silly offers

[davidc4430]

what do you do with 'silly' offers

yesterday i got am offer on an item, less than hlaf the asking price.

after i declined the offer i recieved a detailed message explaining my prices are way too high, must have taken him a while to type it all up.

i replied with 'you know what you can do with your advice'

i then added him to my blocked buyer list.

i then got 2 messages including bad language.

i left it at that

now today i wake up to another silly offer from a different person

$40 including postage to the USA for an item i have listed for $250

i guess guy 1 has a mate.

none of my items has 'make an offer'

cheers for your input guys.

[melbourneclearance]

Ignore them and move on.

People send low offers all the time. If the offer is for a good item I ignore it, no reply is necessary. If the offer is for some rubbish I want to get rid of, I'm happy to entertain it.

[enigmabear]

I had a joker once, year before last I think it was.......

My item had been bid to just over $200 and 2 days to go on the auction

I get a message................

I'll buy it for $80 and come pick it up tomorrow

Um, no,you won't

I just deleted and put them on the bbl

Some people are just fools, others just greedy, others just greedy fools

[glenbankloel · Accepted solution]

We get them too, mostly I just burst out laughing and yell "tell em ther'e dreaming" (or words to that effect) at the screen.

Then I walk away and go and water the garden or make a coffee etc etc........

After calming down, I come back and send off a polite reply with a price that we would accept and so leave it up to them to come back.

Sometimes they do, and then I will go in and change the listing to accomodate.  

We view low offers as the buyer trying to suss out our lowest price that we would accept, so quite often they do turn into sales. I usually just ignore the ridiculous offer, thank them for their interest and then advise our terms/price.

Find that if you are polite and courteous usually no problem, if they do send through some info we accept with good grace and thank them, check it out, then advise what you can/will do for them. If they have gone to that much trouble they obviously have a big interest in the item. 

Very hard sometimes to not be offended but they don't know your circumstances, and are only trying to "do a deal", and yes some people are very "cheeky".

But you are the one in control not them, and you don't have to sell to them if they are really obnoxious so would back you up there for sure. 

Up to you how you proceed.

Best Wishes.

[digital*ghost]

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@davidc4430 wrote:

i recieved a detailed message explaining my prices are way too high,

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Not to the people who buy them, would have been my immediate response. 

I suspect the other lowball offer was - in their mind - an attempt to "prove" that your prices are too high, because obviously if more than one person (lol) thinks so, it must be true. 

When I had best offer on listings and a low one came through, I'd just decline it and say unfortunately, I'm not able to meet that price. I wouldn't counter offer because I can't take ridiculous offers (and the people who make them) seriously, regardless of the intention behind them.

I no longer use best offer, so now when people ask about discounts, unless they're talking about bulk purchases, I just say that I'm not running any specials at the moment, but they're welcome to subscribe to my store so that they can be advised of any promotions I run in the future. 

[springyzone]

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@davidc4430 wrote:

what do you do with 'silly' offers

yesterday i got am offer on an item, less than hlaf the asking price.

after i declined the offer i recieved a detailed message explaining my prices are way too high, must have taken him a while to type it all up.

i replied with 'you know what you can do with your advice'

i then added him to my blocked buyer list.

i then got 2 messages including bad language.

i left it at that

now today i wake up to another silly offer from a different person

$40 including postage to the USA for an item i have listed for $250

i guess guy 1 has a mate.

none of my items has 'make an offer'

cheers for your input guys.

---

I was reading along ok till i got to this part-None of my items has 'make an offer' and just burst out laughing.

What a cheek.

My advice was going to be to set your make an offer limits automatically so you didn't have to view the low ones. But it's even worse than that, they're making unsolicited offers.

I know how you would be fuming. Like when I got gumtree offer of $20 on an $80 item with the message they would pick up that morning. Not even a 'if it is convenient'. Like they were doing me some sort of favour.

I just wrote back with sorry, no. But I wasn't really sorry.

I'd be inclined to ignore such messages on ebay unless you're selling a really big item. But even then, if someone is offering you less than half I have my doubts they'll move up to a close offer. On 'Make an offer' they might, as they're trying to suss the lowest a seller will accept. But if they're making rude offers underhand in messages on a normal auction item, they're not worth too much time & bother.

[davidc4430]

well put, i'll take on board your advice for future offers.

i guess i just place my own standards on contacting other sellers to make an offer, id never offer something i knew was 'silly'

in fact if a seller isnt asking for offers i wouldnt make one.

ive allways felt nothing is so rare on ebay (well nothing id be wanting) that there wont be another at a better price sooner or later.

if i see something id like but its too expensive i move on, not going to get into telling a seller he/she has it all wrong and they should lower their price to my level and make me happy.

as to sending abusive messages, thats just not on.

ok i said 'he knew where he could put his advice'

but i dint use abusive words, i could easily have ment 'keep it to yourself'

obviously he was interested in my item (s) enough to make contact but did he really think id drop my price from $125 to $55 just because he feels my price is too high?

and to them lecture me that these items never fetch more that what hes offering and only idiots would buy at my price.

he may well be right but its my item and i decide what i'll accept for it!

maybe only an idiot will pay my price, well i only need 1 idiot dont i? there are millions of idiots who use ebay.

if someone wants it and mine is the only one listed then it may well sell for my price.

[collect247]

Why don't you set an offer limit so then you won't have to deal or see silly offers as they won't go through?

[rocket2retro]

I recently had one like this who accused me of having 'ridiculous' prices.

I replied words to the effect of... I'm sorry you feel like this, however my other XX,000 buyers who've spent $XXX,000 with me over the past 14 years would disagree.

Of course I blocked them after that and never heard back.

[the4masters2013 · Accepted solution]

Apart from blocking them (which I have done), another way to move them on is to answer them with the reason you decline their offer, then put the question and the oh so very polite answer up on the item so others can see it.
I've done it once before, never heard back from them. I feel others may have added the buyer to their party list for being a smarty pants!!