eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎04-17-2018

OK, so after a post I made yesterday about not understanding the logic behind blocking someone who makes an offer (when Best Offer is not activated). I do understand a seller being a little peeved if the offer that was made is unreasonably low (that will vary by seller, how low I go will depend on how much I marked it up before I listed it).

So let me share...

At 3am I get a message from a buyer on a coin set. Set was listed for $200, buyer offered $180 including shipping (which was $8.91). First thing I did was make sure their country was on my ship-to list in the listing (since some of my more expensive listings I restrict beyond the eBay exclusion list). I "replied with offer" at a price that would come to $180 once shipping.

At 6am I received another message from a buyer. They want several coins, ballparked how much they intended to spend, and asked about a quantity discount. I replied back that I can only discount coin-by-coin (I cannot afford to blanket discount stuff, I need to review each and every item before agreeing), plus the reply with offer requires a message be sent in each listing. I provided the buyer with instructions. He agreed with my prices. When he finishes work, provided all goes well... that's going to be $175 in sales.

So I just made $355 today in sales because I discussed an offer with someone and accepted a lower price. But I read often that people say they will block anyone who makes an offer...

Cheers, C.

sin-n-dex · ‎04-17-2018

@luckythewinner wrote:
@sin-n-dex wrote:
Why block when someone makes an offer for a lower price?
A seller like you who had a good experieince will probably wonder why others would block buyers who make offers.

But some other seller who entertained and offer and ended up wioth a psycho who stalked and threatened him would probably wonder why others would not block buyers who make offers.

Or a seller who repeatedly agreed to offers and then repeatedly never heard back from the buyers would rpobably wonder why anyone bothers.

Perspective is often shaped by personal experience.

That was kind of the idea of the thread... I figured people must have a reason based on personal experience for how they run their eBay store, so I thought I'd open a discussion.

Cheers, C.

myboardid · ‎04-17-2018

@rolenboy01 wrote:
@myboardid wrote:
@rolenboy01 wrote:
Because a lot of times people who like to negotiate before the sell also like to neogiate after the sell when they know they got you over a barrel because they can claim snad and cost you return shipping.
That is an unproven eBay myth. I have sold thousands of items with best Offer and not a single one has tried to negotiate afterwards. Of course there are some individuals who would do that, but not a large nubmer of tham by any means.
Just because you haven't experienced it doesn't mysteriously make it a "myth" unless you mean it's a myth to you personally but it isn't to others who have experienced it.

First, as I said, there are a few people who would behave that way. But around here when a seller has a bad experience with one buyer, then "all" buyers are immediately shoved into the same mold. People are told to block all buyers who make unsolicited offers because they are going to try to negotiate after the sale. It just doesn't happen that way. Once in a while you get one of those, but it a very uncommon thing. Some posters on this board imply that it will always happen, which is just not true.

----------------------------
Successful and experienced seller since 1997, over 70,000 feedback, boardie since the boards were begun.

sin-n-dex · ‎04-17-2018

@castlemagicmemories wrote:
@faithandbutterflies wrote:
I don't like blocking buyers but sadly sometimes I have to. For example I once had a guy who wanted a poster I was selling. It was selling for just $6.99 with free shipping. He wanted it for much lower. I told him I wasn't able to accept it but thanked him for his interest. I then got message after message after message from him. He sent may 10 - 12 messages in 1 hour or more. He made threats, demands and said I had to sell it to him. He said he was going to call eBay, tell them what I was doing and they would make me sell it to him. I blocked him and removed the listing for about a week or so. I'm not going to do business with someone who threatens me. This is a common reason people block buyers who make an offer. Sadly some can not accept being told no.
Yes, many times a thread will appear on the Buying Board then; the word seller is usually prefaced with arrogant, rude, vindictive, etc.

I had an offer once (no BO enabled) on a Royal Canadian Mint coin set. Set was listed for $17.99, buyer offered $15. Had it been a token from a random town in Canada or something like that, no way would I have refused a $3 discount on something that's difficult to sell like that. Unfortunately the RCM sets are difficult to sell, they sit for a long time, and mine are a lot more expensive than everyone elses.

I told the prospective buyer that my profit margin is very small due to what I pay for the set (and eBay fees being considered) so I can't offer a better price than what it's list at. He could have gone to another seller and spent $12-13, but he decided to buy mine anyway. He told me the reason I gave him for refusing the discount was an "honest reason", and he decided he'd like to do business with me anyway. That all ended well with a happy customer (and happy seller).

I should go read the buying boards just to learn what buyers have to say. I'm interested in their perspective. I sometimes get that information from regular buyers who are a bit chatty, but the ones who write to me are pretty calm. I've gotten lots of good stories from buyers who dealt with markets that buy and sell coins.

Cheers, C.

sin-n-dex · ‎04-17-2018

@myboardid wrote:
@rolenboy01 wrote:
@myboardid wrote:
@rolenboy01 wrote:
Because a lot of times people who like to negotiate before the sell also like to neogiate after the sell when they know they got you over a barrel because they can claim snad and cost you return shipping.
That is an unproven eBay myth. I have sold thousands of items with best Offer and not a single one has tried to negotiate afterwards. Of course there are some individuals who would do that, but not a large nubmer of tham by any means.
Just because you haven't experienced it doesn't mysteriously make it a "myth" unless you mean it's a myth to you personally but it isn't to others who have experienced it.
First, as I said, there are a few people who would behave that way. But around here when a seller has a bad experience with one buyer, then "all" buyers are immediately shoved into the same mold. People are told to block all buyers who make unsolicited offers because they are going to try to negotiate after the sale. It just doesn't happen that way. Once in a while you get one of those, but it a very uncommon thing. Some posters on this board imply that it will always happen, which is just not true.

I've sold over 10,000 things, and probably gave a "post sale discount" less than 15 times all told. Only one buyer proved to be habitual about trying to get post sale discounts. The others either never bought from me again, or had no further issues with buying from me. The majority of people who can't stop negotiating don't make it to the payment portion of the transaction because I grow tired of the rules changing in every message while trying to complete a sale. And if I find something to be particularly annoying, I tend to delay my replies. Normally people would get a reply from me within a few hours if I'm awake and near my phone/computer (even if the reply is just to acknowledge their message and tell them when I'll reply with the answers to their questions).

Cheers, C.

sodelight · ‎04-17-2018

So if your open to these offers, why don't you just make your listings Best Offer. Maybe if sellers who are open to negotiation actually made their listings best offer, those who aren't wouldn't get hit up by so many buyers wanting an item for less. It's because of sellers who don't have best offer listed, actually accepting them, that buyers think it's fair game to send ALL sellers offers!

I regularly get offers on items without solicitation of such. Yet, the few times I've had Best Offer I get zilch. If I want a lower price I'd have it reduced already.

Recently, a buyer wanted multiple items I had listed, offering me a price for all. I negotiated a deal with them because I would save on the shipping. After going back n forth and taking up my time to create a special listing for them and remove those where the item was listed individually, they failed to purchase it anyway!! So it cost me 3 listings that I had cancelled in order to combine into this special listing for the buyer. (I couldn't take the chance that someone else would buy the items separately). I only have the 50 freebies a month. Total waste of time and extremely rude.....NEVER AGAIN. They're now on my BBL.

sin-n-dex · ‎04-17-2018

@sodelight wrote:
So if your open to these offers, why don't you just make your listings Best Offer. Maybe if sellers who are open to negotiation actually made their listings best offer, those who aren't wouldn't get hit up by so many buyers wanting an item for less. It's because of sellers who don't have best offer listed, actually accepting them, that buyers think it's fair game to send ALL sellers offers!

I regularly get offers on items without solicitation of such. Yet, the few times I've had Best Offer I get zilch. If I want a lower price I'd have it reduced already.

Recently, a buyer wanted multiple items I had listed, offering me a price for all. I negotiated a deal with them because I would save on the shipping. After going back n forth and taking up my time to create a special listing for them and remove those where the item was listed individually, they failed to purchase it anyway!! So it cost me 3 listings that I had cancelled in order to combine into this special listing for the buyer. (I couldn't take the chance that someone else would buy the items separately). I only have the 50 freebies a month. Total waste of time and extremely rude.....NEVER AGAIN. They're now on my BBL.

No Best Offer because for one, maintaining it is a pita. (constantly adjusting the prices, I would rather go through once in a while and give a new asking price). Most people are fine to pay the list price, the minute you introduce best offer, everyone is making offers because the list price is now a "guideline". A lot of offers wastes my time, I sell 100 things a month no problem. I'll probably be fielding 200-300 offers every day while I'm doing other things like work or sleeping to keep on that.

I don't put in my listings that I entertain offers, since sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Sometimes you need to buy many things (so I don't want an offer on one item), sometimes you get a better price because you come back every few weeks to buy more stuff. Sometimes I entertain an offer because after 18 months of seeing it listed I really want to see it gone.

I did the BO thing for a while to try it out, and I didn't like it much. I figure the solicitation that I'm not asking for is someone seeing something they want, figuring the price might be a little high and trying me out to see if I'll bend and give a discount. The $200 coin set was listed by others for $300-400, but none sell for that. The highest I saw sold (when I listed) was $179. Many sell for $150 or less. The Chinese made a reproduction of this set (which I can tell, but some people can't) that is being sold en masse for $30 a set. I figured getting an offer for $180 if I pay for shipping was pretty fair, and still one of the most expensive of these sets to be sold recently.

Cheers, C.

jonathankirkland · ‎04-17-2018

@stanley2erols wrote:
I would love a $180 offer on a $200 item. Sometimes you will get a $20 offer on a $200 item though. Then when you decline that you get a $22 offer on that same $200 item. Then when you decline that you get a message complaining that you didn't negotiate. I don't block them, but it gets annoying.

I haven't read every reply to this thread, but just responding to this comment:

This is why as a seller I always setup minimums for best offer. Usually if I have a $200 item for example, I will setup $180 as the lowest I will consider, and $190+ to be auto-accepted. But even then, I'd much rather change the price to what the person offered so I can be paid immediately.

Maybe I am in just too impatient or it's because I'm in a high scam category (electronics mostly), but people never seem to pay if I don't have immediate payment checkmarked.

retrose1 · ‎04-17-2018

@myboardid wrote:
@retrose1 wrote:
So I just made $355 today in sales because I discussed an offer with someone and accepted a lower price. But I read often that people say they will block anyone who makes an offer...

And 10 minutes after the items show delivered, I'll bet the buyer will contact you with another lower offer or SNAD dispute because they now know that you are willing to negotiate.

That is why i block buyers who make offers. My items are priced reasonably, there is no reason to haggle with me further. If you want flea market prices and selling style, go to a flea market - I will not participate in a race to the basement prices that ebay has become.
Again - 99.99% of the time, not true at all. It is just a myth.

On other sites it's a myth, on ebay it was the norm for me. I used to take offers, almost every one had a 'problem' that a 50% partial refund would take care of after they got it. And that was before ebay became what it is today.

With the OP's $350 easily switchable coins, I can not imagine sending a return ship label going well.

(*Bleep*)

sin-n-dex · ‎04-17-2018

@retrose1 wrote:
@myboardid wrote:
@retrose1 wrote:
So I just made $355 today in sales because I discussed an offer with someone and accepted a lower price. But I read often that people say they will block anyone who makes an offer...

And 10 minutes after the items show delivered, I'll bet the buyer will contact you with another lower offer or SNAD dispute because they now know that you are willing to negotiate.

That is why i block buyers who make offers. My items are priced reasonably, there is no reason to haggle with me further. If you want flea market prices and selling style, go to a flea market - I will not participate in a race to the basement prices that ebay has become.
Again - 99.99% of the time, not true at all. It is just a myth.
On other sites it's a myth, on ebay it was the norm for me. I used to take offers, almost every one had a 'problem' that a 50% partial refund would take care of after they got it. And that was before ebay became what it is today.

With the OP's $350 easily switchable coins, I can not imagine sending a return ship label going well.

Occasionally I have lost a large amount due to a scam... but the norm for me losing very big is usually due to the post office losing it somehow, or some other really crazy thing going wrong. The thing is, when I have lost a lot because of a scam, often times the item in question was a lucky find (like the $295 coin that I found in the junk bucket because someone thought it was regular India, not Indian states), the courier offered tracking but didn't deliver, and settled with me for $100 for the package. End result, the buyer got a refund (and I have no way of knowing if the package ever arrived or I got scammed), and I got a $100 settlement for the misdeed by the courier.

It's highly likely the items in question (from today's sales) will not end up being returned though. One thing I do attempt to always do is promise items for a lesser quality than they are, which is why I get a lot of positive comments on "circulated coins". (It is circulated, someone touched it, but maybe just a couple of times and it still looks fantastic).

Cheers, C.

maisonlint · ‎05-18-2018

I do block very keen negotiators, especially the really picky id's who have clearly gone right thru your listing checking what angles are available. My experience is that the time that a potential buyer puts in to negotiating your price down before they buy, where this time is very significant, then a similar period will be often be spent in continued negotiating after the item lands. This type of buyer knows that the "reply with offer" button exists when they start and they know that the "offer partial refund" button is there later. Minimum cover is 'signed for' postage in this scenario, but simply to avoid a prolonged wrangle where you won't be able to dodge the neg - safest is to block. Aggressive negotiators are great at flagging themselves up, take the message and reach for your blocked bidder list, you'll see your ratings rise. To a lesser degree perhaps, faux inquiries like "Is this item brand new" (with Reply With Offer button)when the item images and text include sales tags, or "Are these jeans blue?" (similarly) where images and text indicate that colour is blue just confirm that if you opt to not include the offer option, then eBay just isn't taking that for an answer - so you get the one time RWO chancers and the hardcore chisellers all mixed in together. Most buyers are ok, the few bad apples very often put out big warning signs before a sale takes place - heed those warnings.