Making Offers on non OBO BIN's

SuperDave,
What's your ebay name so we can block you, haha.

 

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Let's flip this. Anyone ever had a buyer telling you you're asking too little and offered to pay more?

 

Wouldn't matter; I rarely sell much any more.

No more than 5% of my offerings over the last 16 years have been other than straight auctions with a 99 cent start, anyway. I provide professional images and simple, accurate copy and the auctions normally take care of themselves. If I impose any limitation whatsoever, it's almost always a consignment and the owner's wishes are being protected. Like I said, no wiggle room.

If, OTOH, a seller does nothing but set prices, one might believe them more approachable. And I would approach them that way. An astute buyer also notices a seller who mixes fixed prices and Best Offers, and doesn't clog the seller's time management with offers on coins he clearly didn't want offers for. Y'all do vet every seller you haven't dealt with before, right? Records men nothing - some of Ebay's largest coin sellers are people who make us queasy.

See? A normal world where nothing is black and white, even the appropriate timing of a purchase offer.

 

The difference at the grocery store is thwy

@John Anthony gave me more than I was asking on a coin I sold here a while back and said he still thought it was a bargain. First and only time that's ever happened to me.

 

I don't see anything wrong with sending the seller a polite message to the effect of "Would you be willing to take $REASONABLE_OFFER for this coin?" eBay provides a messaging facility for a reason. Worst case, you get blocked from buying from that particular seller (which might be ok anyway because their stuff is overpriced to begin with). A more likely case is the seller says "Sorry, the BIN is as low as I can go," or comes back with a counteroffer.

I've negotiated in person with plenty of dealers that had fixed price stickers on their coins. They don't always come down on the price, but nobody's ever been offended by the attempt.

 

Well, you WERE asking too little for that coin, even if you got it at a bargain. I've done it one other time - some poor kid on eBay listed two coins at a 99-cent auction and I won $40 worth of coins for $4. i sent him $20 along with some advice as to how to set up a better auction.

Money tends to control peoples' hearts, and can sometimes make them very small and petty. I'm not saying you shouldn't be very careful with money, but there is a time to penny-pinch and a time to be generous.

 

I have bought many a coin from a dealer. In virtually every case I have been able to get it lower than the sticker price. They know what they need to show a profit on the deal.

 

I see no problem as long as you don't low ball them and have had success like what was said earlier they know what they need to profit . Nothing gained by not trying especially if I want that coin!

 

Low balling is amateurish and likely will encourage the dealer to move on to the next customer.

 

Excuse me poor choice of words.(Make offer) I would never insult it's not in my upbringing or nature and these folks are friends.

 

Too many variables to give a yes or no answer. That said generally not nickel and dimming people will get you better treatment from close dealers. It also depends on the price, haggling a bit on a 4 figure coin is one thing, if its like 20 dollars though that just screams problem buyer whether you are or not.

As far as haggling being a part of the hobby, that seems to be more in person and at shows. A lot of times the difference in price online is the fees sellers pay to the venue and shipping costs people often forget. If you politely ask for a slight discount it can work, but a lot of ebay buyers ask for insane discounts in a very rude way which turns off a lot of sellers from haggling.

 

I have made offers. Some have worked, some have not. I typically do it when I think the BIN is too high.

I'm currently contemplating doing just that right now. Problem is, the BIN is about $200 too high in my opinion. Listed in the `$750 range and auction archives say coin should in the $550 range on the high side. He/She have had it listed for weeks now. I don't want to make an embarrassingly low offer, but at the price they want, the coin simply isn't worth it. So I'm just watching it.

 

There are some coins I've been watching on Ebay for YEARS. The prices are ridiculous. About once a year, I make a reasonable offer. I have to think eventually they'll cut their losses, or see reality, and sell me the coin. One example, when one seller first bought a coin I was interested in, I offered him a fair price for it. He decided to list it for $2k above what I thought was reasonable - 3 years ago. He has come down a bit, but we're still a grand apart, and it is still sitting there.

Unless the price is absolutely absurd, I usually try to limit my offer to about 15% under what they have it listed for (and will generally accept a counteroffer at 10% off). If the 15% off doesn't get me to a price I'm willing to pay, I just keep moving.

I've found that either the seller paid way too high a price for the coin (and is thus unwilling to take a loss), or the seller is trying to make a killing on the coin, and will wait for a sucker rather than not get as much profit as he was hoping for.

 

I agree, has anyone ever bought a new or used car ?? Did you always pay the asking price

 

One thing to consider is that you guys are a much more refined buying demographic than a large plurality (maybe a majority) of the coin-buying public. You know coins, you know values, and you generally don't do ridiculous lowballs. My experience with folks who make unasked-for offers is where I come by that statistic. If I got, say, 50 of those offers over the years, 40-45 of them were contemptuous and bore no resemblance to real-world values. People just_don't do it the way you're talking about.

How many of you expressing opinions have been on the receiving end of those offers?

 

Dave, I completely understand what you are saying. There is a reason I don't work in sales, or customer service, or a profession where I have to deal with people. I couldn't handle it.

 

And I've worked my whole career in such areas. Obviously, it's had a bearing on my attitude.

 

From reading this thread I am sensing a lot of concern about giving or receiving low ball offers. Although a true low ball may be insulting to a seller, as a buyer I am insulted by the sheer number of "high ball" asking prices for the overwhelming majority of eBay listings. This is not just for BIN listings but also for auctions with ridiculously high starting bids, oftentimes 25-50 percent or more in excess of previously realized prices. I'm tired of having to sort through 95 percent of all listings to find the small percentage that are fairly priced. In my opinion this is a much bigger problem than the "low ball offers" that sellers are so quick to get their panties in a bunch over.

 

If I think an EBay seller is seeking too much for a coin, there are almost always other sellers with a competitive price. In case there aren't for a particular coin, there are other auctions and dealers. A bit of patience, and I can get what I want at a fair price. Shopping around is part of the fun.

 

The "high ball" sellers on ebay is as big a peeve for me as the sellers that buff all of their coins. I tend to exclude both groups from my saved searches.