Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

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scalesusa
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p.2 #1 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

I do better on ebay. I never sell at auction, the fees for auctions are horrible. I just set a reasonable price, and my fee runs 2.8% plus paypal fees.

Last week, I sold my near mint, 2800 actuation 1D MK IV for $4200, so even after fees and free shipping, I get $4,000.

Aug 23, 2012 at 09:00 PM

alexdi
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p.2 #2 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

I've run into a couple of issues with CL.

On the buying side, you've got the same unrealistic sellers. Why would I give you 10% more than it would cost me to have it shipped from KEH?

On the selling side, some folks assume if you're selling at all, you're hard up and will jump on a lowball. Where I live near a major city, I had some guy offer me $250 for a Canon 200/2.8L. Half the folks don't understand the phrase 'firm price'. In general, high-dollar items sell poorly. I've had a LNIB 70-200/4L IS sitting for a month at $925. It took about three weeks to get a committed buyer for a like-new $575 17-40/4L.

The suggestion above mine about EBay sounds reasonable. 3%, I can deal. 9% means I'm never going to sell anything again at auction. EBay does open up other problems, like shipping hassles and buyers with remorse, but for specialty items, it's the only decent market outside of the BS forum here.

Aug 24, 2012 at 03:16 AM

vsg28
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p.2 #3 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

How did anyone get just 2.8% eBay fees? Their minimum final value fee is 7%.

Aug 24, 2012 at 03:23 AM

alexdi
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p.2 #4 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

OK. That's new. They suck. I'm not dealing with that.

Aug 24, 2012 at 03:35 AM

mikeinctown
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p.2 #5 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

vsg28 wrote:
How did anyone get just 2.8% eBay fees? Their minimum final value fee is 7%.

They have different fees for different selling styles. There is auction, buy it now, store listings, and classifieds. There may even be a few more. When people are looking for a lens and do a search they all show up.

But, that is what I don't understand... People will post on the forums that i not sold it's going to eBay, where they will most likely get less AND they'll have to pay fees. But whatever floats their boat...

Aug 24, 2012 at 04:07 AM

mikeinctown
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p.2 #6 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

alexdi wrote:

On the selling side, some folks assume if you're selling at all, you're hard up and will jump on a lowball. Where I live near a major city, I had some guy offer me $250 for a Canon 200/2.8L. Half the folks don't understand the phrase 'firm price'.

Some people put "firm" because they don't want to get bombarded with lowball offers. However, many sellers with firm prices are willing to negotiate slightly. Is someone really going to sit on a lens for a while over $30 when the transaction could be $1200?

Aug 24, 2012 at 04:10 AM

alexdi
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p.2 #7 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

The people I'm talking about don't seem to read it at all. I think it's stupid to dicker about $30 with the seller of a $1200 item, but I understand some buyers won't bite unless they feel they've gotten a 'deal'. What I get is people lopping off $150 on a $600 item.

Aug 24, 2012 at 06:54 AM

Lars Johnsson
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p.2 #8 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

mikeinctown wrote:
alexdi wrote:

On the selling side, some folks assume if you're selling at all, you're hard up and will jump on a lowball. Where I live near a major city, I had some guy offer me $250 for a Canon 200/2.8L. Half the folks don't understand the phrase 'firm price'.

Some people put "firm" because they don't want to get bombarded with lowball offers. However, many sellers with firm prices are willing to negotiate slightly. Is someone really going to sit on a lens for a while over $30 when the transaction could be $1200?

So you are saying that people that put "Firm Price" in the ad does not mean it

And it's ok to start with bargain prices and negotiate

Please tell me what I should write instead of Firm Price then? So I don't get lowball or negotiate prices

Aug 24, 2012 at 07:44 AM

mikeinctown
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p.2 #9 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

You don't have to negotiate or accept any offer at all. I'm merely pointing out that someone selling may wish to sell their item at a slightly reduced price to get cash in hand rather than wait weeks or perhaps months to sell their item. For example, if a seller was asking for $1200 plus fees and they got a message offering $1200 including fees, then they may accept the offer because it means a sale and cash in hand, and the amount in hand isn't really that much different. In the end, the item is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

Normally I don't deal with anyone that places "firm" in their pricing structure anyway because they tend to overvalue what they are selling and expect the buyer to pay shipping and or fees, which makes whatever they have costlier than what can be bought from other sources.

The people I'm talking about don't seem to read it at all. I think it's stupid to dicker about $30 with the seller of a $1200 item, but I understand some buyers won't bite unless they feel they've gotten a 'deal'. What I get is people lopping off $150 on a $600 item.

I completely understand and in those circumstances I'd just delete the message or say I'm sorry but no sale. However, many people choose to violate the T&C of a company like Paypal and ask for fees to be paid extra or ask for gift payments. It's a matter of principal for me, so I would offer $1200 including fees. The seller would need to accept about $36 less net, but they also wouldn't be sitting on their item or violating any policies they agreed to.

Aug 24, 2012 at 11:17 AM

Lars Johnsson
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p.2 #10 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

mikeinctown wrote:
You don't have to negotiate or accept any offer at all. I'm merely pointing out that someone selling may wish to sell their item at a slightly reduced price to get cash in hand rather than wait weeks or perhaps months to sell their item. For example, if a seller was asking for $1200 plus fees and they got a message offering $1200 including fees, then they may accept the offer because it means a sale and cash in hand, and the amount in hand isn't really that much different. In the end, the item is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

Normally I don't deal with anyone that places "firm" in their pricing structure anyway because they tend to overvalue what they are selling and expect the buyer to pay shipping and or fees, which makes whatever they have costlier than what can be bought from other sources.

The people I'm talking about don't seem to read it at all. I think it's stupid to dicker about $30 with the seller of a $1200 item, but I understand some buyers won't bite unless they feel they've gotten a 'deal'. What I get is people lopping off $150 on a $600 item.

I completely understand and in those circumstances I'd just delete the message or say I'm sorry but no sale. However, many people choose to violate the T&C of a company like Paypal and ask for fees to be paid extra or ask for gift payments. It's a matter of principal for me, so I would offer $1200 including fees. The seller would need to accept about $36 less net, but they also wouldn't be sitting on their item or violating any policies they agreed to.

Overvalue what you are selling. And paying for shipping/fees have nothing to do with "firm" in the ad. And the people with firm in the ad don't overvalue or expect more for shipping than any other people.

And yes I can delete the message/mail or say I'm sorry but no sale. But I put "firm" in the ad just because I don't like to do that 50 times

Aug 24, 2012 at 11:49 AM

melcat
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p.2 #11 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

I've had ludicrous lowball offers after eBay listings have ended (e.g. $30 for a faultless Zuiko shift lens). I just block them from bidding ever again on any of my listings. I don't sell here, but I can tell you if anyone tried it with me here I would note their handle down and never sell to them. I imagine one advantage of listing here woud be that some buyers would be prequalified through being familiar names from the forums.

Aug 24, 2012 at 12:25 PM

campyone
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p.2 #12 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

When I want to sell something I want to sell it, I don't want to spend months messing around with it trying to squeeze the last possible dollar. So I usually start out with a very good price, something sufficiently below what others are asking that the difference will be meaningful to a buyer. Having already done that I put "firm" in to make it clear that the price is very good already and I'm not going lower it even further. Nevertheless, I still get inquiries asking if I'll sell at a ridiculous price. I just say decline and thank them for their offer. No need to get mad about it.

If I sold a lot and relied on sales for my income I'm sure I'd do things differently. But I don't sell all that often and I don't need an extra $50 or $100 from a camera or lens sale for my next meal.

Aug 24, 2012 at 12:54 PM

melcat
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p.2 #13 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

The reason I block/blacklist them is that I think they'd be more trouble than they're worth in any actual sale.

Aug 24, 2012 at 01:02 PM

AmbientMike
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p.2 #14 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

For tourism here August is as dead as Jan. Might be a dead month

Aug 24, 2012 at 01:06 PM

Pixel Perfect
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p.2 #15 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

elader wrote:
So whats a fair price for an extremely clean, low mileage 1d mkIII with all accs? I was asking 1500 on the B&S - is this high? or do you think people have just moved on to more mp?

Also, a 580EX with a flashzebra miniport installed. $225? I mean really, what can you get for $225?

I hate to sell nice gear on ebay and hate craigslist even more. So, is it the price or do my underarms smell or both?

I got $1700 for a mint low mileage 1D III about 6 weeks ago so your price is IMO too cheap. Took me about 4 weeks to sell it, which was quick compared to the 10 weeks it took for my 70-200L f/2.8L IS to sell.

1D III history can mean it takes longer to sell as people may be more wary. I put up shots of the camera in demanding AF situations to assuage any concerns

Basically people are cheap skates, want to buy low yet sell high so it can take a while to sell if you want a fair price.

ebay's new fee's are criminal so I will never sell again on them.

Aug 24, 2012 at 01:09 PM

vsg28
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p.2 #16 · Help me fairly price (aka, why is no one buying my sh*t?)

mikeinctown wrote:
vsg28 wrote:
How did anyone get just 2.8% eBay fees? Their minimum final value fee is 7%.

They have different fees for different selling styles. There is auction, buy it now, store listings, and classifieds. There may even be a few more. When people are looking for a lens and do a search they all show up.

Yes, but it is still 7% minimum from what I see and goes up to 9% for auction style listings. I learned the hard way when I listed a Canon 55-250 IS II brand new and ended up with a loss because I thought it was not that high.

Never again unless I overcharge the item but I don't want to have the buyer pay for eBay's greed.

Aug 24, 2012 at 01:28 PM

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