Hi,
So I have noticed a lot of posts on social media start with "Selling part of my collection due to …[insert unexpected financial difficulty].
If you have noticed this, have you bought from them? Did you give a slightly higher offer because of that extra knowledge (pity tax) ?
I am not discounting that many of these may be genuine.
What is your thoughts, is this a selling tactic or people in the hobby generally overreaching?
I feel like it is guilt-tripping most of the time.
When I collected Discworld stamps, very rarely was something sold in this way, but the community is significantly smaller and more tight-knit. When someone passes away or is having a hard time, you know well before the post where they’re selling off pieces of their collection.
Because of this, I think I give people too much credit when I see these listings for people selling Pokemon, and psychologically yeah it would make me more inclined to pay a higher price.
That being said, I’ve never bought cards advertised this way, mostly because I buy 99% of my stuff from eBay.
Usually when you see a listing like this, it’s someone who doesn’t have much experience in selling and they think this is a good sales tactic. The implication is “I’m willing to sell my collection for less than it’s actually worth because I need some money right now - my loss is your gain!”
Personally, I don’t give a hoot about tactics like this and would say that I’m even less likely to buy from someone saying stuff like this because I wouldn’t trust them to do honest business. But I’m also the person who never gives a dime to people begging for money on the subway (both because I don’t trust them and because I don’t want to incentive people making my commute less pleasant). Instead, I give money to reputable charities who I can trust will do the right thing with the money and who won’t bother me during my commute.
Assume incompetence before malice.
People are just weird and overshare or include dumb stuff in sale posts all the time on social media.
This is valid.
Either way, it means it’s someone I don’t want to do business with if I don’t have to.
Doesn’t matter to me unless it’s a close friend and I’m actually aware of their financial situation.
Hanlon’s Razor is indeed correct quite often.
A few months ago I sold some of my higher end cards because I was buying a car. I think I included a sentence about it in some of my listings, but I didn’t expect any higher offers because of it - I did it because I didn’t want any of my friends to think that I was leaving the hobby, or that I was just flipping cards.
I would assume that the majority of sellers don’t put that much thought/effort into their descriptions. (Unless they are known to do so.)
Several years ago I made the mistake to mention the reason for selling to the potential buyer. He took advantage of the situation and negotiated harder than he would if he didn’t know. It’s unprofessional and not helpful.
This is a good point I hadn’t considered.
Thanks for the replies, good to see people from both sides’ inputs.
I’ll offer less to random people posting like that, if they genuinely need the money, they should be willing to take less money / sell quicker.
Do you pay extra for your items at the register when you see a business is having a closeout sale?