Best Offer: Today is The First Time I Resorted to a Real Jerk Move

[momcqueen]

With some reservations, I added Best Offer to 99 per cent of my listings about 18 months ago to generate sales. It has accomplished what I set out to do: generate sales. But first I had to grow much thicker skin.

I tried to adopt the idea that 'no offer was a bad offer' and that offers of $2 on a $234 item weren't personal. For the most part, I would counter a $2-offer the same as I would as if it were close to within my acceptable range and not an actual insult to my sensibilities. 

I'm not sure what happened to me today. An offer of $12 came in on a $134 item. I didn't decline, but I countered at one cent less than the asking price which is, by any interpretation, a real jerk move. 

Oh well. 

I've weathered actual insults contained within the terms of the Best Offers, and I've stood firm against thinly-veiled attempts at manipulation, and I even worked in good faith to try to arrange a deal with a buyer who I'd blocked earlier this year for buying items gratuitously only to negotiate price afterwards and eventually cancel. 

I suppose my point is that Best Offer is a complicated dance to learn, and that sometimes you step on your partner's toes for reasons that are not their fault at all. The result today is that the buyer will surely be as annoyed with me as I was with them, which is never good. 

And, yes, I do auto-decline within the confines that ebay allows me to do so because it STILL WIPES CLEAN all auto-decline amounts when one resets one's handling time. Which is a glitch I first reported two years ago. 

On the whole, Best Offer has been a successfully tactic for me on items both high and low value. The lower-value ones work best as part of a bundle when buyers can understand the concept of making multiple offers on multiple items as part of an average price. The key there is that THEY have to counter a counter, and the seller accept as part of a multi-item deal. Otherwise, the seller could counter their five-part price and have the buyer accept only one and it would be binding.

[silverpinups]

I've used best offer from the beginning with great success....

Now customers do base the asking price as a guide for what they will offer and this usually goes smoothly, but on occasion you get the "low ball" offer which I just ignore. 

Buyers like to know you have flexibility on your prices.

Other buyers will just Buy-It-Now.

Best Offer is also good for screening your customers instead of blindly going into a transaction with a potentially malicious buyer.

You set your price, add best offer and forget about it, instead of expending extra time down the road with discounting your items.......

[momcqueen]

You ignore completely the low-ball offers? Don't the auto-reminders from ebay bother you?

[silverpinups]

Not at all, it's not personal it's just business..... I don't even give it a second thought. If it bothers you just delete the message... out of sight out of mind. 

[momcqueen]

Ignoring a low-ball completely is no doubt a better tactic than like today countering for one-cent less. 

[ricarmic]

If they are stupid low, like the example, I simply ignore them, I don't respond in any way.

If they are very low, I will respond with my lowest price, if they respond with anything else I simply re-respond with my lowest price.

Very rarely do best offers work out unless the person starts with something somewhat reasonable.

I confess that I have accepted an offer that is lower than what I would have said my lowest offer was simply because the person made a pretty reasonable first offer to start with. My way of saying "THX for being reasonable off the top!".

Normally I only put best offer on the higher priced stuff, I can't be bothered haggling over a $12 item....

[lady.stark]

I usually do what ricarmic said: counter the counter with my original offer. If the buyer is serious, he will understand and buy. If not, he will move on.

But I must admit at one time, I was really insulted with the first offer, and I did as you did mj: countered with just a few pennies less than my BIN price. The buyer then countered with a reasonable offer that I accepted. I think she understood my "sarcasm". Fortunately, it went well. But I would not recommend doing this. As soon as I sent it, I regretted it. Won't do it again! LOL.

[momcqueen]

I concur. I also regret the sarcastic counteroffer as soon as I sent it. I responded to an insult with an insult but instead of finding it satisfying, it made me feel as if I was as classless as the person sending the offer.

But, like, seriously. I would consider taking $12 for an item priced at $134? That's ridiculous. 

Normally, however, I take a deep breath and pretend like the person who sent it is just senseless but without malice. Or testing the waters. If they think there is a chance they can have it for $12, most likely they are reality-challenged and aren't going to pay more than that, so even a fair counteroffer is likely to be rejected or ignored. I'm happy to hear yours worked out with a successful sale. This one would never have resulted in an actual purchase, I'm certain of that, 

And then I went back and set the auto-decline again. I know I had it on the item in the past. It's one-of-a-kind so it has real value.