Psychology 101: Price.

Originally Posted by shrap

Ultimately I don't think it really matters as long as it is CLEARLY pointed out that shipping is included. I will give two examples.

Example 1: Baby Female CB Ball Python $90 Shipped.

Example 2: Baby Female CB Ball Python $90. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. That price includes shipping.

If you place your ad like example number 2 I am likely to skim your ad and move right on not seeing that the price included shipping. So I think it is very important how your ad is worded when including shipping in the total price.

I agree - it must be stated right away if the price includes shipping or not. The actual price for shipping can be somewhere else in the ad (if not included)...I don't feel it needs to be directly by the cost of the animal.

I agree with Sammy.. it really makes no difference to me either way, as long as the wording in the ad is clear and concise.

Don't even THINK of saying "Best Offer"...you won't hear from me unless it's spectacular and something I'm just dying to get. Don't play pricing games! Set a price and stick with it....if you want to lower it in private, fine, but I don't need to know about it. When you say "Best Offer", how is the person making the offer going to know if you're being honest when you say "Sorry, someone has made a higher offer"?? It's a serious problem, and it's the reason I skip right past ads with no price.

Wow! Excellent, excellent, excellent....!!!

yeah that "best offer " thing is one i avoid as well . its mostly because i've been out of the hobby for a long time and alot of what is out there is new to me . many of the morphs and what not i have no clue as to what they are worth or what would be a "reasonable offer" . i go through alot of ads just to see what the price ranges are and what is actually out there .

A few of the things I have read in here have been eye openers, at least for me. In all honesty I have used the words "best offer" in a couple of instances and have seen it used hundreds of times. Never would have thought there were people who disliked it so much. My thought was that there would always be someone close enough to what your are asking for your item, so why not suggesting to them that you are willing to negotiate.

Thanks!

There's a difference between "best offer" and "or best offer". I too avoid ads that merely say best offer, because I don't price someone elses animals.
However saying $300 or best offer is entirely different. It sets a starting point and lets the buyer know the seller will nergotiate. Honestly though, I've never seen the point in it. It's basically the seller guaranteeing himself that he will not get his asking price. I mean really if it said $300 OBO nobody is going to say I'll take it for $300 knowing ahead of time that the seller will most likely take $250.

As for the initial impression of the difference between $50 plus $40 shipping or $90 shipped, I have a mental habit of deducting $40-50 from any shipped price. I do it without thinking, so if I saw an ad for $90 shipped I would automatically read it as a $50 snake.
I prefer to see a price that includes shipping when there's only one thing to buy, be it a single animal or two animals being sold as a pair. WHen there's a clutch being offered I prefer to see the price per animal with the shipping amount listed seperately so I can calculate a total on however many I might be interested in.

The way I do it is say I have 2.2 hatchlings for sale. I'll list them as $100 per pair plus $45 shipping or take all four for $225 shipped.
That's gives a better deal if the whole group is taken and gives a quick total on them all.

Originally Posted by Clay Davenport

There's a difference between "best offer" and "or best offer". I too avoid ads that merely say best offer, because I don't price someone elses animals.

now that i gree with . if there is a price followed by obo then i'll check it out . when i see an ad like this i start thinking that the seller is looking to get rid of the animal in question fairly quickly which means that they might be willing to cut a nice deal if they find a good buyer .

I almost always list the price of the individual animals "(+ shipping)". This way, a customer can choose 1 or 3 animals and figure the total expected to pay for the animals listed.
Shipping is calculated separately - and determined by the box size and its destination. The trick is that our credit card customers only the actual UPS shipping charges. If UPS quotes $32.49 - that is what I quote the customer. No box or heat/cool pack charges involved. If they are sending payment, Ill give them the quote and then drop (NOT raise) the rounding-off to $30.00. From the customers perspective - it feels like they are getting a deal on the shipping and I'm also not "nickle & diming" them.
I believe it is obvious that all shipping materials (boxes/heat/cool packs) are calculated into the initial pricing of the dragons... I don't point it out though. :-)

If I post something as "shipped" - chances are that it's a phenomenal animal and this person is paying a decent amount for the animal alone. I do not charge them shipping at all... And anyone wanting to add animals to that order get the same deal if they are shipping together.

USPS is a flat $25.00 for me to ship through. It always comes to 18-something or 22-something. The extra few $'s are for my phone calls to Philly International for flight clearances and the trip to the P.O. and having to deal with my PostMaster who hates reptiles and also happens to think that mailing any living thing is a horrible, malicious thing to do.

As for the second question - I really only pay attention if I feel that the asking price is a bit high... Ill look to see if the seller is offering a deal that includes shipping or just over-pricing.

V.

I would not ask further on a "best offer" either. But if it said "$100 or best offer", then I would think that $100 is the MOST the seller expects, but is open to negotiate further. That would be more interesting than a possible bidding war with no stated asking price.

I definitely like ads with the price plus shipping for the same reasons already stated - plus, here in Florida, there are so many shows, dealers, breeders, etc, that I would probably prefer to pick it up in person, so would want to know how much it is both with, and without, shipping.

I'm not a huge fan of OBO either. I must say, I'll at least look at the adds that say OBO, but I don't think I've ever bought from one. There is still the same issue of how do you know the seller is being honest with you. Almost everyone is willing to negotiate when you get down to it. If the price seems higher than average, or I'm just a bit short of funds, I have no problem making an offer...it's up to the seller to accept it. If they take it - great, if not I move on - not a big deal. In most cases, I'm fine with paying what the asking price is and I don't ask for a deal (a bit of selling karma...I would hope people would be happy to pay asking price for me, so I am willing to do it for others if it's something I want and can afford)

In my opinion, as seller should indicate they are not interested in negotiations by stating "FIRM". I doubt it will stop offers from everyone, but at least you're letting people know you're not interested. In a market such as this one, the people who aren't willing to negotiate are few (as far as my experience goes), and they often end up hanging on to the animal for some time. Please note I'm talking about higher dollar animals, where it's more likely that a seller will take a lower offer than stated to move the product (animal) rather than hang on to it for an unknown amount of time. Because of this, I find OBO to mean "I hope I get my asking price, but I don't expect to" and it just seems a little desperate because this is a market that lives on negotiation....why state the obvious and almost guarantee you aren't going to get the asking price? If you, as the seller, don't feel it's worth full price (shown by asking OBO), then why should I, as the buyer, feel it is? I guess you could say it's a selling/buying turn-off for me. I won't automatically pass it up, but it will give me second thoughts.