Malaysia has been blessed with various limited sneaker releases this year and whenever there are limited sneakers around, who do you usually see in the queues and on FB groups? Resellers, but today we are on their side, to really understand the ups and downs of being a reseller when it comes to customer service. We will be discussing the ‘patterns’ of buyers a reseller braves through every day.
The Grandfather Story Buyer
If you have not come across this buyer, consider yourself lucky. This buyer usually starts out by expressing his interest in your product and tells you that he wants to buy the product but he will need some time to get the money for the product. The person will request the seller to reserve the item for him at the agreed period of time, and when the time comes, he starts giving excuses such as ‘I need to pay for car maintenance’, ‘My dog just got into an accident’, ‘My friend borrowed my money’ and the list goes on. This will prolong for a few weeks or even months and the buyer usually ends up flaking causing the reseller lose other potential customers and his precious time.
The Installment Guy
We may all relate to this since the sellers are buyers too. As resell prices of limited sneakers continue to rise, sneakerheads are slowly having troubles quenching their thirst for a new pickup. Bad financial planning and screaming temptations are what drives these buyers to get on the instalment bandwagon. These buyers will confidently approach the seller and tell them that they are serious to purchase the product, and then continues to ask, ‘Can I pay in instalments?’ with various excuses. Some may request for weeks, or for some even months (hopefully no one experienced yearly), but you watch them buying other seller’s products, paying full prices which leaves the unlucky seller confused and angry (obviously). We always appreciate sellers who understand our situation but let’s not get ahead of ourselves and walk all over them, shall we?
The Photo Collector
These are the buyers that will get you annoyed the most by the end. The buyer requests for photos from different angles of the shoes claiming to inspect the condition of the shoes or to check the legitimacy of the shoes which in most cases are normal, however after the buyer receives the photos, he remains quiet and does not give you a reply whether or not he wants to buy it. These buyers leave the seller confused leading them to ask if everything is going well, and the buyers usually give random excuses such as ‘Not my favourite colour’, ‘Not enough photos’ (that’s why they are called photo collectors), and more. We are not exactly sure what kind of satisfaction these buyers get, but if you are one of them, these photos are not Pokemon cards.
The Illiterate
We appreciate every seller that states every information you need about the product on the post when it comes to pricing, condition, preferred COD location and all the photos you need of the product. A common practice by many interested buyers in BST (buy, sell, trade) groups are commenting ‘PM’ on the seller’s post but with every single information provided on a post, what else is there to ask? We introduce to you, the illiterate buyers, who send you a private message, asking for everything stated on the post such as ‘How much is this?’, ‘Is it brand new?’, and ‘Can I have more photos?’. These buyers do not bother to use any of their education (if any) to read the provided information and decide to further make themselves look ____________ (fill in the blanks). All we can say to the sellers is that we know how you feel and to the buyers? The ‘facepalm’ was invented because of you.
The Flaker
This ‘buyer’ is every seller’s nightmare (most can agree). Flakers are buyers who never pulls through the business transaction and has various ways of doing it. We believe the most common one is buyer sets a meet up for COD and ends up not showing up, leaving sellers waiting for hours. The worst part is when the buyer blocks every single form of contact with the seller to escape the problem itself which just shows how inconsiderate of a person they are and deserves to be named and shamed in every BST groups. Another popular method of flaking is when a buyer reserves a pair of shoes for weeks or months and tells the seller that they don’t want to purchase the item anymore. We can only hope that we do not encounter such buyers in the future, but if you did, how would you handle the situation? Let us know in the comments.
The Lowballer
It is safe to say that we have all come across the ‘lowballers’ and we are guilty ourselves when it comes to lowballing (don’t deny it) even if it means pushing our luck or just having the thickest of skins. These buyers are frugal when it comes to purchasing and usually finds satisfaction or feels fulfilled whenever they manage to haggle for a pair of sneakers or any hype clothing. Another fact about these buyers is that they often get angry or express their dissatisfaction when the seller disagrees with their offer or comment on their cheapskate acts. As satisfying as it is to negotiate, we should always keep in mind to be as reasonable (as a sign of respect) as possible to maintain a good relationship for smooth future transactions or to protect your own reputation before being labelled as the ‘lowballer’.
The Barter System Buyer
The barter system was once a famous method of transaction back in the days and has been carried forward till this day in the streetwear community. This method is heavily practised due to resell prices being too high but can be manipulated using the economic theory of supply and demand, however, these buyers always aim to ‘win’ in the trade which causes most trades not to happen. There are some who always overestimate the value of their own sneakers or hype clothing and expects to get something much more valuable, in reality leaving the other party baffled by such an unreasonable offer even when offered a sum of cash (usually insufficient to equate). Some sellers get trade offers but usually ends up getting lowballed indirectly which is why we are labelling these traders (buyer side) as a ‘pattern’ due to their inconsideration. Have you ever been offered a Thrasher tee with insufficient cash or a brand new pair of Ultra Boost? We believe some of you have experienced worse than the scenario stated and we definitely hope anyone that initiates the trade offer in the future would think twice about how reasonable your offering is before you indirectly lowball someone.
