Reply With QuoteI'll go with the "look how much I've reduced it by. You just have to grab it now".
Whereas it actually means that it's still too expensive.
When they wrote like this in a ad at SC: £3200 £3150 £3100 £3050
What is they trying to tell you?
It was to expensive from the start.
It's a better price now.
What a bargain.
Someone will soon buy it.
A deal you can't refuse.
I do not understand what a buyer for the benefit of the first three prices, consider the seller that it is more easily sold with this info?
I'll go with the "look how much I've reduced it by. You just have to grab it now".
Whereas it actually means that it's still too expensive.
It means that if you hang around long enough, you'll get it for 2 grand.
I've been guilty of this myself in the past, and often it means that if you hang around the price will just keep coming down.
I find it easier to just think of the lowest price I'd accept and list it at that, as a lot of members already know the rough value and/or what they'd be willing to pay.
Tells you the seller has changed the price. Seems to be a s/w glitch that original posts can't be amended now. So probably see less.
A very common retail practise of a 'was now price' (the 'was" usually being struck through) often a component of an advertising campaign. The equivalent here would be bouncing a sales thread with 'reduced'....
I find a sales history useful in judging the market and a sellers mindset.
Sorry but I think the question is a little obtuse and the OP remarks a bit snide...
I presumed it just showed that the seller was being patient and slowly finding out the correct value for the watch by reducing it gradually until it sold, simply the opposite of someone in a hurry who priced something for a quick sale.
This. I've not seen this ad anything other then obvious. Sometimes you find a buyer at a higher price than others.Originally Posted by 2kilo
I was wondering most what benefits a buyer of this information. Why not start with the list price and lowering the £ 50 at a time?
As a buyer, it is well irrelevant what the seller is asking from the start, I'm probably just interested in what I have to pay.
I can't see something snide in my post, I was just wondering.
Agree with this. Just took it as the seller realising it's not selling at the price they thought it would and lowered it a bit. Sellers have also withdrawn a watch when it hasn't sold for the price they are asking for.
Discounting works.
Some retailers base their entire business model on this basis. Sports direct for example.
Obviously SC is nothing like the aforementioned retailer but as humans we are susceptible to the power of a bargain.
I think people are just using an age old marketing technique to increase their chances of a sale.
I'm not sure why anyone's sales technique needs to come under scrutiny in a separate thread though.
It's the size of the discount I sometimes find a little odd. A small reduction(s) for a watch costing several thousand pounds doesn't quite hit the spot for me, but of course, sellers can do what they want with their own stuff.
Last edited by dejjl; 13th February 2016 at 10:53.
Supply and demand can and do fluctuate. Last year's price or even last month's will only serve as an indication of what a particular item might fetch today. it would seem reasonable for a seller to start a sales thread with a price nearer the upper end of the scale of prices a particular piece has recently fetched, and then progressively reduce the asking price if there are no takers.
Seems like a form of Dutch auction. Doesn't bother me at all.
As a newcomer I don't seem to have access to the sales corner. Which is probably for the best as I really don't need more watches.
In a nutshell
You can always do with another watch
Would Invicta be Invicta without their original price ($1800!!!!) vs today's discounted price (four easy pays of $50 each!) strategy? There are three things that have never been confirmed to exist in actuality - the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and someone who has paid full retail for an Invicta. But four easy pays? Make room, here comes the stampede.
In the Sports Direct context; I often think that part of the appeal is that the buyer can "gloat" how much they've saved on an item. I'd say that isn't a motive for the clientele in SC though.
People don't buy an item to gloat, neither do i think that would influence their decision to buy. They buy the item because they think they are getting a bargain.
Like it or not this is a proven marketing technique used the world over.
I do also think it serves as a good 'audit trail' for SC as previously mentioned.
I don't understand why you think this is a marketing technique. If the item doesn't sell at asking price, isn't reducing the price the obvious thing to do? Leaving the original price visible is presumably in the interests of transparency. Far from helping the seller, the evidence that an item has been reduced several times is good leverage for a buyer.
I wouldn't say it was the primary reason, however if I was listing a watch I would start at 'market price', then further reductions would suggest I was dropping it to below market which I would have thought would make it more appealing to a buyer.
I do understand though that not everyone follows this ethos and quite often prices are started too high.
My takeaway is that the seller is essentially saying, "Hey, I've already dropped the price (three/four/five times), please don't try lowballing me further". Without the price drop history, a prospective buyer might not know that the seller has already been beating the hell out of himself.
Well, that's unfortunate, because now I know that it's been on sale for a while and had no takers at the advertised prices. That being so I will put in an even lower offer, reasoning that if the seller is dropping the price, he must be keen to sell.
I like to see the history of price reduction personally. I also like to see how much something sold for rather than the seller deleting the post contents.
There's certainly no harm in having more info rather than less, as the buyer can filter out whats relevant to them.
As previously mentioned it affords the forum members a guide of what can be the correct/sensible/realistic price at that particular time.
On a side issue where is the photo that we expect from one of your posts.
Regards.
Keith.
Next photo will be £50 £45 £40 £35 £30 £25 £20
Some people leave a trail of original price and further reductions for transparency.
I don't see the point in highlighting it?
It's a bit like asking why use >>> these in thread titles when nobody else does.
Could be taken as being snide.
My favourites are: (a) when sellers profess that each price is their "absolute lowest/final/etc" and continue to reduce with the same words. Yep, that's not your lowest mate. and (b) when sellers state that a reduction is for a limited time, i.e. next 24 hours etc. Nope, once you've said you'll accept that much that's all you're getting, full stop.
If sellers are going to bump with a redux (sic) I prefer to see that there actually is one.
It tells me DFS have started selling watches.
Eddie (our host if anyone doesn't know) has asked that original prices remain in sales posts so that (asking) price levels are transparent. It acts as a good guide for others. I think it's useful and a courtesy.
It seems obvious to me that as non-professional sellers, many of us will have an imperfect idea of what our watch is worth when we first advertise it, and therefore will need to offer reductions to get it right.
Obviously since any subsequent bargaining is done by PM, we still don't know the exact price that something was sold for, but at least there are good price indicators on SC.
Simon
Nice one
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