Quality of buyers and sellers in B&S section

[chikubang]

I know this has been an old topic but I really feel the situation now in B&S is getting out of hand.

There is a huge difference in the quality of sellers and buyers.

Let me share some of my dealing experience.

Buyers

Lowballing

Some buyers claim that they could buy the item I sold in any shops and they request for a price slash. Usually, I ignored those smses. Still remembering selling off my 450d (good condition) plus phottix grip for 650 dollars. It's a very good deal and people kept offering 600 dollars. I received a lot of smses that kept asking for low price.

Bargaining
I dont mind people bargaining before the real deal. But there are some people who have the audacity to ask for a price slash on the spot even though they agreed on the price before hand through smses. I have such experience before.

Put aeroplanes
There is one particular buyer agreed to meet up for a deal. On that day, he said he was late due to an appointment prior to the deal. Ok, I waited. But then, he said he was caught up with a jam. Ok, I waited. After that, I received a sms saying that he couldnt make it because he had another appointment to go. I waited for 30 mins and he said he couldnt make it.

Sellers

I always deal with people who have a long history in clubsnap. I am always very careful with the person I deal with.

Indecisive
But there is one incident whereby I post something in B&S section to buy something. Then there is this guy who pmed me to sell off his grip. I was interested and smsed him to deal.
Then he smsed me back to hang on because he had an another offer from somebody who is able to buy his grip and camera as a bundle. Thus, I automatically become second in priority. I mean, yes, u have every right to call off the deal but isnt it unfair and not as trustworthy being a seller?

 

[dreaming]

it's inevitable. if sellers are uncomfortable, better stop selling stuff online.. to be blunt

 

[Tiger-in-the-woods]

Don't see any problem in bargaining.

Buyers and sellers all wish to buy/sell at the best price that they can get... nothing wrong with that. If one dun wish to negotiate or budge from a particular price, the seller could just state that price is fixed & non-negotiable and that'll end all speculation on the price.

Sometimes, from the buyer's perspective, when he sees a dink on the product to be purchase, and such info was left out intentionally/unintenationally by the seller, one could expect either bargaining to occur or no deal done. Then whose fault is it, buyer or seller? This is only one example... dun wish to rattle on.

I echo the earlier post that such thing do occur and if one is unhappy, can go to Cash Converter to sell or goto photoshop and buy original..

This is a marketplace after all.. we need to keep your minds open to practises, mate. My 2 cents worth. Cheers

 

[pokiemon]

bro chikubang i know how you feel. below is base on my experience.

low ballers - next time anyone who lowballs you, agree to the price and arrange to meet. then dont show up. they will never lowball again.

bargaining - this is alittle tough. unless you are prepared to walk away from the deal otherwise you will cave in. sometimes if it's over a small amount i will agree to it. time is money.

put aeroplane - always, i repeat always meet somewhere at your convenience. it shows a sign of commitment from the buyer. i am prepared to forego a deal then to travel all the way to the other side of island to meet the buyer.

 

[chikubang]

I don't mind bargaining. Of course if the product u sell has problem, I can understand for a price slash. But there are some pole who bargain for no reason on the spot of dealing and come out with all excuses for bargaining. Like I saw somewhere sold this cheaper. I was wondering, why buy from me then. I don't think by having "don't sell" as a solution isn't the best solution. Then all the good sellers will leave the forum and left with the bad ones hanging around.

 

[dreaming]

bro chikubang i know how you feel. below is base on my experience.

low ballers - next time anyone who lowballs you, agree to the price and arrange to meet. then dont show up. they will never lowball again.

bargaining - this is alittle tough. unless you are prepared to walk away from the deal otherwise you will cave in. sometimes if it's over a small amount i will agree to it. time is money.

put aeroplane - always, i repeat always meet somewhere at your convenience. it shows a sign of commitment from the buyer. i am prepared to forego a deal then to travel all the way to the other side of island to meet the buyer.

both party should show integrity towards each other. no point wasting time. I always show appreciation if buyers shows up at the appointment; even if it was a Mr / Miss Low-baller. the only difference is that I won't chit-chat with them once money is transacted ;p

 

[sabee]

Indecisive
But there is one incident whereby I post something in B&S section to buy something. Then there is this guy who pmed me to sell off his grip. I was interested and smsed him to deal.
Then he smsed me back to hang on because he had an another offer from somebody who is able to buy his grip and camera as a bundle. Thus, I automatically become second in priority. I mean, yes, u have every right to call off the deal but isnt it unfair and not as trustworthy being a seller?

If nothing was agreed on in the first place like him confirming the sale especially with regards to a date/time/location, then I don't think there's any harm done.

 

[dreaming]

I don't mind bargaining. Of course if the product u sell has problem, I can understand for a price slash. But there are some pole who bargain for no reason on the spot of dealing and come out with all excuses for bargaining. Like I saw somewhere sold this cheaper. I was wondering, why buy from me then. I don't think by having "don't sell" as a solution isn't the best solution. Then all the good sellers will leave the forum and left with the bad ones hanging around.

sad. just tell him straight in his eyes that the deal is off. don't get moody over this

 

[marios_pittas]

bro chikubang i know how you feel. below is base on my experience.

low ballers - next time anyone who lowballs you, agree to the price and arrange to meet. then dont show up. they will never lowball again.

bargaining - this is alittle tough. unless you are prepared to walk away from the deal otherwise you will cave in. sometimes if it's over a small amount i will agree to it. time is money.

put aeroplane - always, i repeat always meet somewhere at your convenience. it shows a sign of commitment from the buyer. i am prepared to forego a deal then to travel all the way to the other side of island to meet the buyer.

low ballers I think that's a bit nasty ! I have learned to ignore.. a bit more polite

bargaining Can talk but really not willing to go on and on and on and on and on for $5.. "like that you might miss on the free coffee"...

put aeroplane I try to meet at a convenient place but try to bring your notebook with you also, find a place for coffee and get on with work and life. If they turn up, good and well, if they don't turn up.. well.. at least you did not wasted your time waiting, done some work and drunk your coffee.

I would offer a different twist to this buy and sell which has worked on a personal level. Though it is useful to find things from B&S (especially for rare things, or sometimes for things that the current culture depreciates the price attractively, e.g. exterior of the lens looks "used" - I guess somebody somewhere used it after they bought it!!) it is also useful to consider the local shops.

Some B&S sellers quote prices higher than the shops, sometimes very close to new prices, with no "official guarantee" of course, and no official receipt. Furthermore ("some more" as they say), in a shop, you can sit drink your coffee, chit chat, test the lens they have there, do your own comparisons, and buy knowing that if something is wrong you can always return back (well, most shops anyway).

Also through time, you built a relationship with a shop, you get better prices, they get more business from you, you get better service, they help you here, you help them there. And of course like B&S buyers and sellers, you sometimes blacklist some shops and never go back.. ha ha :embrass:

-- marios

 

[marios_pittas]

I don't mind bargaining. Of course if the product u sell has problem, I can understand for a price slash. But there are some pole who bargain for no reason on the spot of dealing and come out with all excuses for bargaining. Like I saw somewhere sold this cheaper. I was wondering, why buy from me then. I don't think by having "don't sell" as a solution isn't the best solution. Then all the good sellers will leave the forum and left with the bad ones hanging around.

Personally, I would drink my coffee and be gone, not sell, have you tried to bargain with the drinks uncles or auntie

 

[night86mare]

Don't see any problem in bargaining.

help you make larger. must be old already, cannot see small letters. :bsmilie:

But there are some people who have the audacity to ask for a price slash on the spot even though they agreed on the price before hand through smses.

 

[night86mare]

Lowballing


Bargaining

Put aeroplanes


Sellers

lowballing - this kind, boh liao, don't need to entertain. either they shouldn't be buying gear, or they are traders. both, you should help them out and not sell to them.

bargaining - i think it's fine if there's a problem with your item that you didn't discover, then it's up to the two of you to decide.

fly aeroplane - to be fair, sometimes people really cannot make it. perhaps they have a meeting that dragged too long. perhaps something came up at home. i don't think anyone enjoys such an experience. of course it is easy to tell the ones who genuinely have a problem, versus those who are just yanking your chain.

 

[night86mare]

btw, got this guy once very win..

i stated need to meet at my convenience.. so he said ok i give you your price, we meet at this date (3 or 4 days later from current). i said ok, reserve for you.

so in between the meeting date and that time he came up with a lot of wonderful reasons to reduce the price, got "i drive from my place to yours very far, can compensate me for petrol?". or just plain simple begging "can reduce price or not, come on la".

i just kept saying no, in the end i was a bit apprehensive about selling him the item, wait he come up with more tricks when we met. even half expected him to sms me "come on la, i bring you a cute cat, she meow very cute, reduce price la". thankfully he said he couldn't buy from me and disappeared. :thumbsup:

 

[chikubang]

u r lucky nightmare. At least u see his true colours before u actually spent ur time dealing with pple like that.
i was selling a filter for 30 bucks. I have checked many threads to see what is the normal price for hoya cpl 58 mm. Then got this person asked for 20 bucks. I insistently said nope. After which, he agreed on my asking price and asked me if i can deal at yishun. I said sure. Then he smsed back he will think about it and he said the price is abit high. Then i smsed him back the price is the standard price and i will let go if someone else ask for it. Then he smsed back saying he could buy it at my asking price at shop. I mean i did my homework before i sell my stuffs. Ms colour is selling 43 dollars brand new. He is actually asking more than half the price initally. Dont know how to say...

 

[marios_pittas]

u r lucky nightmare. At least u see his true colours before u actually spent ur time dealing with pple like that.
i was selling a filter for 30 bucks. I have checked many threads to see what is the normal price for hoya cpl 58 mm. Then got this person asked for 20 bucks. I insistently said nope. After which, he agreed on my asking price and asked me if i can deal at yishun. I said sure. Then he smsed back he will think about it and he said the price is abit high. [I would have stopped here] Then i smsed him back the price is the standard price and i will let go if someone else ask for it. Then he smsed back saying he could buy it at my asking price at shop. I mean i did my homework before i sell my stuffs. Ms colour is selling 43 dollars brand new. He is actually asking more than half the price initally. Dont know how to say...

AT that point, no time waste.

 

[pokiemon]

help you make larger. must be old already, cannot see small letters. :bsmilie:

eh....you type what. i still cannot see. :think:

 

[pokiemon]

here are some pointers as a seller -
1. set a realistic price. i dont blame buyers for bargaining sometimes cos some sellers are not realistic with their pricing. this guy i know wanted to sell his 3-year old SB800 flash for $525 with no box when market price for similar item is low $400. also do your research on past transacted prices in cs.

what is a realistic price?
sale price - adjustment for price diff btw your item and new item - depreciation adjust for age + premium if mint condition + premium if under warranty + premium if have full accessories - adjustment for past transacted prices

2. be smart about it
knowing who are the genuine buyers and waste-of-time buyers can save you lots of grief. you can suss them out by getting their commitment. dont waste time with buyers that say "pls reserve for me but can only deal in 3 days time", "my paycheck is next week", or buyers that send you PM even though you have stated clearly in your post to SMS or call.

3. dont be desperate to sell
always be prepared to walk away from a deal that doesn't make sense to you.

4. find out which markets give you highest price
cs is not the only forum to sell stuff in singapore. there are other forums like hardwarezone etc. my zeiss lens commanded 30% more value outside of singapore esp in the usa as there were more demand. i ended up selling through ebay.

 

[chikubang]

Agree with pokiemon had said. In the past, I can say that clubsnap B&S sellers and buyers are so much better than other forums. But recently, I have seen an influx of new members whom I think join clubsnap to sell off their stuffs only.

I seldom 'rant' on clubsnap, but I personally believe that the situation now is really getting out of hand. Avoiding the problem does not eliminate the fact that such things will not happen again.

 

[leezacch]

Most brothers here have put some truth forward with respect to the ongoing problems here. I had an experience with a CS Seller, bought a D80 kit from him. The high price i was quoted actually put me off for a while, so we agreed on meeting up, and I had the freedom to decide on confirming with the deal AFTER I have inspected the equipment.

I felt the slightly higher price was worth it, after we actually spend 3 to 4 hours in Starbucks chatting about photography and he took time to teach on getting the best shots from D80 (I was a canon user previously).

For that, I felt everything was well justified.Even to think he lives in YCK and we met in Tampines, where i stayed.

But getting to the point, not every episode involving a indecisive seller will lead to an unhappy ending.

Then again, I always believe in this: Walk away, and ignore if you're not happy. There's no obligation on either side in the first place. As long as the money or equipment is still in your hands, you're still the king.

Just my 2 cents' worth.

 

[JW73]

There are times I prefer to do the B&S at a local 2nd shop..save all the trouble as mentioned above. Let the Pros do it.