We are starting to get more an more complaints about people sending extremely low offers.
To try and combat this issue we are thinking of enforcing a new policy.
Offers must be at least 50% of the total asking price.
This policy would have two effects. It would make sure that people can’t give unreasonably low offers, and it would encourage sellers to ask fair asking prices.
What do you think of this policy?
========== 11/27/2008 UPDATE ============
Wow, I am amazed with the response! I rolled out the simplest stage of the feature. We now restrict the offers to at least 50% of the asking price. It is a lot more work to make it configurable, but I am open to doing it if it is the right thing. For now, if you are willing to take offers that are less than 50% of you asking prices, maybe you can consider lowering your asking price.
Not a bad idea. It would certainly save time.
I have recently experience such behavior. This policy is a great step in the right direction.
I totally agree, wasting too much time responding to numerous low offers, especially when most of my prices are already 80% off. Fifty % of listed price sounds like a reasonable cutoff, although I seldom can go lower than the listed price.
How about giving the seller an option whether or not they accept lower offers? Maybe a title of “entertains offers better than 50%” next to their seller name.
What if there was also an option to not accept offers? That way people who do list at 80% off can just click a button to make offers not available while others that list 30% off can take offers.
Definitely agree with this policy…getting tired of $1 offers on $20 cards.
I agree, when you have a card listed at 75% off and they offer $3.00 for a $150.00 card…
I would also love to be able to maybe “chat” with other buyers about cards. Make deals and trades or whatever..Maybe that could some day be worked out
how about 33%
Sounds like an excellent idea. At least I know I’m not the only one getting “silly” offers. A$1 offer for a $50 card that was already reasonably discounted is a little insulting. I had one the other day, and after I had rejected the offer, I wished I could have had a “do over” and counter offered $100! (double the book, and triple the asking price…haha). COMC really pays attention and addresses any and all issues that may arise. Well done…again!
Just the Other day I had 2 offers for a $225 card. One for $1 and another for $5. My asking price was $35. I think this is a good example.
Habs is 100% correct, at times you would LOVE to send a double the asking price to some of these insulting offers..And again he is correct with COMC paying attention.
I think this is another great idea in your growing list of improving this great business model.
Thanks for asking for feedback and listening to your sellers.
NICE!!!
A new policy enforcing a minimum offer of the asking price is a good idea. Schultz and Habs are right on. 50% seems like a good # to try. As for being able to chat with other buyers, about deals or trades, WOW, that would be way to much fun.
I think that you should give the seller the option, rather than making it into effect. Especially with low dollar items, 50% isn’t much, but can make a big difference for the buyer.
I also think 50% is a little high. 30% sounds more reasonable to me.
Let me start by saying how much fun it is to browse COMC for a good deal! This site is absolutely addicting, and I’m amazed at how many great cards can be found for 80+ percent off. I too have received ridiculous low-ball offers, and often from the same buyers/sellers – This is understandable, especially amongst the youngest generation of collectors who just want to get the best deal whether it is fair or not; but I wonder if it would be possible to flag or report these continuous offenders and have a 10 strikes and your out policy – i.e. – kick them off the site for repeated offenses? Sellers could report what they feel is an unfair offer, and ultimately, the prestigious COMC umpires would make the call as to whether this counts as a strike – after all, if were buying and selling sports cards, let’s make sure we’re being good sports about it! With that said, I’d also like to say that part of what makes COMC so great, is the shear simplicity of it. There are times that some expanded features like chatting, and trading would be absolutely great, but I’m not sure I would advocate adding these features if only out of fear that they might ruin such an already great thing. I’m all for seeing this site expand and improve, but I think it might be a delicate balance that needs to be weighed heavily; but hey, there’s no better way than by asking those who use the site everyday – so great job folks!
Thinking minimum offer percentage is a great idea. Let’s take it one step further by allowing the seller to set the percentage minimum. This would allow sellers to assign different thresholds for each card of their inventory.
I don’t think it really matters. It is pretty easy to either hit the reject or counteroffer button. If the offer is “off the wall”, then I just reject it and don’t counter.
I agree with Erik. I know that it is annoying to get those offers on big dollar cards, but how much time honestly goes into rejecting them? I know that some sellers do not mind, and it is a jumping off point for many cards. I think some real research needs to go into this, as to how much time it is really consuming vs. the number of cards that sell at below 50% of asking price.
I have no received many ridiculously low offers. They are very easy to reject. I say ,bring on the offers,whatever, Ihave no problem with that.
I agree with ND3 about letting sellers set their own percentage. And I’d so like to call out 2 or 3 of the notorious lowballers on here, but I’ll refrain… 😉
I generally don’t mind rejecting low offers, but I would like a feature to block certain buyers ( there are 3 or 4 for me ) from continually offering the same lowball amount week after week after already being rejected. Maybe after they get blocked by a few sellers, they’ll at least get some sort of clue. But most important for me is that I wouldn’t have to waste my time anymore.
Great Idea! I like it! I was offered $2 for a card that booked at $40 and I was sell for $20.
I agree that this is a good idea and should be configurable. If an owner wants to turn this feature on, the owner should then be able to set the threshold.
I like this idea, but the seller should be able to configure the percentage.
I love the idea. One reason I no longer even deal with ebay is becasue of all the bottom feeders that crawled around. i want to deal with serious buyers.
The idea is an interesting one, though I think I am losing sales now since there really is no bargaining chip if buyers want to start low and work from there. If we had a way to turn it off or switch the percentage that would be ideal.
I’m am getting the feeling that the site is turning into amazon, where there are “bots” lowering the prices in order to keep the other sellers prices the lowest. There are a lot of sellers that are giving away cards. $10/$20 cards listed for $1 or less, so there is actually probably no profit if you take out the listing fees and shipping fees. I hate having to keep reducing prices to get something sold because someone else does not care one way of the other what they sell if for. Now I have to consider lowering prices even more to fall into a reasonable range to move higher dollar cards (or even lower priced ones). I love COMC as I have been using you for almost a year and have moved cards that I thought I’d never be able to move out of my house. It beats Ebay and any other site 10 out of 10 times. If you could let me work from home helping you list I’d be all for that. The more I can contribute the better.
The minimum offer set is a step in the right direction. Still think that the seller should have control over the threshold though.
Speaking of lowball offers sellers BEWARE of chillywilly00067. Yes I am calling you out for your low ball offers and annoying input of an offer then canceling it shortly after.