eBay

rocketscollectibles · ‎09-15-2021

I'm trying best offer on most everything since a few weeks already. I really like to give the opportunity to buyers to negociate, it clearly helps to sell some items quicker or items that would not have sold at the price we fixed. My problem with it so far i can already notice a clear tendency from buyers, most don't want fair discounts fair deals... They want to be gifted... I feel like a lot want the feeling that they won over you and that they're ready to decline fair offers for it. Most seems to be super greedy. And i feel that the ones not greedy who really wanted your item would have bought full price anyway without best offer

An exemple the other day i receive an offer of 3.50$ on a 5.00$ item free shipping, i just counter offer at 4.00$ cause there's almost nothing left on a 3.50$ free shipping sale. In my mind he can't decline it's win/win for both, for him it's just 0.50$, for me it's 10%. My offer is already a 20% discount. And he declined... For 0.50$... This situation happenned to me a few times already in different ways. Decline 1$ on a 10$ item, 5$ on a 40$ one, etc

I auto decline offers under 50%, i don't wanna go higher cause i wanna be able to send counter offers. I wanna let the window open for any talk. But at the same time i wonder if it's really worth getting all those greedy buyers wasting my time doing the maths, researchs and making me overthink to after just decline fair deals, or holding up 48h my listings by letting expire

I just wonder if it's an overall ebay tendency or really a thing in my category? Any experience to share

rocketscollectibles · ‎09-22-2021

I did not knew best offer was that a recent feature

Best Offer is sorta like how in some countries you can go to markets and haggle

i think there's a very very huge difference than dealing face to face, on ebay people are hidden behind their screens. They won't be shy to offer you 2$ on a 20$ item if they wanna test their luck, they're too confortable they don't have to face any human talk and reaction. Like my previous exemple, there's no way you enter a store thinking to pay 10$ and go back home because seller ask 10.50$. There's no way you enter a store and offer 10$ to a merchand for a 40$ item, without a very solid reason. That's disrespectful and insulting, but behind a sceen, everyone feels stronger and shameless. I think it's very very different than dealing anything IRL face to face. There's some good and respectful people but i'm experimenting way much more the bad ones from best offer

I'm thinking about just remove the option cause it's often annoy me, but at the same time i sold many items that way so i'm still thinking about it. On a business perspective it would probably a bad move to remove it, so i might should just give less importance to the buyers actually, decline/counter offer and move on staight up with no waste of time

reallynicestamps · ‎09-22-2021

I wouldn't explain why, particularly if it seems to stress you.

And frankly on low priced items, haggling indicates a customer who will never be satisfied.

And of course.

Set your Best Offers to automatically refuse any that are too low. Say anything more than 10% off. EBay has a polite boilerplate message that goes out with those.

And then set BO to automatically accept anything above a satisfactory price. Say anything less that 10% off.

You can have a penny difference between reject and accept.

I would not put BO on anything where you are the lowest price offered.

Again, because it will not get better.

And yes, those lowballers are playing a game. The trick is to find a spot where they can play but you are not.

rocketscollectibles · ‎09-22-2021

Set your Best Offers to automatically refuse any that are too low. Say anything more than 10% off. EBay has a polite boilerplate message that goes out with those.

And then set BO to automatically accept anything above a satisfactory price. Say anything less that 10% off.

You can have a penny difference between reject and accept.

Something i don't like from setting auto decline is that you kinda send a message that over that amount is you lowest price. I had everything at 50% just to avoid low ballers and be open to serious ones. But like my last case where the buyer offered 40% and got autodecline, after offered 55% and worked, the bot in a way says that 55% of my BIN price was something i would accept. That's maybe why he actually thought it was already overpriced and that my 80% BIN counter offer was not good at all

If you set up to under 10% auto decline also, you might miss offers on items that you would have accepted to give an higher discount

The prob is that i bulk add best offer too, over 100 items i kinda don't wanna have a different setting on everything. I think i'll just leave it open with no auto decline and adapt my settings when i receive offers

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-22-2021

"Something i don't like from setting auto decline is that you kinda send a message that over that amount is you lowest price. I had everything at 50% just to avoid low ballers and be open to serious ones. But like my last case where the buyer offered 40% and got autodecline, after offered 55% and worked, the bot in a way says that 55% of my BIN price was something i would accept. That's maybe why he actually thought it was already overpriced and that my 80% BIN counter offer was not good at all"

______________

I doubt that is why they thought it was overpriced...they had a number in mind and that is the most they wanted to pay. I think that you are overthinking this and perhaps taking it too personally.

99% of buyers do not care why you are not accepting their offer so I wouldn't bother to write any type of explanation. They dont care what you paid for it or what profit you want to make.....they only know what they are willing to pay for it.

Best offer on fixed price listings has been around for a long time but it is newer for autions. But it hasn't been until the last year or two that ebay added it on to some listings automatically.

reallynicestamps · ‎09-22-2021

A 50% offer acceptance is very very low.

I would consider anything more than a 20% discount ridiculous and would not put an accept on anything more than 10% off.

When you get to the point where 50% is acceptable, in my opinion you should not be offering or should be bundling.

There are those who will buy spacefillers but are not cheapskates.

dinomitesales · ‎09-23-2021

@rocketscollectibles wrote:
What do you guys think about taking the time to insert a message and explanation when you decline or counter offer? Do you doing it? I'm always doing it but i wonder if it's really worth the time thinking and writting. For me most of the time it's just either ignored anyway or responded with not much sense

This is actually something I do and find that it works quite well for my items. I always list my items competitively when looking at comps (to the Canadian market), but I'm usually getting my items for so cheap that there's quite a bit of wiggle room. I put Best Offer on everything above like $4 and don't use auto-accept/decline. I'll never turn down a 10% offer, and will automatically send out 10% off offers when I'm given the option to in seller hub.

For offers greater than 10% I never decline, but will always provide a counter-offer with a short, 3-part note. First I'll always thank them for the offer, regardless of how ridiculous it is; I feel if the first thing I read in a message is positive then it sets up the experience to be overall positive as well. Second, I'll provide justification for my counteroffer (usually it's something like "I'm already the lowest offer in Canada for this item and therefore I'm not willing to drop the price TOO much, but I'd offer another 10% off if it helps you decide to make the purchase!"). Lastly I end with a "Cheers! -Matt" or something like that just to add the personal touch.

At this point, they either accept or decline. If the counter-offer I just decline it because I've already said my peace.

needsmorerobots · ‎09-23-2021

Now that's what I'm talking about @dinomitesales.

That's exactly how I think business should be conducted.

rocketscollectibles · ‎09-24-2021

Thanks guys for sharing

Again today i received an offer on a card, 40% of the price. I'm second checking sold ones, listed ones. My card is one of the best price at the moment and very fair slightly underpriced to sold ones. Really a tendancy in my category i think. How dare do you offer 40% of a fair price

zee-chan-jpn-books · ‎09-24-2021

I'd turn off Best Offer function for those listings at $5 or lower. Not worth your time dealing with bottom feeders who'd haggle over 50 cents...

needsmorerobots · ‎09-24-2021

I agree with @zee-chan-jpn-books on you not using Best Offers.

If your feelings or thoughts are going to affect your customer service, then don't use the offers or at least set it on auto accept at the retail for each item you're happy to sell at.

rocketscollectibles · ‎09-24-2021

Yeah it's probably better to turn it off. But it does not affect my customer service i'm still polite and i treat every offer seriously, and that's kinda the problem, i'm giving too much time and energy doing researchs, maths, write a message etc. To being ignored or receive zero respect from customers. Yesterday i received another offer for a bundle, 45% of the price again, offered 10$ for 21$ of cards. The last exemple i said about my card being the best actual option on ebay and slightly underprice, i took the time to explain, i counter offer still being generous giving a 5% discount, the person ignore my message and counter offer at 60% of the price. That's unbearable, it's a tendancy, my category is infested of low ballers and disrespectful customers

ricarmic · ‎09-24-2021

Personally I would suggest if you aren't already, to use promoted listings on the items and turn off offers on the small ones.

The customers you want most are the ones that are prepared to pay your already reasonable price without haggling.

Promoting them (use only 1% to start on all items, ignore the recommended %s) puts the items in front of a lot more faces so to speak and that increases the likelihood of finding the non-haggling kind of customers which are the most desirable, for a lot less than it is costing you to discount at the moment....

The time you save from not having to haggle, you can spend putting up more items....

lady.stark · ‎09-24-2021

I don't know, but I have a feeling that most lowball offers you receive are from sellers trying to buy at low cost to resell. That's probably why this person refused an offer over $0.50.

zee-chan-jpn-books · ‎09-24-2021

@rocketscollectibles wrote:
Yeah it's probably better to turn it off. But it does not affect my customer service i'm still polite and i treat every offer seriously, and that's kinda the problem, i'm giving too much time and energy doing researchs, maths, write a message etc. To being ignored or receive zero respect from customers. Yesterday i received another offer for a bundle, 45% of the price again, offered 10$ for 21$ of cards. The last exemple i said about my card being the best actual option on ebay and slightly underprice, i took the time to explain, i counter offer still being generous giving a 5% discount, the person ignore my message and counter offer at 60% of the price. That's unbearable, it's a tendancy, my category is infested of low ballers and disrespectful customers

Turn off best offer. You already highlighted the problem yourself. I usually don't bother with explaining the reason behind what and why I counter offer with.