How do you all approach offers on eBay? I like to have the offer option available to the buyer, but it seems that most buyers try to get the price knocked down even if it’s fairly priced. What are you alls opinion on the subject?
Good to give buyers options. You might get some more lookie loos, but it only takes one person to offer the right price
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set it to auto-decline offers below a certain threshold. W/o an offer option you’ll probably still get messages coming into your inbox asking you “what’s your bottom dollar” in my experience.
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- If its an item with a pretty set value. Post the item for the price you want to sell it for with no offers necessary.
- If its a volatile or rare item - set the price above what you think its worth with Best Offer enabled. Set an auto decline for what you know to be your bottom dollar and consider anything that comes in over that. Sometimes people just Buy It Now too and you are a happy camper.
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Depends what you’re selling. I’m open to offers on some and firm priced on others.
Either way stick to your guns and don’t give in to the “I can pay today” folk (as if thats some kind off incentive to give them a discount)
@algo , payment today is always better than payment next week which turns into never paying at all. i find that this happens more often with offer up/ local items and with higher end ebay/ online items. maybe not discount worthy, but it at least tells me that the buyer is serious about making a deal.
Why have an offer if you don’t want offers cause the item is fairly priced? I’m sure you didn’t mean that;)
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All my BINS are set to ‘immediate payment required’ *shrug*
What I’m referring is the buyer that is willing to pay the marked price, but tries to haggled over and over. For example I listed an item for 50. Got an offer immediately for 40, declined it. Same person at 45, declined it, then the same person paid full price at 50. I suppose it’s better to just be firmer on the more desirable items, and just deal with the hagglers.
I have offers because I’ll willingly work with buyers if the item has sat on eBay for a while, and don’t want to change every listing once it’s hit that point. Appreciate everyone’s feedback!
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Tbh, people are not hagglers for making an offer when the option to make an offer is enabled. It’s just the thing to do on ebay. And let’s be real: Let’s say you see a card you really want on ebay, and the offer option is enabled: Wouldn’t you try to get the card cheaper at first? If the seller agrees, great. If he declines, you can still pay the full price. You don’t lose anything by trying to get the card cheaper first, so it really doesn’t seem irrational to me.
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Well, if the “Make Offer” option is available, why wouldn’t people try to get it for lower than the list price?
Also, for what it’s worth, a $45 offer on a $50 item is a very good offer and means that the buyer and seller clearly are not far apart. If a buyer offers me $45 on a $50 item, I would just counter with something like $47 (or possibly even just accept the offer depending on the item). I have found that most of the time, buyers are very open to paying more than their initial offer. That is the whole point of negotiating. You start out with a decent offer and then eventually meet in the middle.
If you are going to just outright decline an offer within 10 percent of your list price without even countering, you are better off just listing the item for a fixed price without an offer option.
Not trying to be a jerk or anything. Just offering up my two cents!
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Totally agree with working with people… but generally I’m going to be patient on the first day or two(in this case it was the first hour). Appreciate your feedback!
Honestly I probably should have started the thread in a different direction… better to have no offers(higher margin, less sales) vs having offers(lower margins, more sales).
Thanks for everyone’s comments.
I personally have best offer option enabled for all my listings, but that doesn’t mean on a particular day that I’ll accept anything other than full price for my item. I’ve had people ask me why I have a best offer option enabled if I won’t budge on my price, my answer is that things change such as; prices, personal financial situations and variables such as if a customer is buying more than just the item they’re offering on.
I’ve also experienced people being unwilling to pay full price on a fairly priced item that has best offer enabled. I’ve also experienced myself being unwilling as a buyer in be same situation, if people think they can save any amount of money they will hesitate to buy it outright
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Except when you lose the card all together. I find a lot of people trying to save a few bucks on my listings sometimes when I first list them and it’s always funny when they ask me to cancel the person who paid BIN full price so they can pay $5 over. It’s happened more than once.
eBay can be pretty competitive as searching new BIN listings is common and occasionally it is best to pay full BIN if it’s a good deal.
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I usually only use ebay to bid not haggle, but one week ago I was looking for a video game and the guy had it at $63 or best offer. I made 3 offers (40,45,50) on the 3rd decline he finally says price firm at $63. I never understood why people use best offers if they don’t want offers. In the end I bought from someone else and it included the pre-order bonus while getting it for a $1 cheaper. After I made my purchase I was thinking if the original guy just had a buy now with no best offer I would’ve bought from him instead. Overall the best offer option is great if the seller actually intends on taking a best offer.
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from a seller’s perspective, i always put “best offer” option, because I have a range of acceptable prices, depending on my own circumstances, mood, and market, or a combo of. additionally, “best offer” option allows me to capture as many people as possible because people have different price sensitivity. if you have a set price, that’s fine, but my theory is that i increase my odds of making a sale. I’ve had plenty of cards sell for the BIN price, even with “best offer”.
from a buyer’s perspective, i use that same mentality. if a listing has “best offer”, it means the buyer is willing to negotiate at least somewhat, so it is advantageous for you to put in a lower offer. sometimes, i would pull the trigger if the item is rare, sought after, or fairly priced that i don’t want to bother waiting another minute to hear back from an offer. i remember when that family kanghaskhan was listed a few years ago with “best offer” option, which smpratte did BIN, even though several members here try to negotiate with the “best offer” and lost out. most people who set a firm price is probably not in a super hurry to sell.
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As a buyer exclusively, I will always go with the item that has a OBO option vs no OBO. Something psychological about getting a deal.
Start your price higher and let the buyer talk you down to your desired price.
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I’ve gone from all my listings to no best offer, to all my listings being all best offer, to now having some of my listings best offer/no best offer.
Having no best offer is the lowest sales potential, people just don’t buy as much even if you’re the lowest option available. Having all best offers is the highest sales potential, but also the most work. It doesn’t matter if you’re the lowest option available, people still haggle you if you have the best offer option on. You’re also going to have to deal with a lot more questions and dumb requests.
That’s why you won’t see my low priced items with best offer option on. It’s not worth my time to deal with individuals who want $5 off an item, even though I still get those messages all the time. It’s okay with me for the high-end items as I still want the interactions and higher sales potential for them.
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From the buyer perspective I never understood the option of a best offer if the buyer didn’t want to take offers. After reading through the replies I can see how you would want to take offers later on.
I feel that if your buy it now price is your firm price you should communicate that to the buyer when you decline one of his offers so that the buyer then understands that it is a firm price at this time.
As a seller the only time I put accepts offers is if I am willing to go down on a price. This way I avoid any unnecessary offers.
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