Interesting how Rudy from Alpha Investments views buyers who constantly ask for more pictures and will examine cards “with a microscope”. He has recently said he won’t even reply to their messages and immediately blocks them from bidding on any of his auctions. He considers them “time wasting problems” that he has no time for cause they are more trouble than they’re worth.
What are your thoughts on this sensitive topic?
That’s his prerogative, and it is much easier for him to make that decision because he deals in a volume business. His time is much more valuable when it comes to how long he can spend dealing, than someone like myself.
In my experience, it is somewhat truth… I have had more problems with buyers who are nitpicking on raw/graded cards, which have clear photos on the listing than with any other type of buyer.
Generaly, if the deal is done, there will be some sort of questioning after reception and sometimes there is a return. But that is fine, I would sell again to someone who really appreciates the item.
I definitely don’t block them lol, but I do ignore them, more trouble than they’re worth
Magic and Pokemon are quite different when it comes to raws, Pokemon is all about condition where Magic still has that play ability factor. If its a sub $20 card yeah you will have a bad time if they want pictures, but when condition starts being 3 figures and higher for price different between grades then more pictures should probably be included in the listing by default - the potential buyers will all want them anyways at that point. Its not like with play set cards that will just get used in a deck anyways and the condition is a moot point.
I ignore people that constantly say they’re interested then don’t buy … but if it’s a higher end card and I know the person I’d happily take more photos for them
I think Rudy was highlighting that some buyers come in with a very negative persona when they want to purchase an item, and those people are certainly a waste of time. Obviously if someone asks politely for additional photos, there is nothing wrong with that. But when the buyer says something like «I’ll pay your price, but the card has to be spotless when I put it under a microscope», that’s a huge red flag and I would also block the buyer if I received a similar message.
Also, I can imagine that Rudy probably doesn’t have any extra time due to his massive work schedule, so he’d rather ignore the message, or block the buyer, instead of risking selling to a potential bad buyer. Can’t blame him.
Considering the scale he operates at, it was an inevitable progression for him.
Based on my experiences, a very good approach to take. Cull them out. Them people are especially prevalent on psa 9 cards, looking for a crack and resubmit 10 (flipper boyz).
Very wise way to conduct yourself especially if you are high volume.
I recall seeing this in a relatively recent video and 100% agree with his sentiment albeit to a slightly lesser extent. My block list is hundreds of users strong and grows nearly weekly. I’m glad the limit is 5,000. At his volume I couldn’t imagine he is probably nearing the limit. I have provided additional pictures for listings dozens of times in the past and so few of those turned into actual sales and of those more than one ended up returned or some other issue. I just very rarely do it anymore at all.
For reference this is the video Gary is talking about. Link This talk starts at about 17:30
He did another one a long time ago about how ~1% of his buyers don’t know their address. I see roughly this same rate. He had dozens if not hundreds of plain white envelopes in the background that were returned as non deliverable and between eBay, Paypal, shipping fees plus time wasted you are losing dollars on an order that you best case would have made only cents to dollars on. Those all get auto blocks from me too.
The Pareto principle is clearly visible when it comes to eBay problem transactions. 80% of issues come from 20% of buyers and the further extension of that is ~4% of buyers cause ~64% of issues and even further ~0.8% of buyers cause ~51.2% of issues. Blocking that less than 1% of bad buyers can relieve half the headaches.
That baffles me, regardless of 1% or that low the people don’t know their addresses…wtf…
I take a similar aproach, but I do have one exception. If the item is going overseas to a country that has to pay customs I’ll send additional images. The only reason I’ll do if for overseas packages instead of USA packages, is because my return rate on a package that has to pay customs is almost zero. Nobody wants to be out customs fees for nothing, so you’re ‘high risk’ buyer becomes less of a risk.
With that said I pretty much agree with most thoughts, I don’t provide extra images anymore. I’ve already got a high def image of the front and back of the card, and 99% of my inventory is PSA graded, so I’m not sure what an extra image is going to do. Most times it’s just a scammer that’s using my images and needs the extra image to prove to someone else they have my card. I can’t tell you how many times I get messages telling me that someone has posted my image on instagram or somewhere.
I also comply with people that ask me questions instead of asking for images. If someone asks is there a scratch on the foil or a similar question I’ll answer that question instead of a question asking for an image to show the foil is scratch free. I’ve found that typing out the damage makes the card seem 10x worse than it actually is, so if the buyer is still willing to pay for it after describing it, I don’t have as many issues as someone who sees an image.
Rudy was spot on about the buyer questioning his negative feedback. Anyone literally focusing on a negative right out of the gate is going to waste your time. Especially when you have thousands of positive transactions.
If you only sell a handful of items, it makes sense to play ball a bit more. But the market is so vast today that there will most likely be another buyer who isn’t pessimistic. The phrase “the customer is always right” isn’t license to be a terrible human. The internet allows for an unnatural level of negativity. Its best to ignore people who are needlessly negative.
From a seller’s perspective: I only received these questions for my binder lots, and ignored 100% of them. The amount of time it takes to set up my product camera, take a shot, import it into Lightroom, yadda yadda yadda is way too god damn long. There’s someone out there that will be willing to buy my lot without those photos, I just have to wait until they come around. From my sample size of 8 or so months selling, the binder always eventually sold. As a BIN seller, that’s just the name of the game, so I have no problem losing a few potential interested parties.
From a buyer’s perspective: I ask for additional pics all the time, rarely get them, and then when I do most of the time the focus and/or lighting is garbage. Because I’m buying to grade and not buying for a binder, I’m very choosy and won’t punt without additional pics unless the listing pics are compelling enough or the price is very low.
So thanks to all the sellers that do provide additional pics, but sorry not sorry I won’t return the same favor when the tables are turned 
I think its because grading is super important with pokemon cards across the board whereas MGT retain prices if they’re solid playable cards from various sets. Only the Alpha/Beta super old shit really matters when it comes to condition in MGT. There’s a razor thin line with a card being worth what someone is paying and someone getting duped. If it’s not something he wants to deal with then he should just stick to selling sealed and find his pokemon niche.
considering the volume of sales rudy is dealing with him I don’t blame him for not wanting to bother spending too much time trying to make 1 sale and risk issues later on.
that being said I’m one of these buyers who will ask for additional pictures, but I tend to do it only if there aren’t any pictures of the back of the card. Some people on ebay take absolutely HORRENDOUS pictures. Like 1 dark blurry picture of the front only. imo you’re doing yourself and the seller a disservice by purchasing a card with inadequate pictures and hoping it turns out, or not buying the card and not bothering to ask for additional pictures that may secure a sale for the seller.
Great insights.
Cullers hit on one of my concerns which is using my additional pics to scam others.
Swole is right on too. We often have differing opinions depending on whether we’re buying or selling.
I guess the bottom line is, the seller will eventually sell the card anyway so why deal with cherry pickers? The hassle. The time. It just may not be worth it.
This seems to apply to raw AND graded cards now. After all, even pack fresh cards get 8s and that’s all you’ll be left with (weak examples) if you accommodate cherry pickers.
I think all of us go a little further for our friends here on E4 but buyers should respect the sellers just as much too and try not to mess with them too much.
Last thought, a thousand dollar purchase may be handled differently than a hundred dollar buy.
I think that “microscope” bit is really just aimed at a certain extreme tier of buyers. He said that people literally say, “I’ll pay your $500 but it must be spotless. I want to put it under a microscope and if I find one dot, I’m opening a case.” This is not something you hear everyday from your average buyer. Asking for additional pictures is perfectly normal, but if they’re pressuring you to deliver them perfection “or else”, then I would believe they’re potentially more risk than reward. For myself, I would rather not deal with someone who is going to act like that.
This is a good point, with MTG which is Rudy’s core business the cards people buy are generally for play, the vast majority of buyers aren’t really anal about condition because they intend to play with the cards not grade them. The only time I’ve ever had problems with buyers when selling MTG are with the people Rudy described, it’s easier to not deal with them because the cards will sell anyway. The pictures issue only comes up with expensive cards which is understandable and I agree with, but Rudy is most likely talking about sub $100 modern playables.
Coming from MTG to Pokemon I’ve noticed it’s the reverse, people that want more pictures and fuss about condition are far more prevalent - probably because the majority of buyers want to grade raw cards so condition is extremely important, rather than play with them like with MTG. The downside of this is there’s a lot more returns on items because once in hand the buyer sees that it won’t get the grade they want, so they return it because eBay will always side with them. I don’t agree with the practice of ‘it doesn’t matter if I buy it because if it’s not a 10 candidate when I get it I’ll just return it’.
It’s as you say, people want pics because they want to mitigate their risk of loss when getting the cards graded. Asking for more pics means they don’t want to fuck with having to return items either. No one WANTS to have to deal with returns. Not buyers, not sellers. I feel like the people that have the attitude mentioned at the beginning just make a poor name for themselves rather quickly and become a nonfactor .