Buying and Selling 2nd hand stuffs. Is it worth it ?

[Skinky]

Have any of you guys ever posted things online, hoping to sell at a decent price, then you receive an interested enquiry asking you to half the price ? or sometimes even lower ?

 

Another interesting point, have you looked through classifieds, and people are trying to sell their things at a price we all know will never close the deal.

 

Of course, talk is free. Just open mouth (my boss always tell me to do it), soemtimes the person just chin chai, u get a good bargain. But sometimes, it can be really frustrating.

 

I've sold quite a number of things online to variuos people. i had one guy offer me 20% of my asking price, and he made it seem like he was doing a favour to take it off my hands. I'm sure some of you may say, 'offer what you think is reasonable', but i'm sure many just play around and ask for the sake of asking. If you are interested, put yourself in the sellers shoes, will you consider what you are offering ?

 

Most buyers that I meet, will even try and bargain again the day they meet you. Some are good buyers, some are jerks. I've tried buying from people, but got burnt too many times. Either it doesnt work, or it doesn't fit. Now my rule is, spend abit more, and get it new, unless of course, you spot a good deal.

 

Even then, I won't try and squeeze the sellers balls. I'll see if the price he states is a reasonable price to me. If it's far off, I won't even bother to haggle, cos I'm wasting his time, and mine. #1 rule is to do your research first, know the market price before buying/selling your items.

 

Sometimes i look at the buy and sell column in MCF, some are really good bargains, some are really funny. Cutting a few percent off the price they bought. I finally understand why MCF has no thread reply function on classifieds threads, I'm sure many will be bombarded by comments.

 

There was once, at sim lim square, we wanted to buy a battery charger. We walked into this store and asked the price, the guy said 140. we were like what ? as we were about to leave, he said 70, and in the end, we baragined till 40. no joke.

 

Conclusion is, everyone wants a good deal, be it buyer and seller. But where do we draw the line?

 

Any interesting stories to share ?

 

And please, 'holier than thou' losers with nothing constructive to add, please stay away from this thread. Go find a way to remove the sand from your v@gina instead.

[Vesfreq]

There many weirdos other there. Can post description "item is new" clearly on the ad, but still got jokers who will pm "The thing new or not?"

 

Best is don't be too upset. Others I seen before. I put on my ad "item is new and comes with warranty". Still can people e-mail ask "got warranty or not?"

[Albeniz]

My worst deal on the second hand online purchase:-

 

palm zire 71. Made in China. Item spoilt after few days.

For item like this, it is better to get a new one from store as it comes with warranty.

[Falc]

For things you are getting just for the fun of it or you are unsure you need it, these best getting 2nd hand.

 

I dun trade very often, but those few have all gone very well. Of coz there are some jerks (esp buyers), just ignore them.

 

I notice for sale items that's not so exotic, best to do it over auction.

[Dtvox]

Funny thing about auction at this region is that the bidding seems to go nowhere...One thing is that the starting price is usually set as the 'reserve price'.

 

I also noticed that in the Q&A section, there are people asking if the price could be lowered. In the end, the auction ends up as a classified also...

[Theoldjaffa]

i know of some people, buy fairly new 2nd hand items at low price, then resell them at higher price! pity the carrots who fall for their trick.

 

one guy in another forum tried to sell me something at $100 cash and carry, claimed to be "1 week old". i could get the same thing brand new at $85 incl installation! i told him that, immediately he dropped price.

 

2nd hand items can be a good deal.. like i saved about 30% getting a used strut bar and 40% getting a used VS. some things (like bolt on, accessories) are more worth it to get used.. others are better new (like rims and tyres).

[Falc]

As long as I think more than 2 persons will be interested in bidding and i really need to let the item go, I will set the starting price darn low and without reserve. This itself generates publicity for people to bid, kind of a rolling effect.

 

Also have risks lah, but i look at USA ebay, this tactic is widely used, perhaps due to their much much larger pool of potential bidders.

[Ms_tan]

No matter is seller or buyer, both must be honest lah. Don't try to sell off the spoilt stuffs & lying all the way hoping a idiot to fall in your trap ... I'm wondering, if buyer bought the 2nd hand stuff but a spoilt one, can the buyer post it in the yahoo auction to let all know??? or to STOMP..

[Acemundo]

some buggers assume that once it is on the sub-sale market, u must offer 50% off the market price. even if you explicitly state you have not collected it yet and offering it to the buyer as brand new.

 

then a lot of them don't really care what is the difference between starting bid, reserve price and buy-it price. when they ask what price they can get it immediately from me, i told them the "buy-it" price......then they ask, why so expensive and why so much more than the starting bid price. and they like to use the words expensive indiscriminately when they fail to get the price they want. how can it be expensive when it is same item (and new also) as what retailers are selling and discounted off the retailer's price? almost wanted to give such pple a piece of my mind but decided against educating kids and idiots alike.

 

but i have also err once before. i didn't do a check of the market price range of the item i am buying and offered something considered a quite good price. the seller was then very eager to deliver the set to me on the spot even though I told him i am not home at that point. but luck has it that while i am outside, manage to find out the price of similar item but brand new set at retailer. so i sms him to cancel the deal and he was like raving and ranting all the way. i apologise twice but it seems that he seems inebriated i had backed out of the deal. Well if he was a saint, he wouldn't have pushed so hard to deliver the set to me earlier than what my schedule can afford. but nowadays i do a thorough check of the price of the items i intend to buy

[Theoldjaffa]

i was a sucker before.

 

bought 17" rims from a forummer who is scrapping his ride

 

turned out that the rims were warped. steering vibrates at 100km/h even after balancing (and alot of counterweights were used)

 

seller claimed this did not happen to his car..

 

eventually traded in the rims at a loss to the tyre shop for new 15".

 

thumbs down to dishonest pple out there.

[Acemundo]

once i unwittingly sold one that is mildly faulty though.

 

i bot the mobile phone thru similar means for my dad..he was usuing singtel sim card then no issue

 

then after a few weeks i found another phone that i have for my dad....

 

so i resold this phone. at point of testing together with buyer it seems to be ok cos we using my M1 sim card.

 

after the buyer go back home he sms me say the phone spoil...then i ask him to try a few sim card, and confirm that phone somehow cannot take starhub sim card.

 

i was waiting for the response from the buyer whether he want me to refund a % of the price due to this fault. but he never ask so i nvr offer.

 

but at least i can say, i didn't con him cos the phone did work with my m1 and singtel sim card.

Edited July 11, 2007 by Acemundo

[Lol79]

Cheer up mate

[Osiris]

Bro, buying via auction you have to look at seller's rating and the quality of rating.

If rating is base mostly on 100 items <$10 stuff may not be good as rating of 12 with > $100 stuff sold. look at the comment too.

 

I sold stuff online and will usually get people trying their luck by offering riduculous price even if stated starting price is firm. you don't have to get work up. just reply. "Sorry, min price $x"

most will stop bargaining

 

I once received a persistent guy message. Tell me my auction very long liao, he track. no one wants to buy.

He offer superlow price. Just tell them I am not hard up, I rather trash it at that price then to sell.

Eventually sold at the price i wanted.

 

also when selling stuff have to know market rate. search the auction to see average price. then sell at price in relation to the condition of your product.

 

Finally, buying stuff you must know market price. Eg are some handphone shop selling memory card or other accessories. 1GB card sell at 2GB price. Charger, bluetooth headset sold higher than Manufacture price etc

[Ms_tan]

ok, so you r not aware of the faulty? Then it's not your fautly cos at least you response to the buyer & you willing to refund him..

For my case, we found out the faulty, sms'ed the seller, he replied... But din say wanna refund us or wat.. In the end, we met up again to have his reciept for free repairing (under warrantly). We count ourself lucky of if another week later, the warrently will be expired & we have to fork out abt 3 hundreds for the repair - per O2 repair service center. The seller is considered .. Too bad, we can't do much to the seller...

[Acemundo]

yeah i was not aware.

 

but how did u gather that the seller knows?

 

for me, conscience dictate i wouldn't sell something spoilt.