Ebay Negotiating Skills

John_A

Me 'For sale, totally mint speaker cab £300'
  Buyer Would you do it for £275?
  Me Yes
Buyer OK will be over at 4:30pm
3:00pm,  I'll give you 250 as I'm paying cash not paypal
Me My fee would be £9.35
Buyer I think it's a fair offer
Me no it isnt
Buyer Guess I'll juts leave it then


Sheeesh

guitarfishbay

guitarfishbay

This is why I turn offers off, and manually drop the price if it isn't selling.  It is annoying that eBay will auto enable offers by default though, and I've even had it auto enable offers after the listing had been active for a while under the premise of helping me sell it...

gearaddict

Ebay is rapidly becoming more hassle than it's worth.

Schnozz

This is all I deal with nowadays...

"Can you do it for £100 less? And then include postage? And then include insurance? Actually...Would you take off another £50?".

It usually ends with me saying "Would you like me to try and recommend something within your budget?".

I never got this as a bass player on basschat, so I dunno if it's just guitarists .

My Fender guitars sold quick but they were shit IMO.

guitarfishbay

Schnozz said:

I never got this as a bass player on basschat, so I dunno if it's just guitarists .

To be fair that's only because bassists can't work out how to get an eBay account.

tekbow

I had a guy who was interested in my just sold amp before Christmas. He was happy with the asking price, and asked if I'd hold it until January, as he could do a pick up.

So I did.

Then in January he can't make it, asks if I can ship, I say yep I'll get you a quote.

"Oh I thought the shipping was included"

So basically he's happy with the price when he's going to pick it up, but suddenly I have to eat the cost of shipping because he can't. I offered to split it 50/50 with him, would have added about £40 to the price.

"That's more than I want to pay".

In the meantime I've had people expressing interest that I've missed out on because I held it for him.

That was early January.

So he must have been keeping an eye on it in the FB buy sell groups, and has wrongly got the impression I'm desperate to sell.

2 weekends ago he messages me asking if I still have the amp and telling me what he's happy to pay for it. Which is £300 quid less than asking & including shipping. According to him this is "A good and fair offer"

Cheeky bugger.

Anyway, got it sold yesterday for the price he could have had it for and the new buyer is over the moon.

Bridgehouse

guitarfishbay said:

Schnozz said:

I never got this as a bass player on basschat, so I dunno if it's just guitarists .

To be fair that's only because bassists can't work out how to get an eBay account.

Flagged.

Well, it will be when I can work out how to do it

fretmeister

Schnozz said:

This is all I deal with nowadays...

"Can you do it for £100 less? And then include postage? And then include insurance? Actually...Would you take off another £50?".

It usually ends with me saying "Would you like me to try and recommend something within your budget?".

I never got this as a bass player on basschat, so I dunno if it's just guitarists .

My Fender guitars sold quick but they were shit IMO.

1 person on Basschat is famous for turning up to collect and not having enough money with him.

Twat. 

webrthomson

tekbow said:

I had a guy who was interested in my just sold amp before Christmas. He was happy with the asking price, and asked if I'd hold it until January, as he could do a pick up.

So I did.

Then in January he can't make it, asks if I can ship, I say yep I'll get you a quote.

"Oh I thought the shipping was included"

So basically he's happy with the price when he's going to pick it up, but suddenly I have to eat the cost of shipping because he can't. I offered to split it 50/50 with him, would have added about £40 to the price.

"That's more than I want to pay".

In the meantime I've had people expressing interest that I've missed out on because I held it for him.

That was early January.

So he must have been keeping an eye on it in the FB buy sell groups, and has wrongly got the impression I'm desperate to sell.

2 weekends ago he messages me asking if I still have the amp and telling me what he's happy to pay for it. Which is £300 quid less than asking & including shipping. According to him this is "A good and fair offer"

Cheeky bugger.

Anyway, got it sold yesterday for the price he could have had it for and the new buyer is over the moon.

You are a very patient chap - my stuff is not sold till I have cash in hand

olafgarten

fretmeister said:

Schnozz said:

This is all I deal with nowadays...

"Can you do it for £100 less? And then include postage? And then include insurance? Actually...Would you take off another £50?".

It usually ends with me saying "Would you like me to try and recommend something within your budget?".

I never got this as a bass player on basschat, so I dunno if it's just guitarists .

My Fender guitars sold quick but they were shit IMO.

1 person on Basschat is famous for turning up to collect and not having enough money with him.

Twat. 

This is why you meet near an ATM. 

prlgmnr

I asked a chap if he would ship a pedaltrain terra 42 with a hard case (yeah I know it's massive but...it's a flightcase, they're for shipping) and no he can't do that because "no courier will take it" but he can apparently bring it on a train to 90 miles from where I am and leave it in the care of a friendly and helpful hotel owner there until I can pick it up. Provided I pay him right now.

That's all wonderfully accommodating but I think I'd have preferred a straightforward "no".

If you happen to be on here, apologies for apparent mockery but it isn't so much to be mean as to suggest that it's a really fine line between being helpful and coming across as weird and scammy.

danishbacon

Last week had a pedal sell on buy it now, payment followed up about 2 minutes later. 10 minutes later I get a message, "can I please cancel, not sure how this ended up in my basket" 

A couple of weeks back a camera sold to a Hong Kong buyer, took his time to pay and only did so when I gave an ultimatum after a few messages. Had the nerve to try and re-negotiate after buying and then asking if I would post for free.

It's a pain in the ass but I would estimate that these kind of buyers account for approximately 5-10% of the transactions that happen on eBay. I'd say my experience with forum chancers, people who ignore emails and Facebook marketeers are along the same lines. Part and parcel. 

A few ways of dealing with it:

Don't sell to the public
Sell to a shop at a cut-rate price - hassle free
Sell but be restrictive, cash on collection only etc - usually nets you a bit less
Sell but be flexible and accommodating - usually nets you a bit more

tekbow

webrthomson said:

tekbow said:

I had a guy who was interested in my just sold amp before Christmas. He was happy with the asking price, and asked if I'd hold it until January, as he could do a pick up.

So I did.

Then in January he can't make it, asks if I can ship, I say yep I'll get you a quote.

"Oh I thought the shipping was included"

So basically he's happy with the price when he's going to pick it up, but suddenly I have to eat the cost of shipping because he can't. I offered to split it 50/50 with him, would have added about £40 to the price.

"That's more than I want to pay".

In the meantime I've had people expressing interest that I've missed out on because I held it for him.

That was early January.

So he must have been keeping an eye on it in the FB buy sell groups, and has wrongly got the impression I'm desperate to sell.

2 weekends ago he messages me asking if I still have the amp and telling me what he's happy to pay for it. Which is £300 quid less than asking & including shipping. According to him this is "A good and fair offer"

Cheeky bugger.

Anyway, got it sold yesterday for the price he could have had it for and the new buyer is over the moon.

You are a very patient chap - my stuff is not sold till I have cash in hand

Well.. I didn't consider it sold as such. He seemed interested and I was being decent.

No longer. If people don't have the money when contact me, they don't have the item.

Goodwill has dissipated

fretmeister

olafgarten said:

fretmeister said:

Schnozz said:

This is all I deal with nowadays...

"Can you do it for £100 less? And then include postage? And then include insurance? Actually...Would you take off another £50?".

It usually ends with me saying "Would you like me to try and recommend something within your budget?".

I never got this as a bass player on basschat, so I dunno if it's just guitarists .

My Fender guitars sold quick but they were shit IMO.

1 person on Basschat is famous for turning up to collect and not having enough money with him.

Twat. 

This is why you meet near an ATM. 

He tried it with me.

Then actually got upset that I wouldn't take the lower amount "because he did the driving" and then miraculously found the extra money in his pocket.

But I was annoyed so I slung him out and refused to sell it to him at all.

Fifty9

olafgarten said:

fretmeister said:

Schnozz said:

This is all I deal with nowadays...

"Can you do it for £100 less? And then include postage? And then include insurance? Actually...Would you take off another £50?".

It usually ends with me saying "Would you like me to try and recommend something within your budget?".

I never got this as a bass player on basschat, so I dunno if it's just guitarists .

My Fender guitars sold quick but they were shit IMO.

1 person on Basschat is famous for turning up to collect and not having enough money with him.

Twat. 

This is why you meet near an ATM. 

Happened to me once, didn't intentionally meet near an ATM but I simply said I'm not budging on price as its a cracking guitar (regret the sale) and in the end I had to walk with the guy to the ATM to get the extra 50. Nothing wrong whatsoever with asking / negotiating to set up a deal that works for both sides but not that last minute deduction bullshit. I'll always say no to that kind of move unless it was based on an issue not described or the like. 

DLM

@fretmeister Wis'd for throwing him out. "Be the change you want to see in the world"

webrthomson

tekbow said:

Goodwill has dissipated

^ totally understandable

fretmeister said:

Schnozz said:

This is all I deal with nowadays...

"Can you do it for £100 less? And then include postage? And then include insurance? Actually...Would you take off another £50?".

It usually ends with me saying "Would you like me to try and recommend something within your budget?".

I never got this as a bass player on basschat, so I dunno if it's just guitarists .

My Fender guitars sold quick but they were shit IMO.

1 person on Basschat is famous for turning up to collect and not having enough money with him.

Twat. 

^ that is taking the piss, dont have the agreed upon amount then no new toy for you!

I second the twat vote:)

I dont find it's just ebay TBH - there are just as many chancing idiots on reverb too, average message seems to be will you take 75% and ship free, err no I won't.

jacksparrow

You get it on here too, had it the other day, will you knock £200 off and we will meet half way, I do not blame people for trying but i am going to be £250 out of pocket. lol

dazzajl

This is exactly why I might still occasionally but through eBay but I’ll never sell there. 

I have seen the opposite though, there are one or two good folks still around. Early last year I bought an amp from a guy not too far away for a cracking price. Paid immediately and the arrranged to collect. When I arrived he said he’d found the tiniest of nicks to the tolex and wanted to give me some cash back. I refused but the gesture was worth far more than cash. 

pmbomb

General strategy if someone tries to drop on an agreed price is to take it that means the previous deal is now cancelled and put your price up by the amount they're asking for a discount. They'll usually  back off if they've travelled (ie they've already invested in the deal) - has always worked for me. Even on a flat sale.

Once had a car dealer send his brother 100 miles to pick up a £7k car from me, price agreed, then try to drop it £100 at collection. Yeah mate you're going to send your man home empty handed for a hundred quid. Do I really look that stupid.