Seller sent me a message and would like some ideas on how to respond.

[musicyouneed]

I have a new CD cracked case, for sale for $14.99 US.  A customer emailed me stating that at London Drugs, it was $7.99 (in BC online it is $9.99).  Customer wanted to know if I could offer him a discount.  I usually put on my old stock 15% off.  I am the only one is Canada that is selling this on ebay, the rest may be cheaper but shipping from US to Canada is outrageous.  I check the sold and 75 sold for $23.54USD with $12.95 US shipping.  I checked this customers feedback and he has purchased a number of CD's in the last month, so it might be a good idea to deal with this person as he may come back to buy more.  I did a search and mine is the lowest one because of the high shipping from the US.  

I was thinking I would respond to him asking what did he think was a fair price.  What would you do>

[musicyouneed]

I just checked and he has 2 of this particular CD series and he is selling them for $18.99 CDN (for both) with $10 shipping, they are not new in fact they have scratches on the CDs.  He stated in his listing that they are highly collectable and difficult to get.  They are not that difficult to get, mine is new though.  

[femmefan1946]

Gee.

If they are $7.99 at London Drugs, why wouldn't he buy his copies there with Immediate Gratification, instead of from you at a higher price and a shipping delay?

Is it perhaps that London Drugs is all sold out at that price?

Politely let him know that your price is firm, in spite of the (easily replaced) cracked case.

This makes me think about American sellers who don't want to sell internationally because the cost of shipping is so high. But those overseas customers are only buying online because they can't find The Thing in their own country.

It would be neither polite nor professional to thank him for encouraging you to do the research that showed you that your record was rather underpriced.

[ricarmic · Accepted solution]

I never engage them in a discussion. I simply advise them of what I can/n't do.

My response if it were something of mine would depend on how old it was and how "rare" it was.

From what I see here, my response would be: "THX For your note and offer, I'm sorry but I cannot offer a discount on this item. Sorry I didn't have better news and I hope you have a great day"

If you do want to get rid of it, something like: "THX for your note and offer, I don't have much negotiating room on this item, the best I can do is 10% off, I've updated the item to temporarily accept a best offer of $XX let me know if you are not interested in it at that price so I can take the best offer off of it again. Have a great day"

If this is a reseller, I guess your decision should also include thoughts around how much they might buy down the road....but you also know that there will be eternally requests for discounts once the "trend" has begun.

[rocketscollectibles]

Those kind of messages are ironic. They message you to sell at a price by using comparisons, but if they take the time to ask you to sell this price, it's basically because they can't find it for this price. Prooving that your price being higher is actually legit. Because there's low to none others available. 

Otherwise you do what you want. Talking for myself it would be case by case. Depending on profit margin, demand, rarity, etc. If it's US buyers tho, i would most always answer that i'm not looking to price match US market prices. If a US buyer looks to buy from canada, it's because he has no better option. 

it might be a good idea to deal with this person as he may come back to buy more.

I'm not sure about other categories. But if i learnt something over time in mine, buyers don't care about who you are, they look for the best quality at lowest price. They take your deals and go elsewhere after to take others deals. Unless you offer more deals. Unfortunately you do not want those kind of customers, you want those who won't hassle and pay the asking price. Especially on an item that you have the only one. You can be 100% sure those kind of persons won't come back if they can buy elsewhere cheaper. You already have the cheapest and don't want to pay. Sell if it's the good decision to sell at this price.  Don't push a sale there only because 'he could come back'. Because in facts most of times they won't, or would only for asking more discounts. 

[msau4301]

You've already got some great advise here. But looks like you want to see what the consensus might be!

Of course no matter what you (or any of us) are selling it could be found cheaper somewhere. But we already have it, did the work/hunting to get it so we deserve to be asking a little more.

You say you saw he has two others he is selling in this set, so he wants to have the third. That's fine, I know I've sold to re-sellers too, often they are the ones looking for discounts but we don't have to oblige them. As long as we're making at least what we feel is fair after our fees and shipping supplies.

If you want the sale and the possibilility of repeat business from them you could offer the 15% off that you say you do sometimes anyways, not more than that. But only if you feel that is still fair for you.

[marnotom!]

I think the fact that you're posting about this here is a sign that you don't really want to go out on a limb for this individual.

Having said that, I've looked for this CD on other sites as well as the record company's website, and although it doesn't seem to be available at present, that hasn't really made its value skyrocket.  There are many copies of it for sale for less than US$10.00.  If anything, the vinyl version is what seems to be of value.

If this dude doesn't get the CD from you, they'll find it elsewhere.  I think it comes down to whether you want to keep hanging onto it and get your asking price, or if you want to stop it gathering dust in your stock.

[musicyouneed]

As always, I love the way you think and word things.  I have saved and used many of your suggestions.   Thank you. 

I sent him:  "THX for your note and offer, I don't have much negotiating room on this item, the best I can do is 20% off. Let me know if you are interested in it at that price so I can take put the best offer off on. You may just have to purchase it at London Drugs or at Sunrise for the cheaper price. Have a great day"

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

You can find most media (DVDs, CDs, books, etc) cheaper than any one online platform if you shop around for the absolute best price, and wait for sales. If people selling pre-owned media price matched every other platform, they would go broke.

While you shouldn't overprice your inventory, you can't reasonably price match every single other retail store. You're targeting a different market segment that may not shop at London Drugs, or other popular online destinations for pre-owned media. If that person can get a better value somewhere else, you should encourage them to do so. 

Whether you should match the offer is your choice. If this was someone who was already a repeat customer, I would gladly do them a solid on one item, even if I lose money on that one particular item. With that said, there aren't a lot of active or repeat customers in media. Especially customers who are bargain hunters. It's unlikely you can compete directly with price against larger outfits like Decluttr, so if a customer doesn't put additional value on buying their media within the country (shorter wait time, no customs, etc), and from a smaller outfit that is available to answer their questions or solve their problems, you aren't likely to retain that customer anyways.

With that said, I suspect that the overall price from London Drugs is not cheaper than buying it from you, or else they would have ordered it already. Or, London Drugs does not ship to them. 

Unless you have 100,000 CDs in stock, or you deal in a genre that is extremely niche that someone cannot find from other sellers, you're unlikely to get many consistent return customers. It just doesn't work that way with common media because there are so many different sellers to buy from. People usually search something, choose from either the best match or lowest price+shipping, and move on. That sometimes does result in return customers, but it doesn't seem to be a deliberate choice on the part of those customers.

With that said, if you get a lot of prices like this, it might also be an indication that some of your stock isn't priced optimally if people can find it for so much cheaper elsewhere. In that case, maybe go over your inventory and check your pricing structure.

[recped]

Rare for me to get this type of question but it does happen . I do not respond to ANY "I can get it cheaper elsewhere" messages.

I do respond to some unsolicited offers that are "reasonable" , my response is always the same "I can offer you discounted shipping if you buy multiple items".

I do not engage in the common  "jack the price up and then add best offer" style of selling, my prices are firm and if ever changed it's in the upward direction.

[musicyouneed]

The customer responded and stated that 20% was not enough comparing it with the price at London Drugs.  It is interesting to note that mine was still the cheapest on ebay taking in consideration the shipping cost from the US.  One seller had sold 75 for $23.54 for the same CD.

Thanks everyone for your responses. 

[cardconnoisseurs]

I need more info. Has the sale already taken place, and the item shipped already? If so, no discount. The price was good for the buyer at the time of purchase, it's good now. You *could* offer a returnless refund if you would like to court future business, tho I wouldn't. I would instead offer a credit off his *next* order with you. 

If no sale has taken place yet, it comes down to the "to the door" cost IMHO. IE, is the "to the door" price for the buyer from this alternate source significantly cheaper than your price? What is that difference worth to you? This is a judgment call. At the end of the day, it's a low-stakes decision either way. Go with your gut.

[cardconnoisseurs]

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@ricarmic wrote:

I never engage them in a discussion. I simply advise them of what I can/n't do.

Print this off and frame it, somewhere near your work area. I am *dead* serious. Unless am amicable relationship has already been established (and that does happen from time to time), *never* engage in a dialogue. Always make sure *all* the information is in the initial response.

[zee-chan]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

The customer responded and stated that 20% was not enough comparing it with the price at London Drugs.  

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lmao then they can simply buy it from LD then. It's a waste of time communicating with them.