This was from a month and a half and I no longer have the conversation but I wanted to share it.
This happened on the dutch site marktplaats.nl which is like Craigslist but for people in the Netherlands.
I listed a duplicate shiny Eevee from Hidden Fates on the site for 10 euros which was around the market price for it at that time, the shipping was listed at 1 euro as that is how much one post stamp costs. Yes it’s not normal to ship things for free here, you list it with shipping.
I even had bids off which I have on all my ads as people on that site place absolutely preposterous bids on things.
There’s a Cosmic Eclipse booster box up for sale for a while now there with bids on and the first 5 bids were something like 35, 40, 50, 60, 75 with the highest being 85. People really cheap out here and want to extract the cheapest deal with their slimy little hands.
Suddenly this obvious child messages me with:
“Hello, I am a huge fan of Eevee and want this card. Can you please sell it to me for 7 euros including shipping?”
Now I know that 10 euros → 7 euros is not that big of a difference. However if you consider that I’d be paying for the shipping, he was basically asking me to sell him the card for 6 euros. That’s a 40% difference between my ad which had bids off and his bid that he sent through a message because apparently people are so desperate for good deals that they infiltrate your messages that are meant for offers at asking price only when bids are off.
I just told him “no, I cannot do that as it would be almost half of a decrease in profit for me on this card”.
Now up till now, it wasn’t that bad but the next message really ticked me off.
He made some kind of temper tantrum in the messages saying something like this across 2 messages:
“What? But 7 euros is a good offer no???” (with this many question marks)
“And for 10 euros I can just get a booster pack?? This card is second hand (used)??”
The clear ignorance at single cards in Pokemon ALWAYS being second hand and that there is literally no other way to buy a single card as Pokemon cards cannot come outside of some kind of packaging when it comes to like 99% of all cards really pissed me off. It’d been one thing if he just accepted that I wasn’t going to lower the price for him and left or tried to renegotiate, but the rude temper tantrum at the price I listed the card and how he “might as well buy booster packs for this price” made me quite annoyed.
My only response was “then buy a booster pack” and then I blocked him.
You’re better off not even responding to people like that. It will save you quite a bit of frustration.
But yeah. The ever-growing amount of people who seriously think they are entitled to things is both maddening and frightening at the same time.
The scariest part is that these people are not always kids. You would be very surprised how many adults do this, which is why it would not shock me if the person who messaged you was not even a child.
I did that once when I was selling my old iphone 5s last year because I got a new phone.
I listed it for 75 euros which was about the asking price for most of them, mine was also in a way better condition than most and had 0 cracks…
Nobody was actually offering 75 euros and they were all offering way less so I just decreased it.
I ended up getting rid of it for 50 euros because I was getting absurd offers all the time.
50% of the offers were like 35 euros, 25% were below that with absurd offers like 20 euros for something listed at 50 euros and then then final buyer was some nice guy who just wanted to buy a phone for his daughter’s birthday. I did have one potential buyer at 50 euros before that but she was being very annoying by being unclear about when she could come pick it up and then she was going to pick it up twice and messaged me an hour after the appointed time saying “sorry I forgot” once and then “sorry I’m at work” another time.
For the ridiculous offers I actually started replying with things like “I can do (amount like 20% higher than my asking price) for you.” because I was getting really annoyed.
Haha. That’s one of the most contradicting things I’ve ever heard.
But marktplaats is indeed full of cheapskates (mainly because Dutch people in general are cheapskates I guess). It’s not extremely bad, and I’ve sold through marktplaats a few times for the prices listed. But people would indeed just bid 5 euros for items everyone in their right mind knows are worth 100+ euros for example. Even through marktplaats is bought by the same company who owns eBay, the way auction work are different in most cases (mainly because the website already existed when eBay bought it).
Anyway, I think your response is on point. It clearly is someone who doesn’t know how singles work. Just a waste of time.
I rather get a knife and cut into my own manhood than try to sell Pokemon cards on Marktplaats. Other items go fine but cards… always getting low ball offers, nobody wants to pay shipping and somehow everybody wanna pick up at my door “because I have been scammed in the past”. No sir, I sell stuff online so I don’t have to deal with people in person.
List your stuff on CardMarket , steer away from Marktplaats.
I completely understand @sophieexmachina! I understand trying to get a good deal, who doesn’t? When they ask 50% of the asking price, that is just a slap in the face. Someone tried doing that to me when I was selling my car, just ridiculous…
It just gets really obnoxious when literally everyone who messages you tries to “get a deal” while you have bids off specifically and listed that shipping is not included. It’s obnoxious especially on smaller items because that 1 euro shipping for a card being included can mean a 20% discount.
If it happened with less regularity I would be much more accepting of it and would just brush it off, but the fact that literally most people on Marktplaats are cheapskates kind of tires me out.
Then there’s also that this person was not only trying to get a ridiculous discount, but also got mad when I refused the offer and said that it was a “good offer” and that my card wasn’t worth its market value because it’s secondhand which is both entitled and ignorant.
I usually sell on Cardmarket, it’s just that I often post the cards on Marktplaats too because on Cardmarket I only have 5 sales meaning that people aren’t as inclined to pick me over other sellers. On Marktplaats it’s a bit easier to sell sometimes, once you sift through all the cheapskates.
Marktplaats is the reason I have my own store now.
Selling on Marktplaats is simply not worth your time because of all the ‘buyers’ who want cool stuff for nothing. There are good people on Marktplaats, but the vast majority is simply wasting your time and messing it up for the genuine people, who are also steering clear of Marktplaats more and more. Not to mention the people that bid and don’t pay or won’t show up to pick it up.
But if time is on your side; sure, sift through all the cheapskates in search of the one person that is willing to pay your price (which isn’t even outlandishly high most of the time). But I’d rather buy a card from somebody with 5 positive feedback on Cardmarket over trying to buy something off of Marktplaats altogether.
I only have the issue with cheapskates, low-ballers, non-payers when dealing with cards on Marktplaats.
I’ve sold my complete Gamecube and Playstation collection on Marktplaats since May-ish. And I learned the easy trick; if you receive an offer you think is good enough just smack them right in the fact with a “Gelijk Oversteken” payment request. If they take it; you’re good. If not, move on to next bidder. Haven’t sold any of my consoles, games or related items for anything less than 90% of my listed price.
Another kind of item I suggest not selling; complete comic/manga series. You’ll receive 10 messages a day if you are willing to sell of volume X Y and Z because they only miss those.
I only use MP for real expensive items (+1k in euro’s) and not only does that scare away the cheapskates but also there’s no fee’s at all! I get to keep the money instead of playing some % of the sale tot MP/eBay; ultimatly the website offers free selling/advertising, so you won’t hear me complaining about stupidBuyers (you’ll keep those anyway when selling such low priced cards, no matter the platform you sell on)
