eBay etiquette 0

[miraclemet]

there is the double edged sword of buying a "good deal" on eBay, it gets added to GPA, which sets a new low for the market, and then other buyers (not that everyone knows GPA, but it's a decent enough percentage of the actual BUYING audience) then want the book for the new market price (not accepting that the low price was an outlier and not representative of the market. 

 

For the same reason I'm always hesitant to set new GPA highs on CLINK since it doesnt go to GPA, and if in the future I want to sell, buyers are throwing back GPA numbers, which dont include the market high that I set when buying... 

 

but that's buying and selling!

[01TheDude]

3 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

there is the double edged sword of buying a "good deal" on eBay, it gets added to GPA, which sets a new low for the market, and then other buyers (not that everyone knows GPA, but it's a decent enough percentage of the actual BUYING audience) then want the book for the new market price (not accepting that the low price was an outlier and not representative of the market. 

 

For the same reason I'm always hesitant to set new GPA highs on CLINK since it doesnt go to GPA, and if in the future I want to sell, buyers are throwing back GPA numbers, which dont include the market high that I set when buying... 

 

but that's buying and selling!

that assumes this book is graded/slabbed though, yes? Can't recall if they said it was or not.

Another route would be to offer it up on these boards and cut feebay out of the equation.

[fastballspecial]

11 hours ago, ExNihilo said:

I don't sell much on eBay, but I posted an item for sale below the BIN price of other listings.  It's a book I'm just looking to get rid of and be done with it, hence why I priced it low.  Within an hour, I get a message from what I can presume is a shill account (no items for sale, very few feedback) asking me to raise my BIN price so as to "not ruin it for other sellers."  I didn't respond to the shill account, but I did increase my BIN price before ultimately delisting while I ponder what to do.

Has this happened to you?  Or what is your take on it?  I mean, I understand no one wants to be undercut lest the value of books continue to fall, in which case, nobody wins.  I could also just set it up as an auction and let the market dictate the price.  But the bigger question has to do with I suppose the morality (probably not the right word i'm looking for) of the situation.  Or better yet, what would you do if confronted by a mystery seller looking to prop up the market price of a book?

(NOTE: no books have been sold on eBay yet, so a market price has yet to be determined.  And if that mystery seller happens to be a fellow boardie, well I'm all ears.)

That's the mentality of a bunch of new sellers on ebay. They don't want market competition they want to set the price. Please let me know the ebay account so I can block it.

 

[01TheDude]

yeah-- that would be good account to throw on the ebay BLOCKED thread for sure-- the reason would be justified and would help us to avoid at least this one guy trying to tell us how to sell-- or whatever else they might be up to. Just so fishy.

[miraclemet]

15 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

that assumes this book is graded/slabbed though, yes? Can't recall if they said it was or not.

Another route would be to offer it up on these boards and cut feebay out of the equation.

Ur right, it assumes the book is slabbed. And yep, the OP didnt say one way or the other.... And agreed, sell here! If it's listed at a "deal" price, it wont last 5 minutes !

[ExNihilo]

17 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

that assumes this book is graded/slabbed though, yes? Can't recall if they said it was or not.

Another route would be to offer it up on these boards and cut feebay out of the equation.

1 minute ago, miraclemet said:

Ur right, it assumes the book is slabbed. And yep, the OP didnt say one way or the other.... And agreed, sell here! If it's listed at a "deal" price, it wont last 5 minutes !

Book is raw and was just released last week so no slabbed copies exist yet.

 

17 minutes ago, fastballspecial said:

That's the mentality of a bunch of new sellers on ebay. They don't want market competition they want to set the price. Please let me know the ebay account so I can block it.

 

 

15 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

yeah-- that would be good account to throw on the ebay BLOCKED thread for sure-- the reason would be justified and would help us to avoid at least this one guy trying to tell us how to sell-- or whatever else they might be up to. Just so fishy.

eBay user: supremejoog

Like I said, it appears to be a shill account due to minimal activity and an absence of items for sale.  Also, the fact that they didn't even have a copy of the book for sale themselves tells me that it's a secondary account.  For what it's worth, I went ahead and added the user to the eBay Blocked thread as well.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

1 hour ago, Number 6 said:

When I messaged him back to point out that he had just outed himself as padding his shipping cost suddenly I was a “psycho” who was “stalking” him and he threatened to complain to eBay if I continued to message him. Funny how that works. 

I did actually have someone win a raw Hulk #271 a couple of years ago and immediately message me and say that he didn’t actually want to win it as he has several copies already but was confortable with the price so he would go ahead and pay for it (how magnanimous, lol)

Not sure why he felt the need to message me that but I guess that’s an example of someone who wanted to protect the price and was willing to put his money where is concern was...at least in my case. 

There are some genuine lunatics out there. There are some genuine lunatics on this board. Lots of people out there acting in bad faith. It's unfortunate.

[01TheDude]

4 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

1 hour ago, Number 6 said:

When I messaged him back to point out that he had just outed himself as padding his shipping cost suddenly I was a “psycho” who was “stalking” him and he threatened to complain to eBay if I continued to message him. Funny how that works. 

I did actually have someone win a raw Hulk #271 a couple of years ago and immediately message me and say that he didn’t actually want to win it as he has several copies already but was comfortable with the price so he would go ahead and pay for it (how magnanimous, lol)

Not sure why he felt the need to message me that but I guess that’s an example of someone who wanted to protect the price and was willing to put his money where is concern was...at least in my case. 

There are some genuine lunatics out there. There are some genuine lunatics on this board. Lots of people out there acting in bad faith. It's unfortunate.

True true--

As for that IH 271 buyer-- sounds more like they were giving you a backdoor to cancel the sale if you were unhappy with the price it sold at- without saying that directly.

[Gnasher]

16 hours ago, CAMPER49 said:

All my eBay "BIN or Best Offer" auctions offer free shipping.

While no one has ever suggested that i should bump up my BIN price, I get a lot of buyers sending me a "best offer" which is ridiculously lower than what i can even ship it for...even though my auctions clearly state "reasonable offers only please".

So I reciprocate by sending them a counter-offer at a penny lower than my BIN.

 

They probably think you mean reasonable offers for them... 

[01TheDude]

54 minutes ago, Gnasher said:

17 hours ago, CAMPER49 said:

All my eBay "BIN or Best Offer" auctions offer free shipping.

While no one has ever suggested that i should bump up my BIN price, I get a lot of buyers sending me a "best offer" which is ridiculously lower than what i can even ship it for...even though my auctions clearly state "reasonable offers only please".

So I reciprocate by sending them a counter-offer at a penny lower than my BIN.

 

They probably think you mean reasonable offers for them... 

If I set up an offer that includes a best offer option, I never use free shipping. In fact, the only items I will use free shipping on are fixed price/30 day where the shipping is calculating into the total price.

There are two reasons I operate this way:

Number one is that shipping items is expensive in some cases and if you do not charge for shipping, you can end up eating that built-in cost on a return or worse yet if they claim item not as described-- paying for the item to be returned as well.

The second is that the shipping cost can sometimes be variable-- if someone orders multiple similar items that can be shipped together, I can allow combined shipping to save both of us money ((cost to them, and packaging/time to me). So if they order 3 individual comic listings that I would normally expect to pay about $3.50 to send first class by themselves, now I can invoice them for a more reasonable shipping charge and mail one package.

I realize some of this is very basic information and maybe you have your costs built into the price. But in the rare case of needing to refund a purchase, I am not out the money I spent to ship-- only the cost of the item itself and maybe the cost of return shipping if they can adequately convince ebay I did not describe the item properly. Some of this depends on how much time you invest in accurately detailing the item in the first place via photos/scans and breakdowns of any defects. Some sellers are posting so many books that describing them is not cost effective-- they are in the volume business. I only use these guys if they give me enough pictures to look at since most of the time it is either a short blurb like-- "review photos for condition" or some long winded canned response intended to cover their arse with little regard to the actual book for sale. I tend to avoid anyone who ever uses a stock photo since then you are reliant on their ability to accurately grade and let's face it- it is a gamble not seeing the book first even if they got the grading correct.

Edited July 4, 2018 by 01TheDude