eBay "Make Offer" Sneakiness!

[tazzieterror]

Here's something sneaky from eBay.  I was using "Make Offer" for a small BIN item listed at $10.  I wanted to offer $7 so typed '7' in the "Your offer:" box, but before clicking the  "Review offer" button, a little text "tip" appeared underneath, saying,

Increase your offer

The seller will be more likely to respond if your offer is around AU $7.50

I found this a little amusing - how can eBay judge the likelihood of the seller responding?

I submitted my $7 offer, and of course it was accepted straight away and automatically!  The seller has set the minimum they'll accept for the item, eBay's system knows my $7 is high enough already and will be accepted, but "encourages" me to go with a higher offer anyway!

Great for sellers, but dishonest and misleading to buyers.

[brerrabbit585]

Ah, but was it really the seller who decided they'd accept $7 for the item, or did ebay do that without the seller's permission or knowledge, as they have on so many other listings?

[marwi_3023]

If ebay is automatically accepting offers on sellers behalf how come both my ten dollar and twelve dollar offers on a ten dollar item both expired

[countessalmirena]

eBay is relisting some sellers' sold items. No one here has worked what metrics or scripts are used to generate this behaviour. It's apparently inconsistent and random.

eBay is enabling Best Offer on some sellers' listed items (when the seller didn't enable it). Again, no one here has worked what metrics or scripts are used to generate this behaviour. It's apparently inconsistent and random.

eBay is furthermore enabling auto-acceptance of Best Offer at less than 50% of the sellers' prices, on some sellers' items (where the seller listed without enabling Best Offers). This is the most outrageous of these three behaviours. No one here has worked what metrics or scripts are used to generate this behaviour. It's apparently inconsistent and random.

Any buyer making offers in this climate ought to be aware that their "purchase" is potentially unlawful and may not proceed, as eBay are – in my opinion – breaching Australian consumer legislation with that third bit of fiddling.

[marwi_3023]

Okay, so I can't make any purchases on ebay then?

[springyzone]

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@marwi_3023 wrote:
Okay, so I can't make any purchases on ebay then?

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Of course you can.

Most items are buy it now in any case.

If Make an offer is showing, you can still make any offer you like, but there is no guarantee a seller will accept it.

I was a bit surprised actually when Tazzieterror said a $7 offer on a $10 item was accepted. My own experience has been pretty different with most offers having to be within about 10% to be accepted.

But you can certainly make an offer then make a couple of higher ones if the first isn't accepted.

or you can elect to pay full price and you should be pretty right if you are buying within Australia. Most Australian sellers these days are fairly reliable.

[marwi_3023]

My first offer was full price and my second was two dollars more.
Item is ten dollars.
I know that they don't have to accept any offer.
I have a selling account since 2005

[marwi_3023]

I thought that the seller might like to sell the item without having to wait until the auction time ends.
I will bid in the last two seconds and maybe I will get it for ten dollars maybe a hundred. Will just have to wait

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@marwi_3023 wrote:
I thought that the seller might like to sell the item without having to wait until the auction time ends.
I will bid in the last two seconds and maybe I will get it for ten dollars maybe a hundred. Will just have to wait

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so were you making an offer on an auction item. If the start item price is $10 then I am not surprised the seller didn't accept $10 offer, or $12 offer.

Even by your reasoning the item might get to a hundred, so why would you think the seller would accept $12?

[davewil1964]

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@marwi_3023 wrote:
I thought that the seller might like to sell the item without having to wait until the auction time ends.
I will bid in the last two seconds and maybe I will get it for ten dollars maybe a hundred. Will just have to wait

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I think that if the seller wanted to sell it for $10 or $12 they would have BIN'd it at that, not started an auction. Besides, this is a totally different scenario to the one the OP is describing.

If you've been a seller since 2005, how do you handle unsolicited offers, for a fraction of the probable price?