This is a topic that has boggled my mind for years. In the first place, eBay built its empire on auctions, not flat sales. I have submitted offers for collectibles for one of two basic reasons. First is that the item has gone unsold month after month, which should tell the seller something about his item. The second is that the item is not realistically priced, and I’m trying to get it there. I have met both reasonable and unreasonable sellers this way. I deal with reasonable ones and jettison the others…Someone above mentioned negotiating a lower price and wondering why this happens with collectibles. That’s easy- nobody needs an extravagant collectible, nobody. Buyers also know that sellers often invest much less in an extravagant collectible than their selling price. As a buyer, there’s nothing wrong with testing the waters to see what a seller’s floor is- especially if the seller is cooperative and the floor actually matches the ongoing value of the item. Sellers who receive offers and don’t bother to acknowledge them are often hurting their own interest (with collectibles). After all, the potential buyer on the other side is at least intrigued enough to offer. For the truly unrealistic or rude seller, I usually default to daring them to take their item off eBay autopilot- month after month of not selling and keeping the same price despite this- and to actually auction the darn thing. The responses are often straight from The Chuckle Hut
. Trent King