Question
4 of the auctions I have going right now are different items but all related, along the same line of product. I received this email:
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Hi - What's the best price you can give me on all of your ---widget--- pieces (including shipping?) Thanks
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I have a direct link to my email in my auctions (going to rethink that, I think!). No one ever uses it but she used it instead of the "ask a seller" link, so I don't have her eBay ID or eBay history.
Before she emailed me, one of them had a bid. Now 2 have bids. What exactly is she asking me to do? These are retired items no longer in stores. So I don't have any more. And she didn't even ask me if I had more, so I'm assuming it's these exact items she's asking for. Is she asking me to close the auctions and sell to her? I would never do that but I don't even see how she thinks that's possible when one of them has a bid. I don't get it. Or do requests like this mean they want you to add a BIN so they can snatch it up? I didn't put BIN because they're hard-to-find items. And how would that be fair to all the potential buyers that are watching these (I know they're probably not ALL buyers, but one of them has 9 watching), and maybe would have also wanted to BIN at whatever price I chose.
How do I respond without turning her off in case she actually wants to bid on all of them?
Something like this?? ---
I would be happy to give you a quote on combined shipping of the 4 widget items if you provide me with your postal/zip code and country. As for the sell prices of the items, I'm unsure what you're asking me to do. I don't have anymore of these items. What I have listed is all I have, so I welcome your bids on any or all of them, and will gladly combine shipping for whichever ones you win.
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I dunno. I'd be tempted to put in that it's against eBay policy for me to sell these items off eBay to her since they've already been listed. But I don't want to turn off a potential buyer.
I had a similar request before Christmas. I had listed a similar retired item, but had listed a BIN on it. It was a fairly high BIN but it was fair market value according to a couple of previous auctions for the same thing. She emailed me saying "Can you sell it for a more reasonable price?" Hmmm... that kind of bugged me, but I was nice about it and talked my way around it saying that I couldn't go any lower than opening bid, LOL. She bid against a couple other people, won, paid (although wasn't happy paying over 3 times retail) emailed me almost daily until it got there (2:30 pm on Dec. 24th, thank goodness), I was as nice as I could be (post office's delay not mine), and she gave me glowing feedback. Phew, glad that one's over.
Anyway sorry for the rambling, not sure how to respond to this and still kinda wondering why people request this? How's it fair to anyone who's watching it waiting to bid, if you adjust the auction for someone that emails you and they snatch it???
Debra
Answer
I think she wants to know if you will give her a deal on all of the widgets if she bids on them all.
Jill
Answer
No, this is a would-be reseller who hopes you are either stupid enough or desperate enough to end your auctions early and sell the 4 items to her at a low - low - low price. She doesn't want to have to pay shipping on each because that would hurt her margins when she resells.
I would ignore her. If she bids, she bids. If not, not.
fLufF
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Answer
Originally Posted by Jill
I think she wants to know if you will give her a deal on all of the widgets if she bids on them all.
Jill
Why do people ask for things like that, if she bids and wins on all 4 items, and say she wins one for $50.00. If I give it to her for $45 (and pay fees on the $50 of course) how is that fair to the person that bid $49.00?
Answer
Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat1
No, this is a would-be reseller who hopes you are either stupid enough or desperate enough to end your auctions early and sell the 4 items to her at a low - low - low price. She doesn't want to have to pay shipping on each because that would hurt her margins when she resells.
I would ignore her. If she bids, she bids. If not, not.
fLufF
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Fluffy, I had wondered if she might be a reseller. I don't think someone who wanted to add these to their collection would think to request something like this, would they?
Answer
I would reply and say I would be happy to combine shipping and I'm sorry, it is company policy to let the auctions run their course.
Answer
what jasmine said
I had a guy harrassing me last week because some of my aucitons ended with no bidders and he wanted me to sell him 70.00 items for 25.00 shipping included.
of course ....he would take ALL I had......I would too at that price
Answer
Originally Posted by Jasmine
I would reply and say I would be happy to combine shipping and I'm sorry, it is company policy to let the auctions run their course.
That sounds good, thanks Jasmine. I was thinking, no matter what scenario she's asking me to do I'm not comfortable doing it, (adding BIN, ending early, etc.) so there's no point in me asking her what she wants exactly.
Answer
Originally Posted by gabs-a-lot
what jasmine said
I had a guy harrassing me last week because some of my aucitons ended with no bidders and he wanted me to sell him 70.00 items for 25.00 shipping included.
of course ....he would take ALL I had......I would too at that price
Thanks Gabs... At least I'm not the one getting ALL the nervy buyers...
Edited to add: I should say I'm not the ONLY ONE getting nervy buyers. It's not like I have that many buyers... LOL!
Answer
Forgive me if this is an unwarranted assumption, but I get the impression from your postings that you may not have been selling on eBay for a long time.
When I was a fledgling antique dealer, years ago, just having rented my first co-op space, the most painful lesson I learned is that other co-op dealers just LOVE newbies. They're a great source of bargains because newbies sometimes don't know much about values or pricing. I saw items sold out of my showcase to other dealers, who turned around and marked them up 4 or 5 times. It hurt a bit that they used their house discount to get even more of an edge. And of course they paid no sales tax.
eBay is the same scenario, only on a much larger scale.
There are always people looking to take advantage. If they can't do it by bidding, they'll try to cut a deal. Only you can decide if you want to bend that far. If you've done your research and determined on a fair price, stick to it.
(By the way, I got revenge on my fellow co-op dealers a year later. I brought in 50 pieces of Roseville pottery from out of state. I had carefully researched values and what the market would bear, and priced them accordingly. The Roseville fairly *flew* out of my showcase to the other dealers...where it sat and collected dust for years. Most of it was still there when I bailed out of that co-op.)
fLufF
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