What happened to people making offers and asking questions on ebay?

[jpittman765]

My experience selling on eBay has been different than many of the above-described situations. First, I am a relatively new, small seller, so that may be a partial reason for my situation. In the last 12 months, I have sold only 240 cards, most priced between $100-$250. Primarily I sell graded vintage cards from 1909-1955. It is a hobby for me and I enjoy the interactions with other people. My customers have been polite, interesting hobbyists. I enjoy researching my cards presale, and I enjoy answering questions. I have met some fascinating people with great backstories. I sell only with fixed prices; my prices are generally around or slightly above what comparable cards have yielded on eBay sales, looking back over the last 1-2 years. Yes, eBay fees are high, but there is flexibility in their pricing, and I rarely lose money on any card I sell. So, I have fun. And, by the way, where can you find better people, and better advice, than here on net54. I have learned the hobby by going to school here, listening to the experts.


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[Svabinsky78]

Were you by any chance the one with the 65 Palmer team issue? I saw that the listing was converted from BIN to an auction.

Definitely interested in that one. The price was just a tad too steep for me, even now the lowered auction price. Great issue nonetheless.

I definitely make offers on listings that i am interested in that have the BO option and the asking price is somewhat in my ballpark. On the whole, I have had success, and I do not low ball. I will throw out an offer that is 10-15% off the asking price. If the listing price is way over comps, I will generally refrain from making an offer (I do not want to insult the seller).

With oddball cards/issues, older pre-war cards, my sense is that there just isn't as much interest (could be due to a lack of knowledge about the player and/or issue), unless you are talking about the super stars (Aaron, Mays, Mantle, Gehrig, Foxx, etc.) and the asking price is competitive.

Just as an example, there is a lovely 1947 Cleveland Indians Photo Pack listed on Ebay for $249. It's missing the Doby but it has the Lemon "rookie," along with Feller, Boudreau, Gordon. It looks to be in pretty decent shape, mid-grade. I have been watching it for about a month. When you check the sales for the 1949 Bowman Lemon "rookie," there have been plenty of sales in May, and even a number of sales in June. But the 47 pack is just sitting, and it has an issue of Lemon that predates the Bowman by two years. Could be that your average collector does not realize that that is a Lemon "rookie," or they just don't care for oddball issues.

There was a 1940 Red Sox Photo Pack Ted Williams in an SGC 2.5 that was just sitting and sitting (it finally appears to have sold), and the asking price was not bad (I think it had a BO). During the time that this Ted sat, there were plenty of the 1940 PBs that sold....and we are talking about Ted Williams, one of the greats, and the photo pack is more scarce than the PB.

I think if you deal in more oddball, unique, scarce items, they are more likely to sit and not garner as much interest unless, again, they are cards/issues of the hobby darlings, priced competitively. And, sometimes even with the greats (Ted above), they will sit and sit because folks either do not know enough about the particular issue or only collect Topps/mainstream sets.

[Lucas00]

Originally Posted by Svabinsky78

Were you by any chance the one with the 65 Palmer team issue? I saw that the listing was converted from BIN to an auction.

Definitely interested in that one. The price was just a tad too steep for me, even now the lowered auction price. Great issue nonetheless.

I definitely make offers on listings that i am interested in that have the BO option and the asking price is somewhat in my ballpark. On the whole, I have had success, and I do not low ball. I will throw out an offer that is 10-15% off the asking price. If the listing price is way over comps, I will generally refrain from making an offer (I do not want to insult the seller).

With oddball cards/issues, older pre-war cards, my sense is that there just isn't as much interest (could be due to a lack of knowledge about the player and/or issue), unless you are talking about the super stars (Aaron, Mays, Mantle, Gehrig, Foxx, etc.) and the asking price is competitive.

Just as an example, there is a lovely 1947 Cleveland Indians Photo Pack listed on Ebay for $249. It's missing the Doby but it has the Lemon "rookie," along with Feller, Boudreau, Gordon. It looks to be in pretty decent shape, mid-grade. I have been watching it for about a month. When you check the sales for the 1949 Bowman Lemon "rookie," there have been plenty of sales in May, and even a number of sales in June. But the 47 pack is just sitting, and it has an issue of Lemon that predates the Bowman by two years. Could be that your average collector does not realize that that is a Lemon "rookie," or they just don't care for oddball issues.

There was a 1940 Red Sox Photo Pack Ted Williams in an SGC 2.5 that was just sitting and sitting (it finally appears to have sold), and the asking price was not bad (I think it had a BO). During the time that this Ted sat, there were plenty of the 1940 PBs that sold....and we are talking about Ted Williams, one of the greats, and the photo pack is more scarce than the PB.

I think if you deal in more oddball, unique, scarce items, they are more likely to sit and not garner as much interest unless, again, they are cards/issues of the hobby darlings, priced competitively. And, sometimes even with the greats (Ted above), they will sit and sit because folks either do not know enough about the particular issue or only collect Topps/mainstream sets.

Yes that is mine. And you are definitely right. The crowd isn't huge for most odd releases, to me that's still hard to imagine. I personally am bored by standard cards, especially at card shows. Every table looks the exact same to me. Kudos to tables that make you stop and look closely at every little thing, you guys are doing a huge service to many. I think I can walk around the national and look at most tables for about 3 seconds before I know if I want to even stop or not. And 80% of the time it's the latter. Even at vintage tables. Most people can spend days looking around, I feel like I can see everything that would interest me in around 3 or 4 hours.

By the way, if you are seriously interested in the '65 team issues you can pm me. Obviously I can do better for n54 members directly 😀.

[Snapolit1]

Reminder to bidders:

If something is posted at $4950, and you really like it, $250 or $300 is probably not a constructive open offer.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Reminder to bidders:

If something is posted at $4950, and you really like it, $250 or $300 is probably not a constructive open offer.

Reminder to sellers:

Don't forget to set your minimum dollar thresholds for offers so you don't have to deal with annoying lowballers.

I refuse to use the OBO option. Buyers can either pay my price or pass my listings by. Even with verbiage in the description that specifically asks people not to send lower offers via messages, I still get them. It's a combination of people not reading the descriptions, eBay blocking most of the descriptions on the mobile version (unless the viewer goes out of their way to click on it), and customers who just don't care and still try to get something for less. That's understandable, but not what I'm looking to deal with. I try to provide very personable customer service, but have tired of replying to "Will you take less?" queries when I've sepcifically said I won't in each listing. So, unfortunately, I have stopped even answering such messages, as I already answered before they even asked.

Also, many years ago, I tried that experiment that the one poster wanted to utilize. I set everything to auction with opening bids close to my BIN price. It was a complete waste of time, and really, rightly so. Auctions are a game. To succeed, you have to play by auction rules: ridiculously low opening bids are key. From there, you have two choices: stay honest and let the cards fall where they may, or shill away. I don't like either option, so auctions aren't for me. The bigger the seller, the better odds of success with the first option (and second option, lol). You may as well consign your material to one of the big guys if you want the best results via auction-style listings.

[ricktmd]

There are buyers on ebay that only look at auctions and some that only look at BIN's. That is fact. I take OBO because it works sometimes. Of course the ridiculous offers are something you just delete. I usually try both options if something isn't selling. I do agree that big sellers auction and either allow or wink at consignor shill bidding or just sell for whatever. Not a great option for me as a seller. Better as a buyer

I salute the poster or anyone who can buy from an auction house, pay 20%, plus freight and tax then flip it on ebay and make a profit. If you are clever enough to buy desirable items at auction that are popular on eBay, are able to pay 30% to the AH then overcome ebays 15% that's great. There is also the time it takes to list and ship the items. Even if I buy an auction lot and get a good deal say 100.00 per card and pay 130.00 delivered and sell on ebay for 50.00 additional 180.00 ebay takes 25.00 of the 180.00 and you are left with 155.00 for your 130.00 purchase. And that's if you guess/buy right. If you are selling your own items purchased years ago that's a different story.

Fortunately, most Sportscard deals go smoothly. If you sell other stuff and have to risk returns and pay shipping both ways ebay becomes a questionable business decision. A 75.00 item that cost 20.00 to ship can cost you 40.00 out of pocket. With ebays 30 day no risk policy (plus 3 weeks to ship it back) someone can test or take your item out on consignment, send it back poorly packaged/damaged and take nearly 2 months with it. Ebay is all about the buyers and when that happens to sellers ebay takes no hit

[Vintagedeputy]

I just started selling on eBay again after a many year gap. So far, I’m not impressed.

[Vintagedeputy]

I have a bunch of auctions up now. Random stuff. One item was priced at BIN $49.99 or best offer. Guy offered me $40 and I took it. He’s happy and I’m happy. My value may not be your value. We may be way off or within inches of each other. Some of my prices are simply guesses. If I didn’t take offers, I’d never know what buyers may be thinking.

[KJA]

I usually only pay attention to BIN if it has Best Offer listed or I will just watch BIN items and wait to see if I get an offer, gotten some decent deals just waiting. I would rather do that than auctions since I'm not that great at those last second bids.

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Reminder to sellers:

Don't forget to set your minimum dollar thresholds for offers so you don't have to deal with annoying lowballers.

I refuse to use the OBO option. Buyers can either pay my price or pass my listings by. Even with verbiage in the description that specifically asks people not to send lower offers via messages, I still get them. It's a combination of people not reading the descriptions, eBay blocking most of the descriptions on the mobile version (unless the viewer goes out of their way to click on it), and customers who just don't care and still try to get something for less. That's understandable, but not what I'm looking to deal with. I try to provide very personable customer service, but have tired of replying to "Will you take less?" queries when I've sepcifically said I won't in each listing. So, unfortunately, I have stopped even answering such messages, as I already answered before they even asked.

Also, many years ago, I tried that experiment that the one poster wanted to utilize. I set everything to auction with opening bids close to my BIN price. It was a complete waste of time, and really, rightly so. Auctions are a game. To succeed, you have to play by auction rules: ridiculously low opening bids are key. From there, you have two choices: stay honest and let the cards fall where they may, or shill away. I don't like either option, so auctions aren't for me. The bigger the seller, the better odds of success with the first option (and second option, lol). You may as well consign your material to one of the big guys if you want the best results via auction-style listings.

I did this recently. Ridiculously low openers (99 cents). Ended up giving the cards away. Granted, these were non sports cards, but still.....