I've noticed several bothersome things recently (and not so recently) in watch sales on the forum. In no particular order, they are:

1. "99" pricing. If you want $4,000 for your watch, price it at $4,000, not $3,999. That kind of tactic belongs on a used car lot.
2. "Net to me." This seems to be a follow-on to the ubiquitous "add 3.5% for PayPal," which is disappearing as it should be----PayPal's TOS forbid sellers from requiring the buyer to pay PP fees. This is especially laughable when the price is "$500 net to me," then "$450 net to me," then "$400 net to me," etc. State a price and work out the details with a buyer.
3. Daily price reductions. I've seen watches drop close to 50% in asking price over the course of a week or two. What's the problem with this? The problem is that the watches were seriously overpriced at the outset. If this continues to happen, buyers will start to wonder if they got cheated when they paid the original asking price for a watch. Further, this encourages buyers to make half-price offers on watches, which is insulting to someone offering a good watch at a reasonable price. Do your homework and price a watch fairly. Make it "firm" if that's your preference, or "offers accepted" if not.

Yes, I know it's a harsh world out there, and no one's going to have a heart attack if offered $2,000 for their pristine '74 Speedie. My point is that these kinds of tactics can have a cumulative effect, and run the risk of gradually turning the best watch sales forum on the net into a used car lot.

 

But if it was only $3,999, then I can tell my wife it was only like $3,000 and change

 

I feel the need to put 'net' in, not for PayPal, but for currency conversions. I've been paid several times by people doing a quick currency conversion on google, but the bank rate is nowhere near the actual rate, and I receive significantly less than the agreed price.

When purchasing from abroad, I use either Transferwise or PayPal but set it up for 'recipient receives'.

A buyer is free to use whatever method they wish to pay, but I don't see why the seller should receive significantly less than the agreed price.

Edit: I should add that I'm not talking about PayPal's 3.5% here. I'm talking in excess of 10% on occasion.

 

I agree with everything except the "net" part - I always add that for listings now because early on in my flipping days, I felt like I would always get burned by shipping, PayPal, and currency exchange fees. It finally got so lopsided in one deal that I started including that language and making it explicit with any international buyers again in the conversation. If it's PayPal only, then fair enough, but I think it's helpful to let buyers know that it's a line in the sand.

I (and many other forum members) try to price anything I sell at fair market value for private deals, not dealer prices. As a function of that, I think it's important to reiterate that on top of the fair price I believe I'm asking, I don't want to have to eat $100 shipping of a high insurance international package, on top of currency exchange differences. I'm not a dealer, but the dollars and cents still add up.

 

I too don't see why I should have to pay any PP fees if taking payment for a watch. If the buyer chooses to use PP then either use Gift/F&F or if they want the safety net or accept PP's extortionate exchange fees then they can pay the fee, why the hell should I? There is a perfectly reasonable fee free alternative in bank transfer or if a currency transfer is involved Transferwise (which charges something like 0.5%) as mentioned above so while I won't usually put the phrase 'Net to Me', if I agree a price for a sale then I expect to receive that price, not 96% or whatever of it. I have always put it in black and white when agreeing a deal what I expect so have not had any bad experiences. Likewise if buying I would make damn sure the seller received the full amount agreed, regardless of currency so perhaps better communication is the key to a more painless transaction.

 

I don't think it fair to make the seller pay PP fee if I'm the one insisting on using it. In a recent transaction I was in a hurry and used regular PP instead of friends and family. I paid the fee out of good will. That fee protects my interest with a seller I don't know.

 

Sort of a hijack but...

Will PayPal even cover a transaction if it's a private party sale over the Internet ? I thought I read somewhere that they didn't. so perhaps everyone is paying these fees unecessarily for protection they aren't even getting.

I used to get worked up over having to pay PayPal fees but then I realized if I can't trust the seller with a friends and family transaction I shouldn't be buying it from them in the first place.

 

Yes they will.

 

At the end of the day, it up to the seller to act as he wants... if the seller lists overpriced and lowers the price by a half in less than a week, I believe that all the fellows here will notice the behavior and will simply not buy anything before further expected reductions happen or will just make an offer via PM.

Why do we need to discuss that?

I am not selling much but when I do I will certainly keep adding 'net to me' in my listings as here as well a lot of people are simply unable to use a conversion tool to estimate the price in their local currency and are unable to book a payment in a foreign currency... might sound stupid but in 2017 it's a sad reality. Like some said before, why should I cover the PayPal fees as a seller when I can get the money I want to have for the item I'm offering for sale via a bank transfer, without any fees? If the seller wants a special method, I would certainly not pay for him for that.

But I understand a dealer might have another opinion about this as the fees are maybe seen as a the price to accept for getting access to more potential buyers. Another topic.

 

I like running reverse auctions...drop till they sell. You never know what someone is willing to pay.

Better to do this than have 2 years old sales thread.

 

I don't think it's unfair to lower a price either, maybe not 50% in 1 week but 10/20% over 2-3 weeks if it's not selling is fine in my opinion. Why get burnt and sell something way too low if you can help it. Getting told it's worth x amount by an interested party and what it is actually worth can be quite far apart, especially with some rare parts and watches in my experience.

 

Since we're on this subject, what really gets on my nerves is when people write up endless listings in minute detail yet for some reason think it's a good tactic to wait to the very bottom of the page to give their asking price. Please.
If you're going to write a whole page, and your price is justified, it's okay to write the price high up.
That's a key element people want to know upfront.
And if they are genuinely interested they will keep reading.

 

@Spacefruit had the best idea......put the price in the title. I now do as well.

 

I have even seen this as part of requirements for sales threads on some other forums (not watch related) and I like it, too. Sometimes, you would even not bother on opening the listing, when you see the price right in the title

 

This is a good point, but I prefer to put the price after any issues that might affect it - I wouldn't want someone buying a watch based on its price, then finding out about something they might have considered a dealbreaker afterwards. I guess it depends on what you're selling.

 

That thread makes me sad.

 

It does me too...talk about shop worn.

Hope springs eternal...

 

That's a fair point but why not just say high up, "the watch is great to wear but has minor flaws or issues, the price takes this into account-- please read details carefully"

I mean, executive summaries were invented for a reason, and if anything the price at the bottom arguably creates a risk people miss some info because they're too busy scrolling down to get to the bottom line. So what really happens is we have to skip everything, go down, go back up, then down again.
In any event, as the price is usually significant you'd think people read the fine print before they commit.

 

Well, a full disclaimer like that might not be necessary in all situations - for instance, I sold a 105.012 last week. It has service pushers which are correct and don't affect the usability or wearability, but their installation renders the possibility of re-installing original pushers impossible without some serious casework. This was a disappointing surprise for me upon purchasing it a while back, so I wanted to make sure it was known. Otherwise, it was a nice example and priced lower accordingly, compared to perfect models out there.

As far as skipping up and down, I personally tend to do so anyway, just to be sure I haven't missed anything etc, so I don't particularly mind it myself.

And people reading the fine print before buying.... we would certainly prefer so, but there are way too many "I bought a _____, is it OK?" threads....

I do agree with the practice of putting the price in the title, I suppose I'll do so next time I have to let something go.

 

I have to say that I've learned something from reading this thread, to improve my future practices. Thanks OF!