eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎04-02-2020

Sometimes it's easy, you just decline all offers. My genre has a "type" of low baller (usually another dealer).

They give you an offer that's a bit low, but still reasonably fair, so you accept. Then it's followed by another 20 offers that are not reasonable (some may be close, some make no sense).

I had myself one of those recently. It started with a 15-20% discount on an item. And then I started getting offers of $15 on $25 coins (that contain one ounce of silver). He said "I hope we can make a deal". I replied to this one offer with "you need to start being more reasonable with your offers if you want to make a deal. Melt is $14 an ounce and eBay and Paypal take 10%. There's no point in me selling here if I'm losing money."

The offers got a lot more reasonable really quickly... I said "think 10-20%, if it's more than 20%, I'll probably say no". When he realized what he was offering wasn't work, he turned it around to just send me a message from each listing so I could "send an offer" with my best price (that I decided is my best price right now).

This tactic resulted in several items being sold at a price I thought was fair.

C.

7606dennis · ‎04-02-2020

The advantage of someone making an offer is that the seller has the opportunity to look at their feedback left and bid retraction record.

With regard to low ball offers, I would treat them as the opening round of negotiations and haggle from there. Enjoy the game since it doesn't look like we'll get much pleasure from pro-sports this season.

"It is an intelligent man that is aware of his own ignorance."

sin-n-dex · ‎04-02-2020

@7606dennis wrote:
The advantage of someone making an offer is that the seller has the opportunity to look at their feedback left and bid retraction record.

With regard to low ball offers, I would treat them as the opening round of negotiations and haggle from there. Enjoy the game since it doesn't look like we'll get much pleasure from pro-sports this season.

I have offer enabled on a lot of items that have been sitting around a long time (anything over $20 that has been sitting since my last two residences... new stuff I haven't put offers on - yet).

I'm OK with the offers, and I check FB and stuff like that based on my gut instinct. Lots of would-be scammers are not very good at it.

I was OK with the buyer, and him making offers, I guess I got a little bent when they were 40-50% discount when my profit margin on the items is significantly less. I'm pretty straightforward with customers and it seems to work well for me.

It also depends on the item, the items in question that these offers were on were pretty minimal profit but they get people looking in the store. On something with a lot of profit that I've had for a few years and can't sell, I suddenly get very generous when it turns up on a watch list. There's three of four items that seem to get on watch lists frequently and my offers have been better and better as I try hard to sell these items. But to no avail, these watchers are not interested buyers.

C.

luckythewinner · ‎04-02-2020

@sin-n-dex wrote:
This tactic resulted in several items being sold at a price I thought was fair.

I just set what I think is a fair price right at the start, and don't allow offers.

femmefan1946 · ‎04-02-2020

@7606dennis

Yes. I had an offer yesterday on an item that has hung around for way too long on another ID that I was ready to accept until I looked at his feedback.

While he had several dozen FB from sellers, he had left only five. Three were negs, two indicated that he had bullied the seller into some sort of discount or refund and then gloated.

I did not reply.

lamber9347 · ‎04-03-2020

Ha-ha, that is so funny, I do the same thing. If these people would only realize that each time they leave negs they are actually making themselves look bad and lose out on potential purchases because of that. I have also turned down buyers when I see they never leave FB unless it is a complaint. They cannot be bothered when everything is fine, but seem to enjoy writing rude comments on others.

They think they are hurting the seller by leaving these comments but it works both ways....

*victory_inc* · ‎04-03-2020

I have experienced some people would make obscenely low offers knowingly it could be offensive to some sellers.

lja440 · ‎04-03-2020

I usually only make offers on items that I resell, so you are right on that. BUT, I am usually also offering to buy several lots. I buy and sell vinyl records and some other media. Often I see one or two albums in a lot that I can make a good profit on in my B&M, the rest are pretty much shelf fillers that will be at a break even point. A seller may have a half dozen lots listed and I often will buy 3 or 4 at a time. I will often get a counter offer back and usually will take it. I NEVER ask for more than a 30% cut at most, but usually will not ask for more than a 20%. 30% offers are usually on ungraded records because they have the greatest risk of the "good" records having damage.

*victory_inc* · ‎04-03-2020

You are not these guys, I wish I can show you the conversations that I have had with these low ballers in the past. No matter what you reply with it starts an argument or accusations. I guess I would never know if I don’t offered you 10% of your BIN if I don’t ask right? 😂/😔

luckythewinner · ‎04-03-2020

@*victory_inc* wrote:
I wish I can show you the conversations that I have had with these low ballers in the past

I would see no reason to carry on a conversation with them in the first place.

biederboat1 · ‎04-03-2020

If everybody blocked lowballers then they would start learning and give it up. I decline a low-ball offer (no counteroffer) and if they make another offer that's still too low then I add them to my blocked buyer lost. I doubt it's having much affect though except to make me feel a little better!

BB1

biederboat1 · ‎04-03-2020

If everybody blocked lowballers then they would start learning and give it up. I decline a low-ball offer (no counteroffer) and if they make another offer that's still too low then I add them to my blocked buyer list. I doubt it's having much affect though except to make me feel a little better!

BB1

earlyant-77 · ‎04-03-2020

@biederboat1 wrote:
If everybody blocked lowballers then they would start learning and give it up.

But what if you are selling jock straps? 😀

sin-n-dex · ‎04-03-2020

@lja440 wrote:
I usually only make offers on items that I resell, so you are right on that. BUT, I am usually also offering to buy several lots. I buy and sell vinyl records and some other media. Often I see one or two albums in a lot that I can make a good profit on in my B&M, the rest are pretty much shelf fillers that will be at a break even point. A seller may have a half dozen lots listed and I often will buy 3 or 4 at a time. I will often get a counter offer back and usually will take it. I NEVER ask for more than a 30% cut at most, but usually will not ask for more than a 20%. 30% offers are usually on ungraded records because they have the greatest risk of the "good" records having damage.

I buy albums too, but for stamps. I buy with the intent to resell, but because I'm a stamp collector (it's a hobby I forgot about for years, and have lots of indoors time to start again now), I am keeping anything I want before selling. So what's being sold might not be very good.

When someone allows offers and has a book up for sale where they've taken a lot of time to photograph the album and map pages, and copyright info, but no actual stamps, that's pretty risky. I like them to give an estimate on how many stamps I'm getting. If I can determine the time period of the album and how many stamps, that gives me a good idea on what to offer. For instance, 1000 stamps dated before 1930 is better than 5000 stamps from the 1970s and 80s.

I've gambled, and lost out a couple of times getting something that turned out to not be so good. I pay lots of attention to the date inside the album (collectors usually date their album and make notes inside the cover), so it gives me an idea of what to expect.

The coolest album I got was a very beat up awful looking album from England that had a collection that was started in 1904, and it appears that by about 1925 he'd completely given up collecting. I got a few albums from the 1950s that had interesting stuff that I want to collect.

There's some 8-10 albums and another half a dozen dealer stock books in my basement. I just know I'm going to have an awesome collection pretty soon.

C.

lja440 · ‎04-04-2020

That does sound risky. I never really got into stamps but man oh man I can tell a reused or fake stamp from a glance or by feel (20 years delivering mail). I have seen a lot of old stock used and wondered if they were from someone's collection. I once managed a laundromat for a short time, one day found a fistful of silver quarters and dimes while rolling the coins for the deposit.