What is the lowest you will take????

Anyone else get this question more than five times a day on ebay?
On all Of my auctions I have the best offer option, wouldn't that be the place to handle this?
Would it be rude to start turning it around and ask the real question? What's the highest you will pay? And tell them to make that offer? Do a lot of people not know they can look up completed sales? I get a few bidders a week, that ask for proof of a sale, and when emailed the item numbers, they say they are sorry, they didnt see those. Or I have a card at a bin off 200. Same card is in auction at 165 with 2 hours left and I will get an offer for 120. Do they not look or do they just assume sellers are brain dead?

On a different topic, has anyone else rcvd a warning about taking a sale off eBay? I did this in early December and they almost suspended my acct for a week. This is another reason why I'm asking about the above question. The first email is almost always followed up with another about selling direct. At this point I can't be too careful.

Anyone else dealing with these issues and found a good/professional and not just a frustration driven solution?

Thanks

I get that question more than I want to think about. I always say Feel free to make and offer but from now on it will be What is the most you are willing to pay?

I got the notice about off eBay transactions. Got a message saying my message was not sent because it may have suggested off eBay sales. I found that if a seller sends you a message first & then contact them through the email notification & not through eBay it seems to go through.

MantMaris said:

I get that question more than I want to think about. I always say Feel free to make and offer but from now on it will be What is the most you are willing to pay?

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LoL. Crap, this wasn't my intention. I was hoping to receive some wise ways on how to handle these, not turn more people towards my frustrated answer.

It is a great question though.

eBay has been horrible lately. I have had 3 non-paying bidders on items recently, big ticket stuff too. One return by someone that was flat out lying. And then the questions like you pose, revolving around price I'd accept. How about you just try the BO option? I accept a lot of reasonable offers and that's generally what I'll reply.

Also, do you find that when people ask about cheapest shipping options that they are rarely the winning bidder?

I get this all the time on items with a BIN Only. Get a email asking what's the lowest you will take, no hello or I'm interested in the card or whatnot. I just reply with whatever the BIN price is.

I always tell the buyer to send me an offer and I will either accept or decline. The frustrating part is when you get no response after I respond with the above.

Greg, lowball buyers are always fishing. I usually have a BO option with a set amount to accept or decline. I usually tell the people who messages me the amount close to what my auto decline is.

tree fiddy

Question for you guys- Is it acceptable if I message a seller if they will take a lower amount than what their BIN is if the BIN is above the going rate for the card or is that not kosher? Note- I also include what I would be willing to pay for the card.

I understand the frustration with this as a seller but I have been guilty of this before. Suppose this scenario (which has happened a bunch of times). There's a decently rare mid end card that sells between $80-$120 and there are three of them all with a BO option up. As a buyer, of course I'm trying to pay the least possible amount. So in this situation I may be honest and message the sellers and say look I'm trying to purchase this card and I'm sending you this message to see what your lowest price is so that I can get the best deal for myself. If someone replies with $80 and two others reply basically telling me to piss off ill go with the $80 guy. Of course I could take my time and offer the first $80 see if he accepts then offer the second guy $80 and so on but it's far more efficient IMO to be upfront with sellers in a situation like that. Same works even if it isn't the same card. Lets say I want to get the best deal and I have $60 even to spend and I'm watching a bunch of items. Is it so wrong to message a few different sellers to gage how low they're willing to go so you can get the best deal for you $60? Again, I can totally understand your frustration but you'll undoubtably be losing business by making those condescending (but funny) remarks to potential buyers

gmsieb said:

Anyone else get this question more than five times a day on ebay?
On all Of my auctions I have the best offer option, wouldn't that be the place to handle this?
Would it be rude to start turning it around and ask the real question? What's the highest you will pay? And tell them to make that offer? Do a lot of people not know they can look up completed sales? I get a few bidders a week, that ask for proof of a sale, and when emailed the item numbers, they say they are sorry, they didnt see those. Or I have a card at a bin off 200. Same card is in auction at 165 with 2 hours left and I will get an offer for 120. Do they not look or do they just assume sellers are brain dead?

On a different topic, has anyone else rcvd a warning about taking a sale off eBay? I did this in early December and they almost suspended my acct for a week. This is another reason why I'm asking about the above question. The first email is almost always followed up with another about selling direct. At this point I can't be too careful.

Anyone else dealing with these issues and found a good/professional and not just a frustration driven solution?

Thanks

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I feel your pain brother. I get irritated by it as well. I get at least 3-5 a day. I just ignore them and move on. I figure they will either get pissed I didn't respond and go away or actually make an offer.

I get that question frequently, and even on items without a BO. Usually I have an autodecline on my BIN/BOs, and often someone will ask after they've been autodeclined once or twice. There have also been some that just ask outright without making an offer. My response is usually the same, I'd reply with my minimum amount that the autodecline is set to (or tell them I'm not taking offers if there is no BO option), and also with a direct price that's slightly lower if they want to paypal direct. Although I may stop doing the latter unless they ask first, since I've been hearing more stories of sellers getting warnings for doing that.

Admittedly, I ask that question of buyers from time to time, and it's because many sellers will IGNORE market-value offers and let them expire. So messaging the seller gets me the info I want (i.e. whether or not they're willing to sell for my offer price) without tying up my money for 2 days. You guys say that NPB's are more rampant, well that's also true of sellers who will ignore reasonable offers and just let them expire.

Never hurts to ask. I do. Has netted me a few buys. Alot of times I list an item and I'm firm on it. No BO option. But there are times I'd take xx lower but just never messed around with adjusting the price yet. Or at that time I need money to cover buys etc.

- Unsure if this is a "broke after holidays thing" but 2 years ago I has a highly unusual amount of people asking for DC long after the item has shipped. It was marked delivered and that info was fwd and I always got the "oh oops I missed it" or "Oh yeah got it" maybe hoping I didn't keep my DC info and they get a free card. Or they just honestly forgot. So far that's happened 2x this month now. Considering the volume I sell (low), it makes me want to use DC on everything. When I had a lower FB, this never happened. Since it's much larger now (4000+) maybe they assume I'm a dealer and have no problem eating $10. Unsure but FWIW..

Sjrmn91 said:

Question for you guys- Is it acceptable if I message a seller if they will take a lower amount than what their BIN is if the BIN is above the going rate for the card or is that not kosher? Note- I also include what I would be willing to pay for the card.

Click to expand...

My response is always "What is the most you will pay?" I feel that response is no different than them asking what is the least I would take. Most sellers are trying to maximize profits, not hook up buyers trying to get a steal.

Get this all the time. Usually some variation of the following:

'really wunt yur card what iz lowezt $ u willing 2 go'

Of course you take the time to type out a coherent response and never hear back.

Guys....I'm not about to part some wisdom on you or anything but here's my anecdotal opinion.

When you're buying, always ask. I have gotten so many great deals on cards before by messaging the seller. It usually works out well if the seller has multiple items for sale that I'm interested in and we work out a lot price. I don't like avoiding ebay but I've definitely done it before with zero issues (so far). I'm always really careful with this because I don't want to get myself or any seller banned for it but I do it every so often and it has worked wonders.

Also I've found that a LOT of buyers flat out are special and do NOT do their research and lowball the crap out of people and then in turn we have delusional sellers who only offer a BIN option where the card is 40% above all other completed listings.

I look at each situation uniquely because say I have a Bryce Harper relic card....it books at $20 and the last three sold for $10 in December. The card is not currently available on the website...so naturally I put it up for $40 BIN OBO and sure enough within a few days....some guy comes along and buys it. No offer, no attempted haggling, just BAM. So I'm experiencing that, I think some other sellers are too and that's why they think they can get away with stupid BIN prices. Now where I get furious is when some D - Bag puts a 2012 Sterling JEsus Montero Redemption card up for $45 BIN OBO and the card's average sale price is $12 with shipping. He then gets insulting when I offer him $12 which is MORE than fair....I wonder how those sellers make money.

Just my observations.

Oh and I've been getting a LOT of flaky buyers lately. In the last month, I have had to file 6 late payment claims. Can't remember the actual name.

Asking you the lowest gives them a chance to negotiate off of a number after your thinking is down.

If I respond to the question I always say I will take what the market dictates. How much do you feel that is?