Potential Buyers who are really re-sellers questioning my prices and getting nasty

[godwulf]

After retiring a year ago, I've begun selling on eBay again, after only being a Buyer for the last 10-15 years. The great majority of my business now comes in selling items from my game-used MLB collection, mostly jerseys and bats. Compared with most other Sellers of such items, my prices are sometimes ridiculously low and I have no problem getting my asking price on most of what I list, though it might take a month or two for the right Buyer to find me. 

I keep getting messages asking if I can "make a better deal" on some item that I'm already pricing far lower than comparable items on eBay or elsewhere. When I explain that asking a hundred dollars (what I actually see after eBay takes their cut of the $116.60 BIN price) for an item when other Sellers are asking two or three times that for comparable items is not unreasonable, I either get no response or I get a response that consists of insults and ridicule. 

I have come to the conclusion that most of these people (particularly the latter) are individuals looking to buy on the cheap and re-sell at a profit. Nothing wrong with that, but they cross a line when they respond to my explanation that I'm marketing to collectors, not re-sellers (and some of their user names make it obvious that that's what they are, not to mention that most of their feedback is as a Seller) . I bought every single one of these items AS a collector, sometimes over twenty years ago, and I'm selling probably 80% of my items for less, sometimes far less, than I paid for them. I'm not giving them away, nor am I selling them for ludicrously low prices so that another Seller can make max profit on a turn-around. 

[iamalwaysright]

Yea, buyers these days can be pretty rude.

And many will call you a scam if you don’t agree to their super low offers.

[femmefan1946]

I keep getting messages asking if I can "make a better deal" on some item that I'm already pricing far lower than comparable...

They are treating you as if you are a sucker that doesn't know the value of your items.

Raise your prices.

Add BEST OFFER.

Now set the parameters for Offers to automatically rejects offers that are insulting. Better for your mental health.

Set your parameters to automatically accept Offers that would be acceptable (perhaps 10% off asking).

Now you are only dealing with the buyers with sensible offers .

Remember (and remind the customers) that Offers do NOT include shipping.

When I explain

Don't explain.

They either already know or are too cheap to care.

I get a response that consists of insults and ridicule.

Block all jerks.

Part of this is that you are in a sportsball category.

Gamers gonna game. And trash talk is part of that.

It's childish. And doesn't work.

I'm selling probably 80% of my items for less, sometimes far less, than I paid for them.

Raise your prices if the market for these items has gone up.

You can accept serious Offers after that.

Most collectibles are purchased retail and sold wholesale.

Sometimes the market for a given item just disappears. For example the Princess Diana grief market lasted only about 18 months after her death.

Sometimes it continues. Elvis is making more money now than he did when he was alive.

You can do research here to learn what the market is like for your items. Look at the Sold comps, not the Listings comps.

[lamber9347]

@godwulf The simple solution is to set a minimum amount on your offers. The system is set up to auto deny any offers which don't hit your set minimum amount. This way you won't even see any messages from them because it's taken care of for you. You are also not obligated to respond to any offers you do not like. Make it easier on yourself and use the system to your advantage. Selling can be a lot of fun and there are many buyers who will want your collectibles at your prices. Concentrate on that. Best of luck to you....

[alcoforever]

You need not reply to any messages asking you to lower your prices.  Just ignore & delete.  Never explain.

[inhawaii]

I don't accept offers.  When someone makes me an offer, i reply with this short and sweet message:

"Thank you for your offer but i am not accepting offers on this item at this time."

It takes me about 30 seconds. 

Some sellers will block buyers just for making them an offer or low offer. I don't. 

[gjs_16]

Start charging what everyone else does and stop being the cheapest, also don't reply to people like that.

[vintagecraze50]

I tend to notice that when you are at the bottom of the barrel here with your prices you attract more cheapo’s.  Raise your prices in line with everybody else and maybe slightly more competitive and you probably wont attract the cheapies.

[vintagecraze50]

Ebay is known for attracting people interested in getting stuff at rock bottom prices. That is something that has been changing on here with the new CEO’s mission. He is beginning to realize that this websites GMV cannot be improved by selling things at rock bottom. He wants customers who have big money to spend on luxury goods AND rare Collectibles which you should not be giving away to cheapo’s who will just turn and burn them here in ther stores.

[soh.maryl]

You don't need to justify your prices to ANYONE and you don't need to respond at all.

The BBL comes in handy in this scenario.