How long before you admit you're wrong?

[Fred Bear]

Nobody wants to be wrong... At least I don't think so... But today I put in an offer on a card which was auto-declined. The offer was low, I won't deny it, but it was about double what I've paid for a couple others out of the same set and was easily higher than where a legitimate, un-shilled auction would end. Not to mention, I probably could've been talked up a bit since I'm impatient sometimes...

This seller has one of two cards currently listed (this particular card). The other is listed for 50% of his price, but doesn't utilize the best offer. My auto-declined offer was lower than the other listing because I was honestly looking for a deal to beat what was available.

I don't tend to question a seller's motives because I tend to decline a lot of offers as a seller. My reason's are simple... #1, I'm not a 'business' per-se, I'm a hobbyist. If my stuff doesn't sell right away, I'm not really out anything. My stuff is paid for, so if it sells, it just means it'll get replaced with 'different' stuff. #2, I'm still listing stuff. I offer, what I think is, reasonable combined shipping and I would rather wait and see if I can sell 2 cards for $10 plus shipping rather than give a random guy $1.50 off for a quick sale. There's more, but that's not my point today...

Here's why my question arises (and what I learned today - sorry, slow guy here)... There are two cards listed, today. If you are patient and wade through listing sorted by 'newly listed', you can tell how long a listing has been active - eBay doesn't update the original date when a listing rolls over...

Card A - $YY.YY with no best offer option has been listed for 6 months - the brunt of the current season. No counter, but not enough interest to bite at his price...

Card B - $XX.XX or Best Offer. $XX.XX is twice $YY.YY and all 3 offers have been declined. No counter again, so it's tough to know who else might be looking. The other two offers were made 3 months into the initial listing, though... 3 years ago!

I cannot imagine having a card listed continuously for 3 years without selling it... I'm not saying I'm perfect in my pricing, I'm not. Or that I would 'take anything' after 3 years... It just struck me as odd. [eBay also allows you to look at the revision history of a listing... this card has been put 'on sale' 13 times, but no revision to the actual BIN price!]

So what is your fish or cut bait timeline? How long before you admit your price, book price, whatever you are trying to use is WRONG???


[My answer probably falls in the 'months' category. Gives you time to hit a couple big shows and see what you can really move something for before you 'need' to revise your expectation. I regularly get the 50% offers within minutes of listing something on eBay, though...]

[way2manycardz]

I generally take almost any offer. I see it as if I am willing to part with a particular card it means I am not attached to it so I would rather use the money to get something I really want to hang on to.

[max91ess]

i take lower offers if i had low offers or none..and want some paypal, but always look for market value


Exemple i had tons of malkin card...they dropped value...i sold them lower...at market value...thats it..no biggy

[RGM81]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that this is either a north-of-7 or phoenix1588 listing. If that is indeed the case, they tend to not budge from their listing price. Neither is hurting to move inventory quickly, and they have no problem sitting on a card for 3 years or more.

[Fred Bear]

I generally take almost any offer. I see it as if I am willing to part with a particular card it means I am not attached to it so I would rather use the money to get something I really want to hang on to.

I completely understand what you are saying. If you want a card (that you own) less than the money you are offered, take the money. Simple enough.

The question is... how long does 'almost' last? If you won't take $X for Joe Anybody's Auto RC today because it's just below your acceptance of 'almost any offer', how long before you say... You know what, $X probably isn't a bad price for Joe Anybody's Auto RC?

i take lower offers if i had low offers or none..and want some paypal, but always look for market value

Exemple i had tons of malkin card...they dropped value...i sold them lower...at market value...thats it..no biggy

I agree completely. I use this as one of my reasons when I get the 'why do you even list items with BO?' question. The market changes. Sometimes I feel I have a card priced right and then they get traded, retire, injured, etc. and their popularity suffers. It's nice to be able to adapt to that without having to edit or re-list stuff. [I, admittedly, do not consider the off-season as a reason to devalue cards as a seller. As a buyer, I look forward to lower prices on hockey singles during the summer months. ]

Market pricing is also easier to define on current players (who have a 'market') and newer cards which have plenty of recent sales. I find it much more difficult on older cards (my original example) and lower print run stuff. The card I made an offer on has been listed for 3 years and is from the pre-lockout period! Is there a good way to define the 'market' on cards like this?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that this is either a north-of-7 or phoenix1588 listing. If that is indeed the case, they tend to not budge from their listing price. Neither is hurting to move inventory quickly, and they have no problem sitting on a card for 3 years or more.

Snap! The limb broke - it's not either one of those sellers and it's not memoriesonice either. As I said, I'm not looking to second guess any seller's motives with my original question. Heck, as a seller, I'm probably considered 'just as bad' as those guys by several buyers and my pricing is usually 30-50% of theirs. I've bought from all three and, as a buyer, if they have something I want in my collection, I pay or walk away... Sucks sometimes, but if I want it, I want it!

I'm looking more light-heartedly for opinions on how long folks last with their feet dug into the sand. "I want $X!" Well, it's three years, 13 failed eBay store 'sales', and 36 months of additional listing fees later, are you sure you really want to sell that card?

[thegenerel]

I had a similar experience. There is a patch card I have been eying, there are 2-3 listed at a time on ebay, but they sell for $40-50 tops. This guy wants $250 BIN or BO.

I offer 60, he counters with 125. I go to 75 (as this patch is much nicer than what else is listed), go asks for $110.

I am not paying twice the going price to get an extra color/break.

[TeamChevelle]

I will list a card and generally if it does not sell list it one more time before I drop the price. These cards are doing nothing for me sitting in a box, I need to move them. 3 years is someone waiting for the market to turn or a "green" collectctor to show up and squeal like a small school girl and hit the buy it now!

[Footnote75]

Weird, I was thinking exactly the same thing last night whilst having a browse for players in my PC, something I've not done for ages. I was finding cards that I found, I believe, years ago! Why on earth they don't drop the prices is beyond me.

I even put them on my watch list just to show that there is interest, in the hope they might get the message and go cheaper on the relist - of course, the one time this actually worked, I missed out on the card when the price came down...