Experiences with eBay Best Offer

[masschamber]

1 hour ago, McCarseat said:

what frustrates me is when I make an offer on a handful of items from one seller. All maybe 5-10% lower under their asking price, and they decline...no counter offer...nothing.

 

Why have Best Offer as an option if you are gonna do that type of thing?

 

 

sometimes ebay adds it without the sellers permission

[TrekMD]

I've had a mixed experience with this as a buyer.  I sometimes get good counteroffers or the sellers accept my offer.

[Guest]

On 3/8/2020 at 3:04 AM, RockyRaccoon said:

Pretty much my reason for never making an offer. While I assume I'd never make an insane low ball offer- I feel like some people take asking for less as a slap in the face sometimes.

I basically work out what I feel something is worth. Then I know what I want to pay.

 

When there is an offer option, I'll go 10 maybe 12% lower, no more

than the price. I know the person will go someway down but I know you're likely to get a negative reaction if you go lower. Also they tend to hold back feedback on you if you got a really good deal.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, TrekMD said:

I've had a mixed experience with this as a buyer.  I sometimes get good counteroffers or the sellers accept my offer.

Then I take it, like me, you tend to play fair in the max 10-12% lower range and don't go too far. This is what I get mostly. Unless I am dealing with someone who thinks something is worth FAR more than it is.

On occasion I've put in an offer well over the starting price:

Say the book start is 10£

I go in for £20 because I really want it.

It is a second hand book afterall. Anyway guy rejects, I put £22 guy rejects. Anyway, I've bookmarked BUT NOT watched it, I write down when to check say 10 mins before end time on a post it note and stick it on the reverse of my laptop.

I come in at 10 minutes and watch. At the end, just like 1 minute before I put in my best (max) bid, £24. I DON'T confirm the bid. This means that I can just click 'Confirm Bid', 5 seconds before.

Even if the guy is shilling, unless he's on top of his game, if there isn't a bid near my top offer, I usually get it. And. I usually get it for around £12.80 in that case.

Sometimes I've put in brilliant offers only to decide not to bid and get into a war. I then find it went for a much much lower price than I offered. Well that's how it goes.

 

Occasionally I message that seller just to remind them of my good offer.

Edited March 25, 2020 by Guest
Bid not Offer

[+GoldenWheels]

On 3/13/2020 at 4:17 PM, Shawn said:

A couple times I've had sellers send me best offers on items I'm watching. I've ended up with a couple really good deals that way. I got an item listed at $50 for only $30 just yesterday in this manor.

I mean...this. I don't even like to admit it but this is my new jam. Just watch stuff that is BO. Many sellers will send YOU offers. And they often cut deeper than I might even think to offer. It happens to me pretty frequently (but again I watch a LOT of BO listings).

 

(It does seem a "new" thing to me as I watched LOTS of things on "best offer" for years, and never got an offer, so afaik this is kinda new this year/last year?)

 

 

[masschamber]

As expected the guy I took the lower offer wanted to return the game because it was damaged in exactly the way they looked in the pictures

[boxpressed]

Sold an item today with best offer at 40% off BIN price. Buyer opened with 50% off, and I countered with 30% off. We ended up splitting the difference. 

 

I don't normally counter lowball offers, but the value of this item has dropped a lot since I first listed it a few months ago. I just didn't pay attention. That's another thing I like about best offer: you don't have to monitor values of your items and reprice stuff--the buyer does it for you.

[+JasonlikesINTV]

eBay changed something recently, which has led many sellers to offer a 5-30% discount to watchers.  My new buying strategy is to add many things to my watchlist and wait for the deals to roll in, even if I'm already comfortable with the BIN price.  A decent chunk of the time I get another 10% off within 24 hours just by being patient.  Downside is I find myself buying more stuff I probably don't need.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

eBay changed something recently, which has led many sellers to offer a 5-30% discount to watchers.  My new buying strategy is to add many things to my watchlist and wait for the deals to roll in, even if I'm already comfortable with the BIN price.  A decent chunk of the time I get another 10% off within 24 hours just by being patient.  Downside is I find myself buying more stuff I probably don't need.

Fair play. If there are enough of the item you want to go round, then your in a buyer's market.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Guest
spelling

[Keatah]

13 hours ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

Downside is I find myself buying more stuff I probably don't need.

Which is what ebay wants! Straight away.

 

[Guest]

One thing about ebay. If you are interested in an item, just don't 'Watch' it. When you do that, ebay suggests the item to more people that may be interested, because it aggregates the interest than if you don't, so you effectively cut your own throat by watching items you are interested in.

[HoshiChiri]

There's two main reasons I don't bother with Best Offers- the number of sellers who won't accept even 5% off, the number of sellers who don't respond to an offer so I have to wait for 2 days without trying other auctions, and eBay Bucks (need to make the purchase within the window to qualify).

 

It's a nice feature, & I've gotten some great deals from it- but it's not often the best way to go.

[masschamber]

On 3/29/2020 at 10:57 AM, HoshiChiri said:

There's two main reasons I don't bother with Best Offers- the number of sellers who won't accept even 5% off, the number of sellers who don't respond to an offer so I have to wait for 2 days without trying other auctions, and eBay Bucks (need to make the purchase within the window to qualify).

 

It's a nice feature, & I've gotten some great deals from it- but it's not often the best way to go.

you can actually specify a time window on best offers  now

[HoshiChiri]

12 minutes ago, masschamber said:

you can actually specify a time window on best offers  now

That's handy, but it doesn't necessarily solve the problem- it just means I now have to decide what's enough time to give for them to see & decide, versus how long I'll have to wait if they flake & ignore it.

 

I'd personally love a 'revoke offer' button so if a better option comes along I can just cancel out. Might make some of the offenders reconsider if they know they don't have a guaranteed window of time to wait for a better offer.

[joesant84]

I am a occasional seller. I handle Best Offers many different ways. 

 

-If the item seems to be popular (lots of views fast, lots of watchers) I probably wont accept the best offer's unless they are only asking a few dollars off. I've been testing this lately with just waiting and it's been working out in my favor. For example, I had a N64 on ebay for $50. In less than 8 hours I had 6 best offers. The highest one being $40. I stuck to my guns and before 12 hours had passed someone bought it for the $50 I was asking.

 

-If the item is popular but it hangs around for a few weeks I will be WAY more willing to accept anywhere from 15-30% off. I usually respond to the Best Offers letting them know to try that price again in a week or two.

 

-If the item is not popular, after a few days of it being on the site you can get me down as far as 50% very quick. A lot of the odd ball stuff I put on there I only really want to make $5-10 on. You just have to ask.

 

As a collector first who occasionally sells on ebay I also check my best offers feedback to see if they are resellers or douche's. I usually won't accept best offers from resellers. Doesn't always work, the N64 I sold for $50 went to a ebay reseller who only seems to find the rarest of overpriced action figures, looks like they sell the clothes from their closet and resells N64's for 149.95!! Don't worry, they also lied and claimed it was for their nephew....but they have 4-5 listed on ebay so you do the math.

 

I also had an offer from a guy who's ebay profile said the following...

 

"I buy stuff on ebay and if the item is not exactly as described I give bad feedback."

 

I don't sell to dingle berries in life either.

 

I personally prefer my stuff to go to collectors who want it and not some ass just trying to make more cash off somethings thats popular at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[joesant84]

Ugh....Lukie games just got a Genesis Model 2 with 31 games from me for $64 thru Auction. Breaks my heart.

 

 

[+GoldenWheels]

On 3/29/2020 at 10:24 AM, ∞ Vince ∞ said:

One thing about ebay. If you are interested in an item, just don't 'Watch' it. When you do that, ebay suggests the item to more people that may be interested, because it aggregates the interest than if you don't, so you effectively cut your own throat by watching items you are interested in.

It's maybe a good tip but I don't have enough paper and pencils to keep enough notes for the amount of stuff I watch. And even if I did, I'd then forget the notes. Those watch alarms are damn helpful!

 

Also maybe some of you have received one of my best offers, let's see, anyone recognize this?

 

"I would like to offer X. If accepted I always pay ASAP. Thanks for considering the offer."

 

I give that message with every offer. Being nice NEVER hurts!!!

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, GoldenWheels said:

It's maybe a good tip but I don't have enough paper and pencils to keep enough notes for the amount of stuff I watch. And even if I did, I'd then forget the notes. Those watch alarms are damn helpful!

Well... this is true when there is a lot on the table, of course, though I wrote my first WebBot the other day and I don't think it would take much for me to do a sniper tool of my own, with built in notifications, but no 'Watch' because the more that watch the more the emails go flying about. The less activity the less it gets spread about.

The point of it is, you might get stuff much cheaper using that technique than if you you either bid and end up getting shill shafted or you watch it, then the price goes up because every watcher gets a notification of the number of other watchers. They've effectively whipping up the interested parties.

[Guest]

Maybe some kind of Browser Add-On that you just clicked, remind me and it did 10 minutes 5 minutes or 2 minutes before depending on what preferences you have selected, say. I'm going to have a good go at some of this in the coming weeks.

[Mikebloke]

I've used make an offer often in both selling and buying. Depending on the item I'm more likely to take a bigger hit on incomplete or less tidy sets, or open to bigger discounts if people are buying multiple items. I like to think I don't have anything too extravagantly priced but will have a minimum to help pay for fees and additional packaging costs. 

 

As a buyer I try to have a good look around before making a bid, judging past sales, conditions, commonality etc. I do sometimes leave comments justifying my offer or in some cases admit I can't go higher if we've batted back and forth once or twice already. I like to think I'm relatively fair. 

 

I have sometimes done a joke offer when someone is being silly. I once put a £3 offer on a Nintendo adventure book someone wanted for £90. They offered 87 in response!

 

Edit: just want to add I rarely have stuff that is in super demand. The 1292 community is quite small and I have phone numbers or emails of some people who I've bought or sold to in the past, and we try to help each other out with getting the ones we need. I'm more likely to do a deal with a collector who is clearly going for a full set, and they tend to make themselves known quite obviously with the questions they have. 

 

Also on the pricing. I have a boxed soccer game for intellivision going for £5, it's too much, its not worth that much. But if someone buys another game and wants it I'd happily let it go for a pound or two. I've also given broken games for free if anyone wants to take a shot at fixing it and mention it in the description. 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Mikebloke

[boxpressed]

I just sold a game after a long back and forth. The game was $15.99 OBO. The buyer started at $10, I think, and I countered with $13.99, which was as low as I was willing to go ($15.99 was the cheapest already).

 

They countered with $12, and I rejected.

They offered $12.99.

Rejected.

Then $13.89.

At this point, I realized this was the kind of buyer that just wanted to "win."

Rejected.

Finally, they offered $13.99, and I accepted.

[Atari_Bill]

I just made a$20 offer on a $25 item.  The counter ...   $24.75.  Are you serious?  Why bother?

[+OLD CS1]

On 3/16/2020 at 11:58 AM, boxpressed said:

Just had five best offers in a row rejected. I was trying to buy four sticks of PC133 SDRAM. The seller is selling a pair for $15.99. I made of offer of $11.99 per pair, quantity 2, which may have been a little low. Rejected. Then I went to $12.00 because I thought the threshold was an even number. Nope. $13. Rejected. $14 was rejected too. And $15. So now I have to buy at $15.99, the regular price.

 

I'm guessing a $0.50 discount would be accepted? That's, what, 3%?

 

I didn't buy. I went rummaging and found the memory I needed in my own stock, lol.

Sheyit, I would have given you my PC-133.  I actually tossed a bunch a while back because I could not get anyone to take it, but now it seems building old MMX and P-II machines are en-vogue.  I would have held onto them longer but I just cannot store stuff forever.

 

Otherwise, yeah, I like the Best Offer when sellers are reasonable.  I have some items with rules, and one item in particular I have an auto reject set for 10% under my break-even price.  Other offers I will consider and make counters.  I get frustrated at sellers that will not counter; to be fair, I will let ridiculous offers languish and, of course, I feel my offers are not ridiculous if I am still within 15% of the selling price (usually, it is just me offering to get the shipping free.)  I see the situation from both sides of the fan -- it sucks or blows, depending upon where you stand

 

In any case, yeah, I have taken BOs for my items plenty of times.  It works well for everyone that way.  I have also had sellers send me really good offers on items I am watching.  Sometimes not when I am ready to buy, which sucks, too, but that is the game we play.

[Keatah]

1 hour ago, OLD CS1 said:

Sheyit, I would have given you my PC-133.  I actually tossed a bunch a while back because I could not get anyone to take it, but now it seems building old MMX and P-II machines are en-vogue. I would have held onto them longer but I just cannot store stuff forever.

 

That's right they are. It's a rolling wave. Soon Pentium 4 and whatever came next will be desirable. 486 builds are still hanging on, but beginning to fade. 8086, 286, and 386 are of no interest these days.

 

Pentium II & III should be a good run because they were plentiful and so similar to the Pentium MMX and PentiumPro. The Pentium MMX was good for its time, not so much the PentiumPro. But gamers did indeed want the P-Pro to be good. And they got their wishes in the PII and PIII.

 

I skipped most all the Socketed Pentium chips and PPro and got right into the PII. And it was awesome. Thankfully I held onto all my PII and PIII parts and sequential upgrades.

 

I did a short stint with the P4, but it was hot and heavy and just didn't feel right. So minimal nostalgia there.

[boxpressed]

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had two sales go south AFTER a buyer made me a best offer. In both cases, the offer was about 30% below the BIN, and I wanted to move these things out, so I accepted. Then the buyers don't pay and don't respond to messages. I opened unpaid item cases, and after a week or so, eBay lets you close the case and refunds your selling fees.

 

But I'm more interested in the psychology of this behavior. It seems stranger than hitting a BIN and having buyer's remorse. I guess you could get sticker shock once you see the total with shipping and--now--sales tax. One buyer had 0 feedback, and the other had 11, so it could have been just a game on their part. Which makes the psychological angle even weirder.