Do you tell a seller when their ponies are overpriced?

[Crowning_Glory13]

I stink at pricing. That is why I always state open to offers:)

[CrystalSnowflake]

I can say I try to have reasonable prices listed for what I want to sell. I don't mind people making offers especially if they are wanting to buy more than just one pony. I don't always have time to do exhaustive searching and cross referencing for prices on things.

Honestly the buyer is probably more informed of the going rate than I would be as a seller since they have been the ones looking for the item.

If you want the item they are selling it never hurts to make an offer.

[Leave a Whisper]

No. But I'll scornfully roll my eyes and talk smack about someone selling that oh-so Super Rare and baity Glory. Because it's so rare and worth every penny and there's totally not 8 more reasonably priced Glories below them no sir! 

[goddessofpeep]

It's hard to know how some people will react to being told their items are too expensive, especially if it's coming from a random stranger on the internet.  Very few people like their first interaction with someone to be comments on how their stuff is too expensive.  Some people might actually take it to heart and be grateful, but for every one of those there's probably 10 people who will be offended, and many of those will lash out.  Those aren't odds I want to deal with. 

I will say something to friends, or sellers that I have an extensive relationship with.  I often chat with sellers before/during/after a purchase, and once I find a seller that I like and trust, I'll often be a repeat buyer, and often a frequent friendly "just because" email pen-pal.  If I've been back and forth with a seller for over a year, then I might make a *polite* mention about their prices.

If a seller has across the board absolutely insane prices(I've seen some doozys over the years), I'll usually just not buy from them, and make a mental note about that.  Truly out-there pricing across the board usually indicates either someone who has *no* idea about the actual market, or someone who's just plain greedy.  There are exceptions, but those are the most likely explanations.  On rare occasions where they have something I absolutely must have at any price, I'll usually put out a delicate feeler to see if there's any wiggle room in that price.  That's rare though.

[SaraMari]

I just ignore it, those people usually can't be swayed for whatever reason, if you wait there will be always be an appropriately priced one later. In some cases I've just waited and eventually they lowered the price, that is very rare, I think in most cases they are waiting for an uninformed person to buy it not knowing better

[Artemesia's Garden]

I just could not resist and actual yellow dye dip for this pony = IMO so much better to be actual yellow

Definitely agree, I love this! If a pony has an unsightly issue, I like to make the smallest changes possible to make it suitable for display and this one is genius.

[LadyMoondancer]

Like everyone else said, I wouldn't bring it up with them.

Either no one will buy their pony and they'll eventually lower the price, or someone will buy it.  I've sold some stuff at high prices on eBay before, it's amazing the prices you can get if you take good pictures and are patient.

[Carrehz]

Nope, I just move on and buy it from somewhere else if possible.

[Snapdragon]

I was going to say "it's not worth it to 'inform' someone, because inevitably it leads to misunderstandings and hurt feelings', but then I saw this reply:

No. But I'll scornfully roll my eyes and talk smack about someone selling that oh-so Super Rare and baity Glory. Because it's so rare and worth every penny and there's totally not 8 more reasonably priced Glories below them no sir! 

... and I was like, HEY, MY PEOPLE! Sometimes I'll share particularly egregious overpriced pony auctions with my friends, like "omg, are you kidding me??" There's always a $50 Peachy on Ebay to laugh about!

I think pricing, unfortunately, can be a really personal thing; for me, sometimes my prices are a little higher because A) I don't sell a lot and so it's an extra effort for me to go to the post office, and I don't wanna do that for $1-3! and B) I don't want folks buying my just-okay ponies for custom bait. And on the flip side as a seller, if I get people who are out to 'inform' me that "your sales are super overpriced, I'll offer 30% of your asking price if you kick in free shipping", and all I hear is "I'm cheap and I'm probably out to scam you." It's unfortunate, but people who start getting aggressive about paying are usually the folks who are going to be a problem in the future. (I also had someone who asked if they could get a group discount which I OK'd, then had me hold something like 20 ponies, asked for multiple additional photos of most of them... then vanished from the face of the planet. I held the ponies for her for months. She's still out there buying and selling, not a care in the world.)

If someone has prices set, that's probably what they want for that pony, for whatever reason; but a lot of folks are nice, and are open to hearing offers, especially if the pony has sat around for awhile! So it can't hurt to say "hey, would you consider $x for this pony?", but I wouldn't frame it as "you are wrong on this pricing"; that's not gonna help you close the sale!

[Broken Irishwoman]

No, I prefer not to stick my nose where it doesn't belong.

It's hard to know how some people will react to being told their items are too expensive, especially if it's coming from a random stranger on the internet.  Very few people like their first interaction with someone to be comments on how their stuff is too expensive.

This... I was once harassed (yes, it really felt like harassment) when I sold a pony "too cheap". I had a pony for sale, and I sold it to the first person who contacted me. Everything was fine, until someone else messaged me about the pony. I told them politely that I had already agreed to sell the pony to the first person. They proceeded to ask for how much I sold the pony, and I, stupid as I am, told them. Then they started harassing me, in multiple messages: They would have paid much more, I shouldn't have felt forced to sell it to the first person, I could still cancel the transaction if the other person hadn't paid yet, etc...

Did. Not. Appreciate. It!

No idea if the person I'm talking about reads this, if so, I don't really care. I thought it was a nasty way to behave, especially coming from a stranger who I had never talked to before. I don't care if you would have paid more, I agreed with the price, which means it's a good price for me. I don't need to make the most of it! I really don't care about profit.

[Leave a Whisper]

No, I prefer not to stick my nose where it doesn't belong.

It's hard to know how some people will react to being told their items are too expensive, especially if it's coming from a random stranger on the internet.  Very few people like their first interaction with someone to be comments on how their stuff is too expensive.

This... I was once harassed (yes, it really felt like harassment) when I sold a pony "too cheap". I had a pony for sale, and I sold it to the first person who contacted me. Everything was fine, until someone else messaged me about the pony. I told them politely that I had already agreed to sell the pony to the first person. They proceeded to ask for how much I sold the pony, and I, stupid as I am, told them. Then they started harassing me, in multiple messages: They would have paid much more, I shouldn't have felt forced to sell it to the first person, I could still cancel the transaction if the other person hadn't paid yet, etc...

Did. Not. Appreciate. It!

No idea if the person I'm talking about reads this, if so, I don't really care. I thought it was a nasty way to behave, especially coming from a stranger who I had never talked to before. I don't care if you would have paid more, I agreed with the price, which means it's a good price for me. I don't need to make the most of it! I really don't care about profit.

You got harassed for selling a pony too cheaply? That is very bizarre. 

I figure that one can sell it at whatever price they want, but they shouldn't expect people who go out of their way to be in- the-know of a hobby, or people who at least have enough impulse control to shop around a little (which is most people) to pounce on some jerk looking to scam someone out of their money for a common. Or some starry-eyed seller who thinks old toy automatically=tons of cash.

[goddessofpeep]

It’s not bizarre that someone might be harassed for selling a pony cheaply.  There are quite a few people on ebay and elsewhere in the community who approach sellers after an auction finishes or a pony is sold to try to get the seller to sell to them instead.  This happens most often when a good BIN on ebay happens.  I know there are people who search completed auctions daily for auctions that went for reasonable prices to extreme deals.  They then contact the seller and attempt to get them to cancel the transaction with the legitimate buyer, and sell to them instead.

I’ve been the unfortunate legitimate buyer on these sorts of auctions many times.  Usually the seller returns my payment and gives me some garbage story about the dog/cat/toddler destroying the item, the item being lost, or “my adult daughter became nostalgic and wants to keep it”.   It’s funny how all these things happen to Rapunzels and TAF Babies, never to Peachys or Baby Frostings.  It’s bad enough that I don’t count an auction as mine until it’s in the mail and moving.

Good for you Broken Irishwoman for not giving in to that dishonest buyer!   Any seller that pulls a “my dog ate it” on me never gets my business again.  And shame on the buyers who do it.  It’s a plague on ebay.  I don’t know how many people are doing it. It could just be a few.  That’s enough.   The greed and dishonesty is just disgusting.

[mlp4me]

I will say something to re-sellers on Facebook if their prices are a bit off. A few actually took what I said to heart...

When I have things for sale I try to ebay average and always state that I'm open to offers... (Though I'm done selling anything but customs for awhile now.)

[LadyAmalthea]

It's funny...I thought of this post when I was scrolling through craigslist last night, and I saw someone offering an old Blossom for $125. I clicked on it, thinking it had to be a nirvana or a lot or something and the first picture was just of the Blossom, but no, it was just the one pony. It wasn't even in great shape; there were black ink-looking stains on one side,although the seller claimed it was in 'good to excellent' condition.

Then the seller said they would ship for an 'additional $10, so a total of $160'. In what world does $125 +$10 equal $160?  I felt like I was missing something. My first thought was, someone should tell them....but it's sure not gonna be me!

[Squirtsquirt]

I've tried that in the past, but yeah...the prices fluctuate and sometimes people are stuck on getting top dollar.

I really tried to search on eBay and here to get prices for my ponies.  Yes, I know sometimes the prices I put might be "high," but I also try to keep condition in mind.  When I see an open played with pony selling for $5, I don't think $8 for a MIB one is too much of a mark up.  I also try to offer multiple pony discounts, since most of the time, I'm just looking to clear ponies out and find them good homes.

One thing I really don't like on eBay are the "best offer" auctions.  They don't tell you what they ACTUALLY sold for if they accepted the best offer.  If I want to base my prices off the current market, I have no idea what the $125 MIB Fluttershy really sold for.  Best offer could've been $120 or $15...no idea. 

Right now, I'm wondering if it's even worth trying to sell anything.  I still have some nirvana ponies to sell and I can finally list the rest of my collection I need to sell.  The world is in such chaos, I'm not sure how many people are really looking to spend money on ponies.  Prices now are really going to be strange...so I don't know how stable anything will be in the near future.