Sending offers to watchers, my experience....thus far

[ricarmic]

I've been reading mixed results from offer senderers so I thought it would be worthwhile to experiment with it myself.

I sent 5 offers on Monday, all for items that have been running for at least 5 years.

I sent 5 more offers on Tuesday some multi items, some more recent (only a couple years old).

On Tuesday one of the Monday offers lots sold (it was a 5 year listed item).

I expected response from the Tuesday items because they've been more popular and some had a decent number of watchers, but no purchases yet.

This is when I had the realization that the offers (I believe) expire after 2 days, so I'm covering a Monday through Wednesday timeframe. I fell into the trap of starting them when convenient for me instead of when they are likely to be noticed by potential buyers.

So the next batch I will start on a Saturday, as Sunday, Monday are likely a better time window for my (stamps) crowd.

I'm actually still happy with only a 10% response, things have been very slow this week and selling something that's been around for 5 years is great, and the time to send the offers is not very large.

I'll advise as I have news and or any other things I think of to add.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

New experience this evening. Went to use the best offer feature on a lower valued item. Only 1 watcher but no offers ever received. System stated for me to send it had to be between a certain amount. Huhhhh? Shouldn't I be able to send an amount of my choosing?

-Lotz

[femmefan1946]

As I remember it, the seller's offer has to be at least 10% off.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@femmefan1946 

Possibly not the case. For an item with a list of 37.50 was able to send an offer to a watcher for 35.00 without the error message.

-Lotz

[tyler@ebay]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

New experience this evening. Went to use the best offer feature on a lower valued item. Only 1 watcher but no offers ever received. System stated for me to send it had to be between a certain amount. Huhhhh? Shouldn't I be able to send an amount of my choosing?

-Lotz

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Hi @lotzofuniquegoodies - that doesn't sound quite right. Will you get a screenshot of the error you received and post it to the thread? Thanks!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

tyler@ebay 

Unable to find the specific listing that had the issues at the time. I may have revised("compromised" & lowered) my best offer to get it to accept. Unfortunately the Review Offers sent tab doesn't display the amount offered which would be awesome to use as a historical tool to remain consistent with offers. If I do see that error message again I will save a screenshot and forward.

-Lotz

[ypdc_dennis]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

As I remember it, the seller's offer has to be at least 10% off.

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5% less than your Fixed Price

Note: could not find the info about this in the eBay help files, found it on one of those how-to-sell-on-ebay websites and found that it is indeed true, when I made an offer a few minutes ago on one of my listings.

The seller hub is still lacking in useful history for make-offer-to-watchers so before I make the offer I edit the Item note and include: date offer made + offer details + number of watchers. Then I make the offer.

I have also started using the Item note to add details for listings that qualified for special promos like $1 FVF  -- which lets me know I have extra discount space available when using make offer or reminding me to do something else to encourage a sale before the end of the promo.

-..-

[tyler@ebay]

Thanks @lotzofuniquegoodies - I appreciate it and hope that you don't come across it again!

And thanks for your input on this too @ypdc_dennis, I really like the idea of using the notes space as a way to memo any specifics that impact your offers. 🙂