General Forum

Now that I feel like back into the swing of things navigating the internet in search of cards, I am seeing more and more sellers not pricing but asking to give them an offer. I would understand if it's something that's not offered for sale, but it's a red flag to me that a dealer/seller does that (not a collector that isn't necessarily selling) Is that considered normal these days? Lol even when I did some research (bin, past sales) and offered what I felt was fair.....the seller responded with nope and that was it.

I've had horrible times with these on FB marketplace, once they know you're interested they seem to look up the highest listing on eBay to use.  I don't think I've ever bought something when they don't have a price listed.

Yes, they are all over. Many of them are looking to get pandemic pricing for their stuff and hope a fool will come along. This buyer, new to the hobby and not really knowing better, trips over themselves offering something that is many times more than what they should. Heck on eBay some aren't even hiding it. Offering a binder of "rare" early 90s cards for nearly $1000.

The other ones I like are the Vintage cards, Then when you look at them and its Pro set and Score from the early 90's. I usually ask them what is the lowest they would take. Then when they reply, Depending on how much they say. But usually I then say, Thats more than i was thinking and give them my price. Does it work..... Not very often as alot have looked at E-Bay and think all cards are the same.

Goodness, I had forgotten about that. Indeed, I "love" how many are using vintage for these cards. Yes, granted they ARE ~30 years old, but come on. Oh, yeah, takes just one fool...

Yep, Its really funny when you look all excited , Than realize you already have 100 dupes of the ones he wants top dollar for.

When I'm selling here I always ask the buyer to set a price.  Why??

1.  I know a lot of us have budgets to stay within.

2.  I want to be fair

3.  I want to get the cards to collectors not resellers and most of us here are collectors

I do understand a lot of buyers do not want to be the 1st to set a price.  Some will lowball just to get it started.

I do exactly the same for the same reasons. I've accepted nearly every price offered b/c it was completely fair IMO. There was one member who offered too much and I countered back lowering the price of his offer. Since he is young and pretty new to the hobby, I didn't want to rip him off even though he made the offer. I would have felt bad about taking advantage of him. A 4th reason for asking a buyer to make me an offer is that it lets me know what the cards are worth to them. If it's a fair offer, I'll take it. If it's too low, I'll counter. But I don't sell on ebay or other sales sites. On those I would just set my price or put it up for bidding.

I understand why you do it, I was thinking along the lines of dealers/resellers. It may be an odd analogy but is someone asks me to cook bbq for them, as long as I cover costs I'm good, but you don't go to a BBQ joint and have them say ....shoot me a price! Lol

Well, that BBQ place knows what it costs them to prepare the food and still make a profit without charging so much that nobody will buy it. Cards is more like going to a yard sale or flea market. They may have a price on an item, but it's negotiable. And there's a reason that store-bought price stickers for yard sales and such include "MAKE OFFER" stickers along with the ones with actual numbers on them. In any type of collectibles, the seller needs to know what someone is willing to pay for the item(s) b/c the value is pretty fluid for many collectibles. Even with ebay sellers, I know some that will ask for an offer without OBO being in their listing. The reason is that if they do it outside of ebay, they get the money and cut out the ebay fees. But I only do this with sellers that I know well and trust. Many sellers will list something higher to cover fees from ebay and Paypal but will accept less if they still get the amount they actually want, whether that is on ebay or not. Also, if they have a listing that's been riding for a while without selling, they are much more likely to take a lower price just to stop having it get re-listed over and over with little interest.