Hot Take:
ALL WOTC cards outside of base set will eventually plummet exception being shining charizard.
SELL NOW
@btoise, Did you like your own posts? 
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Nooo… that’s not possible is it?
If you are going to send someone an offer that’s not a “best offer” listing, make them an offer you are willing to pay so if they accept it you can move ahead. If anyone asks me “what’s the lowest I can take” I either don’t respond or tell them the listed price. I don’t need that kind of nonsense
Lol. “He should have taken your offer.”
A huge chunk of what is wrong with the hobby in a nutshell.
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I wouldn’t have even responded to the first message if offers were turned off.
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People lie all the time about what they would actually pay or accept. That is the nature of every negotiation.
I don’t see a problem with asking your price. I don’t have a problem with sellers choosing not to respond either. It’s up to them who they want to do business with. Just find a smaller seller that’s hungrier to make a sale and they’ll talk with you.
To the sellers, buyers specifically go to Ebay to get a “deal.” That is the core concept of eBay. Are you worried about souring the buyer base by turning away more and more buyers?
If they want a deal they can find a listing with a “best offer” to negotiate instead of only buy it now. The core concept of eBay is to provide a marketplace to sell and buy goods. Emphasis on SELL, which generates the company profits. It is not for buyers to get unnecessary over-the-top deals, which lower the sales price and thus the fees (profit) for eBay and PayPal. eBay has an incentive to keep buyers engaged with the platform, which includes having sellers offer goods at fair market value, and occasional brand sales(partnerships)/eBay bucks for buyers. There’s also revenue from listing fees (seller based), contracts (USPS, etc), and ads (buyer based). But it is not for special deals. Go to craigslist or an estate sale for that.
eBay does not have an issue with a soured buyer base. They have exceptionally buyer-friendly practices. And frankly, the USA domestic competition (Amazon somewhat, Facebook sales, Instagram sales (which belong to Facebook anyway), is not currently a major threat. Facebook is clearly ramping up their efforts to compete by now allowing in-platform payment. But it’s not explicitly designed as a *marketplace*, which eBay is. And there’s far less reputation and accountability (feedback scores). eBay can also have types of partnerships with brands which FB generally avoids due due to antitrust legislation. They will never have the full marketplace eBay does, because if they devoted advertising towards it, it could clearly be considered as stifling consumer choice if FB ads overrode individual ads. Of course, it’s Zuckerberg’s dream to do this anyway and overturn antitrust laws under the guise of free speech, taking one from Amazon’s playbook. But it’s going to take quite a bit for that to happen.
To get back on topic… The problem with non-stop messages is two-fold. One, I basically stopped listing items on eBay and only use Instagram or word of mouth, because even when I explicitly state in item descriptions not to message me for an offer and that the price is non-negotiable, I still get constant messages. I prefer push-notifications enabled in order to be alerted if something sells or an auction I’m watching is about to end. If you have hundreds – or heaven forbid thousands – of listings up, your phone will be literally buzzing all day. And your email will be completely cluttered, distracting from actual important messages.
Two, the kind of buyer who offers multiple times, who asks for ten pictures of your $70 PSA 8 card, is usually a newer buyer, with less feedback, less money, and likely younger. It is in pretty much everyone’s experience they are FAR more likely to return your item than someone who simply clicks buy it now and pays immediately. That means I have to pay for return shipping and deal with the return. It’s not worth the hassle and easier to simply ignore these messages, rude as it may appear to the buyer.
Sure, there are sellers who need to sell items ASAP and are happy to discount off fair value. And for Pokemon there are flippers who want to cash in on a trend. But an established seller has no need to sell immediately. If I have an item up for $200 and that’s the price I think is fair for it, I honestly don’t care if it sells tomorrow or a full year from now. So why should I waste my time when 90% of buyers will buy it now and provide zero stress, and 10% will annoy me?
I don’t mean any of this as an attack on the OP. I actually really appreciate him asking if this practice is annoying. Clearly, the consensus among e4 sellers is yes. I would have ignored OP’s first message. If he messaged again I would’ve blocked.
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Honestly, as someone who rarely sells and always puts on best offer, any message from a buyer is annoying.
As a buyer I respect my own feelings and only straight out buy an item or work through best offers.
Of course there’s nothing inherently wrong with messages, but I wanted to point out that different sellers will have different thresholds for what is annoying.
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I don’t sell often either and I must agree.
but…
@monogenom
A cool feature of making a “Best Offer” is that you can include a message to the seller. This is an under-utilized communication tool that can actually help close a deal better than you would think. I always include a “Thanks for considering my offer!” or something of the like in order to establish respect and make a personal connection. This is much more effective than just sending dollar amounts. Verbal negotiation along with an open offer on the table help the seller see the buyer is serious about the purchase.
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This is clearly coming from a pure buyer’s perspective. You’ll definitely get more deals this way, mainly because you’re playing a numbers game where you only need a small percentage of sellers to play ball with you.
From the buyer’s perspective, you need to play a numbers game as well and eliminate your hassle customers. The responses given are clear red flags.
People go to eBay to buy pokemon, because there’s no better option. You get better deals outside of eBay.
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As a seller I personally don’t mind being asked what my best price on an item is and being offered lower. Generally the longer I have an item listed the more negotiable I am on it, and so if a buyer makes me an offer below my “best price” I’ll usually reply with something along the lines of “I’d like to keep the listing up and field offers for a bit longer before I go below the price I quoted you, but I’ll keep your offer in mind and let you know if anything changes!”. I think it just depends on the seller. Of course if it’s a ridiculous lowball offer I just don’t respond at all.
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The “core concept of eBay” is not to “get a deal.” As a matter of fact, you’re more likely to get “deals” if you conduct business outside of eBay where sellers don’t have to worry about fees and buyers don’t have to pay the tax.
An eBay store is exactly that; it is a STORE. It is a way for sellers and businesses to operate without having to worry about paying the rent, employees, etc. that comes with owning a brick and mortar.
It is not a place for buyers to go and get a “deal.”
As far as the asking price? Once again, there was no best offer option, and the seller explicitly stated that $700 is the lowest they would go.
If a buyer asked me what was the lowest price I would go on an item without a BO and I responded and then they came in with an offer $50 lower than what I said? You bet your rear end I would turn them away, because, generally, they are the exact types of buyers that cause 90 percent of the problems on eBay.
Let me also be clear in saying that the OP genuinely seems to care, and they clearly did not know what they were doing was widely considered wrong, which was why they came here to ask the question. So, I am not trying to pile on the OP here.
But your post specifically represents a good deal of what is wrong about the Pokemon community as a whole. It is not all about YOU as the buyer, because you are essentially telling sellers that they should list items below market value because buyers want a deal. That is as self-serving as it gets, and it’s not going to win you many friends and/or business partners in this hobby.
No buyer is entitled to a “deal.”
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I respectfully disagree with most of what you said.
I would bet that if you ask most eBay users why they use eBay, you will get some variation of “they are looking for a deal.” That is part of the appeal of auctions.
I did NOT say that buyers are “entitled” to a deal. I said buyers want to “get” a deal which is the same as they are “looking” for a deal.
I have no problem with your business decision to turn away customers. That is your choice.
And thanks for instantly turning to a personal attack when you heard a contrary viewpoint.
Almost every prior post was from a sellers perspective. Nice to nice opposing views are appreciated.
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“Ebay is not about getting deals”
Tell that to the department who fills up my email with 15% off lawnmower coupons
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I don’t go to eBay with any expectation of finding a deal, I go there when I want something and am expecting to pay around market. eBay is generally the last avenue I’ll go to because it’s always the most expensive compared to my off eBay contacts. The main reason I’ll use eBay is usually convenience, definitely not because I think there are deals there that are worth looking for.
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I rarely see the message and when I do, it’s usually after I acted on the offer.
Blame it on bad message placement.
Lol, I would block you right away. It’s ok to negotiate, its not ok to low-ball. Its annoying af.
I am selling only now and then, but I only want an offer if I put “best offer” on.
Otherwise I don’t want questions or offers about the price.
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