eBay Question - Looking for Perspectives

[Powerforward]

I find when I sell on Ebay with BIN/BO you always get a bunch of low ball offers just like trying to sell anywhere else. Just ignore them and move on.

Exactly. When an auction includes Best Offer it invites the "Garage Sale" attitude on the buyer's part.

[Fred Bear]

Thanks for the replies and different thoughts. It is appreciated.

Don't get me wrong, I also list BIN/OBO at above auction prices. My goal, just like yours is to find someone willing to pay at or above the most recent auction price. Similarly, I get people placing offers that are below the most recent completed auction. I don't sell to those guys (ha, guys like me!). Those guys aren't my goal and unless they are buying multiple pieces, I just decline and say "Thank you for your offer, but I am not willing to sell at that price". No sense going back and forth and dealing with offers that will waste both of our times. If they are my target customer. The ones who just missed out on that last bid or have been looking for that card for a while that they are willing to pay for it, I'll get another offer that helps set a better tone for getting what I want. If they aren't serious, then they are gone, I haven't wasted my time and I've been polite to boot. Of course, that means that my card has to wait and wait and wait for a new buyer and stays in my trade box. I prefer to trade and deal on forums like SCF, so its no big loss for me. I offer discounts for sales on SCF and my eBay prices are inflated for a reason. Not only because I want the most money for my eBay sale, but because I have eBay fees, eBay hassle, and eBay chargebacks. If I have a card on SCF listed for 20$ firm based off recent eBay sales, my minimum price on eBay is at least +20-30% higher. Me listing a BIN/OBO of about 35$ wouldn't be out of the question for that same card. I want someone to offer me 25$ or more to make it worth my while to sell on eBay. Sure, I'll get offers of 20$ on eBay, because that's what the recent auctions are selling at. I don't care. eBay is a headache more often than not and I'm willing to wait on my cards for the value I want. Or, they can come to SCF and pay me my 20$. Even better.

This post really sums up the way I tend to think about it. I get what a lot of others were saying about the seller asking what he wants and the buyer asking what he wants and that's why I try to bite my tongue and reply to all the offers I get. Even if I decline, I tend to include a note of explanation. I tend to agree with several that eBay has really gotten much worse as of late. It's hard to distinguish if its the format or the hobby, in general. It seems like folks get disgruntled and take it out on eBay...

[sedinfan]

Interesting thread, I always like reading about the psychology and reasons behind both buyers bidding practices and sellers listing practices. My 2 cents...

To the original poster's question, "Are buyers put-off by honest answers?" - I would say if they are reasonable people, then no. I'm personally happy not beating around the bush, if a seller in their counter-offer says "thanks for your interest, I realize card X has sold for price Y, but that's not a price I'm comfortable with, and will keep this card unless I can get price Z which is my best and final offer", if it's even close to a neighbourhood I'm comfortable with I'll likely accept, but if we're simply too far apart I'll pass - no hard feelings, everyone is free to have a minimum price they're willing to accept.

Like reoddai said, buyers (including myself) see recently completed auctions as setting the high-benchmark - there are so many different cards being produced especially since Panini got their license, that the number of people out there who "need" to have every single card of their PC player (or for set collectors every single card from a set) appear to be dwindling. Buyers assume that with each completed auction that's one less buyer who needs it, and typically that takes the buyer who was willing to pay the highest price out of the pool, so it's natural to assume that the remaining demand for a given card has dropped. Unless it's a very limited card (single-digit serial-numbered) I assume that another copy will surface at some point and with the previous guy already having bought his, it will most likely be available at the same price if not cheaper. That doesn't excuse rude or insulting offers from buyers who demand that a seller meet or beat a previous price though - if a seller wants more than a previous copy, all power to them if they can get it, I'll just move on and wait for the next copy to surface.

Buyers don't know until they make their first offer whether a seller is out-to-lunch or prepared to make a fair deal. I've made a fair deal with a seller who listed a card I needed at over 5x what I considered to be a reasonable price, I offered around half of what I wanted to pay, and we settled on a price that worked for both of us with a couple counters - as the seller explained later he was just using a really high BIN price to try to grab attention rather than actually expecting that amount. On the other hand, I've had cards where again the seller had a BIN price of over 5x the going rate, and I put in an offer above the going rate, but get quickly rejected without even a counter - only to have the seller eventually relist at 99 cent auction and then win the card for a price much less than my original offer.

To me, the key in BIN/BO listings is not the original asking price, or the buyer's first offer, but the first counter-offer from each side. Sellers are naturally going to start with a BIN above the going rate (hey, can never hurt to try, some desperate buyer who's been hunting for the card for a long time might just bite)... and buyers are naturally going to start below - for most of us it's hard-earned money, can't hurt to hope for a good deal from a motivated seller. Normally if a seller is asking X% above the going rate for a card, I'll put in an offer for X% below, and hope that we can meet in the middle - if the first counter-offers in each side quickly zero in on this range, then great, we'll usually make a deal and I won't even try to nickle-and-dime if the seller's first counter is in my ballpark. If it becomes clear that we're not even close after the first counters (like a seller starting at $100 on a card that typically goes for around $30, then coming down to $98 on their counter) then that's when it's time to just walk away... but never burn bridges - as I mentioned in my examples above, sometimes it just takes a month or two for one party to realize that they weren't going to get what they were hoping for, and you never want to be on the blocked bidder list that prevents you from getting a good deal down the road when the card becomes available.

Just my long-winded 2 cents.