Buyers and Watchers who expect to buy for less than the postage cost

I am sorry you are having a bad time Lorraine.

My personal belief is that there is a lot of buyers on this site, but not as many sellers. These people who buy but never sell have no idea what we go through to keep everyone happy, sellers have to keep their suppliers happy, they have to keep T-Me happy, things have to be packed a certain way to keep the couriers / post office happy, and then you have to keep the buyers happy. Thats on top of having to create the content to place on the site in the first place. It is an enormous amount of work.

The only thing we can do is really is offer advice.

For me, the thing to remember is that the item you are selling yours. YOU are the owner. This means that you have the power! You are the one in control. You have something they want! If they send you a message asking for a discount or low-balling, any pressure you feel to go along with it, is in your own head. 

You don't need to feel bullied, YOU are the top dogs around here! You are the one in control, and if they don't like it, they can be ignored or go on the black list.

Lorraine. You are a good seller who tries her best to the right thing for everyone. But you don't have too. You can do whats right by you first. This is completely ok, you are doing nothing wrong, but putting yourself first. The customer is NOT always right.

Thanks for the advice, Simon. it has helped me a lot. I am still going to list on eBay items which I will not get the real value for on Trademe. Vintage items I have had for years which have increased in value like collectable handbags - one dates back to the 1960;s when I bought it for myself. LOL talk to you later 

well I often list stuff to just break even , better than landfill , sometimes when I arrange for pickup the buyer might see something else and we can get a good deal going

the items are only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and maybe some items are just not worth what they are listed at or they are cheaper than what they are worth and you get people bidding up to what they will pay, you have all the control if you don't want to offer/sell at a lower price then don't, no one can force you to do that.

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I DO NOT AGREE WITH YOU. BUYERS MUST SURLEY EXPECT TO PAY POSTAGE. who the hell do they think they are. As far as I am concerned, they are GREEDY BIDDERS WHO EXPECT SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. IF THEY EXPECT THAT WHY BOTHER WITH TRADEME, WHY NOT DO THE OPP SHOPS INSTEAD. My items are well priced with not too large a profit. as far as I am concerned i will be going back to ebay which I have used in the past.

Kia Ora All,

There is also the exception of Buyer's who have watched intending to see if the item Bidding is still within their reach close to closing time However as life gets in the way of TradeMe at times these Buyer's may have missed the Listing end time therefore on requesting an FPO they may actually be willing & prepared to pay the asking price - That's the gamble one takes if they chose to send out an FPO. - A fixed price offer doesn't necessarily have to be sent out the Seller can simply Relist the item instead. - Other examples are if a watcher has the same or similar item but don't necessarily know the value of the item they will test what the Seller is prepared to let the item go for thereby gaining knowledge of perhaps what they may set their own item price at on Listing. - Cheers.

Kia Ora Lorraine,

I'm just checking you are aware an FPO still has shipping cost to be added - shipping doesn't come out of the FPO price. - Yes! Buyers & Sellers do expect to pay shipping ontop of the FPO.

Your original opening is you made an offer at $10.50 - the shipping price is $8.00 therefore the total amount the Buyer will pay is $18.50 on accepting that offer. 

That is TOTALLY INCORRECT ALMOST ALL OF MY ITEMS ARE FREE SHIPPING WHICH I CALCULATE INTO MY FINAL SELLING PRICE. View my listings so I can prove what I am saying!

The only time I charge shipping is if it is a large book and cannot price the item. I always state this on my listing. So, therefore the buyer who asked me to relist THAT BOOK is a GREEDY BIDDER,

Sometimes I do sell other items which may require a postage price but that is a thing of the past for me, because they are usually expensive items which they do not want to pay the real value, so these are now going to be listed on Ebay which I used to do anyway.

Lorraine you would be much happier if you just added freight on top of your listing price - the buyer is only going to see "you" giving them a good deal not them being greedy  - you are the seller you set the pricing not the buyer 

Cheers Lorraine,

And there you have it!

If you had opened this Post with all the facts for Members to follow you will have gained more Direct assistance towards the actual problem. - You can't expect anyone reading your Comments to guess work your actual situation. - Everyone here is trying to help you - As it turns out we are blind to your situation as a direct result of not being supplied with all the facts. - We can not look your Listings up by Member name - Your Listings are under your TradeMe User name.

With Free Shipping Buyer's don't know what the cost of Shipping is that you have included in your Start or Buy Now price. - Shipping costs vary considerably depending on...

1. which courier company you use
2. what rates you get from whichever courier company you use i.e. Business vs Personal account rates your courier company has in arrangement with you 
3. the distance you are sending - Same island cost vs Inter-island rates
4. Urban vs Rural charge
5. Volume - Size & Weight of item charge
6. Bag vs Box parcel charge
7. Signature vs Non Signature charge
8. Express vs Standard sending cost
9. And many more variables

You can't expect your Buyer to know the Actual Delivery cost - Free Shipping means Free Shipping to Buyers who have No idea of your hidden costs!

It sounds like you would cause yourself alot Less Stress by

1. Removing your Free Shipping
2. Placing your Start or Buy Now Price Lower at the Actual asking price of the Item you are Selling & Clearly providing the Shipping costs in the Shipping Section.
3. Stop sending FPO's out.

All the Best.

I use NZ Post they are cheaper than Trademe couriers. Been there done that. A few months ago, I took advice and now only use the promotion prompts on the first item of the same type, So I cut my costs. I cannot scout around for postage costs because I have a disability issue and would need to use a taxi to do this. I also have a pretty good idea of the postage cost because I mainly sell books. I am no DUMMY I did this for at least 10 years until I retired so I know what I am doing. So, I have now decided to use up all my trade me fees left for listing and am going to quit and try somewhere else. I will go on eBay because I used them too a few years ago and they are absolutely better at getting the true value of the more expensive items and of course it is worldwide. Once I listed a vintage handbag which cost me $50 - it went to the USA at $900. So, as you can see I am no dumm. ,

Hi there Lorraine, hope you are doing well.

Normally I say that T-Me is the best platform for selling things in NZ.

That is until I saw you were wanting to sell handbags….

Handbags are way to much work on this site, the only ones we will do, is the German or American chain mesh style ones from the 30s - 60s, or those really thick leather ones from the 80s with the paisley patterns, sometimes they are dyed, other times not, these are the only trouble free hand bags.

Anything else, you get community watched, even if you have all the documents, and T Me then send a threatening email about selling fakes, and give you a warning, that you then need to get over turned, or when the bag sells and the person gets the bag, they find some tiny 0.5mm thread pull, and want their money back, or there is some makeup stain inside that didn’t photograph well, and they want to complain that’s it’s not as described in the listing… hand bags are just to much work for the $$$ you get back.

I am 78 Years Old my handbags are genuine articles most I have had since the 60's at least. There is only one I may not even try to sell, my own I bought in the 60's because it has a few faults. I have had most of them valued by Just Antiques online so I have paid to have them authenticated, dated and valued. I also have a 1959 autograph book with autographs of some of the stars who visited NZ years ago, like Bobby Rydell, The Everly Brothers, Cilla Black, Cliff Richard & the original Shadows. etc. plus the NZ pop groups of that era. Bobby and Cilla are now both deceased, this book despite the fact it has been defaced by my children years ago but not the important autographs is now valued at around at least $300.  I have tried to sell it on trademe but will not get the true value, so I will list worldwide.

For sure, I would absolutely do the bags on the international market.

Same with the Autograph book, the Autograph market here is really weak, there is just not enough collectors here in NZ to truly drive it, which is fine, each to their own, but if you really wanted to get its true value rather than just move it on, then for sure, international market is the way to go.

Thanks Simon

I did not realize I had so much valuable stuff until last year. I had to declutter my bedroom because it was a fall hazard.

A friend helped me, and she said Did you know your handbags are extremely valuable. So, I went online found Just Antiques Appraisers and had them valued. I was amazed at the value even one I did not like but it was brand new, so I kept it, it is now worth around $300. LOL

Then I had them value my autograph book and was astounded at how much it was worth even although the kids defaced some of it when they were little. LOL There are GREAT OLD-FASHIONED DITTIES IN IT AS WELL. HA HA.

So that's where I am at now. Chuckle Chuckle

There is also 'my vintage / antique jewelry that is not included in my will. there is a 1960's marcasite watch I have had valued and fixed, so it is now in good working order, a real butterfly lady pendant and other items, I have tried trademe but they just aren't interested in paying the real value.