High Risk Buyers

[KingPokemon]

@pierce

@chrispy

I think its because grading is super important with pokemon cards across the board whereas MGT retain prices if they’re solid playable cards from various sets. Only the Alpha/Beta super old shit really matters when it comes to condition in MGT. There’s a razor thin line with a card being worth what someone is paying and someone getting duped. If it’s not something he wants to deal with then he should just stick to selling sealed and find his pokemon niche.

This is a good point, with MTG which is Rudy’s core business the cards people buy are generally for play, the vast majority of buyers aren’t really anal about condition because they intend to play with the cards not grade them. The only time I’ve ever had problems with buyers when selling MTG are with the people Rudy described, it’s easier to not deal with them because the cards will sell anyway. The pictures issue only comes up with expensive cards which is understandable and I agree with, but Rudy is most likely talking about sub $100 modern playables.

Coming from MTG to Pokemon I’ve noticed it’s the reverse, people that want more pictures and fuss about condition are far more prevalent - probably because the majority of buyers want to grade raw cards so condition is extremely important, rather than play with them like with MTG. The downside of this is there’s a lot more returns on items because once in hand the buyer sees that it won’t get the grade they want, so they return it because eBay will always side with them. I don’t agree with the practice of ‘it doesn’t matter if I buy it because if it’s not a 10 candidate when I get it I’ll just return it’.

Not all sellers sell raw cards that will get 10s. They’ll go for the 10s themself. Top sellers don’t and low rated people are more likely to not have pack fresh cards.

[kaldoverde]

Personally, I have implemented two rules to avoid timewasting and they both worked like a charm. One of them was based on advice from other efour members and another based on Rudy’s video.

Rule 1: Never state the condition of a card in my listings, simply add high resolution pics and tell buyers to refer to them for condition.

Rule 2: Block any buyers who ask for aditional pictures or make demands regarding condition.

Regarding rule 1, condition is subjective and regardless of how good your pictures are, lots of people will read NM in a listing and expect Gem Mint cards, so by removing card condition from the description, I put the responsibility of assessing condition through pictures on the buyer.

On rule 2, it is not just about the seller becoming a potential problem, but also about effective time management. I usually have thousands of listings on ebay and photograph my raw cards in batches, which makes it worth my time. What isn’t worth my time though is going through my cards, finding the $5 card that may or may not be bought by that person, taking additional pictures and replying to the message. Should that person not buy it, my meager profit has already been eaten away by the time I spent complying with their request.

[KingPokemon]

@kaldoverde

Personally, I have implemented two rules to avoid timewasting and they both worked like a charm. One of them was based on advice from other efour members and another based on Rudy’s video.

Rule 1: Never state the condition of a card in my listings, simply add high resolution pics and tell buyers to refer to them for condition.

Rule 2: Block any buyers who ask for aditional pictures or make demands regarding condition.

Regarding rule 1, condition is subjective and regardless of how good your pictures are, lots of people will read NM in a listing and expect Gem Mint cards, so by removing card condition from the description, I put the responsibility of assessing condition through pictures on the buyer.

On rule 2, it is not just about the seller becoming a potential problem, but also about effective time management. I usually have thousands of listings on ebay and photograph my raw cards in batches, which makes it worth my time. What isn’t worth my time though is going through my cards, finding the $5 card that may or may not be bought by that person, taking additional pictures and replying to the message. Should that person not buy it, my meager profit has already been eaten away by the time I spent complying with their request.

Very interesting. There’s a lot to think about.

[acebren]

@kaldoverde

Rule 1: Never state the condition of a card in my listings, simply add high resolution pics and tell buyers to refer to them for condition.

100% agree, I’ve been doing this for years now

[pierce]

@kaldoverde

Rule 1: Never state the condition of a card in my listings, simply add high resolution pics and tell buyers to refer to them for condition.

This is the way to go & what I’ve always done in the past with no issues, I don’t like specifying condition because people’s perceptions are different.

[cosrob]

@kaldoverde

Never state the condition of a card in my listings, simply add high resolution pics and tell buyers to refer to them for condition.

When someone says this to me I instantly don’t purchase from the person, i find it quite rude.

There’s times where damage can only been seen at different angle (Masaki promos) and further pictures are required.

[acebren]

@cosrob

@kaldoverde

Never state the condition of a card in my listings, simply add high resolution pics and tell buyers to refer to them for condition.

When someone says this to me I instantly don’t purchase from the person, i find it quite rude.

There’s times where damage can only been seen at different angle (Masaki promos) and further pictures are required.

sounds like its having the desired effect

(any damage that can not be seen in the pictures should be documented in the description though)

[KingPokemon]

@acebren

@cosrob

When someone says this to me I instantly don’t purchase from the person, i find it quite rude.

There’s times where damage can only been seen at different angle (Masaki promos) and further pictures are required.

sounds like its having the desired effect

(any damage that can not be seen in the pictures should be documented in the description though)

Exactly. That is the type of buyer they are trying to avoid. Any severe damage that can’t be seen ofcourse must be described.

[cosrob]

@acebren

@cosrob

When someone says this to me I instantly don’t purchase from the person, i find it quite rude.

There’s times where damage can only been seen at different angle (Masaki promos) and further pictures are required.

sounds like its having the desired effect

(any damage that can not be seen in the pictures should be documented in the description though)

This assumes all sellers are as honest as most efour members, unfortunately this isn’t the case.

It comes down to the original seller post/advert, a detailed one with a description of the damage would be justified in referring to the pictures but one without is not.

Personally if it doesn’t specify if theres damage and I can’t tell from the pictures, i would ask. Plain and simple. I’m not going to take a risk because someone has blanket rule on no more photos.

If the post specifies the damage and it’s clear in the photos, i wouldn’t waste anyone’s time requesting further photos. So to say all people requesting further photos are time waster is not entirely fair (not that you said it but the vibe from the thread).

[acebren]

@cosrob

@acebren

sounds like its having the desired effect

(any damage that can not be seen in the pictures should be documented in the description though)

This assumes all sellers are as honest as most efour members, unfortunately this isn’t the case.

It comes down to the original seller post/advert, a detailed one with a description of the damage would be justified in referring to the pictures but one without is not.

Personally if it doesn’t specify if theres damage and I can’t tell from the pictures, i would ask. Plain and simple. I’m not going to take a risk because someone has blanket rule on no more photos.

If the post specifies the damage and it’s clear in the photos, i wouldn’t waste anyone’s time requesting further photos. So to say all people requesting further photos are time waster is not entirely fair (not that you said it but the vibe from the thread).

absolutely, there are a very small amount of people who ask for extra pictures/details and are not time wasters, I actually done a mini experiment earlier this year and started responding to requests for additional pictures/details and found that less than 1 in 10 of these requests resulted in a sale

[churlocker]

@cosrob

@acebren

sounds like its having the desired effect

(any damage that can not be seen in the pictures should be documented in the description though)

This assumes all sellers are as honest as most efour members, unfortunately this isn’t the case.

It comes down to the original seller post/advert, a detailed one with a description of the damage would be justified in referring to the pictures but one without is not.

Personally if it doesn’t specify if theres damage and I can’t tell from the pictures, i would ask. Plain and simple. I’m not going to take a risk because someone has blanket rule on no more photos.

If the post specifies the damage and it’s clear in the photos, i wouldn’t waste anyone’s time requesting further photos. So to say all people requesting further photos are time waster is not entirely fair (not that you said it but the vibe from the thread).

Argument from exception.

The number of buyers wasting time greatly outweighs the number of sellers attempting to strategically cover up damage.

Furthermore, if a card is outright damaged, you can file for en eBay return. In your example, the pictures don’t show the damage so it is not as described.

Side note:
I personally feel bad for people whose eBay stores are built around ungraded cards. I can’t imagine dealing with that. I rarely sell ungraded cards precisely because of the crap people put you through to make a sale. If you value your time at $40/hour, 15 minutes of photo taking and 15 minutes of correspondence to make the buyer feel comfortable is a $20 loss on the card. And that loss is incurred with people who are less likely to follow through with the purchase anyway.

The time and effort saved during the buying/selling process is an underrated perk of card grading.

[kaldoverde]

@cosrob

@kaldoverde

Never state the condition of a card in my listings, simply add high resolution pics and tell buyers to refer to them for condition.

When someone says this to me I instantly don’t purchase from the person, i find it quite rude.

There’s times where damage can only been seen at different angle (Masaki promos) and further pictures are required.

I think you misunderstood my point. I was referring to condition as in NM, Good, Excellent, etc. as those are usually based on subjective perspective, and not to description of damage.

And absolutely, I do know that not all people asking for more photos are trying to waste my time, but these rules allowed me to weed out 95% of undesired buyers, so I find it acceptable to lose a few legitimate buyers along the way.

[kaldoverde]

@churlocker

@cosrob

This assumes all sellers are as honest as most efour members, unfortunately this isn’t the case.

It comes down to the original seller post/advert, a detailed one with a description of the damage would be justified in referring to the pictures but one without is not.

Personally if it doesn’t specify if theres damage and I can’t tell from the pictures, i would ask. Plain and simple. I’m not going to take a risk because someone has blanket rule on no more photos.

If the post specifies the damage and it’s clear in the photos, i wouldn’t waste anyone’s time requesting further photos. So to say all people requesting further photos are time waster is not entirely fair (not that you said it but the vibe from the thread).

Argument from exception.

The number of buyers wasting time greatly outweighs the number of sellers attempting to strategically cover up damage.

Furthermore, if a card is outright damaged, you can file for en eBay return. In your example, the pictures don’t show the damage so it is not as described.

Side note:
I personally feel bad for people whose eBay stores are built around ungraded cards. I can’t imagine dealing with that. I rarely sell ungraded cards precisely because of the crap people put you through to make a sale. If you value your time at $40/hour, 15 minutes of photo taking and 15 minutes of correspondence to make the buyer feel comfortable is a $20 loss on the card. And that loss is incurred with people who are less likely to follow through with the purchase anyway.

The time and effort saved during the buying/selling process is an underrated perk of card grading.

Couldn’t agree more.

I used to sell ungraded cards only, but was naturally pushed into selling graded instead due to buyers who ask for photos from all angles of a £2 card that they will (supposedly) send to PSA.

To be honest, I am glad these people exist as otherwise I might still be working for pennies on the dollar just to add a few cards to my collection.

Also, the graded card community has a much more mature approach to collecting and purchasing. Obviously there are exceptions, but from my personal perspective, selling graded cards is much more hassle free.