Rant.

General
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I’m very annoyed right now at someone who has basically been messaging me non-stop and it is getting to the point that I want to block them from facebook.

They’ve been a past customer, and a few deals went down without a hitch. Then a few weeks ago I got a message…
“Hey do you have anymore EX cards for sale”

Now as many of you saw, I was selling Wild Blaze EXes really cheap, so I politely told them that I was bought-out and had none left. I also let them know that I have no more cards to sell at all (all went on ebay) and was going to be starting fresh with XY4.

Fair enough, so then a couple weeks ago I get another message. “Do you have any promos, or Japanese cards left?”
No, sorry I have no more cards to sell at all, they all went to a friend who is selling them for me on their ebay account for commission. I will be starting fresh with XY4. “Cool, can’t wait to see what you have for sale for XY4”.

Last week “Hey do you have anything for sale at the moment? I’m looking for promos, holos pretty well anything”
No, I have no more cards until I start fresh with XY4.
At this point in time I’m getting slightly edgey because I’ve told them now quite a few times that I won’t be stocking anything until Phantom Gate, and they keep messaging me. I know I used to carry quite the plethora of cards, but I’d rather have cards I know are MINT instead of cards that I’m guessing about conditions when I receive them in lots, so I decided to clear out my old sales binder completely and start fresh with XY4.

So today I message them, stating my prices for general XY4 goods, the boxes, packs, sleeves, deckboxes, deck, EXes, the-like… I get a message back “Oh sorry, I can get all that, all I want is the promo.”

So I give them a price for the promo card, since I have to get my friend who lives in Japan to go to the Pokemon Center to pick them up. I need to ensure I stay within budget, giving her the commission, shipping and whatnot. So I gave a price. “Sorry I need to wait until the promo is out. I want to know if ebay will be cheaper”

I understand that yes, everyone wants to get the best deal possible. But when the promo is only available a few days, do you really have the nerve to tell me, when I was about to contact my friend to get another box for another promo that you need to wait until it is out to check the value. :-T

It is just aggravating. Like, they’ve been contacting me for weeks, and now I give prices and it is like “Oh I don’t need ANYTHING of what you are carrying, but the unique promo that you need to pay another $10 per box, yeah I want that” Aggravating.

I hope this rant doesn’t deter business from myself in the future :stuck_out_tongue: I just had to get this off my chest. Needless to say, I’m probably going to be blocking them on facebook in the not so distant future.

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I understand your pain and what I think this speaks to is the topic of customer /seller relationship and how everyone trying to undercut each other makes it hard to find loyal customers. I don’t know all the details of how you run your store like shipping, packing items well, prices and communication so it’s hard to give a straight answer.

You have to stroll that fine line between between friend/fellow collector and seller trying to make money (especially if its for living expenses). Many of the buyers simply don’t appreciate the time and effort it takes to sell. I am new to this but have been learning from a much larger local ebay seller who does it full time. There is not a huge profit margin on a lot of items and items that you can get a larger profit will take time to find the right buyer. It’s simply the reality of selling online and that people just want things ASAP for as cheap as possible. Sorry to answer the rant with a rant.

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I completely understand. The nerve some buyers have is ridiculous. A business relationship is much more than just offering the best deal possible. Definitely a good call to block them.

hisoka107 You’re absolutely right.

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Look, Pokemontrader, there is no need to call me out like that on a public forum!

By the way, do you still have that promo?

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I mean I am sinking in a lot of money into my newest “rebranding” of my sales.
I used to sell everything under the sun, now it’ll be just current stuff but I mean I agree with you @hisoka107 in the sense that there is a fine line I’m skirting right now. My current prices, I’ve checked with ebay and whatnot are actually quite low. I still make profit, but I am literally just above retail value for these things, so it will be hard for someone to buy these cheaper.

That being said, I’m sure people will always find things cheaper. It is the internet and I mean hypothetically if I get 20% profit on something, I’m sure someone will forego $0.50 to get the sale and 17% profit. You know what I mean?

I was debating taking this money and listening to a good ole friend @bagoly14 and getting a few nice cards, getting them graded and get huge profit from selling the graded returns, but I agree with what you said. The stuff with the higher return in profits, the longer it will take to finda buyer. The stuff I’ll be selling will have loads of buyers as it is a bunch of XY4 stuff… Boxes, Sleeves, Deckboxes, Decks etc. That stuff is always awesome! With my stuff being like $1.00-2.00 more than retail I don’t think people will complain at all :blush:

That being said, I agree with @ljgenco12 that a business relationship is more than offering the best deal possible. I know with me and another friend… Sometimes they come out ahead $10, other times I come out ahead $10. It’s that fine dance you need to tango to make a nice friendship where you both profit. I can’t go all the time selling EXes for $3, but at the same time I don’t expect a buyer to always pay $8 an EX.

I’m going to block them tomorrow when I go back onto facebook.

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@tonysandlin Sorry I sold the Super Secret Glittery Korean Voltorb Promo to @funmonkey54 already. You snooze you lose!
I don’t want to reveal the price, but it was slightly higher than those ugly cards with FOR POSITION ONLY on them…

Totally kidding, and the FPO cards are amazing looking.

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Sigh… Ebay… and the internet… is just full of so much scum…

It is not funny. The little stooge annoying you is probably trying to make money off some of the items you have as well, and its tards like him, who check and annoy daily / weekly who are screwing up the market faster.

He must be such a low life… and has nothing better to do than annoy and harass an honest respectful seller like yourself, as you gave him such good deals in the past. He just wants to suck you dry!! Technically his in love with you.

Nevertheless, Hisoka’s points above are right also. I myself have idiots like this… I could share stories but don’t want people to have to read too much.

Point is, I feel for you man. It is sad it affects yourself, and it could of annoyed your connections in Japan also if he went through with a transaction and pulled out. I guess you have to judge when a conversation of a client gets to the point of harassment / scum before you block there ***.

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I hate it when people say they will buy stuff, so you put it apart. Then they don’t pay and there is nothing much you can do. Especially when you buy cards on request.

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Funny story that just happend and I thought you can relate to here.

This buyer on ebay sees my PSA 10 VS Cards and puts an offer on one.
Lances Gyarados for $30. I have it at 50 BIN so I counter with $40.
He keeps this up and I send him $40 as my counter twice.

I message him saying the price is too low and try to explain, tactfully,
That at $30 I am basically breaking even and might as well have sold the card ungraded.
(It’s annoying when people give you offers thats basically the cards price, grading fees and ebay fees combined. As if the card deson’t gain any value being graded a PSA 10)

He moves on to another item trying to find things cheap (nothing wrong that). He offers 30.00
for a PSA 10 Lances Dragonite. I counter with 40. We do this one more time when I message him
saying I cannot afford to go that low because of the cost and I do this part time.

This is the part that gets me. I started doing random sales 5 to 15% every weekend or 24s. I put a 5%
weekend sale after he offers 30.00 for the dragonite. After the Sale he offers me 25.00. I want to
strangle this person.

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@hisoka107 you paid $30 for a Lance’s Gyarados? Whoever sold you it for that made quite the killing!

Yeah… I wonder if it is the same person lol!

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No trust me I don’t pay those crazy prices. I actually buy the packs/boxes or lots.

Lances Gyarados has sold for 17.95 from edmerlr on ebay (he opened one box of each).
plus the shipping from him is 2.20. Then the grading is 7.25 plus shipping there. The
total cost would be about 26.95. If I sold it for $30.00 I’d get 25.83. I might as well
have tried to sell it ungraded. I wish people would take this into consideration when
giving an offer.

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@bagoly14 Thank I can always expect someone on UPCCC to understand what I’m going through and have good advice :blush:. Sadly the best advice is just to be patient until the right buyer comes along. I’m learning being patient pays off as I sold a PSA 10 Charizard ex FRLG for $350 and a 1st ed Team Rocket Dark Raichu for $150 even though there was one for 75 starting bid already online.

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