topic Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success in Selling

Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

whoisbiggles — Thu, 23 May 2019 23:34:10 GMT

Is anyone willing to share their levels of success with using the "send offers to buyers" feature?

I'm currently at 0 sales from 22 offers sent.

I usually knock 10 - 15% off the BIN price. Still no interest from the watchers.

Funny thing is 6 of the items I sent offers to, have since sold at full price.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

gumardee_coins_and_banknotes — Thu, 23 May 2019 23:55:24 GMT

I have no interest in using it.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

unique_pre-driven — Fri, 24 May 2019 01:09:33 GMT

I find it very annoying

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

kopenhagen5 — Fri, 24 May 2019 02:05:33 GMT

Watchers are often other seller seeing what yours sells for.

Or often used as a christmas wish list.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

lyndal1838 — Fri, 24 May 2019 03:10:52 GMT

As a buyer I have had several sellers send offers to me.

I have not been able to take advantage of any of the offers as I have no funds available at the moment for anything but very necessary purchases.

Several of the items were Christmas decorations....the offers would have been very welcome nearer to the appropriate time but certainly did not come under the heading of necessary purchases.

Several of the offer amounts were laughable....a 50cent discount on a $25 item.....also a 50cent discount on a $15.99 pair of hand knitted gloves. To me, discounts like that are a waste of time.....it needs to be at least 5% but preferably 10%.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

lm-entertainment — Fri, 24 May 2019 03:35:53 GMT

i tried it for the first time the other day after hesitating for a long time. no joy.

will stick to not sending offers, because as a buyer; i'd hate to be bombarded for unsolicited offers. if i wanted to buy the item, i would just go to my watch list and purchase it.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

eol-products — Fri, 24 May 2019 03:42:28 GMT

Yes I had success on another account with a sale the day after the offers I sent out expired. Bit like when someone sends you a low offer and you reply with slightly more and they never respond then the item sells the following week for full price.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

brerrabbit585 — Fri, 24 May 2019 04:19:06 GMT

Not replying to anyone in particular...

If you reduce the price ebay will most likely send an email to any watchers telling them of the price reduction. A friend of mine decided to use that and try to get some interest but it was a waste of time.

I reckon if something's going to sell, it'll sell, and if it ain't going to sell, it ain't - at least not until it's ready to. My experience is that all the tweaking in the world is just a waste of time, or most of it is. I just have to wait until ebay gives me my turn at sales.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

whoisbiggles — Fri, 24 May 2019 05:19:42 GMT

Thank you all for sharing your experiences.

Feel I have given this feature a fair go - will stop bothering will it for the time being.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

kitty-kat-kollection — Fri, 24 May 2019 05:55:36 GMT

I've sent out 12 offers I think. 1 sale came of that. I don't really like using it, as it could annoy the buyers.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

justcruising49 — Fri, 24 May 2019 09:47:07 GMT

I have found it a waste of time. It needs to be at least 5% off the price, but if someone is just watching and not buying, any offer is not going to do anything. Reply with offer seems to work a lot of times if someone asks a question as they are at least a bit interested anyway.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Fri, 24 May 2019 10:00:35 GMT

Recently received an offer of $100.00 for an item we had listed at $225.00.

Countered with $224.99 and needless to say that got our message accross and never heard back

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

springyzone — Fri, 24 May 2019 21:13:41 GMT

No one has ever sent me an offer. I'm a buyer and I'd say that 90% of the items on my watched list are things I'd consider buying but like lyndal, I think 50c off wouldn't sway me, 5-10% off might.

There's not one doubt in my mind that sales work. There's a company I know of (and that you have probably heard of too) that sells cooking machines at $2089. That price never varies (except upwards). But recently they announced a new model was coming out in about June-July so the present stock is being sold at the equivalent of $650 off. The consultants are currently being swept off their feet. People who were seriously considering one but were put off by the cost are all jumping in now. The sales levels have gone through the roof since the sale started.

I think the key things are that the customer has to be seriously interested in the first place, the discount has to be enough to tempt them and they have to know there is a time limit on the offer. It also helps a lot when they know that the sales price is a genuine discount and not like some shops where there is always some sale or other going on.

With watchers on ebay, you can't know that they are seriously interested. Maybe they once were but haven't cleaned out their watch list, maybe they are just watching to see how an item does (as i am in a couple of cases).

But I have no doubt a sales offer would tempt me on some things, push me over the line.

A seller though needs to think of their own needs and what they need to get for an item. No use practically giving it away just to please buyers. If they have a glut of something or want to clear the line, by all means a mark down might work. Otherwise, stick to your price.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

purplemon18 — Sat, 25 May 2019 09:35:09 GMT

I have had a few sales recently after increasing my price. Although they are usually new listings that have had a lot of views, so they are likely to sell.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

brerrabbit585 — Sat, 25 May 2019 12:16:16 GMT

I've sometimes wondered whether people buy in case you put it up a second time. Maybe it's time I put some prices up again.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

*tippy*toes* — Sun, 26 May 2019 11:33:54 GMT

A lot of sellers keep reducing their prices until something sells. I do the opposite. If it hasn't sold after X amount of time, I increase the price. Sometimes it's by a few dollars, other times it's only by 50c. Seems to work. My stuff is more likely to sell after I increase the price rather than reduce it.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

justcruising49 — Sun, 26 May 2019 11:50:03 GMT

Can I change my mind. Got reinterested after this thread, too much was not selling, so sent off some offers. Well it worked for 2 items, tho must admit it was a repeat customer. I was lucky for this time anyway

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

chameleon54 — Mon, 27 May 2019 01:33:27 GMT

With rare collectable items, I quite often give them a run as a 3 day auction and price them up pretty well. Occasionally I jag some-one who is willing to pay. If that doesnt work I relist several days later as a BIN at the same price. This often draws out some-one who saw the auction, didnt buy, thought they missed out and they then snap it up whern it comes back onto the matket a few days later. The other effect of this stratedgy is that it picks up potential buyers who only search auctions.

If all of that fails I leave the item at the high BIN price for perhaps a month. Once I get perhaps 8-10 watchers but no sale, I then reduce the price by around a third to a more realistic price, relying on ebays notification to watchers of the price reduction. This regularly draws buyers out within hours of reducing the price. It all works very well and quite often jags the higher price.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

matm_au_9nh1m9 — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 02:08:26 GMT

Yes. I actually lost a watcher on an item after sending out offers. Like you said it can annoy buyers. I ended up selling it for full price a couple of weeks later. The few times I've tried offers I've had no takers. The best approach is just to be patient and not price it way over the current market rate.

Re: Send Offer to Buyers - Any Success

springyzone — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 02:38:50 GMT

I'll put my hand up and say I have occasionally bought after a seller has sent an offer on an item I am watching.

I don't know why it would annoy anyone. All I can think of is maybe they thought that you, the seller, could see their ID because you had sent a personal message to them.

My understanding is you're sending out the messages to anonymous watchers but many buyers may not realise that and it may give them a jolt and they may remove the item from the watched list so you can't 'see' them.

The other reason is it may focus their attention back on the item and they may decide that after all, they really don't want it any more so may as well remove it from the list. I've often got stuff in my watched item list that I haven't othered deleting and it is still there monthys later till I get around to it.

Or it could be like me. I got an offer on an item and was almost going to click and buy but an ad underneath my watched list showed same item cheaper with another seller, whose feedback I looked up and found they were drop shipping from Amazon so I looked at Amazon and wowee, the item was there at $20 cheaper than anything on ebay. So that offer sent to me could well have resulted in a sale, just not to the seller who originally made the offer. As it was, I won't be buying that item at all, the amazon reviews were very detailed and turned me off.

Bottom line-keep making occasional offers, some people will buy eventually. It won't work on everyone but on some of us it will.