good time of the day, everyone!
the question goes to the mature sellers with a lot of experience.
how do you guys manage the competitive offers?
just imagine the simple case. you have the ITEM for sale. and then suddenly, you received more than 1 response from different people asking the same ITEM.
someone would suggest: first come - first served rule. that's not fair especially due to timezones and different visiting rate to the boards.
how to make all of those people happier? auction?
the auction has a potential drawback in raising the final cost of the ITEM.
what could you then suggest? what're the best practices? what do you think?
i don't want to hurt anyone :bub:
folks, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
I generally do first come, first serve. To me, this is the fairest way. If people are sleeping / aren't checking the forums, it is not my fault nor the fault of other potential customers.
The only exceptions might be the following;
a) Someone wants to purchase several items from me at once. Selling several at once is always better for me than selling one here, one there, so I typically will give bulk orders precedence.
b) The guy that messages you first has 0 feedback and is a new user, and the second guy is someone you have dealt with before. Again, maybe this is not the fairest, but I think giving first offer to the old members is personally more fair than letting someone get it, who just signed up that day for the sole purpose of buying the game from you.
Can't it be any simpler than adhering to the site's clock and timezone? That way first come can still be implemented!
If you sell to another user you might prefer, I think it's the seller's right to that decision to a safer option.
I think as long as you put your rules or preferences at the start of your selling thread (first come first served, bulk preferred etc), there shouldn't be any confusion or unfairness.
Quote from: fcgamer on August 01, 2016, 11:23:21 pm
I generally do first come, first serve. To me, this is the fairest way. If people are sleeping / aren't checking the forums, it is not my fault nor the fault of other potential customers.
The only exceptions might be the following;
a) Someone wants to purchase several items from me at once. Selling several at once is always better for me than selling one here, one there, so I typically will give bulk orders precedence.
b) The guy that messages you first has 0 feedback and is a new user, and the second guy is someone you have dealt with before. Again, maybe this is not the fairest, but I think giving first offer to the old members is personally more fair than letting someone get it, who just signed up that day for the sole purpose of buying the game from you.
Practically the same for me. :yoshi:
If you're selling good stuff at fair prices, you're bound to break some hearts. It's still better than being that annoying guy who wants $50 for his Super Mario/Duck Hunt cart.
I might consider an auction setup if it was a particularly rare item, or an item in rare condition, and it attracted several serious buyers. But that would be a pretty special occasion.
I sometimes pick up stuff that I already know someone I've dealt with before is looking for. In that case, I may make a private offer before advertising that I have it for sale/trade. That's one way you can hook up your buddies without breaking hearts on the forum.
But in general I'd agree with the first-come, first-serve principle with some of the stated exceptions above. Bulk orders are always nice, and you'd be surprised how often they're built around one high-demand item. I've had several bulk offers fall through once they learn the one piece they really wanted was no longer available. And it can be mutually beneficial to put a repeat customer before a new face; they took care of you last time, right?