eBay

5-solas · ‎02-22-2021

Greetings - as a relatively new seller, I'm hoping to gain some insight from those who are more experienced and have been doing this a long time. My question is this: what is everyone's recommended strategy as it relates to allowing (or not allowing) buyers to submit offers lower than your asking price?

My primary school of thought says that by doing so, you're automatically advertising the fact that you'll take a price lower than the one you've listed. If you've "padded" your price in such a way as to accommodate for that, then I suppose that may be helpful. But if you seek to price your items competitively at the outset as I do, then wouldn't it be better to set up the "Don't allow offers" feature? If someone places a "Watch" on your item, you'll still have the opportunity to "reward" them with a discount and entice them to complete the purchase, but at least you're not starting off at the outset from a position of compromise. Thoughts?

The other school of thought, some of which is alluded to above, would be to price your item so as to leave some room for negotiation, knowing that many shoppers enjoy the ability to haggle for the best price (which as a buyer myself I can certainly understand). Especially given the fact that you're not able to do this (as far as I know) on Amazon which is most likely the largest competitor for many of us. But I can also say as a buyer, that if I see an item advertised that I really want, and it's at the lowest total price and doesn't allow for offers, I'll almost always just go ahead and buy it right away.

I'd love to hear from those on either side of the aisle as to which strategy you employ, as well as from those who use a combination of both. Thanks in advance and hope y'all have a great week of sales ahead!

biggymoe · ‎02-22-2021

It appears to me that you have very succinctly covered the pros and cons of both ways. Try several listings using each option and see how it works for you.

coastaltechsolution · ‎02-22-2021

Most of my listings have "Make Offer" enabled and you can set it to decline amounts and accept amounts.

I leave those fields blank and allow all offers, yes even the very low ball offers as you do not have to accept them.

As stated by @biggymoe maybe try a couple listing with Offers enabled and see how it works for you.

Good Luck 😁

vintagecraze50 · ‎02-22-2021

I never use best offer on anything because I price my stuff competitively from the start. I am a believer that when you use best offer you are appealing to people who want a huge discount on here and you will get numerous LOW BALL offers on this game like 50 percent off your price. There is a flea market mindset on this website that I wish they would get rid of but, for some this strategy works well for them. For me raising my prices where NOBODY IS EVEN GOING TO LOOK AT THEM anyway because they are too high from the start to accommodate the best offer feature.

m_pthisandthat · ‎02-22-2021

Yes, you have done an excellent job in pointing out the pros and cons of this issue . Still you were asking for feedback. I feel the type of item you are selling plays an important part in your determining what to do yes or no. I think if you are selling used items and especially collectibles as I do that if you do not utilize make an offer the potential to lose sales can be the result. Yes, there is some truth that it might appear that you are saying yes I will take less than my asking price and in truth this might be the case. This is ebay not your local department store. So the fact is that in many cases I will take a little less than my asking price. Te buyer loves to feel that they have negotiate a good deal in the sale you know the WIN-Win scenario. Also in many cases if the buyer really wants the item they will either pay full price or very close to it to insure they can purchase it. Really there are many more factors that could come into play on this issue.

jack_bucks_ghost · ‎02-22-2021

I would add that the category where the item is listed comes into play here, at least to some degree. Selling in the volatile sports cards category, prices tend to jump around quite a bit, sometimes from one day to the next, so pricing an item can be a bit difficult sometimes. I tend to price on the lower side, but usually still add "best offer" to anticipate across the board price drops of the item. If the going price increases much, I revise the listing, still keeping the b/o option. Competition can be pretty tough in that category, but I think the b/o option helps me stay reasonably competitive. Still, i do deal with a pretty high number of lowball offers (worst one was a $10 offer on an $800 listing).

m60driver · ‎02-22-2021

I only use best offer when comps on sold items range quite a bit. I will price on the high end of the market and will usually accept offers down to about 20% below my asking price. But at least half of the items I list with best offer still sell at the asking price. And if I get a really low ball offer I simply do not respond. They get the message.

If an item does not sell then I will send offers to watchers, if any, at 20% below asking as an intermediary step before lowering the price.

luckythewinner · ‎02-22-2021

I do not use Best Offer, but eBay gives buyers the ability to send an offer even if sellers do not choose this option.

If I get an unsolicited offer and I am willing to sell at that price, I decline the offer, edit the listing to reduce the price, and message the person who made the offer.

That way it is available to everyone, not just the person who made the offer.

There are some who feel that offers allow them to "vet" a buyer before choosing to sell, but personally I do not have the time, patience, or inclination to do so.

allaboutautos · ‎02-22-2021

I use best offer on all my listings for the same reason many above have stated. Prices change, best offer lets buyers attempt to purchase my item even if it may not be the lowest price.

I also like that the page where you accept / decline the offer shows how long a listing has been up. That is a huge factor in deciding if I am ready to part with something for less (and maybe use the funds to purchase a faster moving item).

little*blackdog · ‎02-22-2021

My experience has been, when allowing offers in the listing, most buyers won't even use it or don't consider the opportunity, while those who do use it make such low-ball offers, it's usually just a huge waste of everyone's time.

Although, if the item is one that's popular, and there are a lot of them listed by other sellers, I might add "allow offer" and see what happens. Sometimes a buyer will make an offer on your, more expensive item just because you have great feedback, or you're located closer (= lower ship'g cost) and they'd prefer to buy from you. You can make a counter-offer of course, asking if they could go to such-and-such a price... it's worth a shot to break your item away from the pack and get it sold.

agentxxii · ‎11-28-2023

The whole point of eBay was a giant flea market. It's people like you who ruined it.

ebooksdiva · ‎11-28-2023

Dragging up a thread that’s 2 yrs old to me is pointless.

kh-vince · ‎11-28-2023

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.