Buyers' mentality these day?

[774553]

Warning, this is a rant.

It has come to my attention that it seems that it is increasingly hard to earn a decent net profit* on used items. It appears that buyers like to offer prices that only covers or barely cover the shipping cost, which leave me with nothing or negative balance.

Also does no one realise what the seller had to pay for those items which they are selling? To illustrate that, let use the following example:

I sell games most of the time. Now, when I bought them new in the shop, it cost $100 to $150. Or if they need to be imported, I went to Play Asia and paid for $150 to $200 (not including Shipping). Now, say that I want to make a bundle of them old games (bought from both places), would you not say is fair to price them around $500? Unfortunately, as of today, some idiot offer me $20 for them and call me a troll.

So my question here is, is the idea of trying to get half back from what I paid for is nothing but a fantasy?

Also, base on the formula logic below, it is easier to archive a net profit with a negative value and impossible to archive a positive value, even just for as little as $5 (net profit).   

*in case you don't know what net profit mean. Net profit = selling price - price that the seller had paid - shipping cost

[*tippy*toes*]

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@foxercase wrote:

I just got some headphones from China from Xiaomi for under $5. I am amazed how the sound quality is much better than my $200 headphones and this company is well known for making well built quality for ridiculously low prices.

If all companies followed this example the whole world would be screwed because we would simply not keep up with them.

It always increases the buyers expectations for a lower price....

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Yes, but will they last as long as your $200 headphones? Will the good quality last? We normally have Sennheiser, but decided to go cheap one time due to financial constraints. We were amazed at the quality of the sound. They could detect the smallest background sounds as well, if not better than the Sennheisers. Trouble is, they were cactus after 6 months, compared to 8 years from the Sennheisers (we use them a LOT).

[*tippy*toes*]

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@774553 wrote:
Thanks for bring that up. And for your information, I didn't get upset based on that. I get upset because:
1. If you ship your item using the cheapest form of shipping (the one that doesn't comes with a shipping ID). It like you have shipped, but couldn't prove it.
2. I ship her items as soon as I got back, then the complaint came, got refunded, now she got the items for free.
3. Overall, felt like seller have no say in any matters.

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That's not the point. You shouldn't have had active listings if you were going on holidays. Unless you have a store and put it into holiday mode when you go away, how is a buyer supposed to know you've gone on a cruise? How did she know you would post as soon as you got back? By then, your handling time would have well and truly past, so probably assumed she had been scammed. I can't blame her for putting in a claim if her item hadn't arrived and there was no word from you.

If you post without tracking, a buyer is always going to win an item not received dispute, even if you are 100% certain they received it. You can't prove that it was ever sent, so for those of us that do ship that way, it's a risk we have to take. If you don't want to risk it, register it or send as a parcel.

[kopenhagen5]

Sorry foxer, 90% of China made items I have purchased over decades are rubbish.

I buy items for myself as well as industrial products and machinery.

Metals for example are such low quality and fractures often occur.

[bakeandfry]

Yes im very aware of that, what i was talking about was the dlc code if the game came from japan.

[springyzone]

Thanks for bring that up. And for your information, I didn't get upset based on that. I get upset because:
1. If you ship your item using the cheapest form of shipping (the one that doesn't comes with a shipping ID). It like you have shipped, but couldn't prove it.
2. I ship her items as soon as I got back, then the complaint came, got refunded, now she got the items for free.
3. Overall, felt like seller have no say in any matters.

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Righto.

First-always give detailed descriptions & photos. Someone may pay a little more if they feel an item is likely to be in much better condition than another similar listing.

Next-don't bundle. Bundling a lot of items together, whether it is games. DVDs, clothes, always seems to bring the overall price down. Well, just about always. Try only one or two per listing & treat them like little jewels.

Finally-I am not sure about modern games and their prices. Second hand stuff that may or may not work is always a bit iffy. However, if what you are getting paid for them makes the whole exercise not worth the bother, then box them up carefully and store the box. A decade or two down the track and you may be sitting on a goldmine. My sister & i nearly threw some old game consoles and games out. Well, we did throw a fair bit of it out, to be honest. And sold the old game cosoles off at a dollar or two at a market stall.They were part of my brother's estate. Then we had a garage sale and days before it, we started getting phone calls from people asking if we had old games etc as they were nostalgic, loved to play them etc

I smelt a rat right there so we boxed up what was left (not much) and still have them. I think they are probably worth something. Your games might go the same way but you might have a wait ahead of you.

[digital*ghost]

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@774553 wrote:

No 345 is not half of 300, but I am talking about the net profit here. which is the amount left after the purchased price and shipping cost. Probably around 100.

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Places like Electronics Boutique and Cash Converters (just like sellers here on eBay, some of which have responded to your thread) routinely purchase used games for the sole purpose of making a profit. In order for them to make a profit on used games, they have to pay the person who's selling them less than what they can charge for the game. 

In other words, when an actual business-oriented person or company outlays money for games, they don't spend X amount and then try to make X + Y. They look at what the current or average price of the item is, work out what they're likely to be able to charge for it, and then offer the owner a fraction of that. 

I dunno about EB because I've never taken games there (bought pre-owned games from them, of course), but at Cashies you'll get $1-$5 on most PS3 games, they don't care in the slightest if it has a $10 or $1000 price tag on it, they only care about what they can get for it. 

In other words, if profit on items is your goal, you're buying from the wrong place and paying way over what would make this venture viable....

I'm starting to suspect this is a troll thread, though. Or maybe I just lack whatever it is that would mean I could understand the expectation a person would have that they can purchase pre-owned items, use them themselves and get a bunch of value out of the price they paid*, and then expect to be able to turn them around for a profit and price them way above market value - I have literally never come across that way of thinking before... Sure, I've sold second hand games and CDs for more than I paid, but they were hard to find, sought-after titles (eg Shadow of the Colossus), that's a mix of luck and calculated risk (as in, I knew people were on the look-out for them, and I auctioned them, so the bidders decided how much they were worth). 

*if you buy something for $100, and get $100 worth of value out of it, then sell it for $5, your $5 is 100% profit. 

[amber-eyed-girl]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

Very similar to buying a brand new car. You pay $50,000 for it, once you drive it out of the yard, the value plummets. Try and sell it 6 months later and see how little much you get for it. You'd be lucky to get half. I'm talking regular run of the mill cars, not 10 only limited edition Lambos or Jags. It's as you said, unless it's something rare, you're not going to recoup costs on a second hand, used, product. Even then, rare doesn't always mean valuable.

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Totally true...but guess what my story is.

I went and testdrove oodles of mainstream cars and thought...nah. 

Then, in the back of a dealership...I saw a bright red gleam...

It was a runout brand new car with a price on it that seemed too good to be true. I went for it.

Then I couldn't get it into the garage without shaving down the concrete...

But

That first year, if it had been nicked the insurance value was double what I paid for it. Still have it today and of course now it's worth nuffin...but I love it anyway.

[foxercase]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

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@foxercase wrote:

I just got some headphones from China from Xiaomi for under $5. I am amazed how the sound quality is much better than my $200 headphones and this company is well known for making well built quality for ridiculously low prices.

If all companies followed this example the whole world would be screwed because we would simply not keep up with them.

It always increases the buyers expectations for a lower price....

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Yes, but will they last as long as your $200 headphones? Will the good quality last? 

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Time will tell, but this company "Xiaomi" should be on the watchlist. I got their powerbanks too and are actually quite good and no problems thus far. They aren't the only ones, companies like OnePlus making their phone models that is far cheaper than the iPhone and it also outputs around the same performance at 5 times less the price Apple offers for their iPhones.

I think Australia strongly lacks innovations and we do play it extremely safe. Only the Australian laws keep things afloat else we wouldn't be watching Australian tv shows on prime time.

[heihachi_73]

Regarding the PS3 games:

OneeChanbara Z: Kagura: With NoNoNo! (the Japanese title; the English translation on the cover art is actually incorrect, being written as Onechambara) seems to be a good $20 more than buying direct from Japan and has a stock photo which isn't of the item itself. Is it brand new and sealed, brand new and not sealed (which automatically becomes "like new"), or second hand? If it is factory sealed it certainly is the cheapest. Is it Japanese or Asian region? BLJS-10221 is Japan and BLAS-50706 is Asia.

Genji: Days of the Blade also has a stock photo, no item description whatsoever and for some reason comes with $8.25 postage when it would cost no less than $2 to send (or $5.80 Registered Post, if you must have tracking).

As for the bulk lot, I'd give you $100 at most if I collected PS3 games; they're all Australian editions and not imports (yes, one has a European case but it's still "PAL" region, and it looks like the Australian rating sticker was peeled off). I also see yellow EB games preowned stickers and your listing doesn't describe the condition of them (they are most certainly not "like new" - do they all have manuals/flyers/papers etc. included?) - with the current pictures you're just asking for an item-not-described case and end up out of pocket if someone did buy them, if anything was missing or damaged (even a cracked game case could warrant a return, as Like New games look brand new but without the shrink wrap). Also, your photos are back to front, showing the backs of the covers first; most people would also want to see the cases individually rather than having them sitting on top of one another, you get 12 photos so there's plenty of room to show each game. Do you really have two copies of Genji: Days of the Blade? Because you currently have two for sale right now if not.

Feedback also shows that with last two items the buyers weren't completely satisfied with their items; one left a big red negative and the other a "neutral positive" from someone who was just probably too nice to leave a grey mark. I'm ignoring the older negative as you had no control over that one.

[casbit33]

exactly, we bought a car a few years ago for $26,000. Lately the same dealer only offered us $4,000. What  an insult.

You can never get what you paid for the original item unless its an special antique or collectable.

I sometimes make patchwork quilts which take weeks if not months to make, I never get paid for the time it took.  Buyers don't care what the original item cost, they only want to pay the cheapest price they can get.