What does "willing to pay GPA" signal to you as a Seller? 3 3

[Galen130]

25 minutes ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

At best, it's lazy and inconsiderate -- the buyer is asking sellers to guess at exactly what he wants, and there's a very good chance their time will be wasted.

At worst, it's an obvious negotiation tactic -- a clumsy attempt to make the seller feel like they're chasing the buyer's interest when in fact it's the buyer who is initiating the request and therefore in a weaker negotiating position.

From my experience as both buyer and seller, there are certain behaviors that I know are highly correlated with bad deals.  Lazy communication is very high on that list for me.

I PM a link to my sales thread...let them do the work if they are really interested.  Most don't bother because my threads combined are about 90 pages long.  That weeds out the posers...

[VintageComics]

Price is a very personal matter. Collectors can be picky and dislike literally anything about a book and that will affect the price they want to pay.

I also understand not wanting to throw a price out because you're now 'bidding against yourself' as Borock used to say, because you paint yourself into a corner and prices can vary wildly on some books even in the same grade.

Some feel more comfortable being upfront with what they want to spend and that's fine but others may feel more comfortable negotiating. I chalk that up to personal preference so I wouldn't demand a what someone is willing to pay in a WTB post. The free market will decide what they pay.

But I think the BARE MINIMUM work required should be either a price or a grade (or a range) of what you're looking for just to eliminate people wasting their time.

Oh, you want a Batman #1? Do you want a $30K copy, a $100K copy or a $1MIL copy?

You want an Astonishing Tales #25? Do you want a reader copy for $20 or a 9.8 copy?

I don't understand how someone can take the time to put out a WTB post and not at least outline some idea of what they're looking for with a grade or a price range.

To me it's a symptom of laziness that the internet has bread over the last decade or so.

I don't bother replying to WTB posts like that.

[Shrevvy]

3 hours ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

At worst, it's an obvious negotiation tactic -- a clumsy attempt to make the seller feel like they're chasing the buyer's interest when in fact it's the buyer who is initiating the request and therefore in a weaker negotiating position.

 

I agree. I also feel it is on the person posting the WTB ad to make an offer. It's ok to not state a price in the WTB ad, but I should not be pricing my book for sale. If you are posting a WTB ad, you are asking someone to sell an item that is not currently actively for sale. If I know want $XX for my book, I'll post that in the for sale section on the boards and reach a larger audience. Why restrict my audience to one person?  

[KPR Comics]

3 hours ago, kav said:

why is PM what you got bad?

Because at any given time, there are dozens, if not dozens of dozens, of each of those books available on myriad sites.  Asking someone to PM what you got, is a clear signal that you don't want to pay the going rate.

[serling1978]

I've noticed someone who shall go unnamed posting a lot lately with very general needs for big boy books. Could be valid, but to me if someone says they are looking for COPIES (plural) of FF1 and they list a fairly wide grade range like 2.0-4.5,  then they are just looking for lowball deals so they can flip. 

Same guy also has been saying somewhat wide grade ranges on all the Marvel grails including AF15 of course. Considering how much the price varies between an AF15 2.0 and a 4.0 it seems unlikely the person is just looking to throw such a big range of money at it to own it. The tactics and the way it was worded feels like a lazy flipper on the prowl. 

[serling1978]

Now that a little time has passed since this thread started and we're further away from the price explosion of the first quarter of 2021 I'm curious if seller opinions have changed at all about buyers being willing to pay GPA. I think at this point GPA has started to catch up now that books are no longer doubling in value seemingly overnight like earlier in the year. Hopefully GPA weathered the storm and will remain reliable over time as a baseline for buying and selling.