There is a firefly redemption card for sale on the bay now .
Seller asking $59.95 or Offer I offered $55 and was rejected up came a sign that if my offer is $74 the seller would be interested .
If this is the case why has the seller asked for $59.95

In the past i always assumed that if the seller said or best offer he meant he would accept a lesser price but i now realise that sometimes the seller means a much higher offer than he has started it at.

Why on earth people don't just ask for what they want is beyond me, if i want £20 for my item i would just say so not put £10 and refuse to talk to anyone who does not offer me £20.

It is not make best offer .
Just says make offer.
And I think that my offer was a good one at $55 with the exchange rate that is approx $100NZ.
Mind you it is quiet a rare card.

quote:

Why on earth people don't just ask for what they want is beyond me, if i want £20 for my item i would just say so not put £10 and refuse to talk to anyone who does not offer me £20.

Unfortunately, eBay has become a marketplace where both buyers and sellers often behave like sheep. Many buyers have grown accustomed to "standing in line" and watching items, hoping—or rather expecting—that the seller will eventually send an offer, even when the item is listed as Buy It Now (BIN) with no option to make an offer.

As a seller, I frequently receive ridiculous offers, despite not enabling the "make an offer" feature. This is exactly what eBay wants. It’s part of their strategy to push members toward negotiated pricing, even at the cost of wasting sellers’ time with irrelevant or outright rude messages from overly aggressive buyers. I truly believe that most buyers now expect a discount, regardless of whether an item is clearly listed as a fixed-price BIN—and eBay’s policies have only helped normalize this behavior.

eBay doesn’t care about sellers. Their priority is the volume of sales, not the individual value of those sales. In fact, they actively encourage buyers to ignore BIN prices by suggesting they contact sellers directly, just in case the seller is desperate enough to accept a lower offer. To make matters worse, eBay fills a seller’s listing page with sponsored alternatives—often ten or more similar items—pressuring sellers to compete on price and accept lowball offers just to keep up.

Fortunately, I’m a collector slowly selling off his personal promo card collection, not a full-time dealer reliant on eBay to make a living. I can only imagine how frustrating this system must be for dealers selling more common inventory. Many of them are essentially forced to offer deep discounts just to cover basic expenses like rent, electricity, insurance, and food. I suspect that quite a few sellers have resorted to artificially inflating their BIN prices just to create wiggle room for sending out offers or accepting price-reduction requests.

I despise eBay’s business model, but sadly, it remains the only viable platform for buying and selling trading cards on a large scale.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: promoking, April 12, 2025 07:59 PM

quote:

Originally posted by promoking:


As a seller, I frequently receive ridiculous offers

Just curious -- at what level of discount do you find an offer to be "ridiculous"? When I respond to a "Or Best Offer" listing, I typicaly will offer 85-90% of the listed price (and have pretty good luck with that offer being accepted).

I recently ran across some items listed at about $100 that I think are worth about $20. I don't figure that there's any sense in making an offer of 20%, though, it will just get rejected and the seller will probably block me.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by promoking:


As a seller, I frequently receive ridiculous offers

Just curious -- at what level of discount do you find an offer to be "ridiculous"? When I respond to a "Or Best Offer" listing, I typicaly will offer 85-90% of the listed price (and have pretty good luck with that offer being accepted).

That's a loaded but excellent question.

Irrespective of the unsolicited low-ball offers on BINs, sometimes 70% to 80% below the asking price, what I consider ridiculous offers on "or best offer" listings are the buyers that request a minimum 40% discount. I think that most sellers would consider a 10 or 15 percent discount as reasonable and fair. You may even want to be adventurous and offer a 20% discount. That would not be ridiculous either.

Some others will say, "But I only paid x to another seller for the other card in the set, which I'm missing, why can't I buy it from you for that price?" That is annoying.

Other than that, I must confess that most buyers are decent and honorable people who understand the effort and time it takes to create a listing and will not try to take advantage. What I enjoy the most, and that's perhaps because of the type of niche items I sell, are the myriad little conversations I regularly have with passionate collectors that most posters on this board didn't know were out there! There are so many people, even just in the USA, that have no idea this forum and its valuable archives exist.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by promoking:


As a seller, I frequently receive ridiculous offers

Just curious -- at what level of discount do you find an offer to be "ridiculous"? When I respond to a "Or Best Offer" listing, I typicaly will offer 85-90% of the listed price (and have pretty good luck with that offer being accepted).

Any offer below 40 percent of the asking price is, in my opinion, ridiculous. you would be amazed at the number of people who truly do low-ball. Your range is reasonable and fair.

I'm not trying to be "reasonable and fair", just trying to be realistic about what may get accepted.

When you sell something, I expect that you are knowledgeable about the value and market for your items, and I'd be surprised to see you offer something at an outrageously high price.

But much of what I seek is offered by people who have no idea of a reasonable market value for the item, and they list at multiples of realistic value. So if I make an offer that is "fair and reasonable" to me, they might think it is ridiculous.

The goal is to find a price we both can agree on, and that isn't always possible.

I wouldn't ask for a 50% discount even if I've seen the item going unsold for months (or over a year). I think the only exception might be something over maybe $200 or more that has been sitting for over a year but I still haven't done that because 50% is too much.

I see a comic with oddball promos right now at at about $60 but it's about a $10 maybe $15 item. I've seen it for maybe 2 years now and the seller lowered the price from around $80 about a year ago. I might go to $30 but an offer like that would likely be an insult unless the seller is just fishing for a novice.

If something is priced at $20, for example, I might offer $16 so I didn't just jump to 25% off. Maybe the seller sees that and says, "Hey, this guy is trying to make a fair offer" and at least thinks about it.

One thing I didn't like at all is that when I was selling a watch for my brother. I think he had it at $325 and a seller was interested. We negotiated to $300 but then he wanted to know if I'd take $280 after we had settled on $300. At that point, I doubted he was a serious buyer and didn't answer and I didn't hear back.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by promoking:


As a seller, I frequently receive ridiculous offers

Just curious -- at what level of discount do you find an offer to be "ridiculous"? When I respond to a "Or Best Offer" listing, I typicaly will offer 85-90% of the listed price (and have pretty good luck with that offer being accepted).

I recently ran across some items listed at about $100 that I think are worth about $20. I don't figure that there's any sense in making an offer of 20%, though, it will just get rejected and the seller will probably block me.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by catskilleagle:
One thing I didn't like at all is that when I was selling a watch for my brother. I think he had it at $325 and a seller was interested. We negotiated to $300 but then he wanted to know if I'd take $280 after we had settled on $300. At that point, I doubted he was a serious buyer and didn't answer and I didn't hear back.


Apologies, Piko, for hijacking your thread.

Catskill, that's precisely the type of shenanigans and other schemes that constantly take place on eBay.

That is ok Albert
Why the seller just dosent ask for the price instead of asking for an offer ?
And then not accept what I think is a reasonable offer I dont know! but we all want sonething cheaper.
However I am still thinking of purchasing the item at asking price if available when I do.

quote:

Originally posted by piko:
That is ok Albert
Why the seller just dosent ask for the price instead of asking for an offer ?
And then not accept what I think is a reasonable offer I dont know! but we all want sonething cheaper.
However I am still thinking of purchasing the item at asking price if available when I do.

I'm with you on that one Piko. It is like the housing market in the USA. Sellers will list a house at an amount, let's say $100,000. You will put in an offer at asking, the $100,000. They will say "no, give us another offer". Like, if you wanted more put more on the advertising!!! I just don't get it. I understand if there are other offers on the house, but a lot of the times there aren't. I just don't understand.

This is getting weirder by the day
The seller has now put the price down to $US49.95
BIN.
Upon trying again to purchase it at this price up comes a message (the seller dose not wish to deal with you)
I realise that a seller can refuse a offer I have offered them $5 less than asked at $60 refused , then when price is reduced to under that refuse to sell to me.
Was it because I asked about it on this forum or what

Regarding this item it has not yet sold and due to the exchange rate fluctiation has now gond down in price to $US 49.95
I have now tried to buy it at this pricebut am blocked by a mesage the seller dose not want to sell to younow

If it were me, I'd open an ebay account under another name and buy it.

Are we talking about the punched A10 in the UK?

That once happened to a friend of mine. He received a mysterious message that the ebay seller didn't want to do business with him. Turns out the Seller saw him post on another forum complaining about the price of a different item

To Bill I did not know you could do that good idea.
To Wolfie it is USA
I think the seller is just testing the market and dose not really want to sell
I seem to be the only person interested in it no one else has bid or made an offer and the only reason I want it is I am an Inkworks collector
but never mind it is what it is .
I also think that the seller could be a forum member and read my previous post about their reluctance to sell to me thus barring me from purchasing.
They can play around there will be one come up at a later date

I think that weird idea of expecting offers above asking is a misunderstanding by inexperienced sellers. Right, if you have people already bidding past the asking price, you understand it, but if no one else is offering more, the seller shouldn't push for a higher offer (essentially asking a buyer to outbid himself). Not taking the asking price is telling serious buyers you're not serious about selling.

quote:

Originally posted by Jessica:

quote:

Originally posted by piko:
That is ok Albert
Why the seller just dosent ask for the price instead of asking for an offer ?
And then not accept what I think is a reasonable offer I dont know! but we all want sonething cheaper.
However I am still thinking of purchasing the item at asking price if available when I do.

I'm with you on that one Piko. It is like the housing market in the USA. Sellers will list a house at an amount, let's say $100,000. You will put in an offer at asking, the $100,000. They will say "no, give us another offer". Like, if you wanted more put more on the advertising!!! I just don't get it. I understand if there are other offers on the house, but a lot of the times there aren't. I just don't understand.

Piko - message me the item and I will get it for you. Probably be cheaper skipping ebay's GSP this way.