Best Offer

[kevinmaxwell2007]

Hi there. I am sick of sellers who give this option of Best Offer. Give them an offer of $5 less of there price and they return by saying $1 or $2 off the price. If you suggest $5 off the price the seller thinks your trying to rip them off. What is the point of sellers asking for Best offer if you are only going to save $1 or $2 dollars. Maybe ebay should ban this option from the sellers. To me its a waste of Buyers time going to and fro to the seller only to save a few dollars in the end. Any sellers out there GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER.

[davewil1964]

That would depend entirely on the initial value of the item.

$5 might be acceptable on a $50 item, but it would not necessarily be so for a $10 item. You could always pay the BIN price.

I don't do best offer on many listings, and those I do usually have auto-accept and decline levels set. But that is MY choice as a seller.

[lane-ends]

Some buyers wont buy things unless they can get a discount even if its only a dollar.

[horizon1907]

Just out of interest. How much was the item ? 

[digital*ghost]

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@kevinmaxwell2007 wrote:

Hi there. I am sick of sellers who give this option of Best Offer. Give them an offer of $5 less of there price and they return by saying $1 or $2 off the price. If you suggest $5 off the price the seller thinks your trying to rip them off. What is the point of sellers asking for Best offer if you are only going to save $1 or $2 dollars. Maybe ebay should ban this option from the sellers. To me its a waste of Buyers time going to and fro to the seller only to save a few dollars in the end. Any sellers out there GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER.

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You can't really second-guess the reason why a seller uses the best offer function, it's not all about giving the buyer what the buyer thinks is a good discount on a single purchase.

Without any more information in your post to base an informed reply, I can only point out a couple of things..

Some sellers definitely do waste time with the Best Offer function, some also misunderstand its purpose and wait for offers higher than the BIN price

On the other hand, some sellers use it with very specific intentions, such as discounts for multiple item purchases, and they will not even entertain 50c off if someone is only buying one thing.

[springyzone]

You can't really second-guess the reason why a seller uses the best offer function, it's not all about giving the buyer what the buyer thinks is a good discount on a single purchase.

Without any more information in your post to base an informed reply, I can only point out a couple of things..

Some sellers definitely do waste time with the Best Offer function, some also misunderstand its purpose and wait for offers higher than the BIN price

On the other hand, some sellers use it with very specific intentions, such as discounts for multiple item purchases, and they will not even entertain 50c off if someone is only buying one thing.

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I had to laugh at the bit about some sellers waiting for a better price.

You have to wonder why on earth they would think  a buyer would offer more than the price they can buy it now at.

As a buyer, my understanding of it, when i first saw it offered was that if I wanted it, I could pay the full price there and then with BIN.

That way I definitely would get it.

But I could make a 'best offer'. To me it was obvious the best offer would be lower than BIN and may or may not be accepted and someone else, in the meantime, could jump in and BIN or make a better offer.

At no time did I assume it meant I could only make an offer for multiple items-that never crossed my mind.

I take the point that some sellers may see it that way, just saying that isn't the impression I would guess that most buyers have.

But what it comes down to is a seller can knock back any offer anyway.

Have to say though that in the rare cases where I have made offers, they have all been in single items and all have been accepted, but I usually offer close to the asking price, with perhaps a 5% discount.

[judyztreasurez]

It depends on the original price of the item. $5 off say $20 is 25%. $5 off $10 is 50%. What was the original price of the item?

[digital*ghost]

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@springyzone wrote:

I had to laugh at the bit about some sellers waiting for a better price.

You have to wonder why on earth they would think  a buyer would offer more than the price they can buy it now at.

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It's rather an anomaly, but it is possible to submit offers higher than the BIN price, and I think some sellers see it as similar to the auction process where at the end, they'll take the best (highest) offer they got above the BIN price. On the flip side, there's also the odd buyer who believes a seller is bound to accept the best offer they received by the time the listing ends (eg offer $5 on a $100 item, and if it doesn't sell or no one else makes an offer, they get it for $5). 

I do agree that simply having Best Offer creates an immediate impression and expectation, that being the seller is prepared to accept less than the BIN price, without any other conditional factors. Sellers have to be a little careful how they word any clarifying information, as words like "offer" in a description are known to be a bit volatile as far as the 'policy violation seeking bots' go (i.e. it has in the past triggered a violation for attempting to sell off eBay, even though it was plain to see the seller is referencing the fact that they've implemented the Best Offer function). 

Hopefully, the ability to provide price discounts currently being trialled will be expanded and rolled out, so sellers can set up discounts for multiple purchases without trying to use best offer for it. 

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@kevinmaxwell2007 wrote:

Hi there. I am sick of sellers who give this option of Best Offer. Give them an offer of $5 less of there price and they return by saying $1 or $2 off the price. If you suggest $5 off the price the seller thinks your trying to rip them off. What is the point of sellers asking for Best offer if you are only going to save $1 or $2 dollars. Maybe ebay should ban this option from the sellers. To me its a waste of Buyers time going to and fro to the seller only to save a few dollars in the end. Any sellers out there GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER.

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at the risk of being accused of pointing out the blooming obvious . . . . . this is the "selling" forum . . . . . there are plenty of sellers that come here and read threads . . . . . and I have yet to hear from one that LIKES BEING SHOUTED AT!  Dump the CAPS please, on internet forums it is considered to be the same as SHOUTING!

Now, as to the rest of your post, some sellers may put Best-Offer onto their Buy-It-Now items to attract traffic to their item.  They may have no intention of selling below the Buy-Now price, but eBay let them do this.  If it annoys you so much then make a note of the seller's ID and never look at those sellers items ever again.  As a buyer, you can do that.

There is a website that you can visit where you put in the seller's eBay ID and it will give you some stats on the seller's Best-Offer history including how much below the B-I-N price they have accepted on items.  I would go to the trouble of finding the web address and posting it here . . . . but I am a seller that doesn't like being shouted at so I leave it at letting you know such a site exists.

[imastawka]

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