topic Re: offers but no best offer in Selling

offers but no best offer

m.e.h.1988 — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 11:02:33 GMT

Hi guys

I have had an increasing amount of messages of ridiculous offers on my items, & i dont have a best offer option on my items, just buy it now.

The last one I had was an offer of 50% of my buy it now price. Its just time wasting and annoying

Anyone else experiencing the same thing?

Re: offers but no best offer

thecatspjs — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 11:14:14 GMT

My advice is to ignore them, or as I do counter offer the listed price or a tad lower if you are willing to discount.

If you like you can add those buyers to your block list, as some sellers do.

eBay is a marketplace with all kinds of buyers and sellers, including those that message with offers far below listed price, you don't have to sell to them if you do not want to, so nothing as far as I can tell, to be concerned about.

Re: offers but no best offer

davewil1964 — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 11:14:25 GMT

No. But if I did I would be reporting the perpetrator. It is expressly against policy for a potential buyer to make an offer if make an offer is not offered.

Re: offers but no best offer

zelly888 — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 11:21:35 GMT

It is very annoying,I have also been offered 50% off BIN prices even though I haven't offered (or best offer)

Re: offers but no best offer

m.e.h.1988 — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 12:04:03 GMT

Are you sure it is against policy? Can i report them?

Re: offers but no best offer

davewil1964 — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 12:07:14 GMT

Yes. Yes. Read the site map.

Re: offers but no best offer

curraone — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 19:43:51 GMT

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/buy/best-offer.html

“If the Make Offer button does not appear in the listing, the seller is not interested in receiving offers and you should not try to contact this seller to negotiate price or terms. Doing so violates our offers to buy or sell outside eBay policy.”

Re: offers but no best offer

thecatspjs — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:37:07 GMT

I have had some brilliant offers made by buyers seeking to purchase several items from me at once, so I am happy to receive offers - I ignore those that are ridiculously low (which is one or two a year across IDs) and consider all others (which is at least one every other week on all IDs).

The buyers making the offers are not seeking to trade off ebay, so how the offers to buy or sell outside eBay policy would even apply in this situation is unclear to me.

Re: offers but no best offer

davewil1964 — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:11:00 GMT

It seems to be because eBay have deemed unsolicited offers to be attempts to deal off-eBay.

As curraone's post clearly shows.

Re: offers but no best offer

thecatspjs — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:54:53 GMT

I don't "read" the policy that way at all. The specific points identified in the actual policy don't either IMO.

If a buyer proposes a price on the basis the sale is facilitated through eBay I still can't see how the policy has any relevance.

Saying it just does, does not make it so.

Re: offers but no best offer

davewil1964 — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 12:00:33 GMT

Can't see a lot of grey in that statement.

I'm not a lawyer, though.

Re: offers but no best offer

thecatspjs — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 12:43:54 GMT

lol its kinda of like quoting the removal of negative feedback for sellers without putting the fineprint Davewil

The actual policy detail also states the following:

Offers to buy or sell listed items outside of the eBay site are not permitted. Offers of this nature are a potential fraud risk for both buyers and sellers and circumvent eBay's fees. If you receive any spam (unsolicited commercial messages) through email or Skype that includes offers to buy or sell outside eBay, please report this using the appropriate link in the "Additional Information" section below.

Some examples of offers outside of the eBay site include:

Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay system to offer to sell any listed item outside of eBay
Canceling a listing to sell to a buyer who became aware of the item through eBay
Ending a listing early to sell the item at a higher price to the winning bidder
Offering to sell an item to a bidder in a Reserve Not Met listing without going through Second Chance Offer
Offering to sell duplicate or additional merchandise to under-bidders without going through Second Chance Offer
Sending unsolicited (without prior permission) commercial email offers to bidders for the same or similar products that they have bid on in the past

Also note that the policy outlines the following - that could only be the result of the buyer or seller proposing "an offer"

It is acceptable for sellers to end a listing early in order to sell an item at the current bid price to the high bidder. Bidders are permitted to contact sellers with requests to end a listing early and sell at the current bid price; however, sellers are under no obligation to honour the request.

Interesting paradigm presented in some posts .... lol

Re: offers but no best offer

davewil1964 — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 12:51:50 GMT

The fine print is irrelevant.

eBay have stated that making an offer to a seller when they don't offer it is considered to be in breach of the policy.

Rightly or wrongly. Which part of 'Doing so violates' presents the confusion?

Re: offers but no best offer

thecatspjs — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 13:14:23 GMT

We do not agree then.

I think the policys stated purpose is to prevent fee circumvention and to prevent trading outside of ebays "safe environment" is what is most relevant. I doubt eBay would sanction a buyer for asking a question that is clearly about trading on eBay with a seller, such as if I buy two will you discount post etc etc

I am happy to continue to communicate with buyers - about price, about quantity and about combined post discounts etc etc - all sales occuring within the confines of ebay.