First time posting on Sour Grapes, this happened a few months ago on eBay and i’ve been thinking about writing this for a bit.
I had a few PSA graded 1st edition base set cards up on eBay and they all had ‘Best Offer’ on them. This collector messaged me writing that he wants to collect a PSA 10 1st edition base set and told me which cards he wanted. We settled on a price that we both were happy with and left it there.
About a month later i get offers for 3 cards:
PSA 10 1st edition Arcanine
PSA 10 1st edition Charmeleon
PSA 10 1st edition Kadabra
All 3 offers were $100 AUD each and there was no way i was going to accept those offers! Didn’t realise who it was until the Kadabra when the buyer left a message in the terms.
“Mate i’ve made offers on 3 cards man i hope you can find it in your heart to help a fellow collector out. I purchased off you a few weeks ago”
Does this guy think because he has bought off me before, thinks what? We are mates now and? I shrugg off the low offers (that’s what i get for having Best Offer) but when i read the message and the Manipulative bullshit he had written, i was angry! I just declined his offers, replied “no” and took down all of my 1st edition base listings. I don’t think he is a shady guy, he paid straight away the 1st time, gave great feedback and was very nice. It’s just what he wrote with the offer, he knew he was making a lowball offer of $300 and then trying to guilt me into accepting his request?
I’m being a bit melodramatic about this, but i hate people who do this.
You can always set auto-decline at 75% of the price you are hoping to get out of the item you are selling. That way when you actually get an offer, you know it is close to what you’re asking for and can work something out with the potential buyer.
I have had this experience before, not something to get mad at even though I know it is a bit insulting to get an offer 1/3 of the market price. Just shrug it off and move on
Yeah, i set limits now and just ignore them now. This was pretty much when i realised if i let the lowballers get to me, i’m just going to be miserable.
felt a lot better after i started not letting it get to me, i don’t know why it took me so long. Ahh well
just need to be firm but polite my friend. When people do this with me i respond with the lowest offer i would take no matter who was buying and if they had bought from me before i might knock off £1-2 extra for small things and max like £10 for higher value items. dont be taken advantage of but also have good friendly service
If i have a BO on my listing, i will always give my lowest offer and state in the terms in the nicest way possible. I dunno, it just felt like he was trying to take advantage of my friendly service.
It’s good to write this down and read peoples thoughts on this. Thank you very much
Like @chok said, set a limit for the offer, that way you get two things out of the way, the decline process and when they run out of offers they can’t make anymore.
I feel your pain here! Like what many above mentioned just set a limit for your offers. I have had potential buyers get mad at me for not accepting their lowball offers XD
The ones that get mad at me for not accepting their offer don’t really bother me much (at least anymore), but this just felt like he was trying to manipulate me into selling my cards at the prices he wants cause he was a “fellow collector” and had bought off me before.
Unfortunately, that is just something you’ll have to accept if you want to continue selling / growing your eBay Business - don’t pay much attention to those requests. That may have been your first; however, it definitely won’t be your last odd-request! Haha Just accept that fact that a small-portion of eBay Buyer’s are CRAZY!
Gotta love the eBay Messages that go something like this:
Hey,
My girlfriend’s, sister’s, stepsister’s, father’s, brother’s, uncle’s, cousin’s, wife is in the hospital right now and I really cannot afford to pay your asking price of $100.00; any chance you could help a brother out and sell me this card for $2.39 with Free International Shipping? I’ll be sure to provide immediate payment and browse your eBay Store again!
May have exaggerated slightly there! Hahaha But Still, you get the point!
