Mar1st

My Favorite Customers

By Adam McFarland | Posted at 9:54 am | Filed Under Autographs, eBay

Old readers will remember the anonymous Dick Richards - an owner of a sports collectibles business who bluntly wrote intriguing articles about the industry…including Adam Morrison’s gauze on eBay. Occasionally he still checks in with some insight. I got this email from him the other day:

As a person who runs a small time sports memorabilia business online, I am periodically amused by the messages I receive from potential customers. I guess I say amused because if I didn’t have a sense of humor about it I would probably lose my mind. This online world we live in seems to have created to group of people who have spent so much time buying and selling goods online that they have started to get a little confused. It s as if, mid way through their online shopping experience, they transform from part-time internet collectibles buyer to full time e-commerce mogul.

For example, quite often I’ll receive an email asking if I give discounts to a person who wants to buy multiple items that I am selling. So naturally I respond and say yes, and as the conversation progresses and they give me a list of all the items, I am able to give them a grand total to work with. Seems harmless enough; except for the fact that more often than not, these are not serious buyers. Many times it may be a teenager who is just a little overambitious about what his or her purchasing power actually is. Other times it may be a Canadian guy who lives in his parents’ basement in Saskatchewan. Either way these individuals typically have no intention of actually buying any of your stuff. They simply are trying to act like a big shot and broker the next big deal, in the hopes of becoming “Business Man of the Year” in the land of Make Believe.

I am reminded of my all time favorite email exchange, in which a man in Canada inquired about some signed hockey memorabilia. He mentioned a few items that he was interested in, which then grew to five, and before I knew it was up to seven or eight items. So after a few rounds of emails I was able to give him a price on all of the items in question. Then I receive the following message: “Thanks, I am currently in the middle of working on another huge deal with another guy so once I complete that deal I will be in touch.” And you wonder why a sense of humor is important in this business?!? Forgive me, but I was under the illusion that I was selling collectibles eBay, not Wall Street.

I guess my point is that at first something like this used to really bother me. “Don’t these people think I have anything better to do than cater to their emails and boost their ego,” I asked? But I guess we all go through that point in our lives when we think everything revolves around us, and even a small online transaction can seem oh so important. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get going. I’ve been working on this blockbuster deal with Price Chopper for some time now. I think I’m finally ready to pull the trigger on those three bottles of Diet Sunkist, that 50 count box of Fun Dip, and the 6-pack of “I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter” that I’ve had my eye on.

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