eBay offer etiquette

[hcv123]

Originally Posted by ClementeFanOh

The different perspectives between the commenters who sell a lot on ebay,
and those who buy, is profound. I am a 21+ year ebay member (perfect
feedback, almost all as a buyer) who has tired of ebay and most often won't
buy there anymore. A few observations/ pointers from my experience:

1) There is nothing wrong with contacting a person with a card and
making an offer that reflects fair market value, especially when there's a
Make Offer option. I typically don't inundate the seller with sales data unless
they open the door with their own commentary ( "It's a fair price"..."I see
great potential for this card increasing value"... or my personal favorite "I
paid too much for this card and can't go lower"). Sellers who insist that their
$200 card is magically worth $400, despite overwhelming evidence to the
contrary, deserve at least a "scared straight" tour of card collecting hell

2) Someone was throwing around the term "tool" in reference to buyers.
Here are some indicators from a buyer's view, that the seller may be a
"tool":

a) endlessly cycling the same card at the same price for YEARS, without
changing the price (hint- your price is too high)

b) enabling Make an Offer, then automatically rejecting any offer made

c) behaving like ebay owns your cards, rather than you. The amount of
sellers who won't discuss sales outside of ebay- even after the auction
ENDS without a bid!- is astounding. Ebay is a clown show in most cases,
and the desire to transact on venues like net54 instead is a wise one. I
suppose the best way to say this is, 2 party sales are preferable to ones
involving a third party.

In the end, I think sellers would do well to recognize that potential
buyers are a wee bit important in this equation- especially when the seller
has been a buyer himself time and time again. There is nothing wrong
with wanting fair treatment from the seller when you are buying (ie,
accurate shipping costs, clear communication, and realistic price tags).
After all, it's what sellers expect when the shoe is on the other foot.

Trent King

I have done thousands of transactions on and off Ebay over 30 years as both buyer and seller. I think a really great point you brought up is the use of the "make an offer" option. If a seller uses that, they are inviting an offer. If they don't want an offer - pretty simple - don't use the option. At best I would send a note asking if there is any "room" in an asking price to the seller of a listing with no "make an offer" option.

As a seller, I usually use the "make an offer" option. I often receive offers that I see as ridiculously low and simply decline them. I've also started to use the "automatically decline offers below....." option.

One thing I have learned is the market is a very inefficient place - a single sale at a particular price is not always a good or fair indicator of "market value". For more regularly traded issues with multiple recent sales all in a similar price window - that is what I would call support for a particular price point and that too not without exception.