Frustrating experience in the sell forum

I haven't been buying or selling for months. This week I came back to sell some gear. Yet the experience is quite bad. Some people gave low-balls with ridiculous prices. Some said they were going to send money soon but then they disappeared. I didn't want to lose potential buyers and said to those low-ball people that we might wait for 2 days. Then some serious buyers came along asking me if I could sell part of it. I went back to the earlier guy and asked if it is OK to part the package. Then he got away offended, as if I was trying to trick him... Then the guy who asked if I could sell separately told me that he got it somewhere else. I was left with no sale.

(Please don't try to track who they are. I think it is against the forums' policy to say something bad about people, and after all, maybe they are all acting for their own interests without being bad.)

Do you guys have any good idea about how to sell things fast and at fair prices here?

colormaniac wrote in post #11805576
I haven't been buying or selling for months. This week I came back to sell some gear. Yet the experience is quite bad. Some people gave low-balls with ridiculous prices. Some said they were going to send money soon but then they disappeared. I didn't want to lose potential buyers and said to those low-ball people that we might wait for 2 days. Then some serious buyers came along asking me if I could sell part of it. I went back to the earlier guy and asked if it is OK to part the package. Then he got away offended, as if I was trying to trick him... Then the guy who asked if I could sell separately told me that he got it somewhere else. I was left with no sale.

(Please don't try to track who they are. I think it is against the forums' policy to say something bad about people, and after all, maybe they are all acting for their own interests without being bad.)

Do you guys have any good idea about how to sell things fast and at fair prices here?

Pick the right time of day to list things--usually around 12-2pm EST--which allows your listing to sit parked on the front page for the rest of the evening. From what I've seen, I get way more people asking about things in the afternoon, vs in the early morning. If you post in the early morning, it'll typically fall to the 2nd page by 5-6pm.

I always sell things separately, and I always list prices separately. If someone wants to offer slightly less for a package price, that's up to them. Starting with a package price is never a good idea, because there are always parts to any package sale that no one will want. In my experience on ebay, you will make significantly less on a package sale vs selling items separately--fact, not speculation

You always have to be prepared for lowball offers. If people are offering your asking price, it usually means you've priced it too low to begin with I'd rather receive a lowball offer than none at all! At least I have the opportunity to make a counteroffer!

If they're way under what I think the market price is, I just ignore them. Don't waste your time if a buyer isn't being serious about price.

I think part of my problem is that I usually act on good faith. For example, if A comes first, wishing to lower the price by a little, but going to pay this evening, I always tend to wait, even though in the meantime B wants to buy it right away. Usually at the end both A and B are gone and I sell nothing.

Sometimes C is negotiating with me. D is interested and he says that "I could until this evening, just let me know". C is getting a bit unreasonable and I am thinking "I don't have to put up with C. D is here." But then when I turn down C and go to D, D says he has got it elsewhere.

In either case, or some other similar cases, should I just deal with the second guy who gives me a better deal even though the first guy is still talking to me?

colormaniac wrote in post #11805929
I think part of my problem is that I usually act on good faith. For example, if A comes first, wishing to lower the price by a little, but going to pay this evening, I always tend to wait, even though in the meantime B wants to buy it right away. Usually at the end both A and B are gone and I sell nothing.

Sometimes C is negotiating with me. D is interested and he says that "I could until this evening, just let me know". C is getting a bit unreasonable and I am thinking "I don't have to put up with C. D is here." But then when I turn down B and go to D, D says he has got it elsewhere.

In either case, or some other similar cases, should I just deal with the second guy who gives me a better deal even though the first guy is still talking to me?

If a person wants to make an offer--fine, but if an offer comes in after that with the full or higher price, the full price gets priority. If it's reached the point where you've given out your paypal address and said "okay", that's another matter entirely.

To me, it boils down to price, then timing. People who ask first and make an offer don't get preference just because they asked first. If they're so fickle that they'll change their minds that quickly, it's unlikely that they planned to pay (after doing actual pricing research, etc.)

I've seen cases where someone will say "here's my paypal address--first person to send the payment will get it, the rest will be refunded". I'm not sure I like that approach, but it's certainly more effective in some cases.

Thanks! I'll be smarter next time.

colormaniac wrote in post #11806220
Thanks! I'll be smarter next time.

I don't think there's really any "right or wrong" with how you handled the situation. I might have done the same thing. They were just wishy-washy buyers. It happens. Unfortunately, once that first 24 hours passes, you're unlikely to get a sale until the next time you relist. That's why I list my stuff in parallel--here, craigslist, ebay...

No doubt about it though, selling in a package almost always backfires. I came to the conclusion years ago that listing things separately pays off big time. Better to sell off 3/4 of your gear for an acceptable price, than to sit and wait on a package lot that's less likely to sell... at a discount even...