“What is the lowest price you will take” is NOT negotiating yet many people think it is. It doesn’t offend me personally it just makes me aware that I am dealing with someone who isn’t worth the time generally (won’t actually lead to a sale most times in my experience). I respond well to actual offers of a tangible amount on my listings. Think about it this way, by making the listing I’ve already thrown the first offer out there. Too may people take the advice of “never make the first offer in a negotiation” too strictly and incorrectly to begin with again given that a seller with a listing has already made the first offer. I have friends who are car salesmen that get the same “what is the lowest you will take” all the time and trust me, those customers asking that terribly dumb question are on average paying more than a customer with actual negotiation skills.
TLDR: “What is the lowest price you will take” is 100% time waste and arguably offensive to a sellers intelligence.
totally agree on this one, people that start the conversation with “What is the lowest you can go” on an item that already has the option for best offer, will counter your price with “oh that’s too much, best I can do is xy”.
That isn’t the proper answer though because 95% of the time for someone who starts with “what’s the lowest you’ll go?”, their highest is far too low for me to actually take. Sometimes I will reply to the message with the new-ish feature of sending an offer and just offer them ~5% below my BIN when commonly I can go 10% or more on almost anything. I make sure anyone opening with that line pays more on the item than I’d let the general public as do my car dealer friends when they run into it.
Other times I do counter them with, “what’s the highest you’ll pay” and I’ve had people straight up say “well I don’t want to throw out the first number” then when I inform them I already did that by creating the listing either their mind gets blown or they are too dull to realize it at all and they just come back with some low number lower than I can’t accept so I just block them. But yeah I don’t have firm numbers on it, but I can confidently say that anyone opening with that message has a higher defect rate than the general eBay public and generally are just worth a block.
I think that the word “flipping” and “flipper” is thrown out with such a broad definition and also with too much negative connotation when in reality, flipping can just be a smart move or sniping a card that is undervalued.
It wouldn’t be looked down upon to buy a house that is under market value to flip and make a return on investment or to buy a stock when it’s low. Likely, if you see a card that you believe is below market value, I see no problem buying it to resell it. Anyone who buys up collections does this…knowing that they will not keep every card in the collection but will use a portion of it (big or small) to try and break even or make a profit. What I can’t stand are “Flippers” in the sense… people buying up every hidden fates box thinking that they can try and resell it for double the price…That, I’m strongly against because more than anything I think it’s just an incredibly stupid financial move and very naive when it comes to understanding how Pokemon/Nintendo will print and reprint everything to meet the market’s needs. So maybe we are all on the same page but maybe I just have a problem with how people define the word “flipper” because if the term is too loose, then I think that all of us become hypocrites.
Modern English regular holos are not considered “hits” anymore, so about 30 out of 36 packs from a regular booster box are garbage. A huge waste of money, at least from a collectors view.
Can you explain the difference between these situations here because I don’t see it. Yes, Pokemon will print to demand eventually but until they do, the supply-demand equilibrium is/was above the MSRP. This is the ideal situation to flip in, as long as you’re not holding the product for months-years (but if you are, it’s not really flipping).
This unpopular opinion is more about this forum in general:
Looks like a lot of posts recently about football and sports are popping up. This is a Pokemon forum. If I wanted to read about football, I’d find a football forum. There either needs to be a separate section or the posts need to go away altogether. I read 300 books a year and I love talking about that too but I’m not going to flood this place with it.
So basically it was just one user who made like 5 threads about sport so I’ve just moved them all. No content in them anyways just a couple 1 line posts.
May I ask how in the world you manage to read that many books a year?? With working full time and other hobbies I struggled to read 50 books last year (that was a goal I set, to read 50 books that year, I squeezed out 51!) Are you just a super duper fast reader? Whatever the case, I’m impressed!
To stay on the topic of the thread though ummmm, I dont think the scream promos are cool, like at all.
If they want to incorporate some paintings into pokemon tcg art, they should consider some works by Hieronymus Bosch. Anyone ever seen this dudes art? His stuff is GNARLYYY
You have a point. What it comes down to for me and in my opinion, I see small time collectors… and I mean small… people essentially just getting into the hobby who lack a basic understanding of how the sets are released and reprinted and going along with the false notion that these boxes are like wotc boxes. They buy everything up at their local Walmart and then immediately post in local listings for 2-3 times the value. (i.e. Hidden Fates tins selling at $60 a tin). These posts just stay up and are never sold and that part of flipping just rubs me the wrong way. Let’s say I find a “No Stage” Blastoise online or at a local shop and pick it up and I don’t really care about it but I know that there is demand for it, so I buy it simply to resell and “flip”. I think that’s smart. I think that’s using your knowledge of the hobby to your advantage. I picked that card in particular because it could easily happen and error cards and niche cards are just floating out there for people to grab but they require an understanding and knowledge of the hobby. On the Flip side (no pun intended), Buying up Hidden Fates boxes and charging the general public 3x the amount just rubs me the wrong way. I buy all my modern product as singles or in lots for pennies on the dollar so it doesn’t have an impact on me one way or the other but in a way it is similar to scalping concert/game tickets. When all is said and done I don’t really care, People are in it for the hustle and to a certain extent, I can respect that… and I understand as well as anyone trying to make some extra money so that I can put it back into my collection. I also don’t disagree with anyone who bought up hidden fates for resale at a reasonable resale price. Until the supply meets the demand, I think there is some money to be made if you can manage to spend your nights running around to every Target, Walmart, and Game Stop in the county. I also Think that people who are getting distributor prices have the total right to sell at whatever price they want…and most do but they also do it within reason.
As I reread this, I don’t mean to put myself on a pedestal because I am a very average and modest collector when it comes to the efour community but I think that the naivety of the small collectors or Instagram hype boys just bothers me (I know we all started off at the beginning so I’ll try not to judge too hard). However, I feel as though they are trying to rip people off and I’m not sure if that point is really arguable given that everyone knows that Walmart is going to restock two days after you bought out all 30 of their tins. Another unpopular opinion that I may have is that I don’t think it’s smart to buy Hidden Fates from people trying to sell it at double the price. If you really want it, download the Walmart app and get an update when they restock.
Idk if that answers the heart of your question but to wrap it up… I’m all for “flipping” but I’m not for “scalping” which I see as two different things.
