eBay

rocketscollectibles · ‎08-27-2021

I'm thinking about doing it on some or every item i have since most of my sales comes from offers, but at the same time i don't think everyone like to bargain so i'm not sure this is a that good selling startegy. I'm thinking too about the fact that it could affect the visibility of the items in the searchs and that even if offers bring sales, if items are not seen no offers can be done actually. Not everyone notice the ''best offer'' option too, i even myself miss it often when i shop

Any thoughts or tips on that selling strategy? Do you think it's a good selling model to overprice by 5-20% and be open to bargain on everything? I'm actually experimenting and added best offer on everything with automatic decline for offer of 50% the price and less, raised the price on some of my items, waiting to see how it goes

ricarmic · ‎08-27-2021

I'm assuming you have or hope to have regular, repeat customers.

A lot depends on what kind of enduring customer you want.

If you design your items to be offered upon, then any of the offerors will "always" come back with offers, and they will expect the items to be discountable.

The offering process adds time to the selling process.

Instead of overpricing your items, which I wouldn't personally do (but I sell in a different category) I would initially list them without offers and then add offers to the "older" stuff.

I do get offers often on popular stuff when it has just been added (and does not have best offer enabled). I respond that the item has just been listed and if they see it still available in a month or so remind me and I will see what I can do. Often they subsequently purchase at the full price, I actually can't remember anyone coming back a month later... (often the item is gone by then anyway).

I do see situations where people have big "sales" for wayyyy overpriced stuff with large discounts like 80% off, but anyone with any pricing knowledge knows that the 80% off price is the USUAL price for the item. Personally I don't think that's a good approach.

clemowbooks · ‎08-27-2021

I use Best Offer fairly often, but I have a set price for my sewing patterns which includes Free Shipping.

I think Free Shipping (which is not, of course, "free" but means my cost of shipping included in the asking price) is a better incentive.

My BO have borders.

I have set both the high and low prices at which the Offer will be automatically rejected or accepted.

But those prices are mostly based on the cost of shipping, with a lower discount on heavier patterns.

rocketscollectibles · ‎08-27-2021

Yeah i agree that 80% overprice and discount seems very dishonest, as buyer i would not buy to sellers like that, it's really just manipulation. I'm really thinking more about 5-20% raised. The difficulty in cards category is that the value is all based on estimates too, i have cards in condition that no one else have on ebay, prices are often not really clear to set. I had a card listed at 20$ the other day that after doing a second guess research i raised to 38$ and sold at 35$ in a day, so it makes me rethink about my pricing

I'm thinking about it's maybe a good strategy on items that have multiple sales per day or an item that i'm alone to have, but maybe not on items that are less popular. At the same time a less popular item for exemple that have 1 sale per week, with best offer on, you might get the sale from an offer if other sellers with the same item don't have the option, you kinda have the edge

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-27-2021

You need to experiment and see what works best for you

t_bjarnason · ‎08-27-2021

@rocketscollectibles

Since I sell in the same category as you, I will share my experience and what I have found works best for me.

Best offers tend to work better on higher-valued items because there's more room to move and it adds more value for your buyer.

For individual, lower value items, there isn't as much room for movement ($1-2 difference could easily be a 25-50% discount). Plus, most people don't want to barter over $1-2 on a cheap single item anyways, and especially nothing less than $1.

Accepting offers can also result in a lot of extra work on your part, especially if you don't have an automation set up to decline/accept them. Raising your price on cheaper items even 5-10% could possibly price you out of sales on more common items.

Because of this, I no longer have best offers on my cheap items and it hasn't impacted sales at all. If a customer really wants your item, they will email you anyways with an offer, regardless if your listing accepts them or not. Most times, buyers message with an offer for multiple cards. I find that free shipping also really helps as it ads extra value to your item's list price.

As others have mentioned, you may just need to play around a bit and experiment, but at the end of the day, the best price with the most value will always win.

rocketscollectibles · ‎08-27-2021

Thanks for sharing @t_bjarnason

Question that is not on the actual subject but i'll ask since you are there and we seems to be the only 2 active in the community selling in the cards category. Is it only me or in general people prefer to buy played condition cards over the mints? Every single sale i did in the last 1-2 months were cards in ok/good condition but with imperfections, like lightly played/low near mint, i did not sold a single mint card. My feeling overall is that people prefer to buy the cheaper ones over the near perfect ones at the big prices. Is it the same for you? Do you sell raw mint/close to gem mint cards or people buy mostly played condition cards for you too? I do not receive any interest for my best condition cards at higher price, which surprise me cause thats the rarer ones

t_bjarnason · ‎08-27-2021

I have noticed this actually. I have listed a lot of damaged/creased/well played cards that I never thought would sell, and most of them have. The pricing wasn't even exceptionally low either. I guess it's all dependant on what people buy them for. Maybe they are buying them to play with? This doesn't make sense to me for 18-20 year-old vintage cards that I sell but who knows! 😅 There's certainly a market for them though. That's the thing with ebay when you have such a massive customer base - there's every type of buyer out there - even weirdos that don't make sense.

As far as what I sell, it's a good mix of mint and lightly/moderately played cards.

rocketscollectibles · ‎08-28-2021

I'm guessing that mint cards buyers are more collectors, and collectors maybe look more for graded cards. So at the end raw mints cards buyers is a small minority maybe. Already got an offer from my switch to best offer on everything so it works. And guess what, another moderately played card... It's mind blowing. I'm not sure to like the best offer on the low items actually, it was 4$ plus shipping he offered 2.50$, i kinda wanna counter offer at 3$ but losing a sale for 0.50$ would be dumb. I feel forced to accept

femmefan1946 · ‎08-28-2021

Plus, most people don't want to barter over $1-2 on a cheap single item anyways, and especially nothing less than $1.

And those low-ballers are not the easiest customers to deal with either.

The advice about dealing with Messaged Offers sounds sensible, especially if the customer is looking to buy several items. You save on shipping costs.

I have listed a lot of damaged/creased/well played cards that I never thought would sell, and most of them have.

We see this in the stamp business too.

While the Gold Standard is Mint/Never Hinged/ Very Fine (or even Superb for US customers) there is a steady market for Fine Hinged and Used stamps to customers with lower budgets.

Our main advice to our customers is to be consistent. If he starts with Used, don't mix in Mint stamps because the mixture will be unsaleable.

doc-holmes · ‎08-28-2021

I sold an old set of rims locally. I was only looking for $40. I priced them at $60 figuring someone would try to beat me up on the price so I had a lot of room to drop the price and still get what I wanted. They sold for $60.

rocketscollectibles · ‎08-29-2021

Well my 1st thoughts is that it works extremely well, at least for me. I ran around 1 sale per week in the past 2 months and since i got best offer and raised most everything i did 4-5 sales in 3 days already. I listed a lot in the past week tho it's maybe with the timing

Something i don't like actually is that i have to deal with some weird moments. Got an item listed at 8.50$ and already low priced, but it's listed since a long time. It's a popular card that i think i could sell 10$ but my guees is that there's too many on ebay. Buyer offered 7.77$, i counter offered at 8$ with a small message, he counter offered at 7.77$... Very dumb for 0.23 cents. He makes me wanna be evil and decline his offer to raise my price to 10$

t_bjarnason · ‎08-30-2021

Congratulations on your increase in sales! Sounds like all your hard work fine-tuning your listings is paying off. Keep it up!

i counter offered at 8$ with a small message, he counter offered at 7.77$... Very dumb for 0.23

This is the exact reason why I don't do best offers on low-priced items. It's not worth my time to go back and forth for literally pennies. As @femmefan1946 mentioned earlier, lowballers aren't always the best buyers to deal with and having "or best offer" beside your list price creates a sense of obligation for your buyer to make an offer; they would be stupid not to.

This is all purely just my personal preference though - if you find it's working for you and and your sales then by all means keep doing what you're doing. I just like to try to avoid those weirdo situations like the one you described. 😅

rocketscollectibles · ‎08-30-2021

I just like to try to avoid those weirdo situations like the one you described.

Yeah and i actually decided to decline the second offer, raise my BIN by 25% and remove best offer on it... I mean, my item was already underpriced, i gave the buyer the opportunity to buy at a very low price and he lost it for 0.23$, i just found that the second offer to the same price was disrepectful, especially to try to grind 0.23$... I thought about blocking him. But now he just sent me an offer on another card and i'm kinda scare of a premeditated IRN after the move i did, he probably seen my move disrepectful too. Maybe i'm wrong and he's a good buyer at the end, i hope i am and he just doing weird offers

beside your list price creates a sense of obligation for your buyer to make an offer; they would be stupid not to

There's a percentage who wont and i think that it's another pros of it cause the item sells at an higher price that you would have sell it. I had another item listed for months that i decided to drastically raise and add best offer, and it got sold in a few days at the BIN price yesterday

I don't know if it's an algorythm thing, if it's the way i'm listing stuff right now, if it's a defect i had last month that removed my listings in searchs, but right now more i raise my prices more i sell. Seems unreal

femmefan1946 · ‎08-31-2021

You can politly refuse his offer and then add him to your Blocked Bidders List.

You don't need to give a reason for the BBL and any offer from him will be automatically refused.

rocketscollectibles · ‎09-07-2021

One question in link with best offer. If i do put an automatic decline amount, and an offer under that amount is sent and auto declined, does i still see those offers or are they just declined and unknown by the seller?

I wonder cause i have a card listed for one month now, in a near perfect condition no one else have, there's sales of this card almost every day/two days in trash can condition, and i have not received a single offer for it yet. Like every day people pay 40$ for damaged ones and i still have no offer for my 110$ gem one, pretty weird i don't understand

You can politly refuse his offer and then add him to your Blocked Bidders List

I thought about blocking him for a moment and did not. He bought me multiple cards after, would have been a big mistake