How do you reason with a seller ?

[AmishDave]

I've got a guy on the mag site that has a Johnson / Zumaya Ultimate Dual Patch /35. He wants $20 shipped for it.

About a month ago I got another for $11 shipped, which I just casually said in passing.

I said, for his, the lowest I could go is $14 shipped (still, a decent deal for him).

He said he'd like to get $20 shipped for it ...


How do you go about your discussion's to acquire a card you have more than one copy of for you collection ? I usually go by eBay (which seems to be the standard), but what is the seller's reaction ? ...

 

[Zithy]

If you really want the card, offer to meet him in the middle at $17. What's 3 bucks? If he still doesn't budge, either pay the $20 or let him know if he ever changes his mind, you'll still want it at your offered price.

 

[andyduke86]

You can't reason with sellers. You tell them what you will pay, they tell you what they want, then you negotiate. You either make a deal or not. We're talking about $6 here.

 

[CollectorsCorner]

his card his price

 

[Lancemountain]

I was in a similar situation very recently, although our prices were much further off :lol:

He has a printing plate of Utley for 300. Usually I don't think it's good to "show your hand" whilst making an offer, but in this case I thought it would help. I told him I had two of the four colors of plates for this card, and paid 29 and 36 for them. I offered him 40, saying this was a more than fair value for the card, as I won both on an auction.

I'll give him great credit as a good seller, as he answered my email within a day....I mean I offered barely more than 10% and he still bothered to contact me. He stated he was into the plate a lot more than I offered and I respected it and left it at that.

I'd still love to have the plate, but I don't think I'll ever "reason" with him due to our prices being 260 off :lol:

I'll hit him up in a few months and see if anything comes of it. If not, no biggie :|

 

[kdailey4315]

I've wondered the same thing. I'm currently looking at a Chrome Gold BGS 9.5 for my PC that the seller wants 100 for. I'm the only one buying this guys cards on eBay and I got the last 2 Gold gems for 22 and 27. I offered 30 and he countered with 70. I want this card but the seller is just unrealistic with his asking price. I'll just have to watch it and see what happens. It sucks but I agree with what has been said. You can't really reason with sellers sometimes.

 

[hofmichael]

The worst place to start is by telling the seller what you have won previous ones for because 9 out of 10 times the buyer is quoting sales that have come down at 4 in the morning or had the shittiest title imaginable.

 

[pigskincardboard]

You guys realize these absurd prices are created for people that've won previous auctions.

If you win 3 of the 4 Utley Plates for under 50 bucks, that last plate is probably worth 200 bucks to you. Meanwhile, it's only worth 50 to someone else.

If the seller wanted to sell it via auction, I'm sure he would. There's a reason the seller didn't list it at auction, and that reason probably has something to do with him wanting more for the card than the auctions were currently fetching.

A BIN should be about 10-20% higher than the highest you've ever seen that card, and unless the player has really flopped, it should stay there.

If one moron was willing to pay 200 bucks for this product when it was hot, then eventually you'll find another moron.

 

[TomMurry]

A gentleman on Ebay has 2 Ryan Garko BDP Printing plates. He's had them up for about 2 years. I told him that I would love to have them, but I felt his asking price of 100 each was steep. I let him know that I bought the other 2 for 13 and 19. I offered him 25 for each and he told me that he would hold out until he got his price. I respectfully declined and told him I would be around if he decided to move them.

About every 3-4 months I shoot him a message asking if he is ready to come down on the price. I hope I get them at some point, but it wont be for anywhere near 100 each. I figure if I dont buy them, I dont see anyone else buying them either.

 

[subject to change]

As far as I'm concerned, sellers and logic very rarely go together. A few years ago, there was a Jack Wilson 1/1 from DK's that a seller on Beckett was trying to move. Wilson 1/1's from the set go for about $10-15 for non auto versions, which this was. The seller wanted $75, and wouldn't budge. It's now 5 years later, and I still see the card listed by the same seller on ebay, still with an excessively high BIN.

 

[AmishDave]

You guys realize these absurd prices are created for people that've won previous auctions.

If you win 3 of the 4 Utley Plates for under 50 bucks, that last plate is probably worth 200 bucks to you. Meanwhile, it's only worth 50 to someone else.

If the seller wanted to sell it via auction, I'm sure he would. There's a reason the seller didn't list it at auction, and that reason probably has something to do with him wanting more for the card than the auctions were currently fetching.

A BIN should be about 10-20% higher than the highest you've ever seen that card, and unless the player has really flopped, it should stay there.

If one moron was willing to pay 200 bucks for this product when it was hot, then eventually you'll find another moron.

While the bolded part is true for a 1/1 plate or just a plain 1/1, the card I have in question is one #'d/35, so it isn't exactly the rare of the rare.

I try to be nothing like some of these seller's I've encountered. I'll check eBay if I'm selling something, just to gauge what price to start off with, but I ALWAYS say that there is wiggle room if you believe the price is unacceptable.

Another couple examples are the '06 Sweet Spot Sweet Beginnings Patch of Johnson and the '06 Ultimate Game Signatures of Johnson. One is #'d/35 and the other has a stated print run of 35. One auction was for $37.50 BIN (no BO) and the other was $40 or BO.

The SS Patch I offered $35 shipped in June of last year (again, the BIN was $37.50). I told the seller that I had been scooping these up for an average of $26 and asked if he could do $35 shipped on it. He said, "The best I could do is $37.50 on this card". Again, it's a matter of $2.50, but, to me, that's not the point. I'd love to have the card, but I'm not going to overpay on a card I have 12 copies of.

The Ultimate was a baffling auction. The BIN/BO was $40. I believe it's still up. I offered $37 and was rejected automatically. Seriously. Why have a best offer option up if you're going to be that picky and stingy. Just let the auction be a BIN and don't waste bidder's time if you can't or don't want to have any room for negotiation.

 

[RL24]

I had 5 Mirror Blacks of Jason Jennings, and the 6th popped up for $100 on ebay. I really wanted it, but I had paid between $10-$20 for the rest of them. Not because I won them at 4am, but because they are cards of Jason Jennings. It took me a whole year to talk this guy down to $40.

/\
This One

It does have the nicest patch, but not worth $100. There is a 7th and final black from the set which I have given up on ever finding...

 

[JackLondon]

Tough to reason with sellers sometimes. Best you can do is make a good faith offer, leaving a little wiggle room to go somewhat higher if the seller counteroffers. But then, as others said, it is the seller's option.

Was watching a postcard in an ebay store for over a year. It had been listed at $13 for the entire time. I offered $8 since that was, in my opinion, all it was worth. Seller never counteroffered, but within a couple hours of my offer being submitted, raised the store listing price to $23!! Never answered my offer, just let it expire.

To this day, it is still sitting in the seller's store for $23 and I have decided to look elsewhere for the postcard.

 

[matfanofold]

The only way to reason with a seller is to hit the bin or make an offer. There is no other reasonable options. They could care less about your intention or monitary viability being imposed. Anything else, like comparing what they have to what you have seen or purchased, or trying to 'educate' a seller is just unreasonable. If you cant afford, do not want to spend, or will not spend what is being asked, make an offer. If it's accepted, great! If not, move on... Simple really.

 

[Pine Tar]

Tough to reason with sellers sometimes. Best you can do is make a good faith offer, leaving a little wiggle room to go somewhat higher if the seller counteroffers. But then, as others said, it is the seller's option.

Was watching a postcard in an ebay store for over a year. It had been listed at $13 for the entire time. I offered $8 since that was, in my opinion, all it was worth. Seller never counteroffered, but within a couple hours of my offer being submitted, raised the store listing price to $23!! Never answered my offer, just let it expire.

To this day, it is still sitting in the seller's store for $23 and I have decided to look elsewhere for the postcard.

Andrew I offered the guy 8.50 for the very same postcard and he countered 2 days later with a offer of 16.50 and like you say it is still there and know one has bought it yet. Note If I won it I was going to send it to you.

 

[JackLondon]

Tough to reason with sellers sometimes. Best you can do is make a good faith offer, leaving a little wiggle room to go somewhat higher if the seller counteroffers. But then, as others said, it is the seller's option.

Was watching a postcard in an ebay store for over a year. It had been listed at $13 for the entire time. I offered $8 since that was, in my opinion, all it was worth. Seller never counteroffered, but within a couple hours of my offer being submitted, raised the store listing price to $23!! Never answered my offer, just let it expire.

To this day, it is still sitting in the seller's store for $23 and I have decided to look elsewhere for the postcard.

Andrew I offered the guy 8.50 for the very same postcard and he countered 2 days later with a offer of 16.50 and like you say it is still there and know one has bought it yet. Note If I won it I was going to send it to you.

Still can't believe he sent you a counteroffer! :lol:

I am watching it, hoping it drops back to $12 or less. The other deal I thought I had for the same postcard with a dealer online (non-ebay)fell through! :evil: