Best offer

[drouin4]

Hi, just wondering if there is a rough percentage I should be take off when accepting offers.

I had a couple of offers on the weekend where the buyer offered $30 for items selling for $45 so I accepted them.

They then went on to offer me $20 and less for items selling for $45 which I did not accept.

Am I right in feeling a little offended that they would offer such low offers and expect me to sell to them.

They came across as offended that I didn not accept such low offers, more than 50% off my asking price.

Thankyou

[springyzone]

You had every right to feel offended at offensively low offers. I would have too & I've always rejected offers like that in the past (on other selling sites).

As a guide, I have usually found on ebay (as a buyer) that my "best offer' has been accepted when it is around 5% off.

Or maybe 5-10% with some sellers.

But I have never struck one that sold with a bigger discount. I'm sure there must be some out there who do, but just saying, I haven't struck any. Even one who had best offer didn't accept 5% off. I think maybe their discount only applied if someone bought multiples.

Did you know you can set up best offer to have an auto accept $ amount and an auto reject level? Anything in between would go to you for you to decide. That might be the way to go, so people who make ridiculously low offers see immediately that it is declined.

If there is a time lag & they know it has gone into you to decide manually, they might think they are close to your expectation when they aren't, and so their second offer is more likely to be insulting too.

An auto decline on low offers will soon train them & if it doesn't, at least you don't have to deal with it.

[springyzone]

Oh and a PS. Don't worry in the least if they seem offended by you not accepting a low offer.

If they accuse you of being lousy or greedy for not accepting it, you go right back at them and say they are being greedy for not offering a bit more.

[kopenhagen5]

I assume these offers were not formal offers in the eBay listings as the purchases would have been made without the possibility of offering lower again.

If I received an offer outside of a listing, I make sure that listing has Make an Offer and just message back explaining they need to make the offer in the listing. If I want, I then accept it and the item is purchased at that price.

I don't even respond to lowball offers just messaged and especially if I don't have Make an Offer in the listing.

[drouin4]

Thankyou everyone for your help, no all the offers were via ebay.

[wide-world-of-stamps]

Whatever you're comfortable with. If an offer makes you feel insulted or upset, don't accept it.

[davidc4430]

you have to be a little tough selling, only sell at your price not theirs.

only accept an offer thats good for you, not just them.

never feel obliged to sell, its your stuff, you decide what you will accept.

i have recently been getting what i class as silly offers from so called 'experts' for some of my items.

well i give them a listing in my blocked buyers list.

my motto, there are millions of ebay buyers and each of my items only needs 1, i can live without the idiots.

[purplemon18]

I recently turned on make an offer on all my listings, and a great number of them make low ball offers. I get at least one every day who offers half price. At first I did get offended, and made snarky replies until I got this message:

When you make a offer it clearly says "does not include shipping" didnt even see it had free shipping and thats not a "unreasonable" offer at all! Good luck selling it! Ive bought 3 dresses this week at $10. Btw postage for a 500gr tracked satchel bag is $8.50 so my offer would of covered postage just so you know!

It was on a $25 dress. Maybe I exagerated a little on it costing ten bucks just to send it, but still, that's not profitable and she's a vulture...Although I still have not sold that dress a month later...

Anyway, since then I have been a bit more diplomatic in my responses, and every now and again it results in a sale. Just 2 days ago, I had someone low ball me and then accept my counter offer (although she could have continued to negotiate because I usually leave a little room in my counter offer for more discounting).

I have this standard response saved for copy-paste:

Hi, sorry but the postage alone will cost me $5. once i include eBay fees, packing materials, and my purchase cost, I can offer $15.

Obviously I just change the 2 numbers after I paste it to suit the purpose.

Amusingly, I recently had someone offer $5 on a $15 item, so I made a counter offer of something like $12.50, and they came back with $5.50! I counter offered with my regular price (and no comment), and didn't hear from them again.

I'd say that I never even hear from people again after I make a counter offer 80-90% of the time, like they don't even decline the offer. So they have not even come back to ebay in the 2 days they have to respond, and are probably just as reliable at paying.

I still make some of those sales, but the question is whether they would have still bought if make an offer wasn't an option.

[curraone]

I have a lot of items listed as make an offer, but have the automatic decline set at $1 below a figure I would be happy with

So I don't even see the silly offers

However, when I have nothing to do I occasionally check to see what has been offered, for example just recently I can see I got an offer for a $150 item - the offer made was $20 and then they upped it to $30!!!  (no this is not a typo, they only offered thirty dollars!)

[springyzone]

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@curraonewrote:

I have a lot of items listed as make an offer, but have the automatic decline set at $1 below a figure I would be happy with

So I don't even see the silly offers

However, when I have nothing to do I occasionally check to see what has been offered, for example just recently I can see I got an offer for a $150 item - the offer made was $20 and then they upped it to $30!!!  (no this is not a typo, they only offered thirty dollars!)

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Lucky you didn't have to see that!

It would not have done your blood pressure any good.

Since buyers only get a chance to make 3 offers, you have to wonder at them making their second offer so low.

They really weren't that keen to have it, not if they didn't offer a bit more.