How many of you send offers to buyers?
Summary: ruby_c_took initiated a discussion about the effectiveness of the 'send offer' feature for sellers, sharing their experience with limited success. Other participants, including fern*wood, heckofagame, and sreu3058, shared similar mixed results, noting that sending offers sometimes leads to sales, but often doesn't. tobaccocardyahoo expressed dissatisfaction with the feature, arguing that many watchers are not genuine buyers. Several participants mentioned using manual offers instead of automated ones, while others like jonathanbrightlight reported significant sales through offers. There was also a debate on discount strategies and the effects of the culture of bargaining on eBay.
I'm curious about how other sellers handle the 'send offer' feature.
I occasionally send offers, and I try to always make them at least 20% off. I have gotten very few sales from this. I have much better luck with buyers sending me offers, to be honest.
I wonder if it's because of the absolute flood of offers buyers receive. I turned off the automatic offer feature since I don't want to annoy buyers to death.
Does anyone have success with this feature? How many of you have automatic offers turned on or off?
imac7065
路1 month agoI have auto 10% offers sent on all 30,000+ of my active listings.... this has increased sales 20-40% since I started doing it last year.. but has a double edge sword....
You cannot edit an item that has an active offer.. and these offer last for a full year.. so if one person looks at the item, gets the offer, and ignores it.. you can no longer edit that item. You will have to end that listing and re list it to change anything. Bit annoying but worth the trade off.
imac7065
路1 month agoTo clarify most of my listings are under $20 so buyers are more likely to do a double look when receiving these offers.... if you sell small quantities of large value items.. this probably isn't worth doing.
jonathanbrightlight
路1 month agoAutomated Offers don't have to last for a year. You choose the settings, and you can edit those settings. If you remove the automated offers, and none have been sent in the last 4 days, you'll be able to edit it again.
l5vw
路1 month ago 路 EditedOf our last 100 sales approx 30 were offers we accepted and approx 20 were from offers we sent. So we like the feature !
kandf_vintage_finds
路1 month agoI never send offers. I don't think most buyers want to be bothered..
adamcartwright
路1 month agoI do. When I watch something, it's usually because I'd like to know if I can get it cheaper.
And I don't pester the seller with offers through messaging if the listing is not OBO.
powell-collectibles
路1 month agoI鈥檓 probably a hit rate of 10% at best on sending offers and getting a sale. I鈥檓 nowhere near 20% though. More like 5-10%.
secretmblue
路1 month agoI send offers on some of my items and its a 50/50 on acceptance
fullers_uk
路1 month agoI send offers, it rarely works but I love the new function where you can send offers on listed items that have no watchers at all, thats real cool.
inhawaii
路1 month agoI don't send offers to buyers and I don't accept offers from buyers.
adamcartwright
路1 month agoI do send offers -- not on everything, but on many.
Anywhere from 5-20%, depending on the rarity and desirability of the item, the price, how old is the listing, whether I want to store it or eventually just keep it, etc.
I often list stuff that I'd just as well keep if I don't get a good price.
jonathanbrightlight
路1 month agoWe send offers regularly, usually 10% off, with counter-offers enabled or disabled based on the age and popularity of the listing. So far this year, that's resulted in 6.8% of our sales, which is about $25,000 worth, so it seems worth it to me! We don't even do that (or accept offers) until something has been listed a few months, so those are all things that didn't sell at our original price for long enough that we're ready to accept less.
authentic*vintage
路1 month ago5% off only - it works amazingly well - I usually end up selling the item at full price, not at offer price. Make that make sense.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoWait, so you send the offer and they don't accept but come back to the listing and buy it at full price instead? That is super interesting.
authentic*vintage
路1 month agoI have no way to know if it is them but it often triggers a full price sale.
adamcartwright
路1 month agoNo, that's not what's happening.
chbarth-26
路1 month agoWow, this could not be more relevant to my current situation right now, I recently listed my very first item on ebay, it is a limited edition painting by the artist "Tom 'Thor' Thardarson" the famous Disney Tiki artist. It has accumulated 30= with three people watchlisting it in 2 days, it has been 6 days with no offers however, so I took the option to make an offer, I dropped the price 200 dollars to see if this will get them to hop off the fence and I too was curios as to whether this is a good tactic to sell more quickly.
roccotacodad54
路1 month agoSurf art is most definately niche art. If it were mine I'd be patient.
That's a nice one by the way. Lots to see in that painting.
sfau
路1 month agoI send them and often they are successful.
luckythewinner
路1 month agoAs a buyer ...
I watch the items I am interested in
I see what offer the sellers send me
I make an offer to the lowest seller, at about 15% below their price or offer
Sellers who do not make offers to me often lose out, unless their price is below the lowest offer I get.
adamcartwright
路1 month agoAre you saying you receive SIOs on OBO listings?
I send SIOs, but never on those.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoI think that's what they're saying, yeah. I know as a buyer I frequently get offers on OBO items which is why I so often disregard offers since when/if I'm ready to buy I'll just make my own offer.
shado-x
路1 month agoI send no offers, and I have "make an offer" clicked off, yet I still have buyers making offers which is annoying. Out of the numerous offers I get, I only accepted 5 since inception, 3 of which they kept asking questions afterward when they said "I will pay you immediately", one of those 3 had the gall to hold the offer hostage asking me to take pictures for him, from which I closed the sale page, banned the buyer, and reposted the item. What a headache. Just buy the asking price or find the item with the work I had to endure to make it available. lol
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoThey make offers in private messages? I always thought that wasn't allowed so the few times I've seen an item that's just too much without "Make an offer" available, I've just let it go. Even now that I know people do that, it seems rude to me . . .
jonathanbrightlight
路1 month agoIt is allowed, but I wouldn't do it personally and I do find it a bit rude. We just reply to messages like that with a simple message along the lines of "Our price is firm".
chapeau-noir
路1 month agoI might send offers on something with a lot of watchers that I want to move along, but I really don't use this feature much. When I do I might have ? 50% success? I never send less than a 15% discount. I send them individually because I don't want to send any to 0 watchers - people who just look at items don't need to be pestered.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month ago100% on the ones with 0 watchers. I don't send those either, for the same reason.
kensgiftshop
路1 month agoI don't like receiving offers and I don't send them.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoIt's because I don't like receiving them either that I'm wondering how much success others have. It sounds like some buyers do like them. I think I'll keep doing offers on a few select items.
mam98031
路1 month agoI do. About once a week, usually on Sundays. Sometimes it turns into a sale and sometimes it doesn't. But I find it worthwhile to do. I don't however take 20% off like you. That would eat far too much into my profit.
I don't do the auto offers either. I prefer to send them myself.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoThat's why I don't send many offers. I feel like it's not worth it to offer something tiny like 10% off, and there are only a few items I'm willing to knock 20% off. A few older inventory items I do feel like I can offer that. Sometimes I end up lowering the price afterwards, too.
mam98031
路1 month agoI think you are underestimating a good 10% off. Not all sellers build in big profit margins as apparently some think they do.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoThat's something to consider. I was looking at it from my own buying perspective, which is that 10% off isn't enough to get to me buy something if I hadn't already bought it, but you have a point. Not everyone shops the same. I think I'll give it a try, it doesn't really hurt. I don't want buyers to feel harassed but I'm getting the impression from the comments here that's not a huge problem.
mam98031
路1 month agoExactly and not everything sellers sell are at some highly inflated price either, so many sellers can't offer deep discounts like some buyers would love.
Speaking for myself, I purchase all my inventory. It is new stuff 99.9% of the time. And of course there is a cost to doing this which has to be passed onto the buyer or there would be no reason to sell here.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoI buy new items and resell them very occasionally and yes, the profit margins on that in particular are tight, so that's understandable.
shire123
路1 month agoIf a,time comes in the future where I really want to get rid of things and have a "fire sale" I might use the feature
warrenshobbies
路1 month agoI send them on slow movers, it's really helpful to get a sale on a multi quantity listing to help it in search.
baydealz
路1 month agoI absolutely do not send to casual viewers, maybe to 'watchers.' I find this offer to walkers by kind of rude, and not a good business tactic. For the watchers, sometimes an offer is enough to entice them, but what it gets me to do is review current comps and amend as needed. However, I usually know my prices and like local sales, I just keep them. I do think it's created a bad routine, where even if interested, unless in a hurry, they will watch just to see if you lower the price, even though you do not have 'best offers.' The complaints, lack of feedback, risk of INAD and other eBay 'benefits' remain, so why give a break? My recent torment was caused by an accepted offer, priced way below market to move it and not only was INAD opened, he WANTED MORE BACK THAN THE PRICE OF THE ITEM!!!
main.street.books.plus
路1 month agoI do. I generally convert about 1 in 20. Most are just other sellers in the same space doing recon on similar listings.
baydealz
路1 month agowish we could turn it off
chapeau-noir
路1 month agoYou're repeating yourself?
Just don't use the feature.
shire123
路1 month agoRarely and when I did never had anyone accept
baydealz
路1 month agowish we could turn it off
d.c.enterprises
路1 month agoI've had luck in sending offers and getting sales from same. I never use the automatic offer feature, all manual. If you're offering at least 20% off and getting no bites then maybe your pricing is suspect.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoAs a buyer, I ignore all the offers I get with a very few exceptions, so I assume that could be what's happening, but I'm not sure. I don't do that many offers. I think I have converted a few.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoOh, I just remembered that I did have someone interested after I sent an offer, but she wanted to know how much orange the red shirt had in it. I was truthful and told her it had more orange than blue, and she thanked me but told me that color wouldn't work. So if her coloring had been different, I might have gotten a sale with that offer. I should keep that in mind.
squinkercat59
路1 month agoI go through occasionally and send offers on a few things that I've had awhile. Very rarely does anyone accept. On the other side of the coin, I get offers on things I have looked at, and do take them up on it every now and again.
ten_o_nine
路1 month agoMy Seller Hub shows I have 960 listings eligible to send offers, but I am not going to send a single one. I refuse to chase after casual watchers and devalue my inventory. If someone is interested, they can submit an offer or buy it now.
baydealz
路1 month agowish we could turn it off
tobaccocardyahoo
路1 month agoSending offers is not gratifying for me.
All watchers are not buyers.
Some are other sellers who own a similar item.
Some do not have enough money to buy.
Some watch items the way others use Pinterest, as an end in itself.
Some buy the best deals they can find on a big watchlist when they have some extra money.
I stopped sending offers to watchers.
I do not enable Make an Offer.
I reject more than 50% of the unsolicited offers I get by Ebay message. And I block about half of those cheapskates.
baydealz
路1 month agowish we could turn it off
tobaccocardyahoo
路1 month agoThese buyers would still find a way.
I declined a buyer offer the other day, and got a message "what no counter-offer?". Blocked him without responding. He was in a rural zip at the other end of the country, and I hadn't update the shipping charge, so if he paid my price, he would have gotten a bargain.
I blame other sellers who rely on offers because they overprice.
baydealz
路1 month ago 路 EditedYep, Amazon, Costco and eBay are training bad customers. Nordstrom was famous for excellent customer service and lenient return policy, but was actually firm on nonsense (worn out, used/abused, etc.). To tick off Chapeau, :p I'll repeat, 'I WISH WE COULD TURN IT OFF' - again eBay is forcing seller compliance, yet transferring all the risk to the sellers, that doesn't seem right. Amazon and Costco budget for their return rates and made their own business decision on lifetime value of customers. A shopping mall owner just wants their rent, they don't dictate how a seller operates.
chapeau-noir
路1 month ago:-D I wasn't ticked off, I was just wondering why you kept posting the same thing over and over and over...it just seemed odd. 'Turning it off' won't turn off the culture of dickering offers has created, anyway, we'd still be stuck with that.
chapeau-noir
路1 month agoThis comment has been approved by the Powers That Be.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoThat's a lot of nerve to say 'what no counteroffer'. I love to bargain so I often do several counteroffers if they're willing to bargain as well, but there's no obligation for a seller to do so.
tobaccocardyahoo
路1 month agoSome people love to bargain.
Some people hate bargaining.
I spent a few weeks in Morocco some years back. Returned with a lasting aversion to bargaining.
I am a habitue of a small flea market and have been for a long time. When I ask for a price on an item, I either agree to buy the item or I do not. I do not ask for a better price.
The dealers there who I buy from know they have only one shot at making the sale. They have learned how to always make the sale. Gives us plenty of time for relaxed chatter.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoThat's a big advantage of in person marketplaces, I think. Sellers and customers get to know each other and know what kind of tactic to use for what the person prefers. I love flea markets but there aren't any where I live.
I know many people hate bargaining, and so I try to take a middle approach when navigating offers, but if someone starts bargaining I will happily reciprocate. There's no way to know with a platform like eBay whether someone has one offer they are willing to make and will not budge, or if they're offering assuming you'll counter and are flexible.
tobaccocardyahoo
路1 month agoI used the automatic accept and reject on Ebay make an offer.
The number of offers was still low and the offers that appeared were still unacceptable.
On that Morocco trip, we warmed up in Casablanca and Fez. In Fez we were in the souk early, and made an offer to a vendor. It would have been the first sale of the day, and if he did not make it, he clearly felt the day would be ruined. I doubt if he made any money on our sale.
We went on to Marrakesh. You might love the place. Every vendor started with a price which was at least double what they would accept.
We went on the Rabat the capital, and bargained in our best Marrakesh style. No success in buying anything. A gallery owner took me aside and said, you are behaving as if you were in Marrakesh. This is Rabat, the capital. We do not behave that way.
sreu3058
路1 month agoI try to keep my pricing steady- my margins are thin, so my listed pricing is really my best.
Therefore, my offers are 5% off, which I send out to everybody.
Before anyone scoffs at 5%, hey, that could cover the shipping cost.
Yes, I always send out offers.
Sometimes they work!
grann-4629
路1 month ago 路 EditedI am a buyer. I appreciate and often bite on seller's offers. That is why I put stuff in my Watchlist ... I think that may prompt offers from some sellers. I sometimes get offers for items I have only looked at ... those I just delete.
Keep 'em comin'!
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoReally? That's interesting to me. I ignore all the offers I get because there are usually too many to even process and most listings have best offer enabled so when I'm ready to buy (or if) I just submit an offer.
It's interesting to know that there are some buyers who do wait for offers. Thanks for the insight.
d.c.enterprises
路1 month agogran-4629 is right, I sometimes accept offers as a buyer and that's one of the reasons to use the watch list. Let me correct your initial statement - you stated "I ignore all the offers I get because there are usually too many to even process". What you meant to say was you get a lot of offers and decline to make the sale when you have the opportunity to do so. See ten_o_nine's comment above, same problem - he/she doesn't want to chase anyone down with offers - OK, don't make any sales then, your choice.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoI meant that I ignore all the offers I get as a buyer, which is an overwhelming amount. I never ignore any offers I get as a seller, which is not as many. It's easy to ignore the buying offers as they're just on my alerts but the ones I get as a seller are on my dashboard, allowing me to look at and respond to each one.
grann-4629
路1 month agoI prefer to let the seller make the best offer s/he can do and still make a decent profit. I don't want to insult any sellers with a lowball offer. I have counter-offered a few times and I won a couple that way.
I will never whinge or beg for a better price. When I can't agree with the offer I just decline with a Thank You. I have also declined offers with extremely high shipping costs, but I don't mention these costs as the reason. I got an offer the other day for an $17.10 US item, that is an awesome price for the item, but the seller was in the US using eBay's hub system. The cost to mail from an eastern State to a western Province was over $80 US ( over 100 bucks Canadian ). I was tempted, but refrained 馃槑
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoI think I still have international buyers blocked tbh after some terrible experiences years ago. I have considered changing that, though, but then the tariff thing happened and I decided maybe to leave things as they were. I do have Canada as an exception, though. I had the most lovely woman in Canada buy a whole bunch of dolls from me some six or seven years ago, and it makes me sad to think how much more it would probably cost now to ship the same items.
I had someone offer a very specific price for something once and when I looked, it was the price less the exact shipping cost. I countered them a little and they did end up buying it, but I thought that was a bit telling. I really don't love how much shipping charges have been increasing. I don't like charging people that much more but it's out of my hands.
baydealz
路1 month agoDon't to forget to factor the commission on the shipping when cutting discounts.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agosigh I know, right? I do remember 99% of the time. The policy has now been stopped, but I remember when eBay first started collecting sales tax they were collecting their commission off the sales tax as well. Since the policy has stopped, I guess I could be remembering wrong, but I'm pretty sure that happened.
heckofagame
路1 month agoIn the last 180 days, I have sent 2222 offers and 33 were accepted. So, nothing to get overly excited about.
baydealz
路1 month agowish we could turn it off
chapeau-noir
路1 month agoI simply don't use the feature if I don't want to.
fern*wood
路1 month agoI look through my eligible listings about every morning and usually send a few on certain items. Some items I never send them on and I never use automatic offers. I'm not certain what my hit percentage is, I know it's not high, but I do get some that take the offers.
ruby_c_took
OP1 month agoVery similar to my experience.