Ebay best offers?

[ThomasL]

My pet peeve as a possible buyer is...if I know you bought something at auction for 800-1000 out the door...and I offer you 1200-1400 for it on ebay best offer and the response is "1500 is the best I can do"...Im out and good luck.

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by ThomasL

My pet peeve as a possible buyer is...if I know you bought something at auction for 800-1000 out the door...and I offer you 1200-1400 for it on ebay best offer and the response is "1500 is the best I can do"...Im out and good luck.

What difference does it make what a seller paid for an item? If they paid $1 for a $500 item at a garage sale, does that mean they have to sell it to you for $2? If they overpaid for an item, does that mean you are obligated to overpay them to cover their their loss?

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Jim65

What difference does it make what a seller paid for an item? If they paid $1 for a $500 item at a garage sale, does that mean they have to sell it to you for $2? If they overpaid for an item, does that mean you are obligated to overpay them to cover their their loss?

+1 as long as they are selling it at or near market value what difference does it make what they paid.

EDIT to add: This is a real transaction between myself and another member. I emailed another member and said I had a insanely rare card for sale and I wanted $800 for it. Guy responds with did you buy it off ---- and pay less than $5 for it? I honestly said yes I did but this is a fair price for the card. We made the deal at my asking price and we were both happy.

For me it is about a fair selling price and if the seller got a great deal good for them. I also recently paid a member 10X what he paid for a card he was still waiting to receive in the mail. I was happy I got it at market value and happy for the seller.

[ThomasL]

Originally Posted by Jim65

What difference does it make what a seller paid for an item? If they paid $1 for a $500 item at a garage sale, does that mean they have to sell it to you for $2? If they overpaid for an item, does that mean you are obligated to overpay them to cover their their loss?

You are right and I would say those are the outliers and exceptions to what I am talking about.

[Huysmans]

Originally Posted by ThomasL

You are right and I would say those are the outliers and exceptions to what I am talking about.

If it doesn't matter what a seller paid for an item, then why does it matter what a buyer offers for an item??

I find it funny that some will state how they have a right to list an item at any amount they want regardless of what they paid, and then these same people will whine about low ball offers.

[Huysmans]

Originally Posted by ThomasL

My pet peeve as a possible buyer is...if I know you bought something at auction for 800-1000 out the door...and I offer you 1200-1400 for it on ebay best offer and the response is "1500 is the best I can do"...Im out and good luck.

Exactly.
This is a pet peeve of mine as well.

While anyone has the right to price any item at any amount they want, I just don't support and purchase from these gouging types.
There are items I've watched on eBay that delusion sellers purchased for a song, and now want a king's ransom, only to be listed for YEARS without any interest... and no lowering of the price... ever?!? Comical. I hope they never sell.

It's apparent after considerable time as a buyer that the overwhelming majority of sellers on eBay have very little to no business acumen whatsoever.

I also find the gouging types are the ones that will low ball and make ever excuse in the world why they should get something dirt cheap when purchasing.

[buymycards]

Originally Posted by ThomasL

My pet peeve as a possible buyer is...if I know you bought something at auction for 800-1000 out the door...and I offer you 1200-1400 for it on ebay best offer and the response is "1500 is the best I can do"...Im out and good luck.

Don't forget - eBay will take $150 out of your $1200 offer, and eBay will take $187 if the seller sells it for $1500. That 12.5% adds up quickly on high dollar items.

And - The IRS, the State Dept of Revenue, and Medicare and Social Security will take their share - maybe 30 to 40% out of any profit that is made.

[ALR-bishop]

I just do not get sellers who have something I want and will not sell it to me at a price I am willing to pay

[Case12]

It's not so much 'will they take what I am willing to pay', but that the ebay system is making it more difficult to buy 'best offer' without communicating with seller on the side - with COMC, etc, this is fruitless. (Communicating with some sellers is awesome. I recently bought a Connie Mack auto on a '54 program. eBay was handling it bad, so I called the seller. We agreed to a price, he took it off eBay and we settled privately. In this case it was worth it because he got it as a 10 yr old boy in person...with provenance). I purchase enough stuff that I don't want to do this for every item. (BTW, I got his story which was to me as valuable as the item. He saved eBay fees and I saved taxes...win/win...for a higher dollar item). But most items are not worth that time.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by buymycards

Don't forget - eBay will take $150 out of your $1200 offer, and eBay will take $187 if the seller sells it for $1500. That 12.5% adds up quickly on high dollar items.

And - The IRS, the State Dept of Revenue, and Medicare and Social Security will take their share - maybe 30 to 40% out of any profit that is made.

Thank you for saying this. Sometimes it has felt like I was the only one factoring in those taxes (over 30% in my case) when computing how much money will actually be made on the sale of a card.

[ThomasL]

Originally Posted by buymycards

Don't forget - eBay will take $150 out of your $1200 offer, and eBay will take $187 if the seller sells it for $1500. That 12.5% adds up quickly on high dollar items.

And - The IRS, the State Dept of Revenue, and Medicare and Social Security will take their share - maybe 30 to 40% out of any profit that is made.

This is true and I get the seller fees part, but the buyer now has to pay extra now on ebay where they didnt in the past (plus shipping is usually priced up) so that's almost a wash in my book basically (I just won a card for $650 on ebay, which same card sold for $550 a few months ago on ebay, and it cost me $713 for example...that % also jumps up and adds up for the buyer as well now). But if the seller is taking all that other, IRS etc, into account why even bother bc the markup will price them out of the true market value and it would never sell if they try to factor all that in? But ya I would say ebay is harder on the seller now than the buyer but it isnt exactly buyer friendly either now I guess is my point

I buy and sell both on ebay and I get it I really do...but to another person's point I am also very aware of what market values are: If the market value for something is 800-1000 and they bought it at auction last week for 850 after premiums and they are listing on ebay for $2000 and "cant do better than $1500"...sorry but I guess Im stubborn on my thoughts about how silly that seems...

[CJinPA]

Originally Posted by ThomasL

My pet peeve as a possible buyer is...if I know you bought something at auction for 800-1000 out the door...and I offer you 1200-1400 for it on ebay best offer and the response is "1500 is the best I can do"...Im out and good luck.

I completely agree. I've run into a couple situations like this in the past year w/ sellers. Example: I see a card I'm looking for and do a little research. Find it's recently been sold at auction for, say $500. On eBay, it's now listed at $900. The market for this card is around $750-$775 and I really like the scans so I offer $750 (and probably willing to go $800). Seller rejects and counters w/ $890 - I'm out, we're too far apart - sorry!

[Gradedcardman]

I may be doing this wrong. When I list a Buy it Now or Best Offer, I normally have it set so any offer above my "auto reject" is a fair offer and 99/100 I accept. I always use the "turn offers down under" so I don't get the lowball offers.

[VoodooChild]

Something changed recently and now sellers can make the offer to buyers. So, I don't even mess around making best offers anymore. I find the best priced card that is listed with the best offer option and just add it to my watchlist. More often than not, within a couple days (and even within a couple hours), I'll receive a fair offer from the seller that I accept. Now, this works mostly with modern cards where there are so many more sellers. I do try to do this with pre-war as well, but don't get anywhere near the amount of offers.

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by VoodooChild

Something changed recently and now sellers can make the offer to buyers. So, I don't even mess around making best offers anymore. I find the best priced card that is listed with the best offer option and just add it to my watchlist. More often than not, within a couple days (and even within a couple hours), I'll receive a fair offer from the seller that I accept. Now, this works mostly with modern cards where there are so many more sellers. I do try to do this with pre-war as well, but don't get anywhere near the amount of offers.

I do this as a seller, you can only make one offer per buyer, so you have to make it count. I've made quite a few sales with it.

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by VoodooChild

Something changed recently and now sellers can make the offer to buyers. So, I don't even mess around making best offers anymore. I find the best priced card that is listed with the best offer option and just add it to my watchlist. More often than not, within a couple days (and even within a couple hours), I'll receive a fair offer from the seller that I accept. Now, this works mostly with modern cards where there are so many more sellers. I do try to do this with pre-war as well, but don't get anywhere near the amount of offers.

I’ve seen this as well...most seller offers I get are in the “nice enough if I was going to buy it anyway” category (5-10%), but I’ve gotten a few in the “I was thinking about it but now can’t say no” category (25-35%) range.