Need advice for negotiating price 1 1

[migmtl76]

5 hours ago, Dr. Love said:

actually you should tell us what it is, you'd be surprised.  We do try and help each other on the boards, maybe someone here can do you a solid and find it for less or something

 

I am looking at an ASM annual #1 with white pages (a must for me). Seller has a 6.5 and a 7.5 (huge price difference btw). On ebay there are none or when they appear, the prices are crazy high.

Not super rare in those grades (especially 6.5) but not something you find raw in good shape especially with the square bound spine.

[littledoom]

make an offer you're comfortable with.. hopefully it's good enough for him

[Keys_Collector]

I know its a common trait for comic sellers but I really can't stand the "make an offer".  As a seller, you should put an asking price to give an idea of a ballpark and you can always place OBO or "open to negotiations" if you are flexible.  I don't walk into a store and ask the Target employee for a price and they say "make me an offer"....car dealerships don't hide the price and then say "make me an offer".  I have to be really interested in a book to give a price but more times then not, i'll just walk away from the deal if i'm presented with "make me an offer" without knowing what the starting negotiation price is.  Usually I find that "make me an offer" translates to "I am marking the book up 25% over FMV".  State your price as a seller and then go from there.

Edited July 15, 2020 by Keys_Collector

[ThothAmon]

15 minutes ago, Keys_Collector said:

As a seller

He’s not a seller, he’s entertaining offers from a buyer. 

[Ryan.]

8 hours ago, migmtl76 said:

I am looking at an ASM annual #1 with white pages (a must for me). Seller has a 6.5 and a 7.5 (huge price difference btw). On ebay there are none or when they appear, the prices are crazy high.

Not super rare in those grades (especially 6.5) but not something you find raw in good shape especially with the square bound spine.

"Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 in 6.5" https://www.cloudninecomics.com/cgi-cloudninecomics/sb/ss_mb.cgi?storeid=*22b7168a690ca8741ba51004c42694dd4f36c4&ss_parm=Adaa9416f9f33007bb0a1c49a06f455d9

[Keys_Collector]

17 minutes ago, ThothAmon said:

He’s not a seller, he’s entertaining offers from a buyer. 

I know that and my statement still stands.

[migmtl76]

Is it allowed on this forum to give negative feedback on an ebay seller  and post a conversation regarding a negociation gone bad haha ?

[William-James88]

10 minutes ago, migmtl76 said:

Is it allowed on this forum to give negative feedback on an ebay seller  and post a conversation regarding a negociation gone bad haha ?

There is a whole sub forum about that 

 

[migmtl76]

UPDATE AND END : Walked away. 

Me :
1600$ by paypal
(30 minutes later still no reply...)

Me:
Are you thinking about it or is this no good. Let me know. Thanks

Seller :
No good

Me:
What did you have in mind ?
Do you really want to sell it ?
I can't buy it if I don't have a price.

Seller : 
I guess you haven’t seen The Godfather as you don’t understand what it means when I say make me an offer I can’t refuse.

Me :
Why play games?
I am supposed to guess ?
You wanted how much?

Seller :
How is this a game?  Have you never done eBay before?  You put the highest price you are willing to spend.
Do you think I took pics and got you grader notes just because I had time to waste?

Me :
Yes I have
you want me to say 1800
and then no answer
then 1900
2000 etc
until you are happy
i am not doing an auction against myself
thanks for waisting my time

Seller :
Lol.  You wasted 3 days of my time.  I’ve sold $200k+ of books in the past year, I’ll find someone else.

 

[ExNihilo]

27 minutes ago, migmtl76 said:

UPDATE AND END : Walked away. 

Me :
1600$ by paypal
(30 minutes later still no reply...)

Me:
Are you thinking about it or is this no good. Let me know. Thanks

Seller :
No good

Me:
What did you have in mind ?
Do you really want to sell it ?
I can't buy it if I don't have a price.

Seller : 
I guess you haven’t seen The Godfather as you don’t understand what it means when I say make me an offer I can’t refuse.

Me :
Why play games?
I am supposed to guess ?
You wanted how much?

Seller :
How is this a game?  Have you never done eBay before?  You put the highest price you are willing to spend.
Do you think I took pics and got you grader notes just because I had time to waste?

Me :
Yes I have
you want me to say 1800
and then no answer
then 1900
2000 etc
until you are happy
i am not doing an auction against myself
thanks for waisting my time

Seller :
Lol.  You wasted 3 days of my time.  I’ve sold $200k+ of books in the past year, I’ll find someone else.

 

Lol.  What a <bleep>.  Too bad we can't add him to a probation/HoS list here.

Edited July 15, 2020 by ExNihilo

[Deadpoolica]

Figured it'd go this route smh

[William-James88]

I knew this was gonna happen, hence why as soon as I saw "make me an offer I can't refuse", I suggested you walk away. 

He wanted....

 

[Dr. Love]

nah don't hate the seller

a minute's worth of GPA shows $1600 is a lowball to anyone, below GPA, but particularly to a guy who starts out upfront by saying, in effect, come in higher than the highest GPA on record

7/3 6.5 OWW $1725

6/22 6.5 OW $1595

6/19 6.5 OW $1800

6.5 OW currently on Ebay for $2000 - and its a BIN, not make an offer

so if White pages are a must, an absolute deal breaker, and knowing that squarebounds are hard to find in White, given the GPA and what's on the market, I'd say cough up $2250 to seal the deal or you get door #2 - come on the boards and whine about it

[ExNihilo]

1 hour ago, Dr. Love said:

nah don't hate the seller

a minute's worth of GPA shows $1600 is a lowball to anyone, below GPA, but particularly to a guy who starts out upfront by saying, in effect, come in higher than the highest GPA on record

7/3 6.5 OWW $1725

6/22 6.5 OW $1595

6/19 6.5 OW $1800

6.5 OW currently on Ebay for $2000 - and its a BIN, not make an offer

so if White pages are a must, an absolute deal breaker, and knowing that squarebounds are hard to find in White, given the GPA and what's on the market, I'd say cough up $2250 to seal the deal or you get door #2 - come on the boards and whine about it

As discussed previously, GPA excludes eBay's fees.  The sales on 7/3 and 6/22 were on eBay and were probably subject to the 10% fees.  That means the sellers pocketed $1,552.50 and $1,435.50.  Given that, OP's transaction would have occurred via Facebook Marketplace (which does not charge any fees), the only fees the seller would have been subject to may be PayPal fees (let's assume 4%) which nets $1,536 to the seller.  That hardly sounds like a lowball offer when compared to the eBay transactions.  Besides, as mentioned in this thread, it's a starting point that the buyer works up from.  But the seller wasn't even willing to entertain it and instead mocked the buyer.  Given that someone posted the book for sale for $1,750 from an LCS with an online presence, I'd much rather take my money and buy from them than deal with some d'bag seller.

Edited July 16, 2020 by ExNihilo

[Math Teacher]

46 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

As discussed previously, GPA excludes eBay's fees.  The sales on 7/3 and 6/22 were on eBay and were probably subject to the 10% fees.  That means the sellers pocketed $1,552.50 and $1,435.50.  Given that, OP's transaction would have occurred via Facebook Marketplace (which does not charge any fees), the only fees the seller would have been subject to may be PayPal fees (let's assume 4%) which nets $1,536 to the seller.  That hardly sounds like a lowball offer when compared to the eBay transactions.  Besides, as mentioned in this thread, it's a starting point that the buyer works up from.  But the seller wasn't even willing to entertain it and instead mocked the buyer.  Given that someone posted the book for sale for $1,750 from an LCS with an online presence, I'd much rather take my money and buy from them than deal with some d'bag seller.

Don't forget PayPal's 3% cut. Also, it wouldn't surprise if you, as the buyer, would be asked to pay for shipping, and don't even get me started on the sales tax issue.

[migmtl76]

5 hours ago, William-James88 said:

I knew this was gonna happen, hence why as soon as I saw "make me an offer I can't refuse", I suggested you walk away. 

He wanted....

 

 

Haha thanks for making me laugh

[migmtl76]

6 hours ago, Dr. Love said:

nah don't hate the seller

a minute's worth of GPA shows $1600 is a lowball to anyone, below GPA, but particularly to a guy who starts out upfront by saying, in effect, come in higher than the highest GPA on record

7/3 6.5 OWW $1725

6/22 6.5 OW $1595

6/19 6.5 OW $1800

6.5 OW currently on Ebay for $2000 - and its a BIN, not make an offer

so if White pages are a must, an absolute deal breaker, and knowing that squarebounds are hard to find in White, given the GPA and what's on the market, I'd say cough up $2250 to seal the deal or you get door #2 - come on the boards and whine about it

Not whining at all.

I offered about 90% of what it sold on ebay (so that's a starting point) and we all know eBay takes that extra 10%.

Do you offer your maximum bid right away not knowing what the seller will accept ?

$ 1600 is not low ball in my opinion but I respect yours. Obviously my strategy was off and probably should have started at 1800.

I should have know better since his slabs on sale on ebay are around 20% higher than FMV.

Are white pages worth an extra 525$ ? Not to me. Maybe up to 200$ on this book like you say is hard to find.

Also the book was in the old slab dating  back to at least 5 years ago. That counts for me.

We all know eBay prices are inflated. That is why that 6.5 on ebay at $ 2000 has not sold after 27 days on the market.

Had he just said I want $ 2000 non negociable lets says , I might have gone for it because of the white pages.

But like you say he was shooting for the moon and probably wanted 2250 $. That is very precise btw.

So on top of getting paid 2 250$ the seller would pay no ebay fees (otherwise would ask $ 2500 on ebay). I was not willing to overpay that much.

In a strange ''coincidence'' the seller has the name Dr. ....... in his ebay page and his FB page...

Anyways thanks for your comment, but please don't say I'm whining, I'm not.

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by migmtl76

[joeypost]

If you are patient, books eventually show up. They always have for me. Its not like its a piece of original art and once it goes into a private collection it may be a decade before it comes up for sale again. 

 

[Chaos_in_Canada]

14 minutes ago, HighAF said:

Counts for what? That's before the Creep Engine so no worries there. Was at least 5 years ago a loose grading period? (Can't you see when the book was graded by the serial number?)

Check the serial number for the grading date.

Probably CPR'd.

[seanfingh]

On 7/14/2020 at 3:11 PM, comicginger1789 said:

Yeah the “make me an offer I can’t refuse” is either someone joking or being a bit of a d bag. Either way they don’t sound like serious sellers and the negotiating seems likely to fail. I’d still ask a tad under fair market value to start. If he declines then up it to fair market. After that it’s in his court whether he excepts or starts the gouge game.

I disagree with this - in its entirety. When someone posts a WTB for a rare book and a person has it, it doesn't mean they want to sell it or that they are a "seller." If you email them, let you know you have a copy, and tell them that they can make an offer, it gives them a lot of information. That doesn't mean you are now beholden to sell it to them for GPA or you are a "dbag."  It gives them the opportunity to decide if they want to make a strong move at the book to acquire it or not. Whatever the case, they know where one is, if circumstances change, they get more information, or they decide they REALLY want it.  If you have never collected truly rare comics, this may sound foreign. But I am here to tell you, that is how rare comics get moved. I think promulgating the idea that someone who identifies that they have the sought after book and they will move it for a price that motivates them, is a "dbag," is fundamentally wrong.