make an offer

[wotused]

Abit frustrated when I found an item that had buy it now or make an offer.  The price was $39.99 buy it now. There were already 3 offers that had been declined, so thought Id make an offer, my first offer was $25 and declined, my second offer was $30 and declined so I thought gee what are they going to give.... so I thought I might as well offer $35 and AGAIN it was declined!!!! it was $4.99 off the buy it now price and they still didnt accept it....... Please explain.

[springyzone]

That might be one of the main problems with the make an offer system then.

When I see it, I just assume that it is an item a seller is willing to come down a little bit on. Some sellers only have one of the item in any case.

It would never have occurred to me it applied mainly to multiple purchases, although if a seller had multiples and I 'made an offer' for several at the same time, I would expect to be able to buy them all at the same price.

But make an offer when a seller has several of the items is a definite signal not to 'buy it now'. Why would anyone, when they know they could make a close offer and most likely get a dollar or two off?

I don't know if I would be that keen on it if I were a shop seller either.

[digital*ghost]

In some categories, the variation listing format can solve the problem of offering discounts for higher quantities, just by having different quantities as a variation, eg 1 for $5, 2 for $8, 10 for $35 etc (you can't use Best Offer on variation format listings, and you can't name the variation 'Quantity' because it's a default field name that's not removable, but I see a lot of listings like that and have used it that way myself). 

[tonalidesigns]

The other issue from a sellers point of view is that once you put "best offer" on an item and there have been sales (even if those sales occured BEFORE you put best offer on the item) you can't remove it without completely cancelling the item (and losing sales history).

We'd LOVE to be able to use it for a short term promo on some items (just to add a bit of fun to the business) but this isn't possible - yes, we can use the "sale" process, but that's not quite the same.

[tonalidesigns]

Digital - whilst you are correct,  there is a finite limit to the number of variations you can offer (I think it is 102 or something like that). If you have 17 colours and three sizes (which we have for many items) if you start adding quantity variations you are left with just 1 or 2.

It can also be confusing to buyers if quantity is a variation (as quantity is one of the default variations anyway). 

It's not simple which is why in the end we opted out of using best offer.

[nicole-n-daz]

Its up to the seller what they accept,it is there item until it is sold.

So if somebody does not accept it ,then bad luck.

I recently removed best offer from all the items in my store that the ebay system would allow,I was sick of people making silly offers

I have since made up for this by making everything free post.

And guess what ? The items that you can still make an offer on which have free post  am still getting ridiculous offers on.

This morning somebody offered me $30.00 for a PSP that i have have $95.00 on.

Too many buyers abue this system,so the easy way is to get rid of it.

[marjorysgal]

I am OK with sellers who at least decline the offer. Those who don't bother replying to any of 3 offers earn a place in my list of sellers I'll never buy from!

[davewil1964]

I'm sure we are all grateful for your thoughts, SEVEN years after the fact.

If you make 3 lowball offers, there's a fair chance you won't be able to buy from those sellers. So your outrage is probably misplaced. Maybe try making reasonable offers.