eBay

momcqueen · ‎07-13-2016

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.

eurobeads · ‎07-14-2016

What is truly insulting is when someone makes you a low offer on an item that doesn't even have the "best offer" option lol! Yes, that happens more often that you'd think!

momcqueen · ‎07-14-2016

I know, right?

Like continually for me, especially around the holidays.

It's one thing for the Fixed Price BIN to elicit a Message like, "Pardon me, I know you don't have Best Offer available on this item but I hoped you might consider an offer of XX? It's not my intention to offend you but this is something my kid really wants and I hope you will consider my offer to purchase it" and not a flat-out, "Give you five bucks, okay" when it's a sixty-dollar item and without Make an Offer enabled on it.

In the latter case, having OBO enabled is actually a blessing because you can set it to auto-reject without ever having to speak to that person. I'm always polite, and if the offer is a kick in the pants, it takes more time and effort than it's worth to craft a mindful response.

silverpinups · ‎07-14-2016

"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".

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

O.K, sounds good, let me know how you want to proceed... Best Regards.

eurobeads · ‎07-14-2016

I stopped using the Best Offer option because I would get really offended when people made low offers on my handmade items. I designed an item and spent hours of back and finger breaking labor to make a one-of-a-kind item that nobody in this world (other than you) will have, and that's all you think that it's worth? It's easy to say "don't get offended", but when someone tells you that your art is worth about the same as a cup of Starbucks coffee, it hurts! Now if I was just re-selling something (electronics, a pair of shoes etc), then I wouldn't be so sensitive about it. And the other thing I found very interesting is that most buyers didn't even make an offer on "best offer" items, they just paid full price. I could never figure out why...Since "best offer" was either offensive or useless to me, I stopped using it.

On a different note, as a Buyer, when I see a listing with best offer, it gives me the feeling that the seller is desperate to sell, and on some subconscious level, I think it makes the item less desirable to me. I'm not sure if that's ridiculous but I rarely buy "best offer" items on eBay.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-14-2016

when someone tells you that your art is worth about the same as a cup of Starbucks coffee, it hurts!

Having no craft skills at all, I am constantly surprised at how low some crafters price their handmade items.

At a guess, it's a combination of not understanding how much their time is worth and comparing their custom products to items churned out by teenage labourers in a Thai factory.

And of course, it doesn't help that many brand name items are churned out in the same factories. The 'value added' there is some quality control beyond what the unbranded stuff offers and a lot of advertising about how wonderful the brand is.

eurobeads · ‎07-14-2016

Crafters on eBay are forced to under-price their items, not because they don't understand the value of their product/labour, but because (sadly), these items are undervalued by the eBay buyer who just won't pay us a fair price. When buyers see similar products being sold out of China for $1, they're not willing to fork over good money for our labour. That's the reality of it. eBay is not the best selling platform for handcrafted products in the first place. These products actually do much better when sold in person.

That's all I used to sell on eBay before, until I noticed the success of my competitors who were just re-selling items with very minor craftsmanship, putting in very little labour and making more money. So I decided to give that a try and my sales have increased since. Now I hardly ever really handcraft anything. And when I do, there is no "best offer" and it takes months to sell. It's sad really, but people are more attracted to low priced junk than to art, uniqueness or craftsmanship. That's fine, for the sake of making money I'm forced to put out "factory style items" because that's what they want, but oh how I miss actually designing and creating! At the end of the day though, every "struggling artist" is forced to make a choice between losing their art/discarding their skill, or going hungry. I took the cowardly route and chose food over my soul lol

momcqueen · ‎07-14-2016

Well, as I've said elsewhere before, you cannot feed your kids on principle.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-15-2016

What happens if you push your prices up to the fine jewelry/designer brand price range?
In my product lines, stuff can sit for a couple of years before finding a delighted buyer, so I work that wait period into my price.
Your mileage may, and probably does, vary.

eurobeads · ‎07-16-2016

I haven't tried listing them that high...maybe I should, just to see what happens! But I'm not sure if I have it in me to hold onto inventory for that long! You know what, I'll try it - thanks for the tip! 🙂

momcqueen · ‎07-17-2016

And another one that rankles: Item is $35 and includes free shipping so I received an offer for $7.51 CAD. Not only is it five times lower than the asking price (which is already marked down on sale) but the offer price would cover less than half the cost of the included postage.

I'm revising all listings as the too-low offers come to auto-reject anything below the break-even point. After I decline, of course.

This would be so much simpler as part of a Bulk Edit.

dutchman48 · ‎07-17-2016

You can't bulk edit for all different numbers, If your minimums were all the same, you could.

You could however bulk edit to remove best offer and just fix them 1 at a time at your leisure.

momcqueen · ‎07-17-2016

It allows you to bulk edit price by dollar or percent. If I could bulk edit all Best Offers to auto-reject anything less than 40 per cent of the original asking price, I'd be satisfied to leave it at that.

dutchman48 · ‎07-17-2016

You can't bulk edit offer min or max like that. You can I belive bulk edit by putting in the same $ amount for each minimum offer amount. Offer is totally different than the actual price.

dutchman48 · ‎07-17-2016

Or you could sort by price and do a batch at once that are within a certain range.

Turbo Lister gives a lot of bulk edit options and they are reasonably fast, then just synchronize and all your live listings are done

momcqueen · ‎07-19-2016

I did a batch edit, alright. Removed OBO from all listings but a select few.

All I'm getting is lowball offers that I cannot entertain and, without immediate threat of lockout-strike, the Make an Offer function is not serving my Local Pickup purpose. In fact, I think it's killing business. Normally, people would just buy the stuff (or move on) but now they're trying to nickel and dime me to death.

storeofwealth · ‎07-20-2016

I list BIN with BO and I don't get why people get offended. When someone makes a lowball offer, I don't decline right away. I believe these can actually help your sale and profits.

Maybe I'm wrong in my line of thinking, but if I'm interested in something and I see 3 other pending offers, I may be more inclined to just use the BIN if I REALLY want the item.

momcqueen · ‎07-20-2016

That's a good point.

rose-dee · ‎07-20-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:
I did a batch edit, alright. Removed OBO from all listings but a select few.

All I'm getting is lowball offers that I cannot entertain and, without immediate threat of lockout-strike, the Make an Offer function is not serving my Local Pickup purpose. In fact, I think it's killing business. Normally, people would just buy the stuff (or move on) but now they're trying to nickel and dime me to death.

This is what I was trying to point out earlier. I think you're wise to remove B.O. from most of your listings if the main reason for it was as a substitute message system. That really isn't its best role. Using it across the board will just continue to attract a whole lot of the worst kind of bargain-hunters.

In my experience B.O. works most effectively if used strategically, mainly on higher-priced items. I also believe it's not good to mix discounts with B.O. in the same item. You want to attract offers that are actually worth considering (and in the process draw in buyers who see offers pending, as the earlier poster noted). Sometimes on a higher-priced and desirable item I will leave an offer pending until close to expiration, and occasionally it will attract a BIN purchase -- or a better offer.

As I suggested earlier, why not customize your automated FAQ list to help filter a lot of local pickup requests? Then deal with the rest on an individual basis as you sell.

cooltoycars · ‎07-20-2016

I have only BIN listings but still receive offers. Most recently, I was made an offer for a $15.00 item of $3.00 for the item AND $3.00 for the shipping to the USA!!! Considering that Small Packet to the US is $8.36, I passed on the "generous" offer and added the buyer to my blocked bidder list. That is my solution to dealing with those kind of idiots! I block them!

rose-dee · ‎07-20-2016

@cooltoycars wrote:
I have only BIN listings but still receive offers. Most recently, I was made an offer for a $15.00 item of $3.00 for the item AND $3.00 for the shipping to the USA!!! Considering that Small Packet to the US is $8.36, I passed on the "generous" offer and added the buyer to my blocked bidder list. That is my solution to dealing with those kind of idiots! I block them!

Yes, I think we all get those sort of people from time to time. EBay is full of them. I would imagine toy sellers have more than their share to deal with. My point was that adding Best Offer to listings that may already be susceptible to that kind of foolishness is like announcing open season to what some sellers like to refer to as "bottom feeders".