Concern for a buyer

[technthread]

I have got a buyer who has placed around 45 orders in the past week. Including free items I must have sent him 60-70 lots, I am losing count but am replying to messages in the morning and late at night.

Just from an empathy level I’m concerned the buyer is buying very impulsively, things he wasn’t interested in one day, he wants to clear my shop out of them the next. 

Has anyone else had this and what have you done? He is buying coins. With all the free stuff I’ve sent and the way I group them, he has saved money vs buying them 1 by 1 from other sellers but I’m starting to get a bit overwhelmed by the buying patterns. 

He has nearly 3,000 feedback so not inexperienced on eBay, I’m not concerned about a scam or bad feedback if it goes sour (although he could absolutely tank my feedback if he wanted to now haha) but part of me wants to now say do you really want this coin, maybe take a break from these until I list some of my better ones in future?

Has anyone else had a similar situation?

[tressygirl]

I used to sell my collections of toys some of a vintage age ,  so I did have repeat buyers come and buy  admittedly not in the numbers you quote,  but then  45 coins would not take up the room for a collector or be perhaps as necessary,  as buying  45 dolls.

If the buyer is paying, and no issues with returns / refunds,  just be pleased you have such a great repeat buyer, many would bite your hand off to be in that position with many, many posts here complaining of little or no sales.

Enjoy !  🤗

@technthread 

[technthread]

Hi thanks for your message. 

I was happy to be shifting a lot of stuff at first but after 20 orders or so and the way he messaged about more items it seemed like manic buying. I have done a deal with him at 2am and he has sent me 11 more questions about others at 9am. In some cases he’s already bought the same coins in groups of 12 from me so it appears he is just buying again because they are there. 

[moldosgifts]

Or maybe they think they've found a market for them that you haven't spotted, is it of great value £thousand or in the hundreds or tens? 

In general the only action you can take is to block the buyer and explain why you blocking them.

[technthread]

It is possible I missed something but I have done my research on coin errors etc. They are all run of the mill really. Let’s say I sell 12 half penny coins at £1.99, that is cheap for eBay but they are common dates and just an excuse for me to move postage stamps.

Maybe the free stuff I have sent has encouraged the buying as he is pretty bold about asking now. I guess most business sellers wouldn’t entertain it. 

What I will do is after this last run I might take a break and list other type of items for a while. 

[tressygirl]

Perhaps stocking up to sell them for himself?  Who knows and I don't think it really matters what he wishes to do with them, they're his after payment,  to do with,  as he wishes . 

I definitely would not block this buyer, a sale is like gold dust nowadays !

@technthread 

[moldosgifts]

Maybe they just love half penny coins 😂.

I wouldn't worry too much unless it goes on for a few months.

[technthread]

*sorry forgot to say, the most expensive coin was £12. Lots of them are under £5, a lot of £1.99 bundles. 

[technthread]

Haha yeah maybe. 

It’s the messages that got me worried for the buyer as it can seem anxious to buy buy buy and then there’s a 6-12 hour break until next time. I’m running out of listings 😅

[crg_music]

Sounds like a dream customer.

Maybe he knows something you dont if they are cheap, buying for the future maybe?.

I used to sell directly to shops more and they would go crazy especially those overseas, they would buy hundreds at a time although that was more to get me down on prices and save on shipping. At the end of the day a shop in a city or overseas can buy and put a massive mark up on.

Relatively speaking you are talking reasonable amounts of money just lots of orders. Collectors are famously erratic and impulsive and the classic one is maxing out numerous credit cards in a month to complete a collection. Personally I enjoy the challenge of the dig and finding things at carboots etc but some are happy paying someone else to do the work, win win.

[technthread]

Maybe he knows something about a few coins I don’t as I’m amateur at it but I did lots of research on eBay and some price guide sites so I was comfortable with pricing. I have also auctioned a lot first to see how that went which wasn’t great.

He has placed 11 more orders, the offers are ok, I had to say no on some silver as he was under the melt price I could get but it all seems fair. Can’t lie I’m stressed this morning it has been back and forth on messages, it is good to get combined orders but if I valued my time it’s not brilliant. Hopefully no more orders today I’m off out and the eBay app will be ignored 😂

[technthread]

I take your point about being erratic. I recognise it in myself from the past with my spending on different things before I curbed it. That’s partly why I was concerned but I guess it’s not my business is it. 

[crg_music]

Another thing is with collectable items, the more you have the less there are in circulation. The amount of items that are everywhere 1 minute and selling for 100x more the next is crazy so lots of people do just buy as many as they can.

"Dad why do you need 11 copies of that lp?"

[leafan1]

Maybe they're a few pennies short of a pound? 😎

I'll get my coat and leave.

[dch2112011]

Make hay while the sun shines  !

We had one customer who would literally buy in the hundreds - they were a charity  reselling to their members - they started with one type of item then over a few weeks bought the whole range - repeating orders - they were eventually putting bundles together - selling to new 'members' - it carried on for a couple of years !

Another Charity singled out one item we used to sell and asked members to buy one for them - it was on Amazon -  sold 500 in 24 hours  - the end figure within a week was just over 3000 -  then it stopped as quickly as it started as they reached their target figure !

Neither let us know what was happening - pity because we would have discounted and bulk shipped 

[fatbobfan]

If your supplying to goods they want your doing something right, check your stock for your own peace of mind otherwise make hay.

You have people collate collections for others as a business and ship all over the world. Any clues in the delivery addreess? Also drop shipping businesses do the same, the odd hours cold be a clue there. Some people have weird collecting habits, wouldnt question, just make a good relationship with them 

If youve faith in their feedback, your stock, show them good service and hopefully this will run for you.

Nice to hear a good sales stroy, congrats for you

[vinylscot]

It will probably settle down in time. He's probably just happy to have found someone he can trust, and do business with easily. As long as he doesn't cross the line into wanting to be your friend, I don't see a problem (I've had a couple of those).

I had one buyer in Dublin who could be hard work, but who was buying a hundred albums a month, and this went on for about three years until Brexit put an end to it. We could still do it through a middleman in the north but they got stamped on pretty quickly. That was a real blow.

[technthread]

Thank you. 

I think he’s doing date runs of certain coins as he has mentioned gap fillers. A lot of the buys I still think are impulse, as the messages are all time of night and early again in the morning and random countries to previous purchases. 

[technthread]

Haha I’ve had one of those previously I was a bit spooked. My mate looked at my profile picture and said it looks like you’re on the edge there looking down into a void, maybe you should change it. Still need to get round to doing that 😂.

[the-nutwood-collection]

At a stand at the big antique fair in Birmingham I watched with fascination a person buying jewellery.  Not high-end stuff, it was suffragette and military keepsake brooches.  The dealer was unloading them from the cabinet at double quick speed and the lady just gave each piece a look and added it to the 'yes' or the 'no' pile.  No examination with a loupe, just a fast visual.  Finally, she asked for a price for the 'yes' pile, bartered it down, paid by cash and said she'd come back to collect.  

I saw her at other stands, making piles of brooches.  From her accent, I'd guess American or Canadian.  A dealer, or just a person that collected suffragette and military?  Either way, it was the dealers' lucky day.