I would never raise the price once someone had inquired about something. I'd take it as a matter of honor to say "you inquired about it before I raised the price, so I'll sell it to you at the price you saw it at initially." Of course, I also refund shipping overages of .17, so I may not be the norm...but I don't think it's just you.
She can do whatever she wants, and you have to decide what you want to do about it. I don't like it and I probably wouldn't buy another thing from her, but I might buy that thing while telling her very kindly what I thought (after I received the map) of her price-increase policy. You're right, it's not that big a thing, but it's the principle. If someone inquired *after* she raised the price, that's one thing. But you inquired before.

Of course I'm a hormonal 50 y.o. woman too : )

I agree that on the face of it, it is not a great business practice. However, I am going to take the other side of the issue. Suppose what she told you was true - that suddenly she was getting more inquiries about maps. They are a hot decorating item right now - several home magazines have featured them as either wallpaper or framed decor.

So, you inquire - and perhaps several others did as well. She has no way of knowing if you are actually going to buy the map, until you actually do. The same is true of any other people that may have inquired about it. But as a businesswoman, she sees that she is getting more inquiries and interest. She figures she can raise the price a bit in the face of the interest. I donâÂÂt think it was because of YOU or your inquiry, but rather that she had multiple inquiries.

Suppose you never bought it. Should she have waited to see if all the people that inquired tried to buy it? How long? And in the meantime, suppose someone else, who did NOT inquire, decided to buy it, and she held the lower price to be nice to you, and instead lost money selling it to someone else?

I really donâÂÂt think it was about your inquiry alone, and I donâÂÂt think she was trying to scam you personally. I think she saw a trend and decided to take advantage of it.

I am a 57 year old woman who canâÂÂt use hormonal as my excuse - I am just biatchy!

To clarify, I did tell her I would buy the map. I was a awaiting her to list photos of several other maps she had of additional states that were not listed yet. So I told her I'd buy the map we began the conversation with, as well as the others once she listed them. She knew she had the sale....and raised it anyway. To further clarify...she has the perfect right to raise prices. I just think it's not good business to have a sale that was agreed to in good faith and then raise the price while awaiting additional items to buy. That's the rant.

I think you should tell her that since you would like the other maps as well, that you would like to receive the first map at the original price. I think she would come down in price.

If your discussion about the listed map AND the unlisted maps all took place while the listed one was $21, that's what I'd offer her for each of the maps, assuming they're all cut out of the same book. It's not as though she's had to do additional research on the value of the unlisted maps and she'll sell them immediately, so she won't have to answer more questions about them in the near future. If not, I'd walk away, since the seller's sneaky trick would keep me from loving the maps as much as I did before. I don't want to own things that have negative associations or memories.

It would annoy me enough to walk away. On the one hand, it's only $3, but on the other hand, it was sneaky if you ask me. I'm not even 50 but I'm witchy too! LOL. (Hey, I got a warning for trying to use the B word... how'd Les get away with it?)

"I really donâÂÂt think it was about your inquiry alone, and I donâÂÂt think she was trying to scam you personally. I think she saw a trend and decided to take advantage of it. "

That's what I thought as I read your post.

I would never raise the price once someone had inquired about something. I'd take it as a matter of honor to say "you inquired about it before I raised the price, so I'll sell it to you at the price you saw it at initially."

Yup, that's the right thing to do. But I'd say this seller isn't necessarily interested in doing the right thing, but in making a profit. I probably would not buy the map, on principle. Or I might email her and say that since I started my inquiry based on the $21 price that I'd like to stick with that price. If she refused, I'd walk away.

I list stuff on craigslist occasionally, always for low prices just to get it out the door. Recently I listed two items which got three immediate responses each. I knew immediately I'd probably listed them too low. Oh well!! If I end up selling the items to any of those people, the price will be what I listed. If for some reason the sales fall through, I'll probably relist at a slightly higher price.

You know, if you pick up an item at a store and take it to the salesperson and ask questions about it, they then can't raise the price of the item while you're walking to the check out. That's illegal I believe. But it sounds like that is what this etsy seller is doing.

Does Etsy do "ratings" like ebay? I know that wouldn't fly on ebay...I've never bought anything over on etsy before.

This is a tough one. I'm big on principle. It's on of my weaknesses. It's only $3 in cash, but it's a small fortune in principle.

But at the end of the day I would say that if you really want the map, just pay the $24. Don't think of it as a $24 map that should be $21, think of it as a steal for a perfect piece of artwork.

I do not think it was fair of the seller to do that after someone inquired. It plays a lot like, "Hmm, someone wants it, they're not going to back out over a few more bucks, I'm going for it..."

If you buy it, when you hang it, will you look at it and think, "Awesome map!" or will you think "$^#&@ etsy vendor ripped me off!"...

At the end of the day, that's the deciding factor for me. :)

Thanks everyone for the tea & sympathy and your thoughts. I agree that $3 is very little money but a fortune in principle. Just so you know, I decided to walk away from everything but one map for my mom. I didn't want to disappoint her. I paid $24 for it, but told the woman why I would not be purchasing the other 5 maps for siblings. She didn't have much to say except I must not understand how valuable they are. :-) It will be interesting to see if the maps fly out of her shop in the coming days / weeks.

I'm not sure how upset I'd be over $3 though the principle of it all would certainly be an aggravating surprise. It would probably depend on her attitude and such. For $3, why bother to aggravate customers. I'm thinking she's probably upped the prices of the others as well. That's why they say to never look too interested. Why not just go buy elsewhere and let her sell her darn maps to someone else.

I agree that if she were to ultimately sell the map to you (so shortly after your inquiry), her good will should certainly rise to the occasion to honor the old price, without any prompting, though I'm not sure that's exactly standard practice. Prices change all the time depending on changes in demand, research, whatever. I always feel very 'lucky' if a store does something like that when something has gone amiss. You can never know how many people were really asking about it and willing to pay more although she should have researched her pricing before going to market.

Nevertheless I wouldn't want the reminder of a bad buying experience or some stinky shifty seller hanging on my walls. I would feel hustled that the price went up directly after our conversation. There are plenty of maps in the sea!

I'd do the same thing, Storklady. I got mad yesterday when I got gas -- when I pulled into the gas station that price was 2.68. I noticed that that was the price at the pump as well. I couldn't get the pump to reset to zero's and had to have the attendant look at it, and then when it was working again, it was at 2.85! I went in and asked about it, and they said the price just went up. I walked away from that too (thankfully I did have enough gas in the tank that I could drive away from it)!

Crossed posts. I think you did the right thing for sound mind and principle.

If the maps really are valuable and worth twice as much, I can certainly understand her not wanting to give them away after learning that. But why not just pull them off the market completely and sell at their market value at a later time. I can't see how raising the price a whole $3 really makes up for that. Seems off to me.

My my my, the response she gave you tells me a lot. I think you did the right thing here. lowspark's analogy is right on, I think -- I've sold a few things on c's list that got so many quick responses that the obvious conclusion was that I priced it too low...but I honored my listings and sold them, even telling the purchaser that s/he was lucky s/he was the first, since there were 5 other people in line. I figure it's a lesson for me to research pricing better before I announce a price.

I hope you'll find those other maps at a similar price and with better ethics from another seller.

So do we get to see your (mom's) cool map? :-)

I agree w/ you about it not being the $ itself, it's just the principle of the thing.

As an Etsy seller, I'll chime in. I have people who convo me all the time that say they are going to purchase my products, that never do. That said, I personally would still honor the price that was on a listing that a specific customer inquired about, even if I had raised my prices due to additional interest in said product. Increased inquiries about a product indicate new interest and a possible sale, but that's never guaranteed.

I can understand why the seller decided to raise her prices on these maps, but don't agree with her charging you for the increase when you'd just made a legitimate inquiry and were just waiting for her to list more maps that she knew you were interested in. IMHO, that's not a good way to do business!

I always honor the original quote I give a customer, even if they don't make a purchase until weeks/months later, and other customers are paying more. Maybe that's why I've still got a 100% positive rating, too!

Nanny2a: So what are the rules for selling on Etsy? Is it OK to raise the price of something once it's listed? Can sellers continue to alter the price of something that's pictured whenever they want? Or do they have to wait a certain period of time? Are there punishments (for lack of the correct word) for sellers who don't abide by the rules?

Etsy isn't a bidding kind of place like eBay started out as, correct? It's purely a "buy it now at this price" business?

I guess from what you've told us, OP, that I'd be happy I had the map that I wanted but then try to look elsewhere for other sellers of those things. I'd wash my hands of this person with such poor ethics. And I'd be happy that the map was going to be in my Mom's house and not mine so I wouldn't have to see it everyday and be reminded of this experience!

(I also wonder about some of the stuff Etsy features. There's a website that pokes fun at some of the worst. It's called regretsy.com--but be warned: There are gross things there. Things you don't want a child to see!)

Storklady said: "I paid $24 for it, but told the woman why I would not be purchasing the other 5 maps for siblings. She didn't have much to say except I must not understand how valuable they are."

I'd have Emailed her back and told her that since they were SO valuable to her, I'd let her hold on to them indefinitely. (Sky opens up and lighting strikes FolkV on head.)

"If you buy it, when you hang it, will you look at it and think, "Awesome map!" or will you think "$^#&@ etsy vendor ripped me off!"...

At the end of the day, that's the deciding factor for me. :)"

GREAT ADVICE!!! I never thought about it before, but the memories I have associated w/things totally influence how I feel about them. Thank you for putting it into words :-)

OP -- definitely let the vendor know what you think, either way.

Storklady, It is okay to raise the price of something once it's listed. A Seller can change the price as often as they want, with no time restrictions. Etsy does not control or dictate to us what something is priced at - we do.

There is no bidding on Etsy, except in Alchemy, which is a site on Etsy where customers can list something they want, a purple tutu, for example, and ask other Etsians to bid on what they would charge to make the purple tutu. Then Sellers are bidding against each other for that particular sale. Etsy is a "buy it now at this price" business.

But I still think it's poor ethics not to honor the original price of an item that a potential buyer has just inquired about. Especially one who was asked to wait to review more listings of similar items because she'd shown interest in those other items before making her final purchase. If it had been me, I'd have sold you that map, and all the other newly listed maps that you were waiting for, at the original price. But that's just me. I am not an aggressive saleswoman, just a conscientious one. I like repeat business, and that's no way to encourage repeat business, IMHO.

"Is it OK to raise the price of something once it's listed? Can sellers continue to alter the price of something that's pictured whenever they want?"

I believe Etsy is just a storefront like any other, not an auction house like eBay offering Buy it Now listings at a fixed price. I think even on eBay sellers can end their auctions early (basically when there are no bids yet) though they can't change the price after people have actually made a bid. Stores change their pricing based on costs, demand and availability all the time, or sometimes to be able lower prices on other things. I don't know of any store with fixed prices that they become obligated to sell at. The goods are theirs to sell or not.

Late to the subject but just an observation: "only $3 increase" is a 15% increase in price. I agree with the idea of walking away on principle.