How do "Open to offers" sales work?

[ja-3774]

Hello,

I am new to ebay, and am not too familiar with the mechanics. Anyways, I'm going to be open to offers on one of the things I'm selling, but it seems like the website makes you set a price. In my understanding, even if I agree to the amount a customer offers, they still have to pay whatever I filled into my lowest price? I'm just not sure how you indicate what you want to sell for but still accept offers if you wanted to.

[retroman_studios]

You are talking about "Best Offer" right?

When you create or edit your listings that are "Buy It Now", you have the option to allow a potential customer "haggle" with the price.

You can enable Best Offer and manually review each offer, or, you can specify amounts you will not accept.

What I do for items that I want to clear out is enter the lowest price I would accept under the "Automatically Accept Offers" box. This doesn't mean that's the price it will sell for, it just means if the customer submits an offer and it's above that amount eBay will automatically close the sale and the buyer has committed to buying the item. The customer never sees what amount you enter. So if I will take $700 for an item that normally sells for $1,000 I would put 700 in this box.

I also fill the box that says "Automatically Decline offers less than" because it filters out time wasters who think they should pay a dollar for your item. Basically, if you don't want to go less than say, $500 for an item, then you put 500 as the value for this box.

If the prices in the two boxes are different like they are in my example, a customer who makes an offer of $650 would be presented to me the seller to approve.

I would only use Best Offer if it's something you really want to get rid of but still want a shot at getting full pop for it.

[femmefan1946]

First there are two types of listing offered by eBay.

The best known is Auction, although that has been dying out as people shop on their phones (52% of transactions!) and want immediate gratification.

On Auctions, you must set an opening bid.

EBay will encourage you to make this low, sometimes less than a loonie. Don't.

EBay's suggestions are helpful to eBay not necessarily you.

Set your opening bid at a price you will be comfortable to get.

You can add Buy It Now to your auction.

Set that price at what you hope to get, but you should know that the first bid will make the BIN price disappear.

Most bids arrive in the last few minutes of your Auction listing, so don't panic.

If your items are New In Box and commonly available, auctions will disappoint you.

Those should be listed as Fixed Price.

The first person who buys and pays gets the item at a price you set.

Then it gets complicated.

You can add Best Offer, well explained earlier, and accept a lower price.

You can also refuse a Best Offer.

Fixed Price listings last for 30 days normally, and cost the same as a seven day Auction.

You will be told how much your listing is costing you before you hit the upload button.

It will take 24 hours for your listing to index and start showing. Don't panic.

When you are setting prices, spend at least as much time thinking about shipping as you do about selling.

Most Sellers use Canada Post,which is cheap*, reliable and delivers everywhere in Canada and around the world through the Universal Postal Union.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

Slap in a few postal codes (K1A 0A6, 90210, 01920, A0L 2B9, V9R5G8) and some of the normal weights and dimensions you will be shipping.

Get a digital scale if you don't already have one. Canadian Tire sells a decent StarFrit in their kitchenwares section.

No, this is not off topic.

Shipping is NOT part of a Best Offer, so pay attention.

If you have something listed for $1000 but get an acceptable offer of $700 including shipping, you could end up losing money if you have not factored the cost of shipping into your acceptance.

It would be best to politely Message the customer thanking him for his Offer of $700 plus the advertised shipping. Then you can haggle from there. If you are not sure, get his location.

Oh, when you start out, list on dotCA (here) and do NOT ship overseas until you have 10 DSRs and know what DSRs are.

Hope I didn't bury you in jargon.

Buy that digital scale.

*Yes, those are the rates. But the Buyer pays for shipping, you don't.

And if he wants a lower price, refuse. It's a scam.

"Well, maybe I'm not a fancy gentleman like you, with your ... very fine hat. But I do business. We're here for business."-- Captain Malcolm Reynolds.