05-20-2024 08:12 PM
I'm relatively new to ebay and am unsure how to respond to a request from a buyer. I'm selling vintage fashion magazines where each magazine has photos of the design of several fashion designers in a particular season. In my listing of one magazine, I photographed one page from one of the big designers as an illustration. A buyer messaged me and wanted to "take a look" at the rest of the pages from that designer to "check the condition of those pages." I'm hesitant to respond because the buyer could just want to read those pages and is not really interested in buying. Have you had requests like? How should I respond? What happens if I don't respond at all?
05-21-2024 05:27 AM
I have been in sales for slightly more than six decades; all for a living, as opposed to a hobby or sideline. I would not have, for a moment, considered honoring the prospect's request.
05-21-2024 05:50 AM
"Our magazines are guaranteed complete. They are in our storage facilty and I am unable to retrieve them as they are shipped by our fulfillment team. You may wish to review the magazine through a library or some other means to see if this is the one you need. Thank you. "
05-21-2024 06:54 AM - edited 05-21-2024 07:30 AM
A request, could means it is scarce info and/or popular and if so, adding more searchable info will attract more buyers and may motivate the requester to buy it, now that the info is more out there.
Add the designer name to your title, if they are asking about the Tiffany info definitely put that in the title. Tiffany has a huge secondary market.
05-21-2024 07:20 AM
Back when I sold some rare magazines, I was asked for certain images. I took “side shots” that showed the condition, and that images they wanted were actually there, but they couldn’t be used online in any normal way.
05-21-2024 10:51 AM
@twoopals wrote:Thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge about the various behaviors and motivations in the community of buyers and sellers, in part as function of the policies of ebay. I know my item is priced reasonably but I didn't think about checking out the potential buyer etc. I'll follow those pointers and then perhaps take a middle of the road approach by providing a good description of the requested pages with photos of parts of those pages.
@twoopals- I think that's a great idea. Just 'side' shots as suggested up thread will do, and you won't have to worry about description unless there's some kind of defect. If what they really want is condition, that will fulfill their stated request.