The 78-Cent Standoff: Playing the Best Offer game

[momcqueen]

We're 78 cents apart.

My business sense tells me to just Accept the CounterOffer and get ready to pack, but the devil that sits on my shoulder is telling me to allow this Final Offer to expire because that little devil version of me is annoyed this person is trying to negotiate another 78 cents less on an item that's originally priced at $62.87 CAD. Plus, I've stood firm on my lowest price from the start. It's the only one of its kind on ebay, and the asking price is almost triple across The River. They're already getting a good price from me. 

Do you see any red flags with accepting a $46.00 offer when all the buyer had to do was accept the one for 78-cents more I had already sent? Is it likely the buyer is put-out and trying to take a stand? And that they're going to make my life miserable afterwards with any reason they can?

Do you think they presently understand that if I allow their Final Offer to expire completely -- or outright reject it -- that they'll be paying full price if they actually DO want it? 

Poker was never my strong suit. 

Offer History below.

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(redacted) countered your offer!

Mar 22, 2018 16:24:51 EDT

Respond to this offer from (redacted). Learn more about offers.

Offer Price:

C $46.00

Quantity:

1

Offer expires in:

1d 22h

Buyer's Message:

--

Ship to:

(redacted), MN,United States

Accept offerMake a counterofferDecline offer

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You responded with a counteroffer!

Mar 22, 2018 16:24:10 EDT

Counteroffer price:

C $46.78

Quantity:

1

Message:

--

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(redacted) made you an offer

Mar 22, 2018 16:22:25 EDT

Offer Price:

C $45.00

Quantity:

1

Buyer's Message:

--

Offer Declined

Mar 22, 2018 16:21:22 EDT

Message:

--

---

(redacted) countered your offer!

Mar 22, 2018 16:20:06 EDT

Counteroffer price:

C $42.00

Quantity:

1

Buyer's Message:

--

---

You responded with a counteroffer!

Mar 21, 2018 18:31:05 EDT

Counteroffer price:

C $46.78

Quantity:

1

Message:

--

---

(redacted) countered your offer!

Mar 21, 2018 17:27:07 EDT

Counteroffer price:

C $42.00

Quantity:

1

Buyer's Message:

--

---

You responded with a counteroffer!

Mar 21, 2018 15:00:15 EDT

Counteroffer price:

C $46.78

Quantity:

1

Message:

--

---

(redacted) made you an offer

Mar 21, 2018 14:57:06 EDT

Offer Price:

C $40.00

Quantity:

1

Buyer's Message:

--

[hlmacdon]

Personally I'd let it expire and raise my normal price by 78 cents but that might just my snarky side coming out for an afternoon stroll.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Take the 46.00 and run if you'd like to make a sale. Unless it's something you're really concerned about covering your costs on. It's the new variation of people that used to bid at the last minute on items with no bids. Drove most of us crazy. They like that feeling of "Beating someone". I'm guessing their bid history is Best Offers on everything they purchase. Then tell that invisible character on your shoulder "Don't worry, be Happy!"  🙂

-CM

[recped]

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but it looks to me like they offered $46 and you are the one who countered with $46.78

If I was the buyer I'd sure wonder what you were thinking, my first thought would be that you are being petty over 78 cents and maybe I'll just waste you time for the entertainment factor.

[ricarmic]

Buyers come in all types.

Some folks enjoy the negotiating process as much as the item. The back and forth is what they like doing. 

I'm reminded of one buyer that would never buy something unless there had been some back and forth, a couple times or more were important, moreso than the price. Being a little evil myself, I knew the stuff the person would probably be buying and I inflated the price on that stuff so that the post haggling process arrived at somewhat the original price. Worked well for some time. Haven't seen that buyer for years though, but it was always the case that they would only buy if there had been some negotiating. Never did they buy anything at the original price.

I'd forget how I feel about this and accept the $46 and treat it just like any other offer situation.....

[lachnrd]

The counter was the same $46.78 for all the offers so you read it wrong. I would just let it expire as this buyer looks to be a problem for later.

[momcqueen]

My counter offer has been $46.78 the whole time. They’ve offered $40 and then $42 twice and then $45 and then finally $46. My response has been $46.78 and $46.78 and $46.78 and then declined. And now....? Indecision. Ignore, accept or counter at $46.78 so they might finally get the picture.

Or, just take the $46 now and not regret waiting a few more months to get $65 or more.

The only other one of these available anywhere is across The River being sold by yet another person who tried to lowball me for it. Same user ID on both sites. I countered. They declined.

Do I want the sale for $46 is the question, I suppose, regardless of the Offer History? It would help to look at that idea alone.

[ricarmic]

Personally I suggest forgetting how you feel about it.

Unless the buyer has made/done some sort of thing to invoke spider senses, just treat it like any transaction, perhaps even pretend in ones head that they came back with $46. the first time....would you take it then?

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

I would check their feedbacks left for other sellers to help make that decision.

[edubb101]

Tough one in my opinion.  For me it depends on how rare the piece is.  If it  is extremely hard to find i believe you will eventually get your original asking price therefore let the offer expire.   If its an item that you can replenish easily than let it go and take the sale.

Last year i had a rare WWF LJN figure for sale with a best offer option. A lowball offer came in and i countered with the minimum amount i would take and advised in my counter that this would be the lowest i would go.  I received a counter of $1 less than what i offered. I declined immediately and moved on.  I ended up selling the figure for my original asking price later on so it was a wise choice.

Basically i knew that i held the cards as the piece i had was rare which gave me the leverage to walk away from a sale where the difference was a $1

Hope this helps

[momcqueen]

Therein lays the dilemma. This is a product that is no longer in production, I have the only one on eBay and there is exactly one other on The River which is much, much more. That one is asking double the asking price and nearly triple my consistent counteroffer of $46.78. I’m doing the buyer a favour by even considering an offer that low. If they were serious about needing this for whatever reason, they wouldn’t have used their LAST CHANCE to counter my counter with an offer for 78 cents less than the price I set from the onset.

Their feedback doesn’t raise any red flags, and they don’t appear to buy much by Best Offer so maybe this is a game they’re just excited to play with no firm idea of the consequences of Final Offer outcome.

I don’t doubt I’d get $65 (or more) for this item in a few months. Outside chance, I’d be sitting on it until holiday shopping starts.

I’m still on the fence.

I can’t shake the suspicion the buyer is just yanking my chain at this point.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

It sounds like if you accept this offer then you'd be bitter about it, might as well sit on it a little longer if you're confident that you'll sell it later at $65.

[femmefan1946]

I'd say the bidder is a very slow learner.

There are two available.

Yours at a consistent price of $46.78 and another at triple the price (and no haggling available) on AZ.

I can't see this getting better.

I've just packaged an item for a buyer in India who wrote after buying demanding a better shipping fee. I responded by pointing out my overseas fee for India was the same as for Australia or Germany or UK.

After I opened the UID, he finally paid.

I suspect it will be reported as 'lost in the mail' and I will be out $50 bucks.

[momcqueen]

“It sounds like if you accept this offer then you'd be bitter about it, might as well sit on it a little longer if you're confident that you'll sell it later at $65.”

Not bitter, but regretful. Like the seller version of buyer’s remorse.

And it’s the 78-cent thing. Like, we all know it’s not about 78 cents at this point. If I wanted to sell it for $46.78 then selling it for $46 is the same thing.

I just don’t understand the reason a buyer would play at it this way when they’re the one who stand to lose. It’s like if I was in a street fight with this person, and it’s come down to the end where one last punch is going to finish it for sure, this would be like their finishing move and instead of lunging with a punch, they suddenly whip out a dirty rag and use it to blindfold themselves. Like..?! That makes no sense, it’s not to their advantage, what do they expect is going to happen?

This ships with tracking, so I won’t lose an Item Not Received claim here. And the item itself is in perfect condition, there are no issues that could possibly lead to Not as Described, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t potential for some other inventive or imaginative trouble still. Unless the buyer is making offers on something they think is something else? It’s well-described if they’ve taken the time to read it.

I hope your package to India ends well, femme, but I’m afraid you might be right. Did you ‘report’ him for trying to harass you into changing terms of the sale after purchase?

[ricarmic]

If I have an item that I know is "unique" and/or will have buyers interest at the full price sooner than later, the buyer gets the:

"Thank you for your offer. I'm sorry but I am not able to offer a discount on this item at this time."

And one would be surprised how many times the person comes back an hour, a day or a week etc later and buys at the full price with no problems!

PS if it is down to 78c, I think the answer is they don't care that much if they get it or not. There is more to it than the final 78c reduction in the price.... and if you are feeling regret at all then take the opportunity to wait and get full price later on (based on what you've said, they'd have gotten my note above from the start anyway if this were mine!)

[realjazz-123]

The buyer you describe makes me feel very uneasy about future issues over the item and I would be relieved to not sell.

   I must share a not exact but similar case. I sold an lp which I thought to be in high quality condition  to an international  buyer. After he received it he wrote to complain it was too "noisy". I refunded him over half the sale price and he was satisfied. I put him on my no bid list.

   A few  months passed and I had on auction (in the good old days) an lp that had a bid of $400. The international buyer whom I had blocked wrote to offer me $800 as a buy it now. I did not respond, but got a few more messages saying he was having trouble bidding. I then wrote back to say in very polite fashion that his standards for "noisy" were too different from mine and best if we did not do business together. I decided to give up his extra $400 for what I thought would prevent a future problem.

       The item sold for $400 to a very appreciative collector, but the international buyer wrote me very, very nasty emails for a few days.

        My suggestion-at some point your tingling  'spidy sense' must be trusted despite some $$$ loss.

[momcqueen]

I think the buyer is toying with me, if you pardon the pun. It’s really not about 78 cents.

As much as I HATE to forgo a sale, this one just sits ill with me now. I mean, if I accepted it, chances are that we’d just move on with our lives and this would be the end of the tale, no drama. I could counter at my standing price of $46.78 to make some kind of a point, or I could just do nothing. Do nothing seems like the tact to take.

As an aside, on a different Best Offer item, I noticed an offer pattern from one buyer that seems to indicate that offers that are Auto-Declined no longer count toward the five-offer limit? Can anyone else confirm this is a recent change?

[rose-dee]

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@momcqueenwrote:
My counter offer has been $46.78 the whole time. They’ve offered $40 and then $42 twice and then $45 and then finally $46. My response has been $46.78 and $46.78 and $46.78 and then declined. And now....? Indecision. Ignore, accept or counter at $46.78 so they might finally get the picture.

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If I may, I think you're allowing Best Offer to cause you more grief than it should.  If your absolute bottom line was $46.78, positively no give or take, then why dicker with a buyer at all after his first reply?  I think all this does is bring out the vindictive streak in a buyer and cause you to be upset and second-guess yourself -- with no sale in the end.   The offer/counteroffer process is really only effective when both parties are flexible and in a position to be willing to consider striking a bargain.  

By allowing yourself to be drawn into the back-and-forth game, yet not actually wanting (or being able) to bargain, I think you're not using the Best Offer system to its best advantage.  If you have your price firmly in your mind at the outset, don't allow yourself to be pulled into badgering by a buyer.  

In this instance for example, after receiving the $40 offer, if I decided I couldn't possibly, no matter what, go below $46.78, and I really wasn't in the mood to dicker over the price, I'd send that as my one and only counter-offer, and ignore any subsequent offers from the buyer, either letting them self-expire or declining them with a thank you note.  Goodbye and good luck to that buyer.  

 However, although it's too late now, a better strategy would be to counter with a somewhat higher price than your absolute bottom line (maybe around $52), and "feel out" the buyer in downward increments.   That would have given the buyer some satisfaction and you may not have hit your rock bottom price.  In other words, bluff.  Countering $46.78 to the buyer's initial $40 offer on an item listed at $65 might have sent a message that you desperately needed the sale, hence the cat and mouse game that followed.  

On the other hand, do you need the sale badly enough?  If you can't afford to lose this sale on principle, then just take the money and run.  But avoid counter-offering with your absolute end price at the beginning of the bargaining game if this happens again.  You're right -- it's analogous to laying all your cards on the table at the very start of a poker game. 

[bpl521_sell]

My two cents are to stick to you $46.78 unless it was a repeat buyer, that was your lowest price from the start, they know it x4 and are baiting you. I would just let it expire, if the buyer is serious they are probably biting their nails wondering why you haven't responded. As others have stated in other threads it is also free advertising as it show a offer is pending to other buyers. They may jump in if they are sitting on the fence.

Downside as others point out you could lose a sale over 78 cents.  

[lucitabby]

Decline his offer.

Move on.

Raise your acceptable offer on this item to $55.00.