Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

DM for price! And other IG sales tactics that suck.

JPie

JPie

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Messages
4,186
To continue the conversation about IG sellers and the “DM for price” sales tactic, post your $0.02 in this thread.

My latest experience with it (TL;DR version: seller gives ballpark, comes back with price 19% higher, item SNAD, returned, and reposted by seller at 14% lower than what she had charged me):

I recently purchased an antique brooch, and the seller told me it was 18K and gave me a ballpark of the price. Then she said she “checked her invoice” and quoted me about 19% over her initial ballpark. Since I really wanted this item and it was still a good price, I agreed. (Yeah, never again.)

When the item arrived, I found the hallmarks for silver over 18K gold, which actually makes a lot more sense for the period than solid 18K gold. I thought it odd that the seller only mentioned the hallmark on the pin stem; I don’t know if she just didn’t see the other rather obvious hallmarks or if she just wasn’t thorough in describing the piece.

The thing that ultimately made me return the brooch was that it was plated in a white metal. You can see the original rose gold showing where the plating rubbed off. I hated that plating and I was annoyed that it wasn’t disclosed by the seller. I don’t know if she even knew.

The nicest thing I can say about the seller is that she refunded me promptly when I returned the piece. I ate the initial cost of shipping to me and the return shipping, but that’s not what I’m salty about.

This morning, I saw that the seller listed the brooch at 14% less than what I paid, with no disclosure about the plating and describing it only as 18K gold. I had sent her photos of the silver hallmark and I think that’s pretty relevant information that she’s not disclosing. I can only hope that whoever buys the brooch next doesn’t care about these things.
 
Last edited:
I absolutely despise "DM for price". Do you want to sell it or not? Then be transparent and put the price on there and don't be a jerk.

@JPie, this is terrible, let's just say that the seller maybe didn't know that the whole piece wasn't 18K, surely she knew after you returned it and she is still claiming it's 18K, shady as hell, glad you got your money back. Maybe consider sharing the specific seller so another buyer doesn't get taken.
 
I completely agree and hate the practice. Everything stacks in the seller’s favour - they presumably save Etsy fees, save time doing detailed photographs/full listing details and, in unscrupulous cases, can more easily misdescribe a piece or charge over the odds.

I know the principle of caveat emptor should make all buyers do their due diligence before a purchase, but in a fair market responsibility has to sit with sellers too.
 
For an established business, I find it annoying.
For obvious hobby that's evolved into a job/business (a jobby!), more so.
 
Hate it too! IG is a way for these sellers to save Ebay, etsy, rubylane fees. And they are still trying to jack up the price by DM. I have only ever asked twice and didn't end up purchasing the items.

On another note why do sellers not list prices??? There are quite a few that don't and it's so annoying. I feel like it takes more time to answer my emails. They are missing sales by this tactic and I obviously don't understand the point. As someone mentioned in the other thread, I don't want to be labeled as a perpetual window shopper. Vendors, please chime in!
 
@StephanieLynn I sent her macros of the hallmarks so I know she knows.

@Gussie I’ve sold through IG before and I include the price in my posts. What happened was that I would get DMs with some low ball offers, while others asked for a discount more politely. I explained that I sell at my cost and I don’t feel the need to lose money on a piece when I can keep and enjoy it.

It’s possible that other sellers don’t want to post their best price so they can give themselves more room for negotiating. I find that annoying but I’m letting myself get sucked into it because I started asking for discounts on some of my purchases too. I never lowball though; I either ask what the best price is or I counter with something that’s only slightly less than asking. I suck at haggling.
 
Gussie said:
Hate it too! IG is a way for these sellers to save Ebay, etsy, rubylane fees. And they are still trying to jack up the price by DM. I have only ever asked twice and didn't end up purchasing the items.

On another note why do sellers not list prices??? There are quite a few that don't and it's so annoying. I feel like it takes more time to answer my emails. They are missing sales by this tactic and I obviously don't understand the point. As someone mentioned in the other thread, I don't want to be labeled as a perpetual window shopper. Vendors, please chime in!
Click to expand...

One would thinks it’s a huge waste of the sellers time as well as the buyers.
 
crystalinmke said:
Yeah I agree, i once had a really odd, kind of rude interaction with a vendor on IG. i asked him for a price and a size of a gemstone. he gave me a size and a price and i said i would think on it. then he came back and said that the size was actually smaller, about 2mm smaller, but the price stayed the same. i told him that i was no longer interested, because it was the size that he originally listed that drew me. and he got kind of... argumentative? like telling me "this is a REALLY GOOD price and you wont find anything this color, this price, this size" like okay? i just said i am not interested. it was bizarre and i've not dealt with IG sellers since then.
Click to expand...

This just happened to me last week with IG heavy seller.
The kind of terse - "this is a really good price/for this item/color/size- you won't find it elsewhere...." blah blah blah...
I relented.
Still, jury is out to see if this project will come to fruition though.
Seller is employing many tactics aimed towards someone who doesn't know what they want/ has no experience with custom.
This is interesting.

Edited for clarity
 
@JPie that's awful! I feel like the vendor name should be listed. I wouldn't want to buy from them!

I hate to dm for a price. But what I really hate is "dm with serious inquiries only." How do I know if I'm serious unless I know the price? Or a range at least. If the post said price is over x for example, that would help. But when I see the "serious" only, I will never ask. It's implying that you can't afford it. Why not just say what it costs. Or if they want to keep some mystery, which I think is crappy, why not say item is under $3k or whatever, so you have an idea?

I understand dm for more details. Maybe everyone doesn't want the stone mm dimensions and the setting mm dimensions, photos of hallmarks, etc. So not posting war and peace is ok. I understand that is probably a waste until you have a serious chance at a sale.

I also don't like reduced prices until they go on a website like Etsy. It's a blatant attempt to avoid fees and provides less buyer protection.
 
Here is an example although it's not jewelry. I follow an artist on IG and I love her paintings. She doesn't have a website and I haven't been able to find a gallery that has her work. Jewelry is a bit easier than art since you at least have an order of magnitude idea. A painting may be $400 (yes, I'll take it!) or $4000 (no, I will have to pass.) So I finally DM her and she says, call me and we'll talk. WTH??? I will just have to admire the pics. :(2
 
JPie said:
@StephanieLynn I sent her macros of the hallmarks so I know she knows.

@Gussie I’ve sold through IG before and I include the price in my posts. What happened was that I would get DMs with some low ball offers, while others asked for a discount more politely. I explained that I sell at my cost and I don’t feel the need to lose money on a piece when I can keep and enjoy it.

It’s possible that other sellers don’t want to post their best price so they can give themselves more room for negotiating. I find that annoying but I’m letting myself get sucked into it because I started asking for discounts on some of my purchases too. I never lowball though; I either ask what the best price is or I counter with something that’s only slightly less than asking. I suck at haggling.
Click to expand...

I guess I see their POV but it's still irritating. I have made offers before but I won't lowball. It's just tacky. I am an avid antique collector and it's assumed that dealers will come down some. They set the prices that way. I think antique/vintage jewelry is probably the same.
 
Last edited:
Rfisher said:
This just happened to me last week with IG heavy seller.
The kind of terse - "this is a really good price/for this item/color/size- you won't find it elsewhere...." blah blah blah...
I relented.
Still, jury is out to see if this project will come to fruition though.
Seller is employing many tactics aimed towards someone who doesn't know what they want/ has no experience with custom.
This is interesting.

Edited for clarity
Click to expand...

yeah it was pretty terse and it was awkward for me to be like "Okay but im still not interested"! i felt rude. but i also felt it was rude to continue to push it after i said it wasn't what i was looking for. i agree that they are probably banking on someone who doesn't know what they want exactly but i had a size range in mind for the stone. i dunno! i think i am just naturally a polite, non confrontational person so having to directly interact with someone to get a price like that then receive a terse response of "well you're not gonna get this value anywhere else" made me uncomfortable lol.
 
Personally I rarely email just to ask for prices. I have politely asked for below listing price but not lowball. I never ask below if seller list price as “firm”.

I also feel like the tactic is taking advantage of “being able to instantly gauge interest thru social media” that kind of create somewhat inflated price. So I try not to fall into that hype.

Pretty unethical to not disclose in your brooch case, I am glad you got refunded timely.
 
This is just pretty odd...
A painting may be $400 (yes, I'll take it!) or $4000 (no, I will have to pass.) So I finally DM her and she says, call me and we'll talk. WTH??? I will just have to admire the pics. :(2
Click to expand...
 
As soneone who occassionally sells paintings, i can tell you that is weird and not normal.

I thought initially thr DM thing was about not having to go back and update old posts if the price changes. Disappointing to hear that some people are using it as a way to gauge the max they can get for an item. I mean, an ebay auction does that also in a sense but in a more transparent way.
 
Gussie said:
Yep, artists! :wall:
Click to expand...
That is so very weird. Maybe she dislikes electronic communication. I have a friend who prefers to talk on the phone too.
 
I'm always sitting here thinking, if I have to ask the price, I probably can't afford it. So I never bother. I prefer the known selling sites. I feel safe and anonymous.
 
lyra said:
I'm always sitting here thinking, if I have to ask the price, I probably can't afford it. So I never bother. I prefer the known selling sites. I feel safe and anonymous.
Click to expand...

I do this too and i don't want to message people if im just curious and not seriously interested.
 
Instagram in general irritates me.

Stories. No, I really don't want to wait for ten movies to play through hoping that you'll get to the point soon - there's a reason I skim presentation transcripts rather than watching full videos, there's a reason I look at the product FAQ rather than watching the infomercial.

Follow me on IG for latest finds and lowest prices! No, I'm not going create a To Do list of multiple venues to check in on for a given vendor - if all sales platforms don't feature all items at identical prices, well, I've got other things to do.

DM for info. Please just post all relevant information about a piece - including price! - in the description. I promise it'll be a lot more useful than the two dozen #GenericEpithets you've filled your whitespace with. Playing coy won't coax me into guessing games.

Glam shots. Yes, they're pretty. But if I'm buying a piece of jewellery I want to know what it looks like from the top, from the side, from the other side, from the bottom... And yes, I do realize the underside probably isn't sexy or svelte or luxe or crisp or whatever other aesthetic your glam shots are shooting for, and I'm asking anyway.


... I'm obviously just too much of a traditional grouch for Instgram :lol-2:
 
Last edited:
JPie said:
To continue the conversation about IG sellers and the “DM for price” sales tactic, post your $0.02 in this thread.

My latest experience with it (TL;DR version: seller gives ballpark, comes back with price 19% higher, item SNAD, returned, and reposted by seller at 14% lower than what she had charged me):

I recently purchased an antique brooch, and the seller told me it was 18K and gave me a ballpark of the price. Then she said she “checked her invoice” and quoted me about 19% over her initial ballpark. Since I really wanted this item and it was still a good price, I agreed. (Yeah, never again.)

When the item arrived, I found the hallmarks for silver over 18K gold, which actually makes a lot more sense for the period than solid 18K gold. I thought it odd that the seller only mentioned the hallmark on the pin stem; I don’t know if she just didn’t see the other rather obvious hallmarks or if she just wasn’t thorough in describing the piece.

The thing that ultimately made me return the brooch was that it was plated in a white metal. You can see the original rose gold showing where the plating rubbed off. I hated that plating and I was annoyed that it wasn’t disclosed by the seller. I don’t know if she even knew.

The nicest thing I can say about the seller is that she refunded me promptly when I returned the piece. I ate the initial cost of shipping to me and the return shipping, but that’s not what I’m salty about.

This morning, I saw that the seller listed the brooch at 14% less than what I paid, with no disclosure about the plating and describing it only as 18K gold. I had sent her photos of the silver hallmark and I think that’s pretty relevant information that she’s not disclosing. I can only hope that whoever buys the brooch next doesn’t care about these things.
Click to expand...
@JPie I have purchased a couple of antique jewelry items from brendaginsberg.com
She travels the world for one of a kind pieces. Her taste is exquisite, I
trust her 110%:mrgreen2:
 
Luvallgems said:
@JPie I have purchased a couple of antique jewelry items from brendaginsberg.com
She travels the world for one of a kind pieces. Her taste is exquisite, I
trust her 110%:mrgreen2:
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for the recommendation! She has some stunning pieces! :love:
 
JPie said:
That is so very weird. Maybe she dislikes electronic communication. I have a friend who prefers to talk on the phone too.
Click to expand...
Me too..One of my best friends doesn’t have an iPhone so I can’t text her. Truthfully I’m closer to her because I have to chat with her. It’s more personal..but it’s kind of a pain in the neck too.
 
Asking from a vendor perspective, are you all ok with the tap the shopping bag thing for the info? Or do you still prefer price just in the description?
 
i like tap the shopping bag for quick info. i don't want to have to go to another application, account, or link....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top