Is MAKE AN OFFER always so insulting?

[momcqueen]

I recently revised all my listings to include Make An Offer so that local buyers had an easy way of letting me know they wanted to do a Cash Payment for Local Pickup. This move was part of my lockout-strike readiness plan.

I don't normally enable Make An Offer since I instead utilize Markdowns, or revise listings to alter pricing. Also, I did it with the Bulk Editor so there was no simply way to create the rule where you auto-reject or auto-accept offers of a certain amount. Or at least no simple way I could see at the time.

Consequently, I have been flooded with insultingly low offers. Like offers that are five per cent of the asking price.

Is this normal? Or is it just me?

I'm curious. And a little offended. 

[momcqueen]

And there used to be a glitch with this that led to the retirement of the pdf print on Item pages. If you printed a listing with a history of offers, apparenty you were shown the prices accepted despite that information being private. Or so I recall at the time.

[dutchman48]

Or the offer is such a low ball, the seller did not want to waste his or her time. Right or wrong, it is their decision. I have also seen sellers that want 99% of list price but still supposedly take offers that are all declined

And the word BEST in best offer is completely misused of course, otherwise, why would Ebay give them the 3 best offer ability. It actually might work better if Ebay gave them only 1

[momcqueen]

Yes, that is also very annoying. The ones who use Best Offer but don't really mean it. 

[momcqueen]

My wiggle room is often between 10 and 20 per cent of asking price, depending if Free Shipping is at play and whether it is, in fact, a Cash Payment on Local Pickup scenario. But still: an offer of $5 on an item where the asking price is $65? How can that not be taken as an insult? 

[dutchman48]

There is no such thing as 3 best offers, unless you count each one at the time it is made and then start over again.

[dutchman48]

That is the flea market mentality of many buyers today.

[momcqueen]

Right. It would be a Good Offer, Better Offer and then Best Offer.

Or, as the case may be, a Bad Offer, Worse Offer and the Worst Offer.

[momcqueen]

Sometimes, with Make An Offer, I feel like I'm dancing for nickels on the street corner but only pennies are being tossed at me.

[silverpinups]

I see your located in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

I have a lot of Star Wars figures (all C9-C10 condition), Gentle Giant busts, Jim Lee Batman sculpts, Bettie Page sculpts and various other figures and toys that are "case fresh" etc. that I would like to sell.

If your interested you could sell them for me....

You also seem to have a good knowledge of computers and a good understanding of all the ebay selling tools available. I could use your help with my listings (especially with the migration tool).

Maybe we can work out some kind of an agreement.

Let me know.

[dinomitesales]

See what I was saying? When I see 'expired' next to a log entry, I always assume the seller is unmotivated and uncommunicative. It's discouraging to me. As a buyer. As a seller, my thoughts are slightly different.

I kind of get what you're saying, but personally I don't think I ever would have assumed that.

However, seeing 52 declined offers on a single item would make me assume that this particular seller is not willing to budge much on their asking price, and it's probably not worth my time to try and negotiate.

[ricarmic]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

My wiggle room is often between 10 and 20 per cent of asking price, depending if Free Shipping is at play and whether it is, in fact, a Cash Payment on Local Pickup scenario. But still: an offer of $5 on an item where the asking price is $65? How can that not be taken as an insult? 

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I am like Rose, I only offer best offer on higher priced items.

I've actually had to block "offerors" because they were forever offering crazy low prices.

A recent crazy one:

Offeror offers $50 against a $1,000 item.

I just decline can't be bothered even to put a message in.

Few minutes later get another offer for $75.

I decline and put in a message that the least I would ever consider accepting is $800 so please don't offer anything lower.

Few minutes later I get another offer for $100.

I just declined it (that was their last offer so all was well, or so I thought).

Couple days later, they're back again, offering $54.

Declined, no message and blocked them.

I can't imagine anyone has ever accepted something that low, however I am wondering if there has been an "autoaccept" typo where the seller dropped a digit on their automagically accept offers above $XX.00 and the offeror got something for an awesome low price. Something must prompt folks to do this....

[momcqueen]

The auto-accept scares me a little, for that reason. I'd rather auto-reject.

[momcqueen]

Normally, I do have only select higher-price items as OBO but this recent development that added it to all items was a strike/lockout imiative. I could stop all the low-balls simply by removing Make an Offer on them. I just wonder at the motives of some buyers.

[sylviebee]

There are buyers who spend their time going around making crazy low offers on item after item.

They probably don't even remember what they've already made offers on and that may be why we see the same buyer time after time.

I thought that these buyers were resellers of collectables but looking at mi's history on the item she posted here, its not limited to rare items.

I'm pretty sure that the strategy has a decent  payoff.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:
... I could stop all the low-balls simply by removing Make an Offer on them. I just wonder at the motives of some buyers.

---

Ancient story (I think I first heard it / read it) in the 1970's.

Guy greets women at a bar by asking if they want to have sex. His friend observes him getting badly rejected and insulted time after time. Finally he asks why do you keeping doing this?  Friend replies... because, sometimes, the answer is yes.

-..-

Same principle for eBay lowballers, sometimes the answer is yes.

But sometimes it's just an idiot playing games. So I always have a minimum when using best offer. And I most often will use it for shipping price adjustments.

-..-

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:
That is an excellent idea. I will elaborate. Let me decide whether it's more suitable to do so here, with a new thread, or as a How to Sell to Locals Guide.

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I think you might have misunderstood.  Most of us know how to use Local Pick-up in normal circumstances (i.e. no postal lockout/strike).  

What I was asking was how you intended to use Best Offer as a workaround for the postal disruption.  What steps do you see occurring from the seller's and buyer's side in a transaction, and why is that better than communicating directly after a BIN sale?  Also, how do you see the disadvantages of using B.O. during a postal disruption outweighing the advantages you've mentioned?  Please just explain it here, no need to write a Guide.  And don't worry about mentioning the name Kijiji -- eBay owns it anyway.    

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:
The amount is not visible but the history of offers is. 

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You are right -- a lengthy list of rejections looks terrible to potential buyers.  You will probably not accept my opinion on this, but I think you should reconsider using Best Offer if you find you're declining dozens of offers on items, particularly if you're getting a lot of very low offers, and that you find those offers insulting.  I don't believe that racking up multiple rejections is making the best use of that feature. 

Whenever I make an offer as a buyer, I check the history.  If there is more than a handful of declines or expirations shown, I immediately move on.  What such a list signals (to any buyer, serious or not, and whether it is actually true or not) is that the seller is likely to decline almost any offer unless it is very, very close to asking price.  

Best Offer was meant to facilitate sales, not discourage buyers.  Too lengthy a B.O. history means either that the initial price is too high, the target buyer market is largely uninformed about item value, or the type of item tends to attract bargain-bin buyers.   To buyers who are ignorant about the item's value (or looking for the equivalent of a $0.99 auction), B.O. can be a red flag to take a stab at a silly offer.  It is probably true that some types of items just don't work well with B.O. 

In this sense, including Best Offer on all items in a store where B.O. isn't working well in the first place is to my mind not a wise strategy (even if it is as a temporary workaround for postal issues).  As I said earlier, it may attract even more of the kind of buyers who assume Best Offer on everything, along with a discount on some items, says desperation sale.  Personally I would also not use the two (Best Offer plus discount) on the same item at the same time, for the same reason.  

To give you some context, I can count on one hand the number of times I've declined offers in the last 10 years -- I may have done it 2 or 3 times in all.  Normally I only use Best Offer on items valued well over $100.  But then my buyer market is very different from yours.  Having experimented with B.O. from the beginning, I found my buyers' initial offers generally came within 75% to 90% of asking price.  Best Offer has been extremely successful for me.  But I don't believe it's the optimal choice for every seller. 

[momcqueen]

You're right, I won't accept your advice on this. But thanks anyway.

What you cannot possibly know is that before I installed OBO on that listing (and others like it that are high-demand, low supply items priced higher than many people want to pay) I was fielding all those offers regardless but via ebay Messages which is more time consuming for both parties. OBO on that item is the lesser of two evils. I hope, in that case, that 53 declined offers discourages a savvy buyer but most of the offers on that particular toy did not come from buyers I would consider savvy. Only about four offers were in the range I might have considered accepting if circumstances were different and I had half a dozen to sell.

I believe the lowball offers on items of value may be a tactic that works on new sellers who are less sure of themselves.

Say I had just started selling yesterday. I have an item of value. I know its value, and price it accordingly but use Best Offer.

What I don't know is that it takes awhile for items to sell. Because they are waiting for the right buyer. The one with that kind of money to spend on that item at this moment. I think it will go overnight. 

After a month of lowball offers, I start to doubt myself. Maybe mine is still the only one currently for sale on ebay and the others sold for the same price but I start to think I'm doing something wrong. And then I accept the next lowball that comes in. Because I ran out of patiences and self-doubt took over.

[momcqueen]

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@silverpinups wrote:

I see your located in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

I have a lot of Star Wars figures (all C9-C10 condition), Gentle Giant busts, Jim Lee Batman sculpts, Bettie Page sculpts and various other figures and toys that are "case fresh" etc. that I would like to sell.

If your interested you could sell them for me....

You also seem to have a good knowledge of computers and a good understanding of all the ebay selling tools available. I could use your help with my listings (especially with the migration tool).

Maybe we can work out some kind of an agreement.

Let me know.

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I have to leave my desk for a few hours but I'll send you a Private Message about this when I return, let's talk. I'm always happy to meet fellow Winnipeggers.

[rose-dee]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

What you cannot possibly know is that before I installed OBO on that listing (and others like it that are high-demand, low supply items priced higher than many people want to pay) I was fielding all those offers regardless but via ebay Messages which is more time consuming for both parties. OBO on that item is the lesser of two evils.

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Sorry, I really don't see your reasoning.  I think you're making your life more difficult than it needs to be.  Why use Best Offer to control message volume?  That really isn't what it was designed for, nor its best use.  

Why not do what Pierre and many other sellers do and state up front in your listing that your listed price is your best price and that you do not entertain any offers?  

You could also (or instead) filter out most inquiries coming through eBay that might contain an offer by customizing your FAQ list.  This would be very simple to do by adding a question such as "Ask Seller about accepting an offer" and post an automated reply that explains no offers can be accepted (or, alternatively, no offer under a certain percentage of the item's value).  The few buyers that persisted through to your eBay Messages could be dealt with summarily via a "boilerplate" response (I have a few of those handy!).

Your example of new sellers getting nervous and prematurely accepting an offer may be quite true, but on the other hand having an item sitting for weeks or months and accumulating dozens of rejections isn't a great result either.  It's debatable whether one is actually worse than the other.  

I simply wanted to point out that the fact your buyers are constantly shooting arrows and getting nowhere in the area, let alone near the target means Best Offer is not working for the reasons I mentioned, whichever that might be, and that it may actually be counter-productive for your purposes.  

I think there are good reasons why I've almost never had to decline an offer, and why I generally get an offer (that I accept) within the first 30 days of listing an item, and frequently even within a week.  I would say that that is how Best Offer best functions, and my items/prices/buyers happen to work well that way.  But that was a matter of trial, error, experiment and elimination of unworkable strategies on my part to find the right mix. 

In short, if an item sits and posts up a long list of "declined", it is working against the seller's best interests.  Either the price is wrong, the item is wrong for B.O., or the buyers are the wrong type for B.O. 

You may not believe it, but I really am offering these suggestions to save you some trouble and effort.  I've been around eBay, both as a buyer and seller, for a long time, and have absorbed an awful lot.  I'd almost say my experience as a buyer is even more valuable than my experience as a seller.  Take it as you wish.