Not sure we’re disagreeing. If you accept offers then ofcourse you’re above market from the time you listed it then you play the game getting to market.
Maybe it’s better to say, “offer market, accept market”. That way you don’t make the bidder overpay and the bidder doesn’t try to take advantage by lowballing.
Say, at today’s prices, a card’s fair market is 1000.00. It’s healthy for our hobby if the transaction between the buyer and seller falls close to that price:)
It depends how close to market value the item is listed at, I personally ignore offers 30% lower than market
i see the offer option as something that allows you to make your best offer if you don’t agree with the asking price, not a tool to get a bargain like many people try use it as
Right on. I’ll ignore 30% offers too.
In fact eBay should make offers a maximum 20% off which would end most of this nonsense.
Not really. Some people have a PSA 10 1st Alakazam up for $6000 USD. 20% off is only $4800. The PSA 10 1st Alakazam isn’t worth anything close to that amount.
What’s even worse is when those kinds of offers come from certain members of our community. 
It all depends on the item and how much above market is it listed for. Some items i have up for sale i would accept as low as a 50% offer on whereas others i would only be looking to accept 5 or 10% off, its completely circumstantial.
Obviously it various a lot based on the situation, but usually when I’m looking to see an established market price, I’m looking at accepted offers, and it’s pretty routine for people to accept 15-20% off. So 30 is generally what I would consider to be an opening offer in order to end up in that range (which is typically what happens), not 30 of what I would think of as market.
But for sure, there are some things that I’ll just BIN even with best offer enabled because the price is good enough that it’s not worth me pushing for more at the risk that somebody else will grab the item. And there are other things that are so far off the market price that I don’t bother making an offer, even though some people are probably purposely listing it way beyond even what they believe the item is worth as a shot in the dark and might end up accepting something much lower.
At the end of the day though, is there anything different from an ethics standpoint between listing something for double of its market value vs. making an offer that is half of market value? In either case, you’re just hoping that somebody is actually going to buy the item at that crazy price or accept the crazy offer.
It would be bizarre for eBay to limit best offers to any amount when they already have a mechanism in place (auto-reject) to keep people from having to deal with lowball offers.
Honestly it‘s hard to know what price to offer if most cards are listed on ebay for 10-100 times their actual value (=recent sales prices.
While it is annoyig for sellers to get obvious low ball offers from buyers it is also annoying from a buyers perspective that many items on ebay are listed for cazy prices. As a buyer you never know if the seller really wants to sell or just wants to show off or attract people to other auctions.
I agree here. There are items for which you can offer “market” value and still get declined because the seller is simply showing off the card with no intention of selling.
You two are talking about a magical market value, that doesn’t exist. The market value is a value in which someone is willing to sell and someone is willing to pay. Past sales are an ESTIMATE of what the number is. Cards would never increase in price if this was the case, they would be worth $40 two years ago, $40 today and $40 in two years, its not realistic. EVERYONE wants to get a good deal, but just because someone has the supply of the market, doesn’t make their price outrageous because you deem it to be. If someone has a card listed for 6K that you believe to be worth 3K, then ignore it. Free market makes it an option for them to list at whatever and for you to wait. It will either sell to someone else, or they will adjust their price accordingly. Forcing your price on someone doesn’t change anyones mind, especially this ~30% offer thing I read about on here, that is crazy.
Look at half the discussions on price in the past, “OMG that card is worth nowhere NEAR that much” then a few sales later, “market value” for that card did increase. 1st edition Charizard is obviously one that was discussed in the past about it reaching anywhere close to what it has.
Just because you think its not worth a certain amount, does not make your claim valid, to a buyer OR seller.
More OT - If you lowball me a stupid amount, you get 1 warning message then a block. Don’t tell me a $500 offer on a $3,000 (low end) box is fair and not a waste of time. 20% and we can start to talk.
@joetehman I’m not talking about market value, I’m talking about seller intent. Regardless of price, does the seller intend to show off the card or sell the card? I can list a PSA 9 1st edition base Charizard for $20,000. If I intend to sell, then that’s fair and I can try to sell for any price I want. If I intend to show off the card and never sell, that’s fair as well. However, for the latter case it makes it more difficult for serious buyers to sift through and find cards that are available to be purchased.
Maybe that is the sellers price floor. Some listings are obviously just for show (Gary’s Charizards come to mind) but others might value the card higher themselves. As for having to sift through cards, if its a high end card, there isn’t much sifting to do.
Also @charizandrew if I offered “market” value for your PSA 9 shadowless Mewtwo or Alakazam ($140 for each) would you accept? Of course not, but I won’t say you aren’t willing to sell, I just would think I am an asshole for offering 60% of your listing price. And me telling you that they are worth $140, does not change your mind.
If you use BIN you’re going to have to deal with those kinds of individuals.
Auto-decline exists my man.
Yeah I find this very annoying
An owner of a card (seller) has the right to list their item for whatever they want. Not all sellers are trying to liquidate their card. People saying “market value” are referring to liquid prices.
Moreover, a buyer doesn’t own the item (this is true for myself as well). If you don’t like the price, Feel free to buy the item for less. The situation is usually there aren’t any cheaper options on the market, and the buyer is overly entitled to a price point that isn’t currently available. I learned a long time ago you won’t own many genuinely rare items offering yesterday’s price for today’s card.
There are different reasons and strategies in selling that could be a topic in itself. In short not everyone sells as aggressively. Consider this: do you want someone with more capital, inventory, knowledge and experience undercutting everyone? That destroys a market. People have paid a lot of money for some cards, and it’s a dick move to constantly undercut with no regard.
Point being, prices and markets aren’t binary. There are data points and metrics to give you an impression.
Not only do I list all my auctions as “Buy It Now” instead of “BINOBO”, but I explicitly state in every item description “Please do not message me with offers” – and I still get crazy low balls all the time. It’s ridiculous.
Auto-decline isn’t lame, but that specific user is lame LOL. $50 come on… at that point you should just do a BIN.
If Ebay didn’t have to be the platform, buyers wouldn’t have to mark up the prices to make up that 10% difference in some instances…
On a side note, I don’t agree with the practice of listing something that you don’t intend to sell; even if it sells for your inflated buy it now price.
Just as buyers are obligated to follow through with a bid/offer/buy it now purchase, sellers are obligated to complete their end of the deal
if you’re not willing to sell don’t list it for sale 
But but but… Gary’s godly Charizard $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ collection… 