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Posting animals for sale w/o a set price

The BoidSmith

The BoidSmith

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I would like to hear opinions on how people react as buyers when an animal is posted for sale without a specified price.

Just a few examples:

a. "I'm taking offers on this animal"

b. "The highest bid will get this animal"

c. "Call or e-mail for a price on this animal"
 
As for an answer to A, and B. I'll usually move on.

But depending on if it’s a herp I really want for my collection... I might email for a price, but then I still wonder why in this situation the seller doesn’t just post the price in the first place.
 
If I see an ad that says taking offers or highest bid,I usally go on to the next ad. If I see one that says email for price and I like the pic I will email.For some reason ads that say taking offers or highest bid scare me cause the seller could tell me that they had a better offer. Since I don't know if they are being truthful I usally don't respond to that ad.
 
I agree

In the past I have fallen for the first two in a couple of instances and the current bid was always higher.

I'm having trouble understanding the rationale behind the third add. Why wouldn't someone want to put a price in the add?

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just wandering why. That kind of add is usually posted when expensive snakes are being put up for sale. But what does the seller gain by doing that? For once I can foresee a lot of phone calls from people who don't have a clue the animal in question is probably out of their budget. So they are wasting his and their time.
 
Ads with either one of those three scenarios will get the BRUSH OFF from me.... I won't even bother to look.... when people are shopping (MOST people), they are looking for pictures and prices.... PERIOD! If you're a businessman, you want to make things as EASY as you can for your potential customers.... NEVER make them SEARCH for an answer.... it should be right in front of their faces! Sure, you will get SOME folks who will call, just to hear the price and then hang up, never to be heard from again.... if that's what you want, go for it.... but, that's certainly NOT the way to do business....

....Neil
 
Add to the list the complete scam of "first to send money via paypal gets it"
I definately pass on bidding wars.
As for "email for price," I tend to think this is so that the person can monitor what effect his/her ads are having and gauge interest in the animal instead of the deal.


I actually am probably going to be offering leopard geckos for sale this year. I really don't know I feel comfortable asking the anywhere near the prices that I paid. I know I struggled to pay for my animals, and it didn't make me more or less qualified to own them. I have been giving thought to selling with a variation on A- Tell me what you're comfortable paying and we'll work something out.
 
This reminds me of the other scenario where after asking for an offer they end by stating "and please don't insult me". The prospective client doesn't know where he stands at all.

Regards.
 
"and please don't insult me"
Click to expand...

LOL...

To me thats just like saying you really dont want to make the sell.

I agree with Neil. Its just not good business practice.
 
Steven.... I do have to disagree with you on one point....

"First PayPal gets it"!

That is PERFECTLY acceptable!

There are MANY people that have emailed me saying they love the animal but they would like some more info.... which is fine.... but.... as they are emailing me their questions, I've had others just PAYPAL me FIRST, and they asked their questions in the NOTES section of their PayPal page.... guess who got the animal???
If more than ONE PayPal shows up.... the FIRST one got the animal, and all the others had their PayPal's declined! It's very easy to do! IF YOU'RE HONEST!!
Sure, there will always be someone who will KEEP every PayPal sent to them (or try to, anyway).... as in EVERYTHING.... you've GOT TO know who you're dealing with FIRST! If you trust the company.... sending PayPal is the BEST way to secure your animal, because it's very obvious you WANT IT! Questions are just questions.... PayPal is SOLD!!

....Neil
 
Personally, I don't price other people's animals. It's highly irritating when someone offers me a rediculously low price for one of my animals, and I do not want to risk doing that to someone else, even if my offer is the going price and they have only overvalued it in their own minds. At the same time I don't want to offer $200 more than they were hoping to get and thereby wasting money.
The "please don't insult me" addition completely ensures I will not inquire about it. If they don't want to be insulted, then post a price, it's that simple. If someone agrees it's a fair price then they'll buy it, if not they wouldn't sell it anyway.
I am of the opinion that if you're going to sell somthing know what you want for it and price it accordingly.

With the highest bidder situation, I pass those by completely. I find the idea of an uncontrolled auction distasteful, and just ripe for manipulation. It also smacks of greed with the apparent hopes that someone who really wants it offers more than the seller had considered pricing it as.
Of the three situations, I dislike this one the most.

With the call for price, if I was really interested in the animal and it was not commonly available, then I would consider emailing them, otherwise I'll pass on it too.
If they want to sell something they should price it, like Neil said, simplify it.

On the same line of thought, the "email for pics" clause irritates me too. Especially on classified boards that allow uploading directly, and no webspace is even needed. It takes basically no effort to include them in the post, why make the buyers go to the trouble of requesting them.
I just see no reason at all for this one.
 
Neil, I would be more likely to send paypal upfront to someone who didn't say "first to paypal gets it" in their ad.

To me its always suspicious enough that I would avoid that seller.
 
first to send money via paypal gets it
Click to expand...

That one is similar to saying "first come first serve". To be honest with you, I don't have too much of a problem with that one. An animal is not sold until it is paid for (unless there is a strong committment from someone you know and trust, although we have seen that one to fail too). But I hear what you say Steven, it obviously opens the door to a potential problems.
 
Steven.... maybe I'm missing something, but, I don't understand why you feel that it's somehow underhanded?? What's the difference between, "First PayPal gets it".... and.... "First Come, First Served"??
Don't both of those phrases say to you that there will be no bidding war?
I just don't understand your problem with that? Did someone once screw you by keeping your PayPal??
Personally, I think PayPal is the best thing since perforated toilet paper!

....Neil
 
Neil,

Not too many people use that practice really, but I have no problem with it, especially when the seller is known to be trustworthy. I know if I was the second person to paypal you the money I would get it back, so that is not the issue.
I do have a question about the practice though.

Let's say I definately wanted a snake you had for sale, as long as one factor was true. For instance I wanted a ball python you had listed, but getting live feeders on a regular basis was hard for me to do, so I only wanted it on the condition it was feeding on thawed prey. Let's assume that the one you had was a great feeder on live, but never accepted anything dead, since this is a common problem with balls.
Now I send the paypal immediately to ensure I do get the snake, but include the question about the feeding habits in the notes of the payment.

You being an honest salesman, explain that the snake only accepts live prey.
Would I be considered an unreliable buyer if I asked for my money back since the condition I had wasn't to my liking?

This is the only problem I have with the practice of sending money before asking questions. In certain situations I only want an animal if specific things about it are true .
I don't inquire about an animal if I have not already decided I want to buy it, but I do like to get any questions answered before paying for it in case something is not acceptable.
It's just much preferred from the perspective of the buyer not to involve money until everything is satisfactory with the transaction.
Normally most questions can be answered within the ad, if the seller is thoughtful enough to be detailed in the description, but sometimes there's a factor that the seller may not consider important but the buyer feels otherwise.
 
Neil, my problem with it is only because it is putting a great deal of trust in the seller. I would rather know the product I am purchasing is mine before I hand over the money. One reason is I wouldn't necessarily trust someone who was incouraging mass amounts of money to be sent his/her way, another is that I tend to run with a fairly restricted budget and would not want to have money tied up without good reason.

And what would you do if you sold something via this method and maybe the day after you get your first buyer someone paypals you twice as much as you were asking? Would you be fair and turn it down?
 
I use the "first one to PayPal me gets it" line in some of my ads. I usually do that when I'm offering a lot of problem feeders or something. I do this becuase I know that they will go fast, and I want people to know what is going on up front. However, there are other times, when I need to reduce my load of animals, and I price them low to sell fast. Either way, the customer knows that there is the possibility to get an animal for less than market price, but the need for movingfast is obvious.

However, this practice is also beneficial to me as the seller because I let people know that there won't be any "Oh, I really want those snakes, and the check is in the mail" junk going on for me. The first person to email me what I have honestly asked for will get what I have honestly represented. People either trust me, based on my reputation for honesty, or they don't. It's really that simple.

I have had multiple PayPal payments show up before, and I have immediately refunded those that came in second or third. I have no doubt in my mind that if someone were to PayPal me a much larger sum after that first requested sum was entered, that I would politely refund the larger amount (though I would probably try my best to find another animal for that customer!)).

I wonder, if a person were to email saying "I want that animal for X amount of dollars," the seller accepts that offer, the buyer sends the money, and another buyer offers more for the same animal, will that seller be any less tempted than he would have been had he used PayPal in the manner I do? To me, it still boils down to the honesty of the seller. You can either trust him/her or you cannot. People know they can trust me to do what I say I will, and they send me money for animals on PayPal, trying to beat out the others who trust me just as much. I just cannot see that as being a bad thing, or really any different than what would happen if I was just looking to see who emailed me first, or sent me the first money order.
 
I personally tend to avoid ads which don't have pictures and/or don't have prices, or ones which require you to email to get either of those. Paypal only or first paypal gets it stuff turns me away because I don't use paypal. I'd much rather deal with someone who posts decent pics of the actual animal(s), posts the prices right there in the ad, and accepts money orders or credit cards. Poor grammar and/or spelling is also something that would turn me away from purchasing an animal. Of course, it helps if the person knows what it is they're selling. If they're saying things like 'I don't know what it is but it looks different from the ones I've seen before so it may be a new morph', or if they're mislabeling a morph deliberately or through ignorance (I saw an otherwise reputable dealer attempting to sell hypomelanistics as amber corns at one point), I won't buy from them. In fact, I'm likely to put them on my do-not-buy-from list. But that's me. Actually, I'd much rather buy animals directly from a well-known breeder's website, but if I'm looking at the classifieds, those are things that can affect my willingness to buy from a person.

-Kat Hall
 
Darin.... I went through that same scenario just a couple of days ago.... If you saw my ad for the Female Hogg Island Boa I had on KS and Fauna.... I had it out for $299 shipped.... I got a call from a gentlemen saying that he wanted it, and would be PayPal'ing me within five minutes.... and he DID PayPal me right then! About 2 minutes later, I got a phone call from Damion Wyatt (a very good friend), asking me if it was still available....I told him I JUST sold it.... he offered me $350 to tell the other guy that there was a problem.... I had to tell Damion to forget it.... it was sold! Of course, Damion understood that, but, I just wouldn't do that! Now.... had I NOT received his PayPal when he said he would send it.... I probably WOULD have sold it to Wyatt (for $299!)....
It all depends on how you want people to trust you or not! Had I sold it to Wyatt for the $350 and told this guy there was a problem.... I can GUARANTEE YOU he would have found out about it eventually.... and then where would I be??? I'd be NOT trusted by ANYONE! See my point?
When you make a deal with someone.... STICK TO IT!

....Neil
 
'I don't know what it is but it looks different from the ones I've seen before so it may be a new morph'
Click to expand...

Kat,

You described exactly how I feel in front of that statement. The fact is that this person usually knows how much he paid for that animal (I assume he didn't find it in a dumpster) and he is playing the dummy. But al least he is not claiming nothing for sure as some do. He is just fishing...

Another pearl: ..."I paid $5,000 for this animal, but now I need cash, make me an offer, my loss is your gain"...It might be true but it is used waaaay too often.

Regards.
 
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