how do you make an offer

[agia2692]

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?

[4channel]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

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.

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Why do you persist in talking about off ebay trading etc.?. It is obvious that I have been talking about  trading within eBay and the clever idea that the good-natured poster michellebartley suggested goes in with the offer process. Often I have done that  (talking about dialogue) when making an offer.

So you see this below.

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Increase your offer. You still have time to make another offer. You can also buy it now.

Your offer:

AU $

Please enter your offer.

Your offer expires in:

Add message to seller

Review offer

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[4channel]

Continued

Where it says Add message to seller you can write stuff like ....

"This is the best I can do"

or ..

.

"Hi, sorry but I'd like to inform you that this item normal sells for such and such".

Or as what michellebartley helpfully suggested, "Ask seller via a message to them what would be the minimum amount that they would accept for the item." . That goes in that field with a sensible but lower than asking price offer You may get lucky and seller will accept. or seller could come back and say .... "Least I can take will be" such and such.

Now what's just happened is that seller has interacted with you on a more human level. A better opening between you and seller now exists. You have a better chance at getting an item for less than the full Buy It Now price.

I haven't tried michellebartley's technique yet but I have been straight up with seller and said that this is best I can do with my offer. Actually, one seller, one of the very very few that wouldn't change shipping from GSP to USPS First Class Int. said that he understood that GSP was expensive and suggested I give him an offer via the process to offset shipping costs. It was sensible and it worked out OK. He was a nice guy too.

[*tippy*toes*]

The issue 4channel, with what the good natured, oh so awesome, never panics about a transaction, never accuses neighbours of stealing her parcels, michellebartley's suggestion, is while you and me and everyone here knows you are not trying to do an off eBay transactions, that doesn't stop the bots assuming that. Unless you word your messages a certain way, the bots think you are up to no good.

I got messaging suspended for 7 days because a buyer sent a message saying they wanted my item, they lived local, could they hit to buy and then pay me when they picked it up. Because they hadn't actually commited to buy at that point, the bots assumed we were trying to organise an off eBay transaction, even though neither of us were. I lost the sale.

The take home message is, you can't trust the bots. It doesn't matter how honest you are, or how good natured and wonderful you are (or people think you are), if the bots detect something that they see to be untoward, even if it's not, you're toast.

[cezm]

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@4channel wrote:

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.

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I would imagine that many sellers set up make an offer so they don't have to engage in chit chat with buyers and justify why they might or might not accept a certain price.

And whether or not a buyer has a lot of money shouldn't have to be the seller's concern. The buyer evidently has enough to be out shopping

[davewil1964]

Very true.

I'm unsure how the analogy of American Pickers applies. Mike and Frank interact DIRECTLY with their potential sellers, so a vocal interaction is not only possible, but also required. And they walk away if the price is too high. They don't insult the seller with continued low-ball offers. The advantage of being able to read the audience directly, rather than through a keyboard.

Interacting with somebody through a keyboard is neither vocal nor, probably, welcome. It is unlikely to generate any rapport, unless the buyer and seller have multiple interactions.

I have buyers who know I will do them deals, based on their previous purchases from me. Blow-ins certainly don't get the same consideration.

[4channel]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

The issue 4channel, with what the good natured, oh so awesome, never panics about a transaction, never accuses neighbours of stealing her parcels, michellebartley's suggestion, is while you and me and everyone here knows you are not trying to do an off eBay transactions, that doesn't stop the bots assuming that. Unless you word your messages a certain way, the bots think you are up to no good.

I got messaging suspended for 7 days because a buyer sent a message saying they wanted my item, they lived local, could they hit to buy and then pay me when they picked it up. Because they hadn't actually commited to buy at that point, the bots assumed we were trying to organise an off eBay transaction, even though neither of us were. I lost the sale.

The take home message is, you can't trust the bots. It doesn't matter how honest you are, or how good natured and wonderful you are (or people think you are), if the bots detect something that they see to be untoward, even if it's not, you're toast.

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Ok that person that I call good natured may have panicked or overreacted on occasion. But that doesn't mean she isn't good natured or polite. She is quite well liked by a few of us here. I have had situations where I have assumed the very worst when waiting for a parcel but hanging on for a few days more and taking a deep breath usually works and the item arrives safe'n sound. Anyway, this forum has many examples of folks panicking and going off like a bull-at-a-gate.

Anyway, I can appreciate what you say in your post and I hear what you say. Obviously an annoying thing for you to get suspended because of an overly keen buyer.,  Anyway, we're talking about only having dialogue through that message box that is only available through the "Make an offer" process.   Yeah, well, I suppose that the bots could be overly active and pick up on a key but innocent word via that process as well.

[4channel]

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@cezm wrote:

I would imagine that many sellers set up make an offer so they don't have to engage in chit chat with buyers and justify why they might or might not accept a certain price.

And whether or not a buyer has a lot of money shouldn't have to be the seller's concern. The buyer evidently has enough to be out shopping

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Well, you'd be right with some sellers. Yeah, I can see that being the case.  I have had replies from sellers when making offers. Sometimes I never noticed them until I went back to check my offer history. Some of them amount ... "Try with a better one mate".

One seller  who had an item I made an offer on wanted $250 for an item which normally sells for on average $20 and in mint cond. no more than $40.  He / she replied to me with "I've sold it for $200 before. I am tempted to tell him that if this is the case, the buyer will be mighty riled up when he realizes that he was led down the garden path to the fleecing shed.. I wouldn't mind the item and there are other examples on another site which I will end up getting.  Howwever they are overseas. I only tried to deal with this seller because he's / she's local to save on shipping. Anyway, I've seen some beauties in my time lol.

Having worked in various sales-related and direct sales roles, I have been able to get a bit of an insight into some things. I know that time is a factor as well as a quick turn over on some items is a nailer.  As it was with the seller that wouldn't sell outside GSP (one of the very few), our dialogue worked and he admitted GSP was too expensive and said he was happy to take a lower offer to off-set the cost of shipping. Great guy!

A lot of people are out for a bargain and a good seller knows that. They'll also know that a buyer can happily hop on to the next seller in a flash.

[lyndal1838]

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@4channel wrote:

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  Anyway, we're talking about only having dialogue through that message box that is only available through the "Make an offer" process.   Yeah, well, I suppose that the bots could be overly active and pick up on a key but innocent word via that process as well.

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When I first posted the warning about offers being misconstrued there was no mention of using the message box in the Make an Offer function.....just the advice to message the seller.

While messaging through the Offer function may be marginally safer I would still be dubious after seeing how ebay works in these situations.