How to prevent discount from being used on multiple of the same item in a multiple listing

[athomewiththeperkins]

I sell collectible Disney toys with a Buy 3 Get 2 Free discount. I sell these in a bulk listing with each different toy as a separate variation, about 150 unique variations. This discount works out great for both me and my buyers usually, the vast majority of my sales work out to be a 20%-25% discount (since eBay discounts the lowest priced items) and my average order size per buyer is 5 items. So for example if someone buys two $10 items, a $7 item, and two $4 items, their total comes out to $27 (a discount of $8). This is an average order for me.

The other sellers that sell what I sell offer a Buy 4 Get 1 Free deal, however they have slightly lower prices, so we have the same average per toy sold, except I have been the highest seller for the last 2 months according to the Terapeak research tool. So I'd really like to keep my discount and prices the way they are because I am quite happy with the profits and performance of my listing.

My problem is: Every once in a while other sellers come in and buy dozens or hundreds of my most expensive or hardest to find items at a time, putting me out of stock on those items and causing the discount to absolutely skyrocket. I'm talking the amount of items it would take me a week to sell at a 25% average discount are being sold at a 40% discount in a matter of minutes. If an average order has a $5 or $8 discount for every 5 items sold, this causes a massive $50 or $60 discount for every 5 items sold, which is a big problem for me.

Obviously, if a casual buyer buys 5 different expensive items that are all a similar price, they get about a 40% discount but normally that one order out of 100 in a week is a drop in the bucket and doesn't matter. The problem for me is I'm having increasing and recurring problems with other eBay sellers coming in and buying hundreds or thousands of dollars of items at a time raking in discounts that are way more than what my casual buyers get and emptying my store of all the interesting and hard to find items for casual buyers.

I have tried:

- Raising my prices but my prices are already higher than the average sold price for many of the items I sell

- Only having 1 of each item in stock at a time but it makes inventory such a pain to manage unless I am constantly sitting at my computer updating it.

I am frustrated because other sellers are taking advantage of what I see as a generous discount to build inventory for their own stores. To combat this, I only want to offer this discount if the buyer buys 5 different items. E.G. buying 1 x Item A, 1 x Item B, 1 x Item C, 1 x Item D, and 1 x Item E in a single transaction, will trigger the discount, but not if someone buys 5 x Item A. If my discount was able to be structured this way, 99% of my buyers wouldn't notice a difference, but the other sellers trying to buy up all my stock would be barred even if they came in from different accounts, effectively that would allow me to keep selling to the casual buyers and avoid selling to other sellers who treat me as a wholesaler. If there is some way to structure a discount like this can somebody please let me know? Or if anybody has any ideas about how.

One last note, I am sure there will be some sentiment of "You offer a buy 3 get 2 free deal so you should plan on a 40% discount every time no matter who the buyer is." To this, I say the following:

- Selling to other eBay sellers has ripple effects that cost me more than having to give a bigger discount. It puts me out of stock of hard to find items, decreasing interest in my store. It increases competition here on eBay because other sellers have those items.

- If I sell 200 items a week, and a few buyers buy 15-20 similarly priced items at a 40% discount, I can count on 15-20 other items being sold with a 5% discount which evens out those orders with bigger discounts. Getting such a massive order such as the one I'm describing for 200 more items on top of my normal weekly orders at the 40% discount will never balance out.

- I am by no means trying to keep buyers from getting a good discount. I am trying to keep other sellers from abusing my discount to build inventory for their own stores. I know my competitors have the same rule on their listings excluding their discount to apply for multiple of the same item, but I do not know how they enforce it.

[popblox]

I have a similar promotion/issue with the collectibles I sell and the only remedy I've found is to keep stock levels at 1. It can definitely be a pain to maintain, especially with variation listings, so I created non-variation listings for my higher demand/faster selling items so I could easily update their quantities from my phone if I was away from my computer.

It's a little more time and maintenance, but revising your items also seems to increase visibility, so it's worth the hassle IMO.

[yawe_1956]

Ermagersh...

You can limit the number of items a buyer can purchase per day, in your site preferences.

[athomewiththeperkins]

I have looked through the site preferences, I have only found the option where I can prevent bidders who have already won auctions from winning more. Since my listings are not auctions that does not apply to me. Where in site preferences can I find the limit on buyers buying items?

[eunster1313 · Accepted solution]

(My problem is: Every once in a while other sellers come in and buy dozens or hundreds of my most expensive or hardest to find items at a time, putting me out of stock on those items and causing the discount to absolutely skyrocket. I'm talking the amount of items it would take me a week to sell at a 25% average discount are being sold at a 40% discount in a matter of minutes. If an average order has a $5 or $8 discount for every 5 items sold, this causes a massive $50 or $60 discount for every 5 items sold, which is a big problem for me.)

From the link provided you can add user id's to your buyer block list.

You can also limit the number of items a buyer can buy from you in a
10 day period. You can set that high enough for your average buyer
but low enough to prevent another seller from cleaning you out.
Make sure you save changes.

Buyer Management

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements 

[athomewiththeperkins]

Thank you. I have gone through and done this. I was already utilizing the blocked buyers list but they keep coming in from different accounts. While that doesn't solve all of my problems as they can still come in from different accounts hopefully it will discourage them by having to do more work to buy up all my stock. I do think it is the best possible solution from the ones given, and I think I can work with that. Thank you very much.

[eunster1313]

(Thank you. I have gone through and done this. I was already utilizing the blocked buyers list but they keep coming in from different accounts. While that doesn't solve all of my problems as they can still come in from different accounts hopefully it will discourage them by having to do more work to buy up all my stock. I do think it is the best possible solution from the ones given, and I think I can work with that. Thank you very much.)

buyers are not allowed to circumvent your block list and that includes by

using another account.

The burden of proof is (You have reason to believe).

Put the new account on your block list and cancel the transaction using

issue with the buyers address.

You will find this at the bottom of the page.

You can also report them from the links there if you want.

2020 Spring Seller Update-Updates to how you service your customers

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2020-spring/service.html