Why would someone on eBay ask me to raise my price by a penny?

[glassy-rabbit]

Someone with low feedback on eBay sent me a message and asked me to raise my Buy It Now price by a penny. The person didn't write that he/she wanted to buy my item.

For the heck of it, I raised the price by a penny and messaged the person back (I didn't receive a reply). I was hoping that the person was going to buy my item. I then noticed that someone with a different user name with low feedback listed the same item as mine for a few dollars less, but I'm not sure if it's the same person. After a few hours, I lowered my price by a couple of dollars to attract more buyers.  

Why would someone want me to raise my price by one penny? For competition? Or is there a benefit to paying a whole number like $40.00 vs. $39.99? Anyway, in all my years on eBay, I've never had this happen before. Anyone else had this happen?

[nobody*s_perfect]

eBay occasionally issues coupons that have a minimum purchase requirement.  I myself have asked a seller to raise a price from $29.99 to $30.00 so I could use a $10 coupon that required a minimum $30 purchase.

[glassy-rabbit]

Yes, that makes sense. Thank  you.

I had to call eBay to ask about a policy, and so I mentioned the message to the rep. She said it may be someone in competition. But a penny difference isn't much competition. The rep didn't say anything about coupons. So now that you mentioned a possible coupon, I'll change the price back and see what happens (my item ends this morning anyway).

[myangelandmyprincess]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

eBay occasionally issues coupons that have a minimum purchase requirement.  I myself have asked a seller to raise a price from $29.99 to $30.00 so I could use a $10 coupon that required a minimum $30 purchase.

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There has been several times I’ve wanted to do this but didn’t because I was worried the seller would get paranoid 

[luckythewinner]

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@glassy-rabbit wrote:

Why would someone want me to raise my price by one penny? For competition? 

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Maybe his goal was not price competition, but rather just to mess with the head of his competition 🙂

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@myangelandmyprincess wrote:

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

eBay occasionally issues coupons that have a minimum purchase requirement.  I myself have asked a seller to raise a price from $29.99 to $30.00 so I could use a $10 coupon that required a minimum $30 purchase.

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There has been several times I’ve wanted to do this but didn’t because I was worried the seller would get paranoid 

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I explained my reason, so I didn't leave him guessing like the OP.  Also, it was a relist already marked down on an odd item, so I knew he was eager to sell it. If he had reacted badly I would have either walked away or purchased it with a different ID.

[*madison]

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@myangelandmyprincess wrote:

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

eBay occasionally issues coupons that have a minimum purchase requirement.  I myself have asked a seller to raise a price from $29.99 to $30.00 so I could use a $10 coupon that required a minimum $30 purchase.

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There has been several times I’ve wanted to do this but didn’t because I was worried the seller would get paranoid 

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I did it, and got blocked. I even explained why I wanted the seller to raise the item by 1 penny because of the coupon. The seller replied with one word in all caps.   "BLOCKED" 

[nobody*s_perfect]

Any time I ask a question and then decide to purchase an item, I use my other buying ID.  That way, IF the seller has somehow decided to block me, I don't even know about it.

[*madison]

I do that sometimes, but I wasn't expecting the seller to block me in this case because I explained about the coupon.

Perhaps the seller just couldn't be bothered to revise the listing.

Or, perhaps the seller thought I was just messing about, I'll never know.

[gopetersen]

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@*madison wrote:

I do that sometimes, but I wasn't expecting the seller to block me in this case because I explained about the coupon.

Perhaps the seller just couldn't be bothered to revise the listing.

Or, perhaps the seller thought I was just messing about, I'll never know.

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The seller foolishly threw away a good sale.

I was blocked for something similar. I wanted to buy two items and asked if combined shipping was available (it wasn't clear from the listing) and got blocked.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

And the seller lost a sale for a penny lol

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Sometimes I have to wonder why some sellers wonder why their sales are down lol

[jason_incognito]

Bought a group of items once. 

I emailed the seller and told them that they could just send the teapot and keep the rest since i had all the other pieces and i would just donate them to charity. 

Suggested they could resell them. 

I was refunded my payment and told they would not complete my sale.

They undercharged for shipping, and sending just the one piece i wanted would have cost them more than they charged.

[gopetersen]

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@jason_incognito wrote:

Bought a group of items once. 

I emailed the seller and told them that they could just send the teapot and keep the rest since i had all the other pieces and i would just donate them to charity. 

Suggested they could resell them. 

I was refunded my payment and told they would not complete my sale.

They undercharged for shipping, and sending just the one piece i wanted would have cost them more than they charged.

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I think this fits into the, "No good deed goes unpunished," category. Sigh.

[castlemagicmemories]

Perhaps that penny raised price qualified the buyer for a promotional offer.