I have to think about this question more seriously as of late considering the prices of cards. Typically when I did listings in the past, I was selling cards that were usually worth less than $50. However, this is the first year where I’ve been making a few sales into the hundreds.
Typically I do auctions unless it’s a card I think that has a risk of getting lowballed and put a best offer option without an auction.
However recently, on my auctions, I’ve had people offer me large amounts of money on listings. Sometimes the offers seem too good to be true, sometimes it’s from someone who claims to be in a rush and just wants to make a sale on that day, other times the price seems just about right.
I have yet to take a deal on any of my listings due to a few factors: 1. I’m nervous about getting a strike from Ebay. 2. I value the integrity of keeping an item up for bid if people already started bidding on it. 3. I don’t know these people.
I ask this because sometimes an auction will end and it’ll be a couple hundred less than the offer I got from someone and I wonder if I missed an actual deal. A couple hundred isn’t much for many, but when you only make 2k a month, it feels like a lot.
How do people factor when and when not to take a deal?
I guess a secondary question too is, how do others determine when to put something up for auction or put up a best offer?
Personally I borderline never do auctions and always do BIN or BIN with best offer. I don’t like not being in control of the sale price my cards sell for. Auctions are often capped because there is a BIN of the card on ebay already and the auction (most often) will not get to or above the price of the BIN price because they could just purchase the BIN card instead. This is just my preference and it allows you to take deals and prices on your terms and in your own control.
Now I literally never put something up for auction - always just BIN or, if I’m not sure on the value, a high BIN w/ offers.
In the past I’ve definitely been burned by not accepting offers on items I listed for auction, but I don’t regret not taking the offers. I don’t know if it’s necessarily a cardinal sin to do it, but I do agree it’s not in good taste.
I use auctions to sell things that didnt sell at BIN. I very rarely list an item originally for auction.
I ignore all offers people inevitably make when an auction starts new. Sometimes I’ll tell them it was up for BIN for months prior but usually they are time wasters I’d imagine. I can tell the way most of them talk if I were to pursue the offer they’ve sent theyll end up trying to get it for even less.
@azulryu, It sounds like you want to have a guaranteed sale, but I think the majority of us hold until the price hits what we feel comfortable with. For me, I post a card for an amount that I would feel good about down the road regardless if it rose in price. IDC what someone else’s cost is on eBay as I am nerdy AF and have a personal attachment to my cards.
In my personal opinion, set your cards up for BIN w/ Best Offer and wait for two weeks as a trial run. Study the BIG sellers and learn from them too. Selling two cards $300.00 due to waiting is better than selling (3) for $200.00 because you wanted money right away.
So I will tell you from a buyer’s perspective when I would usually offer something that is up for auction only, and I message the person directly to see a deal can be done. I would do it if:
The item is relatively niche so the price swings can go huge either way (if there’s no competition for the card it can end up being 150$, and if there’s competition it can go to 300$ for example). It would also be a pain for me to look for the card again in the future.
The item’s initial bid amount is a solid number that is not 1$, meaning that the seller has a certain minimum expectation of the price being sold for.
The item has been listed for a day or more with 0 bids, or 1 bid at the minimum price and it has been a few days, with a few more days to go for the auction.
The item ends at a weird time, especially at a time when I may be asleep or busy so I’d rather get it done immediately.
I have another item at a similar price range, and I’d rather just get the deal done than to wait a few days in which case the other Buy it now listing may be sold and I don’t want to rely on an auction to win a card.
If one of the criterias above is met, I would generally offer to buy the card to cancel the auction and offer a premium for it. I’m sure a lot of people do this for niche/high desired rare cards, because it removes the stress of fighting in the auction.
So to answer your question, I think people are willing to do this when the offer given is at or surpasses the expectations given by the seller compared to the auction results, and if the auction is not garnering much attention.
For your secondary question: Honestly, I think auction is for when you need to make a quick buck on cards that are too slow to sell as buy it now/best offer listings, and if you want to maximize profits at a price you want to sell at, always put best offer/buy it now instead.
Thanks folks. These were important points to hear. Sounds like I might be losing money in the long run because I jumped the gun this time before asking this question. Lesson learned.
