Buyers sending offers

[curly*gecko]

Thoughts on potential buyers sending through offers via a message, when you don't have Best Offer option in your listing. Do you reply politely or ignore?

[davewil1964 · Accepted solution]

I ignore

[enigmabear · Accepted solution]

Ignore

[the4masters2013 · Accepted solution]

Ignore.

I used to reply politely but have found they are tyre kickers and do nothing but waste my time.

I have eventually blocked a couple because they were so  ridiculous. Not to mention rude!!

[countessalmirena · Accepted solution]

[curraone · Accepted solution]

Well it depends - if they have offered a ridiculous amount I ignore them - but if they are in the ballpark I use the option in messages to "send an offer" and maybe give them an offer with a few (very few) dollars off.

Then if they are tyrekickers, I never hear from them again.

But sometimes it works out for a sale.

[chameleon54 · Accepted solution]

I dont mind reasonable offers. I price a lot of my stuff up pretty well and some of it is pretty rare but very expensive. I had an offer on an item last night. Offer was $250 on a $300 item. I sent them an acceptance offer at their price. Havnt checked to see if they went through with the purchase yet, but have had around half a dozen succesful sales in the last month or so at discounts of around 15% of asking price. Most of the unsolicited offers have been on similar items that have originally been priced fairly highly.

[chameleon54]

Just checked and the buyer purchased the item. It only owes me around $50, so a $250 bird in the hand is better than a $300 bird in the bush any day. 

[digital*ghost]

Save a polite reply to a word doc that you can copy / paste. Minimises effort, maintains good customer relations, and avoids the temptation to send a snarky reply.

eg

"Thanks for getting in touch and for your interest - unfortunately I'm not currently running any discounts or specials on my items, but if you'd like to be able to check in and be notified if I run a special in the future, you're welcome to follow me so that they'll appear on your home page". 

[brerrabbit585 · Accepted solution]

I basically don't want customers who think I owe them something. They're often the ones who complain when they get the item so they go on my blocked list and I don't waste my time replying.

I know ebay encourages them to "make an offer anyway" in the Q&A section when someone contacts a seller, but a lot of it still comes back to the buyer's attitude.

You don't have to use ebay for long before you learn that sellers are able to put 'make an offer' on their listings if they want to, so it's pretty obvious that most sellers who don't have that on their listings don't want offers.