General Forum

Great point! Sellers might be having a difficult time, and both examples--seller making an offer and the buyer making an lower offer--would illustrate that both are experiencing financial difficulties

On Trademe (like New Zealand Ebay) this is a standard option for a seller.

If your product gets no bids/does not meet reserve you have the option of offering to all watchers at a fixed price, or watchers can ask you for a fixed price offer (presumably lower than what you had it originally listed for of course!).

Have never sold on Ebay so not sure if that has been a standard option there or is relatively new but I use it quite frequently the odd time I clear some business stuff I just want to get rid of on Trademe.

Okay, so from what I'm reading here, I wasn't doing anything out of line by offering a 10% reduction in price (seems to be common practice, even in New Zealand!), especially if the seller has a "make an offer" option. I don't think I'll officially protest his poor customer service (possibly because of a lack of sales, poor economy?), but he lost my business and to paraphrase Dan, good riddins!  So thank you all for your insight, and now I'll continue to Ebay as I have done for the past four years. 

Late to this party but I'll chime in. I buy a fair amount and sell some on eBay. I always make an offer if it's available. Often in the 2/3 to 3/4 of asking price range. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. 
My pet peeve goes the other way really. Sometimes my offer is immediately rejected, clearly automated. If you're going to do that, what's the point? Just put your minimum bid down. Don't pretend you'll take offers. 
And I think it's almost rude not to counter-offer. To me, "best offer" is an invitation to negotiate. If you don't want to negotiate after providing the best offer option, then I need not ever buy from you. 
And, yes, I've had my offer rejected, watched the card expire and get relisted for a higher price, which I think is kinda funny. 
v3

I've seen that many times too. My take is that the seller sees he/she can get an offer. If they relist the item they may be hoping to get and even high offer the next time around, especially if it's from someone who hadn't see the original price.

He may not have willingly offered the Best Offer option. Ebay has apparently started automatically adding Best Offer buttons to listings they think are overpriced or to items that haven't sold in 8 days. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-Forces-Me-To-Work-For-Them-AGAINST-MY-WILL-Again/m-p/28525349#M1214114. Still no excuse for that kind of reaction, though.

I have made offers on Buy it Now listings, and the seller came back telling me that the Best Offer was for offers *higher* than the Buy it Now price. Uh, I think that's what auctions are for...

I have items on my watchlist that have been sitting there for months, but have not seen a BO option added to their listings. Heck, I just scanned through it looking for something, without seeing this post, and didn't see that added to any of them. At the saem time, I can see it happening. Then again I did see this line Best Offer is applied for new or occasional sellers if the item is listed above the recommended price, in the message. As pointed out, it's the seller's option to list what they feel and it's on the seller if it doesn't move because their price is too high. Imagine if Dean's Cards were to suddenly drop their prices....  

Yes, I don't know if ebay stopped doing that, but for a while there they were "intervening" when they shouldn't have (by automatically adding best offer) - it happened to me. (I haven't seen it happen to my listings recently.)

There is also a Best Offer option for auctions so that a seller can entertain a "bid" and close early.

In any event, it's no excuse for a seller to be rude to a potential customer. When that happened to me, I explained what happened and that I didn't intend to entertain offers on the item. Some seler - it's a wonder they still have a business.

Okay, so that may be true, but how am I supposed to know that? Just state that and decline. Or just decline it without any comments. It's not like I'm going to be heartbroken by rejecting my offer, especially if it is about a ten percent decrease. 

"Higher" price? That's funny and sad at the same time. Who would pay a higher price for it? I did wonder though why a seller would have an auction and a make an offer on some items since the two are seemingly contradictory, but what Dan said makes sense. Can one make an offer while an auction is current or does that feature end once someone places a bid? 

mp775 wrote:

He may not have willingly offered the Best Offer option. Ebay has apparently started automatically adding Best Offer buttons to listings they think are overpriced or to items that haven't sold in 8 days. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-Forces-Me-To-Work-For-Them-AGAINST-MY-WILL-Again/m-p/28525349#M1214114. Still no excuse for that kind of reaction, though.

I have made offers on Buy it Now listings, and the seller came back telling me that the Best Offer was for offers *higher* than the Buy it Now price. Uh, I think that's what auctions are for...

As a seller...I rarely if ever put an auto-decline option on my listings.  There are rare, high-valued exceptions where I don't even want to deal with the folks that put in a $1 offer on a $1000 listing. I do a decent amount of research using recent completed sales and other similar items for sale when creating a listing.  If somebody offers me less than half of what I have the item listed for, I will reject out of hand and not counter.  I see no reason to respond to someone who makes such a lowball offer.  We are clearly too far apart on pricing to even try.  Most times when I do respond, the individual who made the offer will not respond, which means that I cannot do anything with the listing for 48 hours.  I don't need the hassle for somebody who isn't serious.

Example...I have an item listed at $49.99 OBO.  The identical item is also currently at auction and is at $35 with over a day left.  I get an offer for $25.  I will reject and not even counter.

I will never, ever berate a potential customer for making such an offer, I will just decline.  I have had some potential buyers reach out to me and ask why I don't counter, and I explain the above.  My absolute least favorite is the individual who sends me a message asking what my best price is without ever making an offer.  Don't do that.  My initial offer is there for all to see.  I have a number in mind that is the least I will take.  If your highest value is above my lowest value, then I just cost myself money.  If you want to make an offer that you feel is fair by using the software, by all means go ahead.  I will reply as appropriate.  I completely understand that you are trying to get the item for as little as possible, but you need to understand that I am trying to get as much as possible for the item!