Why are people afraid to make offers? Afraid they'd pay to much? or ??? Let me know what you think p
Smittys
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Whenever I say I open to offers I almost always get no response. However I make offers on tons of stuff all the time.
Why don't some people make offers, as in some most that I deal with?
You opinion please.
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I find the higher the initial ask, the less likely I am going to even bother making a fair offer.
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Exactly. I think people on this board are savvy buyers and don't want to negotiate when the starting point is too high.
That being said, I asked a seller if he had a better price that one listed. The response was closer to my target and we actually ended up doing a bigger deal since he had more of the same product.
I think you're right on. Buyers don't want to lead in with an offer because they are worried they might be paying more than your bottom dollar. Everyone has become much more cautious with stretching their collecting dollars and this is just one result.
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Bill
To most people, open to offers means "I will turn down your offer unless you offer me what I think it's worth", so why not just decide what you want and then call that your asking price? I believe the term commonly used is Buy It Now. Some mega conglomerate thought it up.
No offers = you are not being realistic with your pricing.
I have not priced it , them yet, so open to offers. If I priced it and no offers I could realize my price may be to high. But it happens more with stuff I have yet to price.
In that case, by not pricing the item yourself, maybe you are the one afraid to make an offer???
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LOL you may be right, I'm trying to learn the values on them.
Savvy buyers? I'd say more along the lines of "paying less than vcp". It no longer takes a savvy buyer to know the avergae sale price of some cards. On the rare stuff, I've found ebay buyers have paid more, yes even after fees, than the message board community.
I have found that a person asking $100 for a card gets sold fast than a person asking $150 for a card with best offer option or with no price at all, where they would accept $100. In fact, recently I have offered $175 for a card where the price was $260 obo and was turned down, only for that person to later sell the card for $150. Had they priced it at $175 to begin with, it would have sold.
Of course, that experience is for ebay, the buy/sell board here may be different
Yeah, the problem is that you haven't priced your stuff. No one wants to be both the buyer and the seller and try to guess the price.
I have floated offers several times on cards I really wanted where the BIN price was much higher than recent sales. Usually I offer MORE than the high gavel price, hoping to strike a compromise. One of three things happens. The offer is ignored, the seller counters with a slightly lower price but is still unrealistically high, or I am met with some sort of abusive/dismissive response. Not once has it resulted in a sale. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong.
I just ask the seller right off the bat what is the best price they can take. Sometimes they say "go ahead and make an offer" and so I pass.
As a seller I respond to this by asking what's the most you'll pay.
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Sellers price.
Buyers accept that price, make offers, or pass.
Sellers accept offers, counter, or decline.
If you haven't priced, you haven't started Step 1.
If you call your junk Long Lost Binders Of GOLD From The Dumpster, you'll probably get more views than if you just advertised Cards 4 Sale.
It depends on the venue. If you refer to ebay, I have found that BIN/BO almost always means they don't really want any offers. The higher the asking price above what may be considered a fair price, the more I just move along without any attempt at reason. They just want you to pay their full asking price. If someone prices the item very high with hopes of a sucker, but expectations of lower offers, this tactic has been ruined by many sellers who are obnoxious over offers of even as little as 10% off asking price or those sellers who reject offers without a counter on their end.
interesting note about COMC and their offer system. It would be nice to allow a comment. There have been times that I had a small amount of money left in my account and was trying to win something to close out my order and get it shipped. I am talking under $2 usually. Sellers might counter with a normally reasonable offer within range, but I just didn't have the money and it wasn't worth adding store credit. i feel bad offering $1.57 on a card that a seller wants $1.75 for and then have them counteroffer $1.60 and I just have to reject it. I can't tell them why and I probably look like a cheapskate over 2 cents, but what can you do?
I would agree with others though in that a seller needs to establish an asking price. If you are looking for offers to help you price your item, then you need to do some research on your own. If you have a truly unique item and don't know what to ask, then maybe you set up a reserve auction and see where it leads. You can always protect yourself with the reserve, but it will cost you something to know what people are willing to pay. I think it can be agreed that most buyers want the best deal they can find and most sellers want the most they can get for an item. The deal is USUALLY somewhere in the middle range.
I don't know for sure why people don't make offers, but I do even when the BIN/OB is very high. I will generally make offers around 75% - 90% of VCP. If they come back with something decent I will accept or counter if they are just a little higher than I'd like to go. If they barely budged, I decline right away and call it a day.
To avoid all this on the selling end I will just do auctions. One thing I've found out about people on eBay, they don't want to be told what to pay for something so they avoid BIN. I found this out while selling steady on eBay for the last year or so. Here is an example. About a year ago I put up 10 Nolan Ryan PSA 9 cards with $2.99 BIN's. One sells and the rest don't. The following month I put the 9 remaining cards up for .99 cent auctions. Only 1 out of the 9 cards sells for less than the $2.99 BIN that I had them up for the previous month. The other 8 cards sell for $4-$15 each. The shipping charges were the same for both BIN's and the auctions. So now I don't bother with the BIN and go straight to .99 cent auctions and I get better results. Just last month and this month I sold over 10 cards that sold for more than BIN's that were currently up during my auctions. Go figure.
Edited to add: Thinking about it even further, I think people bid higher in an auction than they would offer in a BIN/BO because they figure it must be a good price if someone else was willing to bid that much for an item, so they don't mind that they just got bumped up. If that makes sense.
Donato
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Is there some law that states a card shall sell for vcp? It is the seller's card. If the seller has a high asking price...so be it. If a buyer cannot make an offer because they are scared....then move on and don't complain about the seller as if the seller is not in compliance with a mythical vcp law. If the seller does not accept a buyer's offer... then the buyer needs to move on and don't rant about vcp this and vcp that. If a seller replies to an offer with abuse...well...then it is time to complain and rant.
If someone counters like this for $0.03 more, they are an idiot.
When offering a fair price, I hate being ignored and not even being countered. That tells me they really don't want to sell.
If you have a OBO listing and someone sends you an offer if you want to sell it either accept or counter. If you decline then you are missing a sales opportunity and should just take the listing down. Plain and simple. Even if 9/10 are wackos who are low balling there is always that one that could = a sale.
I have items listed like others that may be pop 1s with no prior sales so sure I'm going to aim high. But you know what respond politely and like an adult and who knows. Maybe I'm eyeing something else at that moment and you might just get an offer accepted or reasonably (to you) countered.
Any kind of response such as "I don't care what x sold for" or some other type of snark adds you to my do not buy from list. But I guess if your looking for the sucker you don't want to deal with someone who has common sense anyways.
I LOVE following listings that I've offered on, been replied to with snark and watch the item tick down below my offer. I will NEVER offer again. Am I cutting off my nose to spite my face? Perhaps but I won't give my money to a holes.
Kevin
Just speaking from an ebay setting: on my ebay store, a decent number of people don't even bother with an offer. Don't know why; it's not like I sell much stuff that's in crazy demand (I don't even have very many cards relative to the 'boring' stuff). It's all a great mystery.
I know for me, when I'm dealing with a fellow board member, I'm careful not to insult them with a lowball offer without knowing what they value their item(s). I'd rather know what their starting point is and working from there.
Ebay is a whole other story. That's fair game.
Exactly. VCP, while it is a great tool, is just one factor when it comes to the price. However buyers and seller treat it as the gospel.
i always offer what i am willing to pay
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No... no law that says a card shall sell for VCP. But VCP is a great tool that tells me weather there have been 10 sales of this card in one year and there is no point offering to someone who wants double or more what they have been selling for on a monthly basis or if only one has sold in the last 5 years, then like it or not if I want the card I must negotiate for it on the owners terms. Many times I've offered much more than VCP when an item is scarcer (based on my experience) than VCP prices would indicate.
Donato
Edited for grammar.
Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set
Successful transactions: Shrub68 (Jim), MWallace (Mike)
I always make offers on cards listed for ridiculously high BIN prices and have had some success. The seller is usually trying to get a dumb buyer to pay the high price, but will usually accept much less. If you have doubts about the transaction, pay with a credit card via PayPal and you will always get your money back.
They call me "Pack the Ripper"
I learned a lesson from my father-in-law way back when I first got married. We were looking for our first house and prices were more than we could afford for what we wanted. He said to "just make an offer that was in our price range even though it might appear to be low-balling......the worst than can happen is they say no". Got a few "no's" but then received a counter very close to what we offered and soon we moved in.
I make offers quite a bit and get a lot of "no's" but sometimes I get a counter close to what is my spending limit and I make the deal. I have even exchanged counters 2-3 times back and forth before making the deal. I collect high graded vintage baseball cards and normally BINS are unrealistic compared to recent sales based on VCP or recent eBay/auction house sales. I have come to the conclusion that many dealers who have eBay stores with high cost BIN listings are patient with no need to move inventory within any timeframe. I guess they hope that somebody will buy it who isn't well versed in card prices or simply wants the card and cost is no concern. One set I collect does not often have many cards available in PSA 9 on eBay or in major auction houses. The BINS on eBay are normally twice the price for the card compared what it would sell at auction. Many have been BINS for many years without any change in price. I have made offers slightly more than the most recent sales and let the seller know that but to no avail. However, not too long ago I made an offer on a $3000 BIN card and the counter offer was $10 less than the original BIN price. I responded politely, asking why even have "best offer" if that is all he was willing to move. I stated I was offering a fair price in good faith and I didn't feel they were. The seller responded with an offer fairly close to my original offer and the deal was made, So sometimes making an offer and discussing the price can result in success. I might add that I always stay within the eBay guidelines and I don't do off-eBay sales as a buyer or seller while an auction (not a BIN or BO) is in progress. I have contacted sellers and told them that if their item expires on eBay without a bid, I would pay a certain amount if they list it as a BIN.
My suggestion is to not back away from making offers. But be reasonable with your offer and be courteous. I always thank the seller for considering my offer and that I look forward to hearing from him/her. I believe that a seller can ask whatever he/she wants for a card and I as the buyer can pay whatever I am willing. It doesn't make either one of us is a bad person. Remember, as a buyer, the worst thing that can happen is the seller says "no" to your offer.
There are two type of ads on BST that I usually ignore, ones with no price listed and ones with high prices that get bumped every few days with no price adjustments.
James
I make offers on high BIN or best offers, most of the time it doesn't work out. One time that it did I went back and forth 4-5 times before finally reaching a deal for 14.25% of the BIN. Literally thousands less. SHound have played the lottery that day,
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Amen brother!
I think a lot of times bidders also hope that their snipes or proxy bids don't go to their maximums. I agree that buyers will go for auctions before BINs unless they are steals. Everyone wants a deal, but most of these buyers are willing to pay more in the heat of an auction feud. I have been guilty of tossing out extremely high snipe bids, hoping (even expecting) to pay much less. Occasionally, someone else tosses out a crazy high bid and I either lose or pay way more than I had hoped for.
Good for you on that one, but that person sounds odd. Why go through the dance and then cave anyway. People… curious creatures indeed.
Just watching now as an eBay auction (172498039400) for a Connor McDavid Young Guns PSA 10 is at $450 with a day yet to go. There are 6-8 other 10s currently in BIN or OBO that are below that price. The batch that sold at the last PWCC auction were all around $380. Shill? Perhaps or just just the auction mind set. 33 bids with 11 bidders.
Kevin
Kevin
Hey haters here you go....lol