eBay offer etiquette

[ASF123]

So, we all know that many eBay listings have cards at sky-high BIN prices "or best offer." My question is, how high does the list price have to be for you to not bother making an offer? If you think a reasonable price would be, say, 70% of the listed price, would you offer that? 50%?

What about if it's not a BIN price, but a high starting bid "or best offer"? How far above the opening bid would your price need to be to make an offer? Or would you offer less than the opening bid if you thought that was a fair price? Those listings confuse me.

[Kevin]

I have a dealer over worked w for years. Love the guy. He told me to take 15% off. The thing? I got charged the shipping which came out to the cost of the cards. Anyway. I’ll have to be more specific next time

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by ASF123

So, we all know that many eBay listings have cards at sky-high BIN prices "or best offer." My question is, how high does the list price have to be for you to not bother making an offer? If you think a reasonable price would be, say, 70% of the listed price, would you offer that? 50%?

What about if it's not a BIN price, but a high starting bid "or best offer"? How far above the opening bid would your price need to be to make an offer? Or would you offer less than the opening bid if you thought that was a fair price? Those listings confuse me.

To me, the sellers asking price is irrelevant, I offer what I think is a fair price. If its accepted, great. If not, I move on.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Jim65

To me, the sellers asking price is irrelevant, I offer what I think is a fair price. If its accepted, great. If not, I move on.

^This^ most of the time. I have been known to pay a little extra for something I really want.

I also regularly send offers to sellers without a best offer option. Sometimes it works like on a bat I got today and sometimes it doesn't.

Had one of those great guys recently. Has had a card so overpriced it has been on eBay for a year and is still overpriced. Sent them an offer I thought was more than fair so they doubled the BIN price.

[Casey2296]

Be fair to yourself and fair to the seller, learn what long tome overpricers with good cards will accept. Quote recent auction prices and make your case. Research the card and figure out what they paid for it and allow them a margin. Try to get them off eBay so you both can save $$. Establish a human relationship, overpay once in awhile and let the Seller know you're doing it for the relationship. Be willing to walk away short term on long time listings. Be the Trout (those who fish know this reference)

Always be respectful and require respect back.

[hcv123]

If I am interested and it has a BIN that I believe to be out of line, I make my offer and back it up with facts (recently sold comps for example). If I can't back it up with something, then I usually don't bother sending. Some guys don't care, others are willing to negotiate. In terms of offer amount - usually if it's that far out of line, I'll throw my best offer out off the bat and be willing to walk if it's not good enough. On something that's closer I will go below my best offer to leave room for the negotiation.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Quote recent auction prices and make your case.

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

[luciobar1980]

I usually offer what I would consider a "good deal" for me, and go from there.

[esehombre]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

My thoughts exactly--those types of responses come off to me at best arrogant. If you can find it at that price, go get it! They get ignored or blocked.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

I'm not talking about educating anybody or telling them what their item should sell for, I'm talking about supporting the reason for my offer, which is what OP's question was. You can set your price and refuse to budge, that's your prerogative. There are a lot of sellers that throw way above market prices out there for any number of reasons, arrogance, ego, greater fool, or just to show off their collection. Doesn't matter to me as a buyer. If we can come to terms we come to terms if not no harm no foul.

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

I hate the "I'll offer you $100 because there are 3 others on Ebay at that price"
Really? Why waste time haggling with me then?

[UKCardGuy]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

One of the 'fine print' terms in my listings:

" I am well aware of what the market is for most anything I sell; trying to "educate" me on pricing is not a negotiation tool, it is just being a tool. And will be mocked mercilessly on hobby chat boards."

I don't need someone telling me what my item should sell for. It presumes that I am interested in selling it at some other price. Quite often, that is not the case.

While I understand where you're coming from...like others, I would prefer to explain the logic of how I came up with a price in my offer. That's especially true if my offer is a lot lower than the asking price. Not trying to "educate" anyone....just explaining my logic as the basis for a negotiation.

Sometimes this goes down well...other times I'm met with a rude response - which really isn't necessary.

I've seen so many cases of a seller flipping an item that they just bought in another auction. If they're adding 10-15%, I get it. But more often than not they stick a BIN at double the price. I mean, really? an auction just finished and determined the value was X and then seller decides to chance his luck at twice that.

Fair enough if that's what they want to do...but there's no reason to be nasty about it.

[Gorditadogg]

I have had offers accepted at 50% of the BIN price. Lower than that I've had no luck.

I saw a new listing for a 2005 Topps Big Game /33 Jay-Z yesterday. I have 2 of the 33 already, bought one for $20, another for $40. Seller has it listed for $3,800 obo. I offered $50 and he flat declined! Didn't even counter.

I don't know what to think about someone who puts up a $50-100 card for $3,800. On the one hand you can do what you want, it's America. On the other hand, some of the stuff people do is really annoying.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[Exhibitman]

So, follow up on my previous post about the bottom feeders. I had a hot card listed on eBay for sale and someone PMd me to offer me 6% above the opening bid to end the auction early. I said no: I wanted to see where the card would go, but I did add a Best Offer to the listing. It did not sell. I relisted. The guy then offered me my opening price for it when the listing renewed, which was fine, so I added a Best Offer to the listing for him so he could make the offer formally and buy it. My mistake for feeding the troll. Next think I know, he reneges on the offer to buy the card and offers me 5% less than the price he offered the day before. Well I could see where this was going so I pulled the card and relisted it with the following in 24 pt red print:

OK, I am only going to say this once: I've gotten a lot of tire-kickers on this card the two times I've listed it and I've revised the prior listings twice to allow people to make offers that they have then reneged on, which really chaps my hide. So, I've decided to relist the card again and make everything clear to everyone right up front by answering the main questions I have gotten before you ask them again:

--No, I am not interested in any offers below the asking price. Please do not PM me asking for my "best price" or asking for a discount: the answer is "no". I am not interested. If you like the card and think the price is fair then buy it; if you don't like it or think the price is unfair then move along, Shleprock.

--I don't care if you think the card is overgraded, undergraded, or graded just right, Goldilocks. Opinions are like...you know the rest.

--No, I am not going to render a grading opinion on the card for you. I paid CSG to do that and I am not going to substitute my judgment for theirs. If you are grown up enough to buy an expensive card, Richie Rich, then put on the big boy pants and make your own assessment based on the scans I provided. If that does not appeal to you, just move along to the next card.

--No, I do not know what PSA or Beckett will grade it. If you want a PSA or Beckett graded card, then BUY ONE OF THOSE, Scooby Doo.

The card sold in under three hours and not to him. Of course, he emails to ask me what happened to the card, I tell him it sold for more than he offered. Sometimes you gotta lose a card to learn not to be too sharp about your dealings. And I am blocking his ass from my sales. I try to avoid dishonest, manipulative people: life is too short to deal with jackholes.

[mrmopar]

I offer what I think is fair and/or reasonable. Don't care what the seller thinks of the offer unless it is accepted.

Most are rejected or auto rejected when they are listed too high in my opinion, but sometimes people accept. I've gone under 50% a number of times when I felt the ask was exceptionally high. Have even had at least 1-2 accepted. Can't win if you don't try.

[mybestbretts]

I quit "make an offer" on ebay because I got really low offers, like $10 on a $50 dollar card. I price my cards fairly and have no make an offers. I still get emails with offers and if its reasonable I will take it, but again most times its not, so I think them for the offer but tell them I'm not taking offers at this time

The best one is the person that tells me that PSA shows the value of the card as >>>>> PSA should take down the auction values down it is so far behind the market.

Another is when you get a message questioning the price you have placed on a card. I explain to them why based on being only 1 of 2 graded PSA 10, etc.
I usually get a think you.

[jchcollins]

Interesting conversation. On the whole, I hate selling cards - but looking back at my history over the past two years, I've actually done quite a lot of it given the boom, my ability to make profit, and then to turn that profit into more / different cardboard that I still want / "need" for my various collecting endeavors.

I quit selling on eBay probably sometime in early 2019. The numerous hassles there just got quickly outweighed by other venues to sell which had none of the same problems. On eBay you have to deal with their fees; elsewhere such as FB groups and the BST here (an option I will admit I forget about way too often...) you of course don't. eBay also especially in recent years is notorious for standing behind buyers no matter what on disputes and problems, and rarely backing up the seller. The "DND" Deal No Deal format groups on Facebook got a hold of me about a year ago, and I made some strong sales there. The format has its downsides though, and lowball bidders exist there in droves just as they do on eBay. No, I will not take $150 delivered for my EX-MT+ and nicely centered Reggie Jackson RC; thank you for playing. "We don't do eBay prices here, buddy" I was once told by a lowball surfer who apparently expected me to gift a HOF RC to him. Amusing, as my LCS dealer has been known to quip that he "cannot compete" with eBay prices. I guess every type of collector has a perception. But I digress.

As to the offer format on eBay, when I sold there regularly I would set a floor, below which the platform would auto reject offers. When making offers myself, my policy was to offer in combination what I thought was fair with what I could pay, and not to get offended when I was rejected. eBay really pushes the Offer format now; it's a default. So if you don't turn it off, it will be on, and sometimes if your item has not sold for a few days or a week, they will turn it on FOR you without your permission, which to me was super annoying and another reason I grew to hate selling on eBay. The point however is that some sellers who rush through listings don't even KNOW they have offers enabled, and are therefore offended when you send them what they perceive as a lowball offer, even though it may be 85% of their asking price.

The Offer format for buyers can be great if you are patient and don't get offended. Before the real start of the boom, I made what was admittedly a lowball offer for a PSA 8 '65 Topps Richie Allen rookie cup card. The card is a short print in the semi-high number series. To my utter surprise, the seller accepted. He had had the card out there forever, and it was overpriced to begin with, so my assumption was that he was frustrated and washing his hands of it. So that was cool, and then maybe 18 months later I sold the card at close to $200 profit after everyone had been stuck at home in pandemic mode for months and were pouring cash without regard into nice vintage like that.

Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. At least I'm mostly past my old habit of busting slabbed cards that I was considering PC for life, only to change my mind and sell later at a loss - of course because they were no longer graded.