Yes, another eBay thread
 

This time it's about another user, and not the platform, so no need to groan too loudly.

Got an offer on a piece this morning. I was asking $950. Buyer offered $500. I waited a few hours, and then decided I might as well accept rather than try to hold out for more.

As I was getting ready to ship the piece this afternoon, I get a notification that the buyer has requested to cancel the transaction, with the explanation that it was an accident. Seems like a stretch to me that it could be an accident, but I'm not going to force the guy to buy my stuff if he doesn't want it, if for no other reason than I don't want him to get desperate and force the issue by claiming that he never got the item, or the box was empty. Life is too short to deal with that nonsense. So I approved the cancellation.

A few minutes later I get a message from the buyer apologizing, and then letting me know that if I re-list it for $325 (including shipping), then he'll take it.

Needless to say, I didn't respond, but blocked him. Because life is waaaaay too short to deal with goons like this.

Anyone have similar experiences with buyers yanking your chain?

P.S. Happy to share his ebay ID if you want to block him too, just to avoid dealing with similar shenanigans.

I have been on eBay quite some time and don't remember that happening to me, but I have heard of it before. Life is too short. You're Outta Here! :cool:
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I understand why you list on ebay, but this case is exactly why I do not. Too many screwballs out there, trying to mess with people.

I sold some very expensive and desirable railroad timetables a few months ago. They are just like cards. Pre-war stuff is desirable, 1800s is like OJ's. Had some clown wanting me to re-list Michigan Central RR at some ridiculous cut-rate. I had to block him. Don't like doing that, but as I saw it I had no choice.

It's wrong for someone to play games like this, but raulus several of your items are priced at 5 or more times the value. An example would be your Bill Mazeroski bottle cap priced at $700 worth at best $100.

Thanks for the feedback.

Of course, if you don't like the price, then the answer it pretty simple: don't buy it!

I list on ebay what I want to sell the item for. No comps, no this, no that. Pretty simple, buy it if you want or not. It doesn't matter to me. If you want to tell me that you've looked it up and 1 sold 2 years ago, or 1 day ago, for 1/2 the price - ok you should have bought that one. I thank them for the message and move on.

The details of this particular buyer is beyond ridiculous. I'm going to block him/her from my account.

Luckily, I'm not running a business, living off the money, etc. I might have a different perspective if that was so.

Raulus, sell it for what you want. Sure, you might have to endure comments like those from mannequin1 but that's ok. It's your item. Funny how the thread went from the situation you described to "you price your items too high!"

Good luck with the item. R/S Jim Hoskins

Block and move on. That's EBay..

I had a comic book priced at or near FMV. Someone wrote me shortly after 2 pm, offering $25 for a $90 item.

Roughly 90 minutes later, they sent another message:

The level of duplicity and aggression on eBay has gotten worse.

FWIW my answer to that answer me demand would have been “ok. Go f*** yourself.” Then block and mock on social media

After many many years on eBay I have noticed about 1 or 2 out of every 100 transaction is a PIA. I like when you have not had any problems for a few hundred transactions and BAM you get nailed with 4 or 5 morons in a week.:rolleyes::D

I have been lucky on eBay lately. USPS has taken weeks on a few items I sold and not a single buyer complained to me about it.:)

The ratio sounds about right. About the only thing close that I’ve ever had before was a situation where the buyer clicked BIN, paid $4k, and I shipped it. Shortly after shipping it, the buyer claimed that their account had been hacked and demanded a refund.

After some time on the phone with eBay, they finally agreed not to ding me for it, and I kept the cash.

But it was definitely a weird situation, and had me a bit freaked out about losing out on both the sale and on the piece.

Although I suspect some might suggest that at 5x market value, the only way it could sell was because of a hack!

I certainly felt like giving that person an “answer” that had shock value. In the end, though, it wouldn’t have been worth it. Besides, they were probably looking to get into a petty back-and-forth. Not taking the bait was likely the best “f*** you” I could have responded with.

You beat me it...

From reading this thread, I realize that I am probably the best buyer in all of eBay.

Here are a couple of my "curious" experiences on Ebay:

1. About two years ago I tried to buy a vintage M.I.B. Monogram slot car motor from a seller. He was evidently using Ebay's International Shipping Program but didn't know it! He ended up cancelling my purchase a day later after these PMs:

"But your shipping address is in Illinois so what’s going on here dude I got screwed out of a classic Frame somehow not that long ago and I think I sold it to you and for some reason it was shipped to Canada somehow but I shipped it to Illinois first and then it got lost and I had to give the money back on it maybe I should just end this auction and not even sell it to you because somethings seems really screwy about this I don’t ship out of the USA,look at the screenshot at the address."

I replied that I'd never bought a racing frame from him or anybody and that the last time I'd even been to Illinois was in 2001. His response:

"OK so if you didn’t get this frame from me then who did look at the screenshots I’m sending you I don’t know what kind of scam you guys got going but I’m not playing these games with you guys no more and that’s the bottom line I’m ending the sale on this and I’m refund and your money I’m not playing with you guys no more and you will be reported to eBay. So again you tell me why both of these addresses on these auctions are the same and you’re in Canada scam somebody else dude I’m not playing this game for real I’m a block you off of buying from my staff I hate to do that but I’m not getting fucked here."

Several weeks later he apologized after being enlightened by Ebay and told me he'd be glad to sell me the item. I ignored him since I have no patience with stupidity.

When Ebay asked me to rate my "transaction" including seller communications a few weeks afterward, I rated it very honestly. He then asked Ebay whether my feedback could be deleted because I'd not lost any money. When Ebay forwarded his request on to me, I refused to change my feedback because whether I'd lost money wasn't one of the questions and I'd given very precise answers to the questions that had been asked. I also mentioned that his stupidity deserved to be rewarded. Well Ebay deleted my feedback anyway. :mad:

2. Sellers often list premium coins incorrectly. For example they label Fightin' Warship or Space Coins as Airplane Coins. When I'm so inclined, I point out to the sellers that their listings are incorrect. Evidently I did so twice in about five months to the same seller. Apparently he didn't care whether his listings were accurate or not and was so annoyed with me telling him his listings were incorrect that he blocked me. C'est la vie.

:rolleyes:

ebay
 

I see the point, very annoying no doubt

but if that kind of thing was done at a show in person ..." Im looking for xx on this item ", " hmm,Id maybe offer yy" " OK ,Ill sell it ", " well wait I said maybe..would you do zz "

Its wheeling/ dealing/ chiseling /squeezing ..
Im quite sure its done by many many collectors...looking for the best deal

I don't mind someone asking questions, making offers even if I don't have that option enabled, making low-ball offers (which I will deny), reasonable requests after purchase, etc.

...but get weird or even slightly sketchy and that's a block. Do weird stuff after purchase, cancel and maybe block.

With all the easy and straightforward sales, I don't have the patience to deal with trying to figure out if someone is socially awkward on the internet or trying to get away with something.

It's one thing to lose a sale, it's another to lose money and time on a crappy "buyer."

Interesting take. I suspect the dealer on the other side would quickly tire of your offers constantly being soft and/or withdrawn.

And in this case, there was no “maybe” about his offer. When you make an official offer on eBay when a seller is selling with BIN but taking offers, they give you a big warning that this is binding and not just some trial balloon that you’re floating. In my case, I even click the button to require payment when an offer is made, so he had to put his credit card in just to make the offer. So it’s not like he would be surprised that he was actually going to have to pay if I accepted his offer.

Now if he had just messaged me to ask whether I would take $500, but then backed off, that would be somewhat different, although I’m not sure that I would have been any less inclined to block him once he made clear that his initial offer was just an attempt to keep negotiating down.

Exactly. Good luck offering $500 for a card at a show, dealer accepting, then saying, how about $300 now? You would be told to get the hell away from the table :D

I have a rare, likely 1 of a kind Willie Mays Sprite bottle cap with a tax logo in my collection that raulus needs that I was going offer for $1000. Now it's $5000. I can ask what I want. It's my item. If it doesn't sell I'm the only one who has one.

Sadly, there's only one guy who wants one. Ive been there before

Cool cool. I wish you the best of luck with it!

If it would make you feel better, I can make you an offer for $2,500, but then back out after you accept.

And if there’s something that I’m selling on eBay that you really want, just let me know. I’m flexible on price for a lot of my stuff. Or we can work a trade. While I tend to ask for the moon, I can be more reasonable when I get decent offers.

I would really like to see a one-of-a-kind Willie Mays Sprite bottle cap. Could you post a picture of it please? There may be more people interested in it.

Every thread needs a Mays bottle cap

Here’s a similar example, albeit much more common, since it’s the coke flavor.

Edited to add: I also have one available in PSA 3, and another in PSA 2 for anyone who is interested. Asking price is less than $5k.

Yep, only that one guy who collects that player.. specifically high end rarities and variations : )
Bad news for the collector if there is 2 or more guys who chase after and gotta collect em all of very high end and unusual variations of their favorite player..
great news for the seller he found the only 2 guys in the world and on the Internet who will overpay thru the nose to obtain the rarity of their favorite : )
I have quite often tried to put in a top all bid in the last seconds only to lose to the other collectors top all bid! Only 2 people in the whole world wanted that rare card or memorabilia and the lucky seller makes out like a bandit without a gun..2 completely insane bids and bidders..
I bid 975 only to lose to 1,000 top all bid..the third bidder stopped at only 75.00..at least we know we did not get fake schill bids : ) one of us will have to wait?? for another to appear..and hopefully now that the other dude has his,with any luck I can get mine a whole lot cheaper..

An easy (and profitable) way for Ebay to end those kind of shenanigans would be to charge a nominal listing fee that would be a certain % of a seller's asking price regardless of whether the item actually sold. That might very well put an end to sellers fishing for suckers.

;)

That is a really nice and clean Mays. Great piece!

ebay
 

Wow, hard to believe the Mays tax stamp 60s bottle cap...Only 1 ever seen ..EVER ??

Haha that's actually my response when people message me saying "one just sold for X"..."aw man you should've bought it!"

Seems logical that a potential buyer would reference recent sales.

If there's one outlier that's much lower than ten other recent sales that they're just cherry picking, then as a seller I would probably not be convinced to lower my price. If the recent sale they are referencing is in line with others, then it makes more sense and maybe my price is too high.

If we want to talk about pricing, then let’s talk about pricing.

Since it was raised earlier in the thread, let’s use the Maz as an example.

See pic below for the piece in question.

Most (not all) of the stuff that I’m selling is rare. In some cases it’s just hard to find in any grade. In other cases, it’s rare for the grade. That makes pricing a lot more exciting, because often there are no comps.

In this case, this piece is rare for the grade. It’s a 1 of 1 at this grade. You can definitely find them ungraded, and probably at lower grades. This grade would be tough to pull from an ungraded copy. If it was easy to get from a raw piece, there would be more that are graded at this level.

So the big question then is how do you price it? As we all know, the tippy top of the grading scale usually commands a decent premium. I know that’s heresy to a lot of people around here that a PSA 10 that is 1 of 1 should sell for a big multiple of a PSA 9. But that’s often the way it shakes out.

It’s true that you can get a raw piece like this for relatively little. Maybe $20 or $50 at the most. Most of them will have condition issues, and are very unlikely to grade at PSA 8.

So how do you price it? In this case, there are no comps that really tell you what it should be. It’s whatever I can agree on when I find a motivated buyer who really wants it. It could sit for years (already has), and I’m fine with that. I’m asking $700, but I’m flexible if someone wants to make me an offer. But I’m not giving it away.

But anyone else who thinks they know what this should be worth is just guessing, or really wants to buy it, but also really really wants to pay less than I’m asking.

Perhaps it was a Mays bottle cap that gets uncovered in the beginning of Alien v Predator

Dont' jinx yourself Ben :)

I have sold my share of insanely rare cards. I have learned over the years what the market will pay but for the most part I just put an insanely high price on them. For example I just bought a card that there are at the most 5-7 known copies in the hobby. The normal final corrected version sells for $1 and I will ask $1500 for the variation I have and take the first $1050-$1200 I am offered.

I don't know much about grading rarities but would guess from what I have seen they get an even more insane asking price. On the very few times I have had silly rare stuff graded I basically double my asking price.

One of the biggest things I have noticed with silly rare stuff is you need to know your audience and not be in a hurry to sell.

Recent experience on one of my cards: I posted a Bo Jackson RC for sale below market ($10). I got this PM from a bottom-feeder:

"Howdy! I’d be a buyer at $7. Thanks for considering"

My reply:

"Yes, but I am not a seller at $7."

I thought it was pretty funny. The bottom-feeder did not:

"Rude response. You need to learn common courtesy and communication skills."

My reply:

"Yes, I suppose that is true, but it does not change the fact that your offer was ridiculously low. I know that because while you were busy being offended, someone else bought the card. Your loss..."

This. I prefer actual rarity to condition rarity every day of the week and twice on Saturdays because when I decide to offer one up, the price is the price and if you don't want to pay it

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...well_bye_2.jpg

I’m definitely with you there. I have plenty of stuff for sale that is also just plain rare in any condition, and I’m asking for the moon for it.

Such as this beauty below. I know what I bought it for, but then it was raw and in an auction. Hard to say what it’s worth now, but I know what I’m asking.

I'd be a buyer at $7...

HA.

I’m usually a little more diplomatic when I get lowball offers sent via message. Typically my response is:

Thank you for your interest in my item, and for this generous offer. I am currently looking to sell for more than your offer, but perhaps if it doesn’t sell in the future, I will be willing to be more flexible.

ebay
 

Wow, asking for a 3 buck discount on a 10 dollar card is ridiculously low ?

If I'm selling a card below market, and the list price is only $10, I'll wait until a buyer pays the full (and very fair) asking price.

I'd rather not get into "negotiations" with someone in this case. It's just not worth it for a $10 card.

Facebook Marketplace has its share of knuckleheads too. Recently, I bought an item at Goodwill for $25. I listed it on marketplace for $75. I got a message from a guy telling me that he could buy the item new at Staples for $82 so he would offer me $25 for my item. I declined and the next weekend sold it for the $75 asking price.

I guess you're lucky you found someone who doesn't shop at Staples. Depends what the item is, but I doubt I would pay $7 less for something used than what I could get it for new.

So the knucklehead was the person that paid $75.00.