When someone sends me a Best Offer that’s so low it’s insulting, it makes me want to...

[momcqueen]

... reply with a Counter Offer that’s higher than the actual asking price but that’s prohibited by an eBay error.

Boo.

Where’d that Auto-Decline button go? I thought I had it enabled....

Item is $68 on Markdown at present. Offer came in at $7. Should I counter at seven dollars less than original price? Or ignore? Straight decline?

So many choices, none of them as satisfactory as sticking a wet finger in their ear for their time and trouble.

[esclyons]

I use best offer on everything, and while the occasional dope , will send a ridiculous offer, it is not the norm..  Most people just want to think that they saved some money even if it was a dollar or so..

As for the super low , insulting offers i counter them as if they were serious offers, and i counter at a little higher than i normally would, then i know if they are willing to work with me.

If they come back low again, i simply decline it.  

The ones that really irk me are the ones who send an offer, then i counter offer it.. then they respond will a counter  counteroffer lower than their initial offer, saying i should of accepted their first offer.  Those are quickly declined, and move on..

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I agree all the losers with insulting offers should be declined & then blocked.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

I gave up with those 1 cent and 99 cent auctions ages ago. Wasn't worth the trouble when people always wait to the bitter end to get in their last second bid. And then have the wonderful email after it arrived...How come the shipping was sooooo expensive!! Complaining because they got something for free!! Sheesh!! And very easy to go thru store monthly listings quota with bid only. My listings are all BIN with a reasonable best offer.  Found in the past when the offer was a little too low if you gave them a polite note in the counter-offer with a few reasons behind your pricing, quite often they could be swayed. Figure it doesn't hurt to try. You can always try REASONABLE offers with be considered. The laughing hysterically I don't include in the email....anymore. Don't want to burn any bridges. The other way to look at it is if you sell it with a best offer it's out of your inventory and the buyer feels like they got a deal. WIN  WIN!!

-CM

PS. Received an offer the other day for a 25.00 item. Offer was 10.00 and I was instructed to ship it for free. Checked feedbacks left. A bunch of negatives and almost everything they bought was best offer. Instantly hit the No Thank You Button.

[kawartha-ephemera]

QUOTE I agree all the losers with insulting offers should be declined & then blocked. UNQUOTE

This is the correct course... those supposed buyers are just looking to stir the pot... to them it's entertainment... don't play, just don't!

[momcqueen]

I would be remiss if I allowed it to look as if every Best Offer I receive is a lowball. It’s a decent selling technique although I could not say at this point without crunching some numbers what percent of offers end in a successful sale. The lowballs are about one in ten. The other nine would be something I could work with. Maybe four in ten lead to a sale, whether it’s a first offer that I accept or a counter that they do. That’s not a scientific answer, that’s just me going on memory.

[momcqueen]

Also, those numbers would be heavily skewed by the fact that some of my listings but not others have auto-decline enabled so that I don’t see those lowballs until many weeks later when the item sells.

[momcqueen]

In that respect, it might be nice to see a weekly report on auto-declines. Or a line somewhere to alert a seller to a listing where six buyers have used their five offers each to get auto-declined.

[esclyons]

if potential buyers are running out of offers because they are inching towards your auto cut off , then these buyers are not  needed , that's what auction style listings are for.

Stick to your guns, with best offer it is just that, we as seller's appreciate an offer that is close to our buy it now, and we can accept it knowing our customers are getting a quality product  , and outstanding customer service, and will get better attention from us on future purchases..

[a52split]

I guess if you have a dog of an item you just want gone, accept BO. 

My reason for never offering BO is from when I'm buying.  I search for an item, sometimes for weeks with nothing coming up in the search.  Then it appears and the price is what I'm willing to pay.  But the dummy has a BO on it.  Why would anyone do a B-i-N when you know you can get a discount?  The few times I've found my item at the price I'm willing to pay, I throw in an 80% offer.  They always accept it.

[decal-fx]

Conversely, I'm trying to purchase a $38.76 item the seller has used the "Best Offer" feature on their listing,  so I offer what I believe to be a reasonable $34.00, the seller comes back with a counter offer of $38.00... a 1.9% reduction...  Why bother. 

[momcqueen]

Also, good points. I too was a buyer before I was a seller. Best Offer should mean a Seller is willing to negotiate more than 38 cents. Also, many times I’d skip BO because I needed the item sooner rather than later and didn’t want to play a game of wait-and-see with the seller.

In the last Seller Update, however, eBay said something about the expanding Seller Hub suggesting adding Make an Offer to any listing with a starting price higher than the trending price for that item. So...

[momcqueen]

Eighty percent of asking is a reasonable BO. But a seller who counters an offer of $34 on something selling for $38.76 with an offer of $38 is not. Jerks abound.

[rose-dee]

---

@kawartha-ephemerawrote:
QUOTE I agree all the losers with insulting offers should be declined & then blocked. UNQUOTE

This is the correct course... those supposed buyers are just looking to stir the pot... to them it's entertainment... don't play, just don't!

---

As I suggested above, there is another strategy -- take the auto-decline off and make such buyers do some work for you while they're playing around.  

I've always believed that our culture is not as comfortable with the idea of bargaining for a price as others may be, and so tend to look at Best Offer in terms of an all or nothing proposition.   In other words, that a lowball offer is always an insult, rather than an opportunity.  To me, it's either an opportunity to attract other  buyers (if it's a truly ludicrous offer), or an opportunity to start a dialogue (if the offer is low, but within reason) and see how far the process can go.  

It's recognized in marketing that psychology plays a big part in driving sales.  One mundane example: we've all probably experienced the scenario in a store where no one is looking at a rack or bin full of items until someone does, and then suddenly a whole small crowd descends on it.  As in, there must be something good over there!  In a similar way, having an offer pending tag displayed on an item (whether you're seriously considering the offer or not) is an attractant.  

I believe there is another psychological attractant to including Best Offer on listings on select, strategically chosen items.  That is that everyone likes to feel they got a deal.  By participating in the pricing process, buyers feel they  have had some control and input into what they've actually paid.  Happy buyer, happy seller.  

On the other hand, my opinion is that offering too many items with Best Offer may have the opposite effect, signalling either a desperation fire sale or that the seller is unsure how to properly price their wares, i.e. inexperienced and an open target.  

All I can attest to is that I've used Best Offer very successfully for as long as it's been around, but I've always been strategic and discriminating about which items get Best Offer included.  

[zee-chan]

(It has been a very long time since anyone sent a 2nd try for one that I let expire.)

I recently got one where I had the book listed at $19.99, I got an offer of $13 from a 20 feedback buyer. I declined it (I let it sit for 1.5 day) saying that I usually don't accept offers unless it's for multiple books and told them I can't accept a 30% off offer. They offered $15 which I let it time out. Now they offered $17... if this was an old book I would've accepted. But it's a book I just recently started listing (I have best offer on everything), and despite the offer, none of the 4 watchers want to buy it at original price lol. Darn it XD

I'm debating if I should just decline again and then turn off best offer for this particular book.

And regarding what rose-dee said about inexperienced seller who don't know how to price items... That's not quite the case for me. I have best offer up so that people interested in multiple books can make an offer on multiple books, and usually I'll accept them in that case. I'd say about 70% of my books are sold at listed price... People don't even make an offer most of the time, even when they're buying multiples.

[rosscd57]

I usually tell them: "this is not a sale".

[esclyons]

Also keep in mind potential buyers don't look at the price if you have discounted it.  For example if i have a 20$ coin listed and mark it down 10%. i can't accept  an offer of 20% less than that or i lose money..  at full price i can consider an offer less 20%, and still make a little..

What bust my coconut, is a potential buyer that offers exactly what they figure something is worth minus the shipping fee, because they figure with the shipping fee the item is fully priced..  Hello, so an item worth 70 $ they offer 60$, because shipping is 10$..  totally not right..

I also buy a lot on ebay , and i consider the shipping fee what i would have spent in my time and expenses to drive somewhere and park and go buy the actual item,  so why to people figure they can subtract the shipping fee from their offer??

[momcqueen]

Allow me to preface this follow up story with a comment that I’ve sucessfully sold a few items by Best Offer between this initial post and today.

This morning, I awoke to a snarky eBay Message from a potential customer on a $43 CAD (marked down) item that she says is worth $5 but she’s prepared to pay me $8 at the most. At first, I simply ignore it. Then I decide to be polite and she gets my standard response which is along the lines of: “Thank you for contacting Mo McQueen and Sons. Please use Make an Offer on the listing; we do not entertain requests for off-ebay transactions. Questions? Please ask. Thanks.”

A couple hours pass and I receive a reply from the user saying she might do that if I dropped the price of shipping. Again, I put on my polite pants and reply something like, “I’m afraid that’s not possible. The cost you see for postage is actual cost, in fact, buyers pay less than actual cost as we subsidize postage to keep shipping prices low.”

Her reply? She puts in an offer for $1.

Auto-declined.

Haha.

One dollar.

[hlmacdon]

---

@momcqueenwrote:
A couple hours pass and I receive a reply from the user saying she might do that if I dropped the price of shipping. Again, I put on my polite pants and reply something like, “I’m afraid that’s not possible. The cost you see for postage is actual cost, in fact, buyers pay less than actual cost as we subsidize postage to keep shipping prices low.”

Her reply? She puts in an offer for $1.

Auto-declined.

Haha.

One dollar.

---

Typical of my experience with ebay buyers and best offers. Lowball offers are one thing but about 90% of the time you get some snide comment that accompanies the process. It's barely a step above Craigslist where you get  a lowball offer and a partial barter of some random useless item.

As I type this I've gotten an  message about ebay's new your item are waiting in carts feature. Just drop your prices and we'll tell the buyer about a new deal! Time to try some reverse psychology and raise the prices and reduce available quantities. 

[momcqueen]

“Time to try some reverse psychology and raise the prices and reduce available quantities.“

BRILLIANT!

[momcqueen]

Don’t get me started on tradesies.