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Is there a list on this site with Net54 users and their ebay user names? If not i�ll create one. It would help those who always ask �is____ ebay user on Net54?�

premiercardcollectors · #10 09-15-2025, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knightlax5

Is there a list on this site with Net54 users and their ebay user names? If not i�ll create one. It would help those who always ask �is____ ebay user on Net54?�

Thanks for doing that!

Mine is premiercardcollectors just like my user name on Net

Geoff Bedine
Premier Card Collectors
Since 1977

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ValKehl · #11 09-15-2025, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knightlax5

Is there a list on this site with Net54 users and their ebay user names? If not i�ll create one. It would help those who always ask �is____ ebay user on Net54?�

There is this listing, but I suspect that it is far from complete: https://www.net54baseball.com/forum/...tagelinks.html

jayshum · #12 09-15-2025, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knightlax5

Is there a list on this site with Net54 users and their ebay user names? If not i�ll create one. It would help those who always ask �is____ ebay user on Net54?�

There's a field on the member's profile for eBay ID, but the member would have to manually enter it there when they create (or update) their profile. You can also search by the eBay ID in the advanced search from the member section.

Knightlax5 · #13 09-15-2025, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayshum

There's a field on the member's profile for eBay ID, but the member would have to manually enter it there when they create (or update) their profile. You can also search by the eBay ID in the advanced search from the member section.

I appreciate the education! I tried doing a plain search with ebay ID�s but didn�t know i could do an advanced search to better find them

Kutcher55 · #14 09-15-2025, 03:28 PM

I did this just last night and got a deal out of it. I find this works best when there's an item up for bidding at a relatively competitive price (intro bid) that I'm interested in that closes without bids. There was an example of this last night. An item with a starting bid of $24.99 was closing with no bids, but I forget about it and it closed with no bids. So, just before I went to sleep I sent a very short message to the seller: "$22?" and then I woke up in the morning to find that he was game. So then I looked into his catalogue and found another card out there with no bids yet and we settled on a price for that one as well (initial bid of $47.59 and we landed at $42.50). Might as well since I already had shipping factored in, right? Obviously dealing with peanuts here, but it was all quite amicable and every bit of savings help when you're buying cardboard.

I have done this various times and the response tends to fall into 3 categories: 1. No I think the price is fair. 2. Sure. 3. No response at all. So far nobody has ever been rude about it.

ullmandds · #15 09-15-2025, 03:46 PM

I personally look at any fixed price item as having about 20% wiggle room off ask depending on how reasonable/ridiculous the ask....atleast that's the way I look at it. And I may offer even less based on recent comps/my whims or whatever reason. It's a negotiation! and you can't go backwards once you've thrown down a #!

D. Bergin · #16 09-15-2025, 04:05 PM

Case by case basis I guess. Usually they just amuse me.

Just today I got a simple �7.00�?� for an item I have listed at about 15.00 including shipping, and have sold a couple dozen at that price in the last 6 Months or so. I just ignore.

Anybody ever get �Will you take blank dollars for it�I can PayPal you right now� on an auction item that already has bids well above what they are offering? This has happened more times then you might think and it�s not because they sent their offer before the bids got put in.

Exhibitman · #17 09-20-2025, 06:26 PM

From my Substack article The Price Lice:

"The Price Lice are the most common form of eBay troll. You know this type of pest if you sell on eBay, because odds are you encounter them regularly. When an item goes up for auction, the price lice are on it like crabs on a sailor on leave in port, trying to stick their beaks in and solicit a price to end the auction immediately. Now 99% of the time they don�t accept the offer when you name a price, but they always ask. They�re also the sort who will unabashedly say that they are looking for top quality cards at a discount. Yes, and I am looking for something that tastes like bacon and is good for me.

***

If you really want the price lice to swarm, list a very valuable card for sale. eBay is running a promotion offering 50% off its fees for cards that sell for over $1,000.00. That is a hell of a deal, one that no auctioneer will match, so I decided to take advantage. I posted a very valuable high-profile card for sale. My listing says: �Please don't contact me directly with any offers; the minimum bid or BIN is the least I will take.� Does that deter the price lice? Not in the least. I got a trove of messages anyway within hours of listing the card, so I figured I would give them awards:

The JD Powers Quality Award: "I�m a very qualified buyer!" Uhh, that�s nice but meaningless. I don't need a 'qualified buyer'; everyone on eBay is pre-qualified. Just buy it.

The Jim Rome Cheating Is Trying Award: A photo of a phone number. Reminds me of graffiti on a public restroom stall. Yeah, like I am going to sell a card to some rando off eBay and outside the authenticity guarantee program. Speaking of which, for all the bitching people do about the program, as a seller it is a huge comfort. With all of the stories of seller swindled by thieves who claim to have received an empty box or who switch and return cards, no way am I selling an expensive card on eBay. Not worth the risk. But with the Authenticity Guarantee, I get the card to PSA safely and I am DONE. I don't have to worry about any customer scams. I would never sell a really costly card on eBay otherwise.

The Scum Sucking Bottom Feeder Award: "Consider $15,000?" On a card listed for $45,000? Just go away.

The Don King Bag Of Cash Award: "Hi there! Theoretically what�s your cash price on this guy?!" Theoretically, what I listed it for, numbnuts.

The Psycho Killer Award: "I have cash in hand that I�d rather use than PayPal. Where are you located?" Yeah, I am going to tell a stranger where I am and meet him somewhere with a $45,000 card to exchange for $45,000 in cash. Do I get robbed in the parking lot before or after the sale?"

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