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Does it annoy you when people ask if you'll lower your BIN price?
doog71
Posts: 405 ✭✭
I hope it doesn't, because I do ask this a fair amount (courteously of course)!
I'd say 15-20% of the time a seller will lower the price if you aren't asking for a steep discount (I usually won't ask for more than 10-15% off asking price).
I know the whole idea is "This is my BIN price, if you want it lower then go to a listing that's an auction or has Best Offer" but I've found it's worth it over the years to ask.
I'd say 15-20% of the time a seller will lower the price if you aren't asking for a steep discount (I usually won't ask for more than 10-15% off asking price).
I know the whole idea is "This is my BIN price, if you want it lower then go to a listing that's an auction or has Best Offer" but I've found it's worth it over the years to ask.
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Never hurts to ask in most cases I would think. Depends on seller/buyer.
<< <i>Based on what I've read here, some sellers will actually RAISE their BIN if you ask them to lower it. >>
LOL
I live in CA, and had one seller (also in CA) who had a perfectly fair BIN...but I was gonna have to pay almost 10% in CA state tax. There were similar examples available with similar BINs but I preferred his slightly. Reached out and let him know that I'd gladly pay asking, but couldn't justify 10% higher. He repriced his listing so that the tax would sum to original asking and he let me know. I jumped and bought it, and it all took less than an hour.
Had another guy say yes, but off eBay, but still used PayPal invoice.
Some just don't reply and that's fine. I just feel it doesn't hurt to ask if it's in the ballpark, since it gives the seller first right of refusal, since in most cases I'm gonna buy that card, whether from them or someone else.
I've also had BOs reject 5% off their BINs, which is pretty frustrating.
I think it can depend on the specific item just as much as depending on the seller. I have some items where I have more room to work based on what I paid relative to sale value, and some where the purchase price plus grading is just barely below what the graded list price is. It doesn't hurt to ask, as long as you aren't going to get offended if they say no. If you get a no, just move along instead of starting a discussion about the reasoning behind it. If you get a yes, then sweet, you scored a discount.
When I get a request, I often respond by instead of saying yes or no, instead asking if they have a set on the registry that that item fits, then move on to contacting each other through the set registry list and work out a deal there that avoids ebay fees. I'm more likely to grant a request for a price reduction if I can sell it through the registry; less fees for seller = lower price for buyer. It works the same way when I'm buying too, where I will ask the seller if he has a set listed on the registry and go from there. That way it keeps all the discussion about off-ebay transactions out of your ebay message records.
<< <i>Based on what I've read here, some sellers will actually RAISE their BIN if you ask them to lower it. >>
I had a guy tell me that he liked a pack I was selling, but my price was just too high. I raised it $10 and wrote back that I corrected the problem. It sold a week later at the raised price. It was a very fulfilling $10.
<< <i>I have no problem with people asking nicely to lower my BIN price. That being said most of my cards are sold as BIN with a BO option. I only get upset when they offer obscenely low amounts as a BO relative to my BIN price as I feel my BIN prices are reasonable for the most part. I manage to avoid this usually by setting my listings up to automatically reject any offer less than about 60% of my BIN. Generally, if they aren't offering half of my BIN we won't be able to negotiate to a reasonable middle point. I do often propose making a deal off of eBay as miwlvrn said in his post. I have been pretty successful getting better prices as both a buyer and a seller by doing this. It doesn't hurt to ask. If they don't want to do it then you can move on or just BIN if you really want it. The likelihood of them raising their BIN is unlikely and if they do you can just walk away from the card. Off ebay deals works out to the buyer and seller's benefit as the buyer can get a better price and the seller can net more off of eBay. I will have to use the registry ploy as I haven't thought of doing that. Thanks for the idea miwlvrn. How do you usually phrase your proposal? >>
I recommend keeping as little content out of your ebay message system as possible. If I get a request for a lower BIN, I'll usually reply with something to the effect of "Thanks for writing about your interest in this Hank Aaron card (*player name selected at random for the sake of the anecdote). Do you have a set on the PSA player set registry?" And then often times they'll respond with something like "Yes, it is the #whatever set called some-random-name". Next I just contact them using the contact link on the PSA site and go from there for negotiations.
Before all that though, you should do a search in your old email for the ebay username who contacted you to confirm whether you've done prior business or not, since that way if you have then you already have their actual email address in your paypal records and then I would just do my first reply that way instead of going through the registry stuff.
<< <i>I hope it doesn't, because I do ask this a fair amount (courteously of course)!
I'd say 15-20% of the time a seller will lower the price if you aren't asking for a steep discount (I usually won't ask for more than 10-15% off asking price).
I know the whole idea is "This is my BIN price, if you want it lower then go to a listing that's an auction or has Best Offer" but I've found it's worth it over the years to ask. >>
I completely agree with you. A 10-15% discount request works about 15-20% of the time. I used to limit my discount to 10%, but have become more liberal as of late.
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Some people feel they're entitled to a discount no matter how the card is initially priced. It could be a hot card they know is priced below the current market at a very fair fixed BIN price, but they still feel it's necessary to beat the seller down for their required discount. After being offered a lower price, it forces the seller to look closely at how the card is priced. He'll look at recent sales and see the market has quickly shot up on the card and realize it's 10-20% below what it should now sell for. He then has every right to raise his price to the current level and thank the bargain seeker for the heads up.
<< <i>Based on what I've read here, some sellers will actually RAISE their BIN if you ask them to lower it.
Some people feel they're entitled to a discount no matter how the card is initially priced. It could be a hot card they know is priced below the current market at a very fair fixed BIN price, but they still feel it's necessary to beat the seller down for their required discount. After being offered a lower price, it forces the seller to look closely at how the card is priced. He'll look at recent sales and see the market has quickly shot up on the card and realize it's 10-20% below what it should now sell for. He then has every right to raise his price to the current level and thank the bargain seeker for the heads up. >>
I think that rarely happens. The price was too low, but yet the person asking about the price didn't just buy it at the low price and no one else did either?
Of course a seller can raise his prices whenever he wants, but he could also lose customers by doing so.
MIckey71
<< <i>I think EBAY doesn't allow about 95% of the messages to go through.....no matter what the content is. In my experience, if anything is asked asked about an off Ebay transaction- forget about it. They don't let you put Phone#'s...email addresses, anything with contact info. I actually rarely respond to off line offers; because there's no way to communicate and EBAY wants their cut. They have suspended people for this.
MIckey71 >>
If you've done business with the person offering in the past, you have their email address from the paypal transaction notification email. No problem using that address for future dealing.
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<< <i>I think EBAY doesn't allow about 95% of the messages to go through.....no matter what the content is. In my experience, if anything is asked asked about an off Ebay transaction- forget about it. They don't let you put Phone#'s...email addresses, anything with contact info. I actually rarely respond to off line offers; because there's no way to communicate and EBAY wants their cut. They have suspended people for this.
MIckey71 >>
It certainly has gotten more difficult but I can always find a different way to fit my email address or cell phone number into a reply.
<< <i>I don't mind offers, but I don't like it when someone starts off with "your price is too high" or "another one sold last night for $XX". >>
I have only had this happen to me once or twice that I can remember. I agree it is annoying to say the least. Just because someone else sold their card for too little doesn't mean I intend to. This actually just happened to me on a card I have for sale now. The funny thing is, the guy that was quoting the previous sale of the card he was trying to buy from me seemed genuinely upset I wasn't taking his offer. I wanted to tell him that I don't want to sell my card for 60% of my BIN price any more than you want to buy my card at 100% of my BIN price. We can both move on without being upset. It's just a card.