Juggling offers / counteroffers / messages

[kitty-kat-kollection]

So, there's a buyer who firstly offered $15 for an item I had listed for $30. I counteroffered $25. They counteroffered $18. I felt annoyed so ignored that.

Then the next day I received a message from the buyer saying they would pay $20 and could I send an invoice.

SIGH. Firstly, I didn't want to accept $20 and secondly, I couldn't send an invoice for an item the person hadn't bought or even submitted an offer (that I accepted) yet!

I did not respond for a few hours as...you know...I was annoyed and my brain didn't want to bother with this.

The buyer messaged again, and seemed annoyed that I had not sent them an invoice yet. I replied, advising that I cannot issue an invoice for an un-purchased item.

They then messaged again, saying they could not submit another offer as their offers had expired so they could only buy the item via message.

I said I cannot process a sale via message.

They then asked me to make a time / date to alter my listing price down to $20, and they would buy it.

For goodness sake. I never even said I'd accept $20 in the first place, and if it's this much trouble to BUY the item, are they going to be difficult later, lodging the infamous "item not as described" claim just because they can?

Ugh.

[springyzone]

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@kitty-kat-kollection wrote:
Oh, and on some items I lower my price, but mostly I'm loathe to do so as many times a buyer will pay the listed price, or make an offer close to it. So I don't want to lower my prices to match the lowball offer buyers.

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I don't know all the ins and outs of selling any more (but I still like to read this board )

But I was under the impression that sellers could set auto accept/reject amounts on ads where best offer was available.

Occasionally I see ads that have best offer and like someone else said earlier, it does signal to me as a buyer that the price is probably slightly negotiable.

If I am interested in buying that item, then I will make an offer.

Now I usually try to make an offer that I think will be somewhere in the ballpark and what i really appreciate, as a consumer, is the ads that obviously have an auto decline/accept amount and where I get an immediate answer. Doesn't matter if the answer is yes or no, the point is I know straight away. I can then either reconsider and make a higher offer or i can walk away if the answer is no. If it is yes, then i can pay straight away and don't have to spend any time hanging around waiting to find out if I have got it or not.

The main reason I hate waiting is if it is something I am after, then waiting for a reply means i can't look elsewhere.

I have often assumed (perhaps wrongly) that if I don't get an instant reply, that my offer might be that no man's land amount, maybe not quite what the seller is after but not clearly out either, so they will look at it manually. The biggest turn off of all is making an offer and never receiving any reply, ever, either way. That has happened to me a couple of times in recent months.

So, as far as your items go, I can't see any harm in having make an offer available on your ads. It certainly would not turn me off as a buyer. But I think you could save yourself a lot of work (and the hassle of having to negotiate too much with low ball offers etc) if you had an auto reject amount built in. If possible. 

[curraone]

I agree - if I use best offer I will always put in the auto-decline option - mainly because there are many numpties out there that think it's okay to offer a price less than 50% of your price.     Saves a lot of angst, because I don't have to know about them.

[kitty-kat-kollection]

Excellent idea!!! I was aware I could set that up, but I actually haven't ever had so many REALLY low offers, or strange people, before the last 10 days or so, so I never bothered to set it up.

[shoppingbag*]

I would only send ONE counteroffer, and state that it is the lowest you will accept, then ignore further counteroffers if they send them. Or consider just making it a set BIN price, and lowering the prices yourself if the items don't sell in a certain amount of time.

[*tippy*toes*]

KKK, you are obviously using the mobile site to access the forums. Please state who you are replying to, because all your replies show you as replying to yourself, which is what happens when you use the mobile site. It makes it difficult to know who you are replying to.

[chameleon54]

Just block them and move on........If some-one makes silly offers I just cant be bothered dealing with them, and yes they are much more likely to be pedantic about other aspects of the sale. I dont respond to their messages, I just block them......Makes them a bit annoyed sometimes though

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