eBay Best Offer - Why Do Sellers Use It?

[hayfield]

I have had the odd offer accepted, but most declined

 

They use it to try and obtain max selling price, if I see it I will always offer less

[njee20]

You mean buyers want to sell the for the most possible? Surely not?

 

If I list an item at £100 it may linger for a month. If someone offers me £90, I may accept that as a trade off for not having it kicking about. It'll depend on the item, how aggressively I think I've priced it, how long it's been on and how popular I think it'll be. I'm disinclined to accept offers made very early in the life of the listing, you don't have a feel for the demand. I also don't tend to counter offer people who put in really stupid offers, they just get declined.

Edited February 8, 2018 by njee20

[chris p bacon]

2 non railway items listed recently, 1 was listed for £100 which was about right, offer of £85 which was turned into £93, both happy and I got good feedback so purchaser was satisfied. 

 

2nd item listed for £375 (I expect to get about £330-350 ish) offer comes in for £40, suggested that he try again nearer the  listed price and counter with £365, replies with £42 so offer deleted and person blocked.

I have no problem with an opening cheeky offer, but the 2nd has to be realistic.

[big jim]

Much like my Citroen C2 that I asked my wife to put up on Facebook for £500 ono

 

First message received “what would you say if I said I’d give you £100?” Answer, you don’t wanna know what I’d say but the 2nd word is ‘off’

[Sir TophamHatt]

You mean buyers want to sell the for the most possible? Surely not?

Not always.

 

I've seen things sell and I wasn't concentrating but I missed putting in a bid.

Within a few minutes I will have messaged the seller, explained and offered a different amount, with a suggestion I am happy to transfer direct through PayPal, so no ebay fee for them.

9/10 it's turned down.

 

There was a fairly rare book I was interested in.  Sold for 99p.

I offered the seller £10, they still rejected it.

 

Apart from being a little rubbish to the actual buyer, surely you'd accept a higher offer come what may?  As you're selling to make money right?  After ebay fees, PayPal fees, the person is likely to get, what 50p?  Hardly worth the effort of listing it.

 

So this is where I don't understand people (generally).  It happens with houses...

[Colin_McLeod]

In your examples the sellers were right to honour the contracts they had already made with their buyers. If they had sold to you they would rightly be criticised and probably get kicked off e bay.

 

E bay would collapse if everyone accepted offers after the deal was done.

 

Moral: Get your bid in in time

Edited February 8, 2018 by Colin_McLeod

[chris p bacon]

Not always.

 

I've seen things sell and I wasn't concentrating but I missed putting in a bid.

Within a few minutes I will have messaged the seller, explained and offered a different amount, with a suggestion I am happy to transfer direct through PayPal, so no ebay fee for them.

9/10 it's turned down.

 

There was a fairly rare book I was interested in.  Sold for 99p.

I offered the seller £10, they still rejected it.

 

Apart from being a little rubbish to the actual buyer, surely you'd accept a higher offer come what may?  As you're selling to make money right?  After ebay fees, PayPal fees, the person is likely to get, what 50p?  Hardly worth the effort of listing it.

 

So this is where I don't understand people (generally).  It happens with houses...

 

 

I've had these, they're treated like the "Whats your best price" on an auction and ignored.

 

You might think you're doing them a favour,  but as Ebay monitor the messaging system for behaviour such as this, you're both likely to be kicked off.

 

You'd also be unable to send them any of your details, as you've not purchased from them so a waste of time.

[njee20]

Yep, as above, also the legitimate buyer could (rightly) leave you negative feedback, so all in... it's a really stupid seller than accepts that, and a really annoying buyer who tries it.

 

It's amazing how many of those offers are sold as a bit of a sob story too: "I really wanted your item but I couldn't bid, but I was saving a troop of girl guides from a flaming bus on a cliff edge, whilst my dog took his dying breaths. How's £20 sound?"

[big jim]

To top off my £100 off the bifold doors I managed last week I also managed to get £500 off a car I bought thanks to ‘best offer’ so I’m more than happy sellers use it!

[Sir TophamHatt]

In your examples the sellers were right to honour the contracts they had already made with their buyers. If they had sold to you they would rightly be criticised and probably get kicked off e bay.

 

E bay would collapse if everyone accepted offers after the deal was done.

 

Moral: Get your bid in in time

 

Oh I wholeheartedly agree... sort of.

 

eBay doesn't care too much.  I regularly offer to complete out of ebay.  So long as you word messages correctly, they don't get picked up and happy says all round.

But what about the protection I hear you say?  Still paying using PayPal Goods and Services gives equal protection.  As a seller, if someone wants to cut out the middle man, that's great for me.

 

I've had sellers cancel on me, and cancelled on buyers too for various reasons.  I'd say people who truly believe you make contracts on ebay are a little blinded.  You may think it's a contract but good luck forcing a seller to send you the item after you bought it, and paid, and then they refunded.  Even if they openly say the price was too low.

 

If someone wants to pay 99p, and someone is offering £10, would you really/i] do yourself out of £9?

As I say, happens with houses so people don't seem to recognise their conscious in that area.  Yes, you may say "no contract has been signed" but when the buyer has obviously spent money on surveys and such, many sellers don't seem to think about that.  It makes me question where the cut off is.  If someone buys at £30, but someone else offers £100, would that change things?  What if they offered £200, or £300, claiming it's "limited edition" or whatever.  I can't see many people selling at £30 if they can see it's worth £300 really.

[Guest]

I think you may be on your own or in a small minority with that line of thinking.

If I list something, it sells for the final bid. Any offer to buy after the auction ended, I'd just ignore.

[Silver Sidelines]

I have had a quite a bit of success using Best Offer.  I think there a lot of people on eBay who like the to think they have a bargain so if they had a lower offer accepted they feel pleased.  I only discovered the other week that I could automatically set up thresholds so that eBay could make immediate judgements on whether or not I wanted to reject or consider.

 

I always reply to offers - however stupid.

 

On the other side of the coin I have had some occasions where I have offered 25% less and still had the offer accepted.  I have also come across sellers who seem reluctant to communicate and are happy to let the 48 hours expire without speaking.  I usually take that as a warning - maybe too greedy.  If it is too much effort to communicate what else might be wrong?

 

Just some thoughts and observations

 

Ray

• Edit

Edited February 10, 2018 by Silver Sidelines

[Colin_McLeod]

Anotheruser. You are playing the system and admitting to questionable practices. Can you confirm your e bay user name so that I can look out for you?

[njee20]

eBay doesn't care too much. I regularly offer to complete out of ebay. So long as you word messages correctly, they don't get picked up and happy says all round.

But what about the protection I hear you say?

...

If someone wants to pay 99p, and someone is offering £10, would you really/i] do yourself out of £9?

 

How do you swap contact details? eBay block most obvious permutations, and they do reprimand sellers, if not the buyers.

 

And yes, I would do that, because if someone ever did that to me I’d leave them negative feedback, and then I’d not buy off someone with recent negative feedback, and that’s probably worth a lot more than £9. I really do think you’re in the minority.

 

I’ve never cancelled an auction (why would you?!), and never had one cancelled on me. The house analogy doesn’t really stand. If you had to present a letter to an estate agent saying that you’d reneged on your last deal would you still do it as keenly?

 

As a buyer you lose nothing other than being a massive nuisance, as a seller you stand to lose more. It’s really short sighted not to see that.

[adb968008]

Ive just seen something new here this week...

 

An ebay listing as an auction, but with a “submit best offer”.

Most auctions tend to be “auction” only, or “auction with buy it now”, or “buy it now with best offer”.

 

This one, works differently...

Basically how it works, is the listing is set with an auction start price, and a buyer can submit a “high best offer” at which the seller can accept sell and end the auction early.

Never come across this before anyone else seen it ?

[chris p bacon]

I'm guessing it's a follow on from all those messages that get sent saying "Whats your Buy it Now price" just after I started an auction.

[hayfield]

Ive just seen something new here this week...

 

An ebay listing as an auction, but with a “submit best offer”.

Most auctions tend to be “auction” only, or “auction with buy it now”, or “buy it now with best offer”.

 

This one, works differently...

Basically how it works, is the listing is set with an auction start price, and a buyer can submit a “high best offer” at which the seller can accept sell and end the auction early.

Never come across this before anyone else seen it ?

 

 

Looks to be an interesting option, set a price at a rate you cannot refuse, but accept offers from others which may result in a quick sale, just copied eBay's description

 

If you are selling an item with a fixed price, you can choose the Best Offer option when you list your item for sale on eBay. With Best Offer, you give buyers a chance to negotiate the price with you. Each Best Offer is good for up to 48 hours. A Best Offer is binding, just like any other bid. There is no charge to use Best Offer.

After you receive a Best Offer, you can choose to

Accept the Best Offer and end the listing.

Decline the Best Offer. You can explain your reasons to the buyer if you want to.

Respond with a counter-offer. If the buyer doesn't respond within a reasonable amount of time, you can let the counter-offer expire.

Let the offer expire after 48 hours or when the listing ends, whichever comes first.

 

Might even catch on

[hayfield]

I'm guessing it's a follow on from all those messages that get sent saying "Whats your Buy it Now price" just after I started an auction.

 

 

Dave

 

Its a bit of the best of both worlds, put it up for a high fixed price and if it sells at full price you are in clover, but accept best offers and cut your losses if it does not sell

[chris p bacon]

Dave

 

Its a bit of the best of both worlds, put it up for a high fixed price and if it sells at full price you are in clover, but accept best offers and cut your losses if it does not sell

 

Are you confusing 'Buy it now' which has the 'make a best offer' option ?

 

The post from ADB was for an auction which has 'make an offer' which is something I've not seen 

 

Ive just seen something new here this week...

 

An ebay listing as an auction, but with a “submit best offer”.

Most auctions tend to be “auction” only, or “auction with buy it now”, or “buy it now with best offer”.

 

This one, works differently...

Basically how it works, is the listing is set with an auction start price, and a buyer can submit a “high best offer” at which the seller can accept sell and end the auction early.

Never come across this before anyone else seen it ?

 

 

 

I tend to use auction for everything and just take a chance, if I get a good price or if someone gets a bargain I'm happy.

[hayfield]

Are you confusing 'Buy it now' which has the 'make a best offer' option ?

 

The post from ADB was for an auction which has 'make an offer' which is something I've not seen 

 

 

 

 

I tend to use auction for everything and just take a chance, if I get a good price or if someone gets a bargain I'm happy.

 

Dave

 

Its similar but slightly different as it extends your options to negotiate with the bidder, by not declining the offer outright but to encourage a higher  bid

[njee20]

I'm confused, Hayfield you seem to be talking about "buy now or best offer", but are talking as if you mean the feature adb968008 has mentioned?

 

This seems to be a formalisation of the "how much to end the auction early?", where it becomes "what's your offer?", which is not the same as the formal "buy now or best offer".

[hayfield]

I'm confused, Hayfield you seem to be talking about "buy now or best offer", but are talking as if you mean the feature adb968008 has mentioned?

 

This seems to be a formalisation of the "how much to end the auction early?", where it becomes "what's your offer?", which is not the same as the formal "buy now or best offer".

 

I looked up at listing an item on eBay, rather than listing an auction sale with a "buy it now" option, I looked at a fixed price listing with the ability to have a "Best offer" option with it

 

Must admit it can be sometimes confusing, best offer is for use with a fixed price listing. Buy it Now is for auction style listings

[Crosland]

Might help clear up the confusion if a link was given to the "auction" in question.

[njee20]

I looked up at listing an item on eBay, rather than listing an auction sale with a "buy it now" option, I looked at a fixed price listing with the ability to have a "Best offer" option with it

 

Must admit it can be sometimes confusing, best offer is for use with a fixed price listing. Buy it Now is for auction style listings

Yes, that's always existed. If you read the post though, it appears there may be a new option whereby you have an auction with an option for best offers. Not a buy now.

Although I do wonder if it was simply an auction with a buy now (or best offer), where the buy now option disappears when there are bids IIRC. As said, would be interesting to see the item adb968008

[John M Upton]

I try to avoid Best Offers wherever possible, despite Ebay's sneaky attempts to smuggle it in when they think you are not looking as when I have used it, it often attracts offers that range between mediocre and mickey taking!