topic Re: Make and offer garbage. in Buying

Make and offer garbage.

x321654 — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 04:59:31 GMT

Sorry for the whine, but more than once I've made a seller an offer and they've come back with a counter offer that's 50 cents (or less) of their original asking price. So why do they have the make an offer button? Do they get some kind of bonus by having it?

I've voted with my money (I don't buy from them), but its such a waist of time.

Re: Make and offer garbage.

joethenuts — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 05:03:53 GMT

i agree ,,,,,if you cant give at least 5 to 10% off for a start

Re: Make and offer garbage.

4green2000 — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 06:24:30 GMT

TOTAL GARBAGE alright...Good for ebay i suppose cause the more it sells for the more feeeeeeeees. Thats why its allowed id say.

@x321654 wrote:
Sorry for the whine, but more than once I've made a seller an offer and they've come back with a counter offer that's 50 cents (or less) of their original asking price. So why do they have the make an offer button? Do they get some kind of bonus by having it?

I've voted with my money (I don't buy from them), but its such a waist of time.

Re: Make and offer garbage.

digital*ghost — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 07:02:06 GMT

@x321654 wrote:
Sorry for the whine, but more than once I've made a seller an offer and they've come back with a counter offer that's 50 cents (or less) of their original asking price. So why do they have the make an offer button? Do they get some kind of bonus by having it?

I've voted with my money (I don't buy from them), but its such a waist of time.

While this may, or may not, apply to the sellers and items you've been making offers with / on, different sellers use the make an offer feature for different reasons - some sellers have used it to provide discounts on bulk quantities, and can't provide that (or any) discount on purchases of just one or two, so it is not uncommon for little to no discount on best offer items (sellers tended not to mention this in listings, as certain keywords - like offer - could be picked up and cause listings to be ended automatically, and policy violations issued, despite the actual sentences not actually trying to breach eBay policy). New discounting features store sellers have access to may help curb the instances where sellers used best offer for this purpose, though.

Some newer sellers seem to misunderstand the feature completely, and are under the impression using best offer means their Buy It Now price is the minimum they'll accept, and people can offer higher amounts (a bit like an auction, but the seller sees all offers, then picks and chooses which one to accept).

Obviously, some sellers do use it seemingly as a way to gain interest, with no intention of discounting the price by any amount etc, but voting with your wallet is pretty much the only thing you can do in those cases.

Re: Make and offer garbage.

jimmyjoejoe_jnr — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 09:50:38 GMT

Sometimes the offers that people make are really stupid you advertise for $100 or best offer and someone offers you $20 I am more than willing to go down in price but thats ridiculous.I usually offer around $20 off the price and then go up from there if the seller wants more.

Re: Make and offer garbage.

abbeyrock3 — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 12:44:06 GMT

Well ppl were sending me offers and silly ones at that after I went and relisted some items and when I was looking at my listings there was this best offer thing which I dont remember doing. Well this time when i relisted I saw it was checked automatically and that is why it came up on my listings and getting offers. I had to go through and remove from my listings as it was just making unneccessary work with silly offers. Most my stuff is cheap anyway. So to me it was Ebay checking the box on every occassion not me.

Re: Make and offer garbage.

ooak3 — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 04:46:09 GMT

some sellers have no intention of reducing the price

i made a fair offer a couple of days ago item was $349 they came back with a counter offer of $344 a saving of $5

of coarse they lost that sale !!

Re: Make and offer garbage.

redders_60 — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 05:25:18 GMT

I believe it's all in the way you ask! I'm open to offers, & there is a space for offerers to send a message. If I have a good feeling about the transaction I will / would accept a lowish offer knowing a collectable will go to a good home, or that the person really needs the item at a reduced price. I've never made a counter offer as a seller; Though the facility is there for a seller to do so.

Sellers have to factor in selling fees from ebay & Paypal. along with postage costs, which are never free, no matter how much ebay wants them to be! Maybe a polite question prior to your offer may be of help in obtaining a discount? Do please remember some sellers work on bare margins now that ebay prefers larger sellers rather than those smaller ones who built their business.

Not all sellers are Target or Masters (part of the Woolies chain of stores) Some of us are just a person tapping on a keyboard who still likes to list correctly; pack appropriately; & provide customer service as best they can!

Re: Make and offer garbage.

ooak3 — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 05:38:12 GMT

i never make offers on items unless they have the make an offer button and it was a very big shop seller so i dont know why they bothered putting a make an offer option on it was so stingy on a $350 item that it annoyed me and i didnt buy i might even have bought it if the option wasnt there at all lol

Re: Make and offer garbage.

boggo58 — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 17:35:23 GMT

@x321654 wrote:
Sorry for the whine, but more than once I've made a seller an offer and they've come back with a counter offer that's 50 cents (or less) of their original asking price. So why do they have the make an offer button? Do they get some kind of bonus by having it?

I've voted with my money (I don't buy from them), but its such a waist of time.

I never offer more, if i put a offer in and its rejected i just keep offering less!

Re: Make and offer garbage.

lyndal1838 — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 21:09:55 GMT

If an offer is rejected it is counter productive to offer less if you are serious about buying the item.

What makes you think a seller is going to accept a lesser offer if they have already rejected an amount?

Re: Make and offer garbage.

chameleon54 — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 23:22:48 GMT

@boggo58 wrote:
@x321654 wrote:
Sorry for the whine, but more than once I've made a seller an offer and they've come back with a counter offer that's 50 cents (or less) of their original asking price. So why do they have the make an offer button? Do they get some kind of bonus by having it?

I've voted with my money (I don't buy from them), but its such a waist of time.
I never offer more, if i put a offer in and its rejected i just keep offering less!

What a strange thing to say !!!. No wonder sellers get frustrated with SOME buyers who choose to use ( read abuse ) the offer system to make ridiculously low offers and just generally waste everyones time.

Looks like one more for the special list.

Re: Make and offer garbage.

springyzone — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 23:49:24 GMT

boggo said:

I never offer more, if i put a offer in and its rejected i just keep offering less!

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I never do that, but I do get frustrated with some sellers who have the Make an offer button on their listings.

I never make really low offers. Never. My offers are always close to the asking price. The last time I made a couple of offers on an item, going up to within 50c of the full price and was rejected.

Yet a few days later, I saw that seller with exactly the same item marked at 10% off-selling less than my offers had been! Go figure.

If sellers are not interested in very close offers, then don't have the Make an offer button on their listings in the first place. Easy.

It doesn't create interest, it can just put buyers' backs up if an offer within 2% isn't accepted.

Re: Make and offer garbage.

chameleon54 — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 00:41:09 GMT

As a seller, I can appreciate where you are coming from. It stands to reason that there are just as many sellers who are being a bit silly about the best offer process as buyers. One of the main problems is that ebay AUTOMATICALLY include the best offer button as the default setting in the listing process. Unless a seller notices and physically unchecks the box, the listing will appear with the best offer function included. Some sellers may not know how to alter the settings and many just would not notice it is automatically included.

This happened to me recently and I only noticed the error once the ridiculously silly offers started to roll in. If thats the sort of buyers best offer attracts, I can live without it.

I dont use the best offer feature but still get offers regularly. My most recent, a couple of days ago was a $30 item with $14.50 postage. The hopefull buyer offered $10 plus postage. GET REAL !!!!

Re: Make and offer garbage.

cathyjoyjoy — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 01:09:38 GMT

Yet another confusing thing ......... look at all the various interpretations from both buyers AND sellers as to what "best offer" actually means ........ sigh. And the fact that it does appear to be a default for some listings and it's not easy to find out how to remove it ....... that's just crazy. But at least I now have a better understanding of the broad meaning of 'best offer'.

Re: Make and offer garbage.

springyzone — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 09:26:20 GMT

chameleon said:

I dont use the best offer feature but still get offers regularly. My most recent, a couple of days ago was a $30 item with $14.50 postage. The hopefull buyer offered $10 plus postage. GET REAL !!!!

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I think it is really rude of buyers to message a seller with offers for any item that is just listed in a regular way on ebay.

Usually on ebay, the listing price is the minimum the seller is hoping for, or that is how I interpret it.

Gumtree is a different matter but even there, I make close offers. I've been a seller myself and find very low offers to be insulting, they put my back up.

Re: Make and offer garbage.

chameleon54 — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 12:31:02 GMT

Just an update. The item mentioned in last post sold today for the full $30.00 plus postage Gotta win some

Re: Make and offer garbage.

*tippy*toes* — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:09:14 GMT

A few weeks ago I listed an item that I'd bought then decided I didn't really want. As I wanted to get rid of it quickly, I listed it at auction with the start price of $16.99 + $8 postage, which was cost price with the ebay fees tacked on.

A few days later I got a message from a buyer with an "offer". $5 with "free" postage. I wasn't going to reply but in the end I did and said that it's an auction, not a best offer so I'll be letting the auction run its course.

There was a bidding war and it sold for $32. I checked that buyers feedback left for others and promptly put him on my happy list. Most of his feedback was negging sellers for not accepting best offers. With insulting offers like that, what does he expect?

Re: Make and offer garbage.

springyzone — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 09:26:41 GMT

At $5 and providing free postage, wouldn't that mean you were actually out of pocket after paying postage fees? I'm pretty sure they would come in at over $5.

And of course if the parcel was not registered, who knows, the buyer might claim not received and then he would get all his money back as well.

The man has rocks in his head if he thinks any seller would be tempted by his 'offer'. Better to donate it to a charity than sell like that.

And woohoo, glad you sold it for $32 plus postage. I hope he saw that!

Re: Make and offer garbage.

*tippy*toes* — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 12:59:14 GMT

I most definitely would have been out of pocket! It was parcel post which as you know is more than $5, so would have been paying out of my own pocket. He must have thought I came down in the last shower.

Even though the eventual buyer could have bought it at a shop for half the price, without paying postage, they were stoked with it, gave me great feedback and 5 stars for everything. I figured there must have been a good reason for her not to go out and buy it. Maybe mobility issues or even something like agoraphobia. Who knows?