A new low for an eBay seller?
 

Have to share this kind of gross eBay experience that I had tonight. EbayID: investmentgradekeycomics has a Tinker (Portrait) PSA 5 listed on eBay for $1399 Buy It Now. (A lot of you have probably seen it). His feedback is kind of low for eBay (like 99.2%), so I probably should know better. But I need Tinker Port for my PSA 5 T206 HOF collection. So with about 20 hours left on the listing, I put in an offer at $1200, which I think is fair. He not only rejects my offer, which is fine with me, but then immediately updates his listing -- raising the BIN by $200 to $1599!

I guess he thought I would chase?

Look, it's his card and he can do what he wants. But I have been on eBay for 16 years and I had never seen this tactic -- hiking the BIN immediately after an offer comes in hoping someone would chase. It strikes me as smarmy. Or maybe I'm just old fashioned.

This is far from new, had it done on eBay and COMC a LOT of times.

Toppsaholic on eBay does this all the time when someone makes him a reasonable offer, he'll up the asking price and then tell you how dumb you are.

I have definitely seen this. Just shake my head and move on.

I know this eBay seller and that card; I have never done a deal with him (prices always too high). That’s a crappy tactic, but I have actually seen it in real estate, and I have seen it work (back when I practiced law) - my client listed a building for $x, someone offered less, my client countered with an increased price and ultimately they agreed to the original asking price. Dick move, but people do it. In cards and real estate.

Scott, hold tight. You know another a Tinker will come along, and you will get it for less than your offer.

Thanks for sharing the story.

I don’t think anything you said here would make me think he’s a bad person. His only negative came from an international buyer who didn’t like the shipping costs. He probably looked at your very close and reasonable offer and decided to raise the price so he could get more for the card especially with high grade T206 which are jumping in price constantly. You may be upset that you couldn’t come to an agreement over a card you want but it’s his prerogative to sell it or not and for what price. Good luck in your search.

I don't consider 99.2% to be bad feedback. You run into one jerk in the last 12 months and you can be lower than that.

Just a thought...Ebay will add the "best offer" option automatically whether you want it or not if an item doesn't sell. Maybe his intention never was to accept offers at that price. I've done the same thing, though not right after receiving an offer. When I price something straight buy it now, it's at the lowest price I'll accept. Then ebay slaps the best offer option on it and suddenly I'm getting offers lower than I ever considered accepting. Since this guy bumped up his price, but left the best offer option on it, I suspect this happened.

I have had that happen to me as well. I had the price at the lowest I would accept, and Ebay erroneously put the "best offer" option on it. Then the low ball offers started roling in. I declined them all and quickly removed that option.

I’ve had direct deals with this person and he’s a stellar guy. I wouldn’t take it personal and perhaps reach out to talk to him. You might get a different perspective. I believe he is a member here and also a high rank PSA set registry guy in the T206 world.

I have nothing but good things to say about the guy.

Sorry to hear about your experience.

Looks like he sold it, offline.

First thing I thought of was a COMC seller who shall remake nameless.

I see no problem with this-you counter an offer and the seller can reoffer anywhere--higher or lower.

It’s possible this card was already sold and to deter a purchase seller needed to do what he did. I’ve seen this happen on several deals that were made away from eBay. Not that I condone trying to make deals off good old eBay.

Let’s stop assuming. The seller is a standup person.

I would not let it bother you. You made a nice offer he said no deal. If it wasn't meant to be it wasn't meant to be. I would leave it at that and move on. In terms of pricing anyone can ask anything for said card, I don't take it personal.

Appreciate all the feedback. My perspective seems to be in line with many, but differs from some. Which is fine.

From my personal perspective, I will NEVER deal with a seller who lists a card on eBay at a Buy It Now with Best Offer, then hikes the Buy It Now price immediately in response to my good faith offer. Sorry, excuses/justifications like "he's a good guy" and "maybe the card was already sold" just don't cut it for me.

(I acknowledged in my OP that the seller is legally entitled to "do what he wants" with regard to pricing of his card. That's hardly the point. Not all that is legal is ethical. This is a question of business ethics. Jay, I think you are a great guy, have read your book cover to cover, and appreciate all you have done for the hobby. But if you "see no problem" with hiking your BIN as a reflexive reaction to a good faith offer, I would ask you to revisit).

Scot Reader

not sure I understand why you feel entitled for the card to not change price?

Had you bought the card for the posted price, of course he can't change it, but increasing prices in a sellers market seems totally fine.

Agree...

That the OP states 99.2% is "kind of low" (192 pos and 1 neg in last 12 months) and he "should know better" leads me to believe he might be a little too sensitive and suspicious when it comes to sellers on ebay. Perhaps he was previously burned.

One more possibility is that the seller had the card up there for a while and hadn't repriced since the spike. Memory Lane got $1,002 for two of them last year. Not saying what he did was classy but you weren't going to get the card for $1200, so move on because there are other out there...