Why some COMC Sellers drive me absolutely up the freaking wall

[uniquebaseballcards]

Except that this is SUPER-illegal in any other marketplace on earth. Think about it. You can't walk into Foot Locker for a pair of Jordans and when you get to the desk they say, "Well, there's four people in line behind you that want these too, I think I'm going to charge you 20% more." If this was applied to oil gasoline would be $10.00/gallon.

I hope this ass-hat is at least incurring fees for this.

You're right in that the gas place can't do it in - but only when there's a crisis - and only in some jurisdictions I believe (I could be wrong). My understanding is that Footlocker can do this all they want unfortunately.

But you're right gouging can be against the law!

 

[Dilferules]

The difference is that he didn't offer to buy it at the price the seller was asking, then the seller raised the price. He offered to buy it at a lower price then the seller raised the price. Still a wiener move, but not the same as Foot Locker jacking up the price when people are in line attempting to pay the marked price.

Also there are laws about not gouging for gas because it's a resource many people need. I'm sure the OP doesn't need those baseball cards in order to survive.

 

[sheetskout]

The difference is that he didn't offer to buy it at the price the seller was asking, then the seller raised the price. He offered to buy it at a lower price then the seller raised the price. Still a wiener move, but not the same as Foot Locker jacking up the price when people are in line attempting to pay the marked price.

Also there are laws about not gouging for gas because it's a resource many people need. I'm sure the OP doesn't need those baseball cards in order to survive.

You bring up a good point, but I think we can both agree that this is obviously not ethical.

 

[sheetskout]

You're right in that the gas place can't do it in - but only when there's a crisis - and only in some jurisdictions I believe (I could be wrong). My understanding is that Footlocker can do this all they want unfortunately.

But you're right gouging can be against the law!

Actually, in this specific case, Nike by contract will not allow any reseller to adjust their pricing before a certain time frame. Nike, in this case, sets the retail price of Jordan's to avoid FootLocker being able to price-gouge.

Can you imagine Apple jacking the price of IPhone 6's or something based on demand? The SEC would be all over their ass immediately.

 

[vwnut13]

I never buy stuff on COMC unless it is listed at a price I am willing to pay.

I'm not going to load a bunch of money into COMC only to find out that seller won't budge on their 2x market value listing price.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

I never buy stuff on COMC unless it is listed at a price I am willing to pay.

I'm not going to load a bunch of money into COMC only to find out that seller won't budge on their 2x market value listing price.

You can get it back within minutes.

 

[ballerskrip]

You can get it back within minutes.

Can you elaborate por favor?

 

[Dilferules]

You bring up a good point, but I think we can both agree that this is obviously not ethical.

Sure. What I have had happen that's MORE unethical is that you say offer $4 on a card listed for $5, then the seller counters at $5 and raises their list price to $8 at the same time. So if you're not paying attention it looks like he's being very generous and meeting you more than halfway on your offer.

 

[ballerskrip]

Sure. What I have had happen that's MORE unethical is that you say offer $4 on a card listed for $5, then the seller counters at $5 and raises their list price to $8 at the same time. So if you're not paying attention it looks like he's being very generous and meeting you more than halfway on your offer.

Sadly, I have had this happen many times as well

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Can you elaborate por favor?

If you add money to your COMC account, you can get it back -- as long as you haven't sold anything -- within 30 days by requesting a refund. The money is returned within minutes/hours with no paypal fees or service charges.

I've done it numerous times without problem - add $200, buy crap, negotiate for a few days, let Scottsautographs be a complete ********* and raise his prices when I make my offers, get $50-75-100 returned to my paypal account after I request the refund. There's a link for it on the main dashboard page.

 

[RiceLynnEvans75]

Can sellers jack the price WHILE offers are on the table or does there have to be no offers when they increase the price? Only bought a couple of things about a year ago so I don't know how that works.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Can sellers jack the price WHILE offers are on the table or does there have to be no offers when they increase the price? Only bought a couple of things about a year ago so I don't know how that works.

The pending offers have no effect on the ability to raise prices.

 

[RiceLynnEvans75]

The pending offers have no effect on the ability to raise prices.

Ah OK, thanks. Yeah, definitely messed up.

 

[smapdi]

I have bought of comc several times but only straight purchases. I wouldn't deal with someone who raised his price after rejecting a reasonable offer, that just silly. Unless his buy price was below market value and I was really trying to bottom feed. But imagine your at a card show or shop and a card is sitting in the case with a price on it. You offer 75% of x. The dealer says no and then pulls out the pricing gun. Would you look at that guy's stuff a minute longer?

 

[Brewer Andy]

I've never made an offer ok COMC and I buy there a lot. I figure haggling is for eBay. On a site like COMC, if a seller wants to sell me a card he'll mark it at a price I'll pay for it (or someone else would)

 

[sabrgeek]

The last response is very reasonable. A few things as a COMC seller. If anyone offers me 10-20 percent off my price that is 99 percent of the time an automatic accept. I don't want to be mean to the same type of deal I would give a pleasant person at a show. However, in this specific case, my first inclination is to see how the player is doing, his age, etc. If someone offered me money for all my cards of prospect x -- I'd research and then see what to do. If the player looks like he is on the upwards track, I would frankly do exactly what the seller did in this case. That is called anticipation a price increase. If, on the other hand, the guy in question is in his 30's I would probably accept and move on. I always figure someone knows more than I do. I had a 1961 Topps Skowron (a very difficult card) that I sent to COMC and put out at the price I'd sell it for. When I received an offer for half of that, I did get upset and then goosed up my price so the offer would be closer to what I really wanted for that card. Last summer I had someone very sharp who noticed I had some Topps gold cards of Pedro Ciriciano (sic) the Red Sox infielder who had like 7 hits in a double header. I was picked off of those cards and the purchaser was smart enough not to make an offer which might have tipped me off to the upcoming value increase.

Long-winded here, but remember it is *NOT* always the seller fault. I could rehash my Topps Black Noah Lowry story again as well

Rich

 

[nappyd]

The last response is very reasonable. A few things as a COMC seller. If anyone offers me 10-20 percent off my price that is 99 percent of the time an automatic accept. I don't want to be mean to the same type of deal I would give a pleasant person at a show. However, in this specific case, my first inclination is to see how the player is doing, his age, etc. If someone offered me money for all my cards of prospect x -- I'd research and then see what to do. If the player looks like he is on the upwards track, I would frankly do exactly what the seller did in this case. That is called anticipation a price increase. If, on the other hand, the guy in question is in his 30's I would probably accept and move on. I always figure someone knows more than I do. I had a 1961 Topps Skowron (a very difficult card) that I sent to COMC and put out at the price I'd sell it for. When I received an offer for half of that, I did get upset and then goosed up my price so the offer would be closer to what I really wanted for that card. Last summer I had someone very sharp who noticed I had some Topps gold cards of Pedro Ciriciano (sic) the Red Sox infielder who had like 7 hits in a double header. I was picked off of those cards and the purchaser was smart enough not to make an offer which might have tipped me off to the upcoming value increase.

Long-winded here, but remember it is *NOT* always the seller fault. I could rehash my Topps Black Noah Lowry story again as well

Rich

Who's Noah Lowry?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Freedom Card Board mobile app

 

[theplasticman]

I get where you are coming from, but these are cards that are selling for $3-4 on ebay. So my initial offer of $5 was far from low balling or a slap in face type offer. What I don't get is this, why not counter? Why not counter me with what you really want and go from there? Also, I offered the same prices to other sellers who gladly accepeted me "fair" offer.

I wish I had more offers from buyers like you. Normally I get automatic offers of 1/2 of my asking price... on cards I have priced according to ebay prices... making their offers far below going rate LOL. Annoying.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

I wish I had more offers from buyers like you. Normally I get automatic offers of 1/2 of my asking price... on cards I have priced according to ebay prices... making their offers far below going rate LOL. Annoying.

COMC always used to be a place to get stuff cheaper than eBay. I rarely offer eBay prices on COMC.

 

[Crewfan82]

COMC always used to be a place to get stuff cheaper than eBay. I rarely offer eBay prices on COMC.

And you sir are why comc sellers jack up their prices to avoid lowball below market value offers.