What are some helpful tips you know about that will benefit everyone by sharing?
Here are some examples to get started:
use Rakuten on every purchase. You get a check every quarter on cash back earned. Right now you get 1% on eBay purchases, 2% on PWCC, and sometimes random stores get high percentages. I bought all new appliances from Lowe’s and got 6% cash back. This is in addition to any credit card rewards. Speaking of which, if you aren’t getting 2%-3% cash back, you have the wrong card.
If buying from Troll and Toad, use a coupon code for 5% off. Never pay full price.
Buyee let’s you combine all your Japanese card orders into 1 shipment for free. Go crazy on purchases for 30 days, make one shipment, then take a breather.
Does the Rakuten Ebay thing work on all purchases (buy it now or auction)? I think I tried to use it for auctions (followed the link and paid for the auction after it opened the browser), but it didn’t seem to activate. (Following your Lowe’s example, I used a 10% back deal Rakuten had for Lenovo when I got a new computer, and that was really nice).
Pirateship also has an interesting international shipping option that seems like it could save quite a bit (see here). I was researching it to send an international trade, but the problem I ran into was you can’t mark a package as “gift.” But everything else seemed legitimate (if you’re selling internationally), and I think it saved like 30% on an international label from the US. I think you had to fill out your own customs form or something though. Might be worth looking in to if you’re thinking of international shipments, but I can’t advocate for it, as I didn’t end up using it. Not sure if other label services have this option.
Best tip for haggling: give the seller some incentive to sell to you for a lower price. Offer buying multiple cards in one order so the seller saves money on shipping and eBay’s now 40 cent per transaction fee, went up from 30 cents.
Decide your price and be willing to walk away. Dont resort to lies or belittling the sellers intelligence. The seller should have an incentive to sell to you, in person this can be offering a deal to take products that arent moving to help a seller avoid the hassle of keeping or needing to repack it (if at a show).
I know a lot of people will already do this, but for those who don’t & like to browse lots of websites like mercari, ebay, yahJP etc, you can enter your specific search terms, then right click on the tabs in your browser to individually add them tab group, then save it to your bookmarks. It’s then just 1 click to open up many tabs instead of doing it all from scratch each time you want to run the searches.
If you use Yahoo Japan, Mercari, and Ebay - if you see a listing for a thing that seems expensive - search for the other two sites to see if it’s a duplicate. The lowest priced one is usually the original.
I enjoy haggling and use it regularly while making purchases from Japan, to a point that i get disappointed if I don’t attempt to haggle . Online haggling is a bit different than face 2 face because you don’t have the emotional connection with the person and the urgency of time, but the aim is obviously the same.
Some of my learnings:
Always be polite. There is absolutely no reason to be rude in tone.
Don’t approach haggling as a way to win the listing at a lower price but rather as a means to come to a win-win with the seller.
I never ask the seller ‘What is thier lowest price?’. This is just wasting their time and probably a seller will get more than enough of similar messages. I never justify the price they have. A highly rated seller is never an idiot and knows what they are doing.
Just post your actual price. It can be slightly lower than your max to be able to help negotiate closer to meet in the middle. I usually message, ’ Are you open to consider X’ or ’ I would like to buy your item for X’ I try to keep it always within 7-12% of their asking value.
If your price is not met, just walk away. This is hard to do but I think it is the most important aspect as also stated by @lyleberr. I usually state that ‘Sorry your price is out of my budget, thanks for considering’. More often than not, it is much better to let go and search for something that matches your price range.
I also try to bundle as briefly mentioned by @eeveeteam . I usually list out the individual items that I want and the prices that I can offer. I bundle them up for a total price and ask them to make a special listing. Not only do you get reduction in overall prices but you can also save on shipping.
You will eventually hone and find your own way of doing things. But, like everything else, you need to start doing it. Happy haggling!
Negotiation with people in Pokemon is an art form. Some people are absolutely garbage at it and it shows. If you go in and just be nice, provide comps (everything has recent comps even trophies and if there’s 0 comps you’re not a person who needs to be reading this). Be willing to walk away if the deal is not going to work.
Never say; bro, fam, fire, blasty, or
And you’ll be leagues ahead of the competition
I don’t know about this. I actually dislike when buyers throw comps at me. I know what things sell for. If I wanted to match auction comps, I would put my card in auction.
If you’re buying cards on Y!J/Mercari etc. don’t rely on Google translate for your search terms. Instead use sites like Bulbapedia to get the correct Pokemon names and set names and copy paste from there. Since the names aren’t direct translations, Google doesn’t work, typically.
If you’re outside the US and want to buy a card from a seller that doesn’t ship internationally you still can. Simply create an account with a reputable US forwarding service. Set the unique address they assign to you as your primary address on eBay. This will allow you to purchase anything from US sellers on eBay that don’t ship their items internationally.
Bonus round - Hygiene!
Yes, I’m serious. Before sorting your cards, putting them in fresh new sleeves, preparing a grading submission you should wash your hands and cut your nails. Don’t be Mankey.
Well I think there’s a respectable and honest way to throw comps around and a not so respectable way. I don’t think knowing comps is a bad thing and discussing that with people is only natural
Maybe it’s just a me thing but even the word “comps” makes me irrationally bothered. Maybe because it’s sports cards terminology that has infested this hobby or maybe it’s how people have a near-religious reverence to the idea that they could never pay a dollar more than the last person did. Or maybe it’s the amount of times I’ve seen people use this term only for the hand-selected “comps” they feel are important (ie. the low ones) while ignoring the ones they think aren’t important (ie. the high ones).
I don’t think I’ve ever met a seller who doesn’t know the recent comps for the cards that they are selling, unless they are garage sales and/or outside of the hobby.
