topic Re: how do you make an offer in Buying

how do you make an offer

agia2692 — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 03:28:27 GMT

Hi all,

I am interested in an item and it has the "make offer" button. The item is rather expensive and I want to make an offer but don't want to be offensive. How do you make a reasonable offer and not be ridiculous or offend the seller.

I realise this may seem naive and dorky but I believe in honesty and fairness.

Does anyone have any advice?

Re: how do you make an offer

gutterpunkz05 — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 03:36:43 GMT

Only you can decide what you consider to be a reasonable offer. Be aware if a seller does not like your offer, or thinks you are just a waste of time, then they can block you from buying anything from them.

Re: how do you make an offer

sandypebbles — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 03:39:21 GMT

If you were selling something for x amount, below what amount would you consider as offensive for a buyer to offer for it instead ?

Re: how do you make an offer

lyndal1838 — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 03:47:03 GMT

All you can do is make an offer of an amount that you consider to be reasonable and what you think the item is worth.

The seller may have set the auto accept/decline and you will know immediately if your offer is accepted. They can also make a counter offer for you to accept or decline.

You can make 3 offers before it times out.

Re: how do you make an offer

springyzone — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 04:57:25 GMT

@agia2692 wrote:
Hi all,
I am interested in an item and it has the "make offer" button. The item is rather expensive and I want to make an offer but don't want to be offensive. How do you make a reasonable offer and not be ridiculous or offend the seller.
I realise this may seem naive and dorky but I believe in honesty and fairness.

Does anyone have any advice?

Click on the make an offer button.

Type in your offer. It is hard to say what is acceptable as sellers will vary. Some will come down quite a bit, some hardly at all.

You can't know till you have a go.

You get 3 chances to make an offer on any particular item. After that, if you want it, you'd have to pay full price.

My advice would be to think about how much you want the item and bid accordingly.

My own experience is most Make an offers will accept somewhere between 5-10% off the item price.

Some sellers may go down more but if you really want it, I personally would not ask for over 20% off max.

If you go offering eg 50%, you risk insulting the seller. Some will barter, some might block you.

PS If a message comes through immediately that the offer was declined, then that is an auto message and will indicate to you that you are below the acceptable range.

If the message says the offer has been sent to the seller, then you may be in no man's land ie not clearly out of the question but not clearly in either, seller will decide. Not all sellers have auto replies set though.

Re: how do you make an offer

padi*0409 — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 04:58:41 GMT

Have you done a Google search for the item to see what it sells for ? eBay is not always the cheapest way to buy items.

Re: how do you make an offer

glenbankloel — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 19:58:10 GMT

Do some research to check if for sale anywhere else, and then you might get a feel for the going price, if not available, then you know that you will probably need to offer something reasonable.

Perhaps start around 20% off and go from there. You do have a couple of more opportunities if they reject the first offer.

But don't take it personally if they reject your offer, they may just not have enough buffer to accept anything too low.

Good Luck.

Re: how do you make an offer

agia2692 — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 22:14:24 GMT

Thank you so much. I actually understood your response. Very much appreciated.

Re: how do you make an offer

michellebartley — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 23:08:57 GMT

Ask seller via a message to them what would be the minimum amount that they would accept for the item.

Re: how do you make an offer

lyndal1838 — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 23:49:01 GMT

That is not a good idea Michelle....ebay may interpret that as trying to trade off ebay and both the buyer and seller may face sanctions.

Better to keep it within the Make an Offer function.

Re: how do you make an offer

ekrabappel — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 01:00:54 GMT

@lyndal1838 - sometimes it is necessary in cases where the seller has different items that you want to make offers on. A seller may take 15% off for a single item but give 20% if buying 10 items. By offering 20% off using the Best Offer button the seller will reject it not knowing that you are looking at multiple items. It would be handy if you could place several items in a temporary cart and send an offer. 'Bundle and Save' as Dave from American Pickers would say.

Re: how do you make an offer

davewil1964 — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 01:11:40 GMT

In this instance the OP is after a single item, however.

Re: how do you make an offer

4channel — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 01:44:02 GMT

@lyndal1838 wrote:

That is not a good idea Michelle....ebay may interpret that as trying to trade off ebay and both the buyer and seller may face sanctions.
Better to keep it within the Make an Offer function.
I don't think that ebay would necessarily interpret miechelle's suggestion as an off-ebay trade attempt. And I think michelle's suggesting that this would be the accompanying an offer. It's not a bad idea actually.

EXAMPLE

Item: $25
Offer: $15
Note with offer, "Well, here is my offer. I don't have a lot of money. So if you don't take this offer, what would your minimum be?
Reply: "Anything over $18"

This is how it goes down sometimes.

Re: how do you make an offer

papermoon.lady — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 04:49:27 GMT

You can possibly also have a look at the seller's completed listings to see if the item has been relisted a few times. Sellers tend to accept lower offers when they had to relist an item a few times because they want to get rid of it.

Re: how do you make an offer

dvd.horder — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 00:55:04 GMT

@michellebartley wrote:
Ask seller via a message to them what would be the minimum amount that they would accept for the item.

thats a good idea michelle ......i will give that a go my self.....have tried it a couple of times..... sometimes it works

Re: how do you make an offer

springyzone — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 08:00:50 GMT

@michellebartley wrote:
Ask seller via a message to them what would be the minimum amount that they would accept for the item.

I am not sure that is necessary. Isn't that basically what the Make an offer is for?

I think (and this is from memory, has been a while since I bought this way) that when you make an offer, you can also add a message.

If you wanted to suss out the lowest acceptable amount, you could add that in your message. Something along the lines of-if this is not acceptable, what is your lowest acceptable offer?

My concern with asking a seller directly is I am not sure how honest an answer you would get.

eg say I had something on sale for $30 and you asked me my lowest acceptable amount, if I replied anything above $20, then you can be pretty sure any buyer hearing that is going to offer exactly $20, or maybe $20.50.

They certainly are not going to offer $25 or above, which may be what I am sort of hoping for, even if, in a pinch, I will come down to $20.

A seller's mind can change too, over time.

But if your first offer is rejected, you know then that it is definitely too low. Just raise your offer to a mid point between lowest and highest offers you intend to make and see how that goes.

My experience is in most cases, sellers aren't going to sell for 40 or 50% off. There may be occasional times a seller will, but if you offer very low, you risk wasting a bid.

Re: how do you make an offer

4channel — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 01:47:48 GMT

* * *

@michellebartley wrote:

Ask seller via a message to them what would be the minimum amount that they would accept for the item.
@dvd.horder wrote:

thats a good idea michelle ......i will give that a go my self.....have tried it a couple of times..... sometimes it works

Well, with michellbaarley's idea dvd.horder, it could crate a reply from the seller and get a vocal interaction. I have noticed this in sales, that technique creates a pathway. Watching American Pickers, you can see this in action.

Re: how do you make an offer

lyndal1838 — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 02:04:38 GMT

And it could potentially see both the buyer and seller suspended by ebay for trying to trade off ebay. It has happened before.

Re: how do you make an offer

4channel — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 02:39:25 GMT

@lyndal1838 wrote:

And it could potentially see both the buyer and seller suspended by ebay for trying to trade off ebay. It has happened before.

Nowhere talking about trading off eBay lyndal1838!

This is talk about using the process within eBay but employing a well used sales technique. I think it was cool of michellebartley to suggest the lower offer technique. Seller would reply back as they do often with "sorry, I can't accept that" etc. but with a possible / probably suggestion of doing a better offer. I like it when michellebartley comes up with a nifty pizzazz type of idea on various occasions.She's down to earth too.

Re: how do you make an offer

lyndal1838 — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 03:20:59 GMT

I know it is not an off ebay transaction but unless the offer is made through the Make an Offer link ebay has been known to decide that the buyer and seller are trying to trade off ebay.

It has happened before and no doubt will happen again if members continue to do it.

It does not worry me at all but I feel sorry for a seller who gets one of these offers and a suspension because a buyer has ignored the rules.