changes to best offer

[windy01]

I list all my sale items on a buy it now or best office basis. Recently there have been changes whereby buyers can choose how long a seller has to accept / reject their best offer. These time limits are down to 12 hours. Thus, unless I, as a seller, access my site say every 11 hours or so, I risk losing potential best offers. Thus, effectively I have to be available 24 hours a day every day. Gone are the days when I can access my computer every 24 hours or so and respond to any best offers. Now potential buyers call the tune. I can't even take Sundays off without risking loss of sales. For me, as a part time but long established successful seller , this is totally unacceptable. What do you think??????. The old system of 48 hours both ways worked well . I want a life outside of ebay and I simply cannot have that under these new changes.   Cheers,......Bob

[curraone]

Ignoring the question of whether you should have a smart phone or not - and twice as irrelevant as the OP says he wants time away from ebay every day and ignoring the fact that I think smart phones are an abomination, lol

I think the best advice is from tippy - you need to work through your listings and put in the automatic acceptance options and then you don't have to worry.

[brerrabbit585]

I think if a seller missed out on the odd sale because of the shorter time limit, they'd probably more than make up for it by getting a lot more offers than before. Many buyers (including me) won't bother making an offer if they think they have to wait well over a day for an answer.

I think if a seller doesn't want to set listings up to auto accept and would prefer to haggle, they have to accept that they need to make themselves more available to do just that. You don't have a market stall with a big sign up saying "make me an offer" and then tell your potential buyer to come back several hours later when you've had a chance to think about it, or you don't wander off for hours at a time looking at other people's stalls during peak time.

I'm not saying a seller should have to be online 24/7, but I don't think checking twice a day (less than 12 hours apart) on most days is unreasonable. If they checked 13 hours apart I doubt they'd miss too many offers in that one-hour time frame. The same applies to taking a whole day off - you have to choose which is most important, a life or getting sales.

I'm not interested in being tied to ebay so much that I'd feel the need for a smart phone. I used to go away for 8 days once a year and the best thing about it was having no computer access at all.

[eol-products]

ZTE ZIP locked to Optus for $15 at the Post office. 

[springyzone]

I can relate to your post.

Like you, I think checking out a computer twice a day is reasonable. In fact, I would go further. I would say that compared to some other sales sites such as facebook, it is absolute bliss.

Now, I am the lucky owner of a *smart* phone. Gift, courtesy of my son. Before that, it was a flip phone. I rarely use either but was totally unnerved a couple of years back when I listed some free tanbark on gumtree. The flip phone dinged non stop with messages.

You can place ads on there that barely get a look and you'd think the site is dead but believe me, offer something for nothing and it is busier than Burke Street.  The constant messages drove me mad though.

So I can fully understand windy doesn't want to feel under siege. 

Best way to avoid that is the auto accept/decline and selling via ebay. It may mean popping on the internet once or twice a day but compared to some of the other sales sites, it's heaven as you can pick your time to go online in peace and quiet instead of being pestered every 10 minutes with texts and phone calls.

[windy01]

Thanks for the suggestion but in my case this simply does not work. I sell secondhand rare and uncommon books. In so many cases there is not a defined price for these items and I put on an asking price based on my extensive experience in the book trade. Buyers can then accept my judgement or make their own . Thus I can then review individual offers and have a further look at the market, before deciding whether to accept or reject....and , quite franky, it is very subjective. Sometimes if a book has been listed for some time....maybe a year or two or even more.....I will accept what appears to be a ridiculous offer. My extensive holding of these quality titles has been formed over many years and, considering the number of listings I have, I sell relatively few. Probably my average title would stay on site for well over twelve months before the 'right' buyer notices it....and I'm sure they can wait 48 hours for my decision. By the way, I do normally respond to offers very promptly and few buyers now wait more that a day for my decision

[curraone]

Right - well on the few offers you miss because they selected 12 hours or less,  wouldn't it be okay to message them explaining you were away and  give a counteroffer?

[windy01]

Thanks for your considered response. Please refer to my reply to 'tippy toes' suggestion.

This auto response idea is simply not the answer in the field of collectibles or otherwise elusive items. Price is subjective and any offers I get for my items have to be viewed against whatever relevant information I have at the time.

Maybe I am a relic from a more leisurely time but I have always put my customers first and respected their wishes. Nearly always they get an answer from me the same day but , quite frankly, I do have a life away from ebay and not wish to be tied constantly to my laptop. By the way, I also buy extensively on ebay to improve my stamp collection. I have no problem in waiting a day or two for a seller to consider any offer I place for a listed item since I know the item  is uncommon and I know he is forgoing ' profit' in even considering my offer......but that is what the field of collectibles demands

[brerrabbit585]

If they're rare items and the buyers put a time limit of 12 hours then perhaps they aren't all that interested and wouldn't buy anyway. I'd imagine if they were really keen they'd be prepared to wait longer for a reply. I think 2 days is probably a bit too long but waiting a bit over 24 hours shouldn't be a problem, especially in your case.

If you don't get a lot of offers then it should only take a couple of minutes to check say on Saturday night and then again on Monday morning. I'm not an expert on how offers work but surely if their offer expires before you get a chance to see it then they can make another one if they're really interested.

[springyzone]

It helps a lot to know what field you sell in.

With collectables, I do think it is slightly different, in that most collectors, you would think, would be quite prepared to wait 24 hours for a response because if it is a rare item, they are not likely to have another 2 or 3 lined up.

Mind you, if they really want the item, waiting for that period might make them feel a bit nervous that someone will nip in and pay the full asking price in the meantime. But in your case, that isn't a negative aspect.

Since you answer within the 24 hours, that should be fine. I do still think 2 days would be a tad too long. As someone else said though, if you do miss seeing someone's offer in time, you're selling in the perfect field where you can still respond. If someone is genuine, you'd think they would be willing to stand by their offer, whether it is 12 hours later or 24.