Offers. Yay or nay?
What is up with all the offers flying around on eBay? Literally I can put 10 things on my watchlist and I’m going to get offers for eight of them , from seemingly desperate sellers. Is this the new norm now, the new selling strategy on here? I’ve also noticed to sell several of my higher-end things,. I’ve had to offer something off, so I’ve priced things accordingly. Now I’m not new to the realm of antique selling. I’ve been doing it since I was 14 and haggling is always part of the deal. If a dealer won’t haggle I usually walk away but on this platform I’m just not used to that I guess I better get used to it. So thoughts? Yay or nay?
49 comments
gurlcat
·2 years agoLOL @farmalljr and @tobaccocardyahoo -you are both arguing extreme opposite views, with lots of inaccuracies in both cases.
@Anonymous As you can see, there is no consensus about whether offers are a good thing or not, but to answer your question, no it's not a new thing here.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoWhat is up with all the offers flying around on eBay?
Sellers are able to make unsolicited offers to buyers, and many are taking advantage of that. I do it about once a month; others seem to do it daily.
I’m going to get offers for eight of them , from seemingly desperate sellers
If they are desperate, then use that information - and your anonymity - to your advantage. Instead of countering, make them a new offer that doubles the discount they offered and see what happens. They won't know it was the person they made an offer to.
Is this the new norm now, the new selling strategy on here?
Some do it, some don't. There are 20 million sellers here, and you cannot generalize. I do not get nearly as many offers as you seem to.
I’ve also noticed to sell several of my higher-end things,. I’ve had to offer something off, so I’ve priced things accordingly
It sounds like you just answered your own question about "What's up with all the offers?" 🙂
If a dealer won’t haggle I usually walk away but on this platform I’m just not used to that
You may be not used to it, but offers has been a staple on eBay for years and years.
So thoughts? Yay or nay?
As a buyer, IMHO it would be foolish to not make an offer to any seller who has practically hung out a sign saying his prices are too high and are thus negotiable. (You know, like you just admitted about your prices.)
And as a seller, IMHO it would be foolish not to accept an offer that you would accept at an in-person sale.
strugglinlikeyou
·2 years agoI do not send offers to watchers because I do not want to be interrupted in my daily life haggling over price. I also switch off the make offer feature.
I list items at what I feel is a reasonable price and let it ride. If the item is not getting much attention I lower the price. If this doesn't make the sale I take the item to my local auction house and pick up my cash two weeks later. I need to keep my hand in the game at the auction house; auctions run biweekly and if I do not participate on a regular basis I am put on a waiting list which could keep me out of the local auction for 2 months or more. I also sell at two local consignment shops and I need to drop stuff off now and then to keep the relationships healthy.
So, I have more than one selling venue and this keeps me busy enough without having to deal with offers.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoI don't see making offers any different than running a sale. Is that "desperate", too?
farmalljr
·2 years agoI don't buy much of ANYTHING here without an offer. Why? Because IF a seller wants to sell it, they can make me a better price. Unless you are selling something new at the lowest price, or a TRUE only one listed on eBay, someone else WILL undercut you and sell it cheaper. This foolish notion that your price is the only right price, doesn't really work IF you want to sell the thing you listed. There are still some "old geezers" here that think it's 1998 eBay, when it's not. And to be clear, I have been a member here for a long time (I'm not young).
Sellers who do not bargain and don't really want to sell stuff here, find it hard to get any traffic and sales. You need to be very price competitive to make sales here. And just because you have the lowest LISTED price, does not mean a competitor priced higher, will not take an offer lower than your price.
I first watch an item for a few days waiting for an offer. If one does not come, I move on. I have yet to not to be able to buy what I want/need for a price I want to pay. A seller's inventory makes them no money when it's not selling. eBay makes no money when a seller isn't selling. eBay has no incentive to give a seller traffic who is not making them money. Sellers who use eBay as a catalog for their junk that will not sell at over inflated prices, will become very frustrated that they make no sales, listings disappear, and when they do make a sale, that buyers are out to scam them.
Those that do not want to haggle, are free to use auctions. You are free to use BIN listings with no offers option. You are free, to not get sales. Buyers expect a bargain anywhere something not NEW is sold. eBay's competing platforms, ALSO offer haggling.
sapphire_studio
·2 years agoI don't accept offers and I'm definitely not the lowest list on most of my new items and I'm really happy with my sale numbers.
farmalljr
·2 years agoI'm glad you are happy with your sales. You also look to sell only new items and run sales. That's not the same thing as some who sells used, open box, parts, etc. This makes a difference.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoI don't think it's "new" (though Health & Beauty does need to be new), I think it's desirability. I'm also often not at the bottom in my very crowded clothing market, but I pay attention to what I carry, and I don't sell a lot of new. My sales are fine for being so small and not selling cheap. I use offers periodically and have no problem with them.
gurlcat
·2 years agoJust because you want to haggle every time doesn't mean all or even most buyers do. If that were the case then I wouldn't have about half my items sell for my full BIN price. -Don't take my word for it, check out my Solds. I sell almost all pre-owned items too. .
farmalljr
·2 years agoI'm not saying ALL buyers will haggle. But even you admit, many do. If you do not offer "deals" in the fashion of sales, mark downs, and offers, then you seriously cut yourself from consideration by many buyers. Any seller is free to price their inventory however they want. But if you are not ready to bargain, you have to realize that many people will not just pay an asking price. Not only do you have to compete here on eBay, you are competing against every seller on the internet.
Looking at some of your listings, you also have make offers active. So, it's a bit of a moot point to say that many just buy at the listed price, when you already know that offers are key to making more sales.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoThat's a bit broad brush.
farmalljr
·2 years agoThat's a fact. A Google search is not confined to only eBay listings. All platforms and sites show up in a search. Next to absolutely nothing sold here is so unique that you can't find it somewhere else.
Many people who make an offer, will turn away and look at either other listings or other sites for a better deal, if they are turned down.
I'll take it a step further to say that a seller who can't negotiate on the listed price, does not know what they are doing on the buy or sell ends of a sale. If you have no margin to offer a better price to spur a sale, you are doing it wrong. The whole point of reselling is to sell, not hold inventory or fill a dumpster. There is no such thing as a profit margin set in stone. There is no such thing as never losing money on a sale to get rid of inventory that is stale.
Only sellers who want to waste everyone's time around them, think that a profit margin of X and no less is the only right answer. Only people clowning around think that negotiating is not acceptable. Making offers and bargaining is 100% part of ANY business. It called negotiations.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoI understand, I'm pretty experienced at search in general, but I'm a seller of one-offs and yes, there are plenty of things even in my crowded category where I that one brand, that colour, that size, and I'm hardly the only one. One thing I *do* understand is that retail in the secondary market is extremely fluid.
chariot_badges
·2 years agoWhich is why I do it the way I do it.
If I get a stupid offer, say $4 on a $20 ask ... I go do a quick down and dirty appraisal. Just like I'm listing it again. Hey, the buyer may be right -- It might just be worth $4.
So I look at comparable sales, listings and google it too.
IF I get prices of $3 to $100 I accept (or more realistically, reject and toss that part in the trash.) I have a "bare minimum" that I will sell anything at, and very few get sold for that number.
IF I get prices ranging from $15 to $90. I respond with "Could you tell me where you got your opinion of value? What sales did you find at $4? I couldn't find any. In fact, it might be priced a bit low. I can give you a dollar off ... but it is worth what I have it listed for."
If I get a counter for $5 at that point, I reject the offer, and put the buyer on my ignore list.
I convert about 20% of my offers to a sale, even low-ball offers.
Think of the first BIN offer as just a warning shot that the buyer is interested.
If they stick to their low ball offer I shake them off like a bad cold.
.
gurlcat
·2 years agogloryglorygifts
·2 years agoNGL, a little offensive calling sellers that send offers, "desperate sellers." It's just a nice little carrot dangled and if they bite, great and if they don't I don't lose sleep over it. I use offers all the time and last year 10% of my sales were from those offers. I do not use the PL tool and never will. I actually tell my customers on my videos to follow listings to get a bit of a break in the price, but I do not do it for all of our products. I think it's a great tool and yes I will continue to use it. It's a courtesy to hopefully a potential customer.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoThe more sellers who encourage offers, the more buyers who send insulting offers to sellers who have not enabled Make An Offer, and the more effort required by those sellers to block the offending buyer.
And the sleazier Ebay appears to normal people.
brightlightbookseller
·2 years agoRidiculous tripe.
gurlcat
·2 years agoUp until maybe a year ago I would have agreed with you 100%. I did ONLY seller-initiated offers and only occasionally, when I'd get literally desperate, ha. I absolutely hated getting emailed offers from people who could see clear as day that I did not have 'Make Offer' enabled on my listings; I saw their emails as a hostile and flippant disregard of my clear preference. And to be honest, I still see it that way, and I certainly wouldn't do it, even if I knew that a seller had an item way overpriced. And yeah it's extra irritating when the email amount is so low that it's "insulting" as you put it.
However, and you may not like this, I finally decided to try going with the flow ..... but still on my terms. What I mean is, I now enable 'Make Offer' but I utilize BOTH the 'minimum' and 'auto-accept' boxes, in fact I make them the SAME amount. The way I see it, if I am willing to accept "up to" a certain amount of discount, I might as well make it to where anyone offering at least that much gets it accepted -that way I don't have to respond to ANYTHING, nor do the buyers have to wait for my answer.
And guess what? -The ones who probably would have emailed me offers in the past now use the feature instead, they get 3 offers, and if all 3 are below my minimum I don't even have to know what those insulting amounts were!
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoIf those buyers restricted their offers to listings with Make An Offer, I would agree with you.
But more and more buyers are sending offers on listings which do not have Make An Offer. And wasting seller time. Make an Offer is a lazy or ignorant seller's tool which distorts pricing, sows distrust of sellers and wastes seller's time.
As used by many sellers, it attempts to try to stimulate sales of price inelastic items and degrades the value of them and similar items without making sales and profit.
farmalljr
·2 years agoYour prices does NOT determine the value of an item. That's an uninformed and uneducated thing to say. The buyer who pays, determines what the price of something is. You can pick a random rock out of your driveway and list it for $300, but unless it sells for that price, a willing buyer coming along to buy it, it does not matter how much "research" you do to determine the price. Any random given thing is only worth what a buyer will pay.
Past sales here are not necessarily a gauge of value either. Today a given item that's actually rare may sell for $200, but will never again sell for that price because no future buyer will be willing to pay that much. The one buyer willing to value the item for $200, has the item. No other buyers see it as that valuable. Many things trend up and down with pricing. Comic books and baseball cards come to mind.
Allowing offers does not "devalue" any merchandise. It encourages sales at a true market value. Every see a car or motorcycle dealer that had 1-3 model year old cars/motorcycles on the lot? I have. Sticking to MSRP doesn't get it sold, the have to take offers and offer discounts to get rid of it. Every day your capitol is tied up in inventory is a day that capitol makes you no money. Every dollar of capitol tied up into non selling inventory, is money you can't use to buy other inventory that turns faster and makes no money. Turning 10 bucks once a year is far less profitable then turning it 12 times a year.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoPast sales by sellers who are idiots or desperate for funds distort the value of items because they are recorded forever on the internet, as the value a willing buyer and a willing seller agreed upon.
When you go to Walmart, you either pay the price or go somewhere else to find a lower price, if you can. Or you decide you do not need to make a purchase.
The specific circumstances of a specific sale are lost when limited price information is saved.
I listed an item for $3 more than I had sold another of the item for a few months back. Of course, I had a buyer message me offering me what I got months back. The fact that this item was in better condition than the past sale was irrelevant. That old price will be there until after my latest item is sold, and it will be.
When you sell obscure, rare and uncommon items, it is likely you will set the price at a level you choose and eventually sell at that price, if you know what you are selling.
I see many items sold on Ebay which are sold to other resellers at a price which allows those sellers to sell at the level I price at. These other sellers are effectively wholesalers. I am a retailer and do not want unsolicited offers to wholesale the product.
When I want to wholesale a product on Ebay, I use a auction with a starting bid of a fair wholesale price.
If I have not sold the item, the value is my price. When I sell it the value might change. Even if someone else sells another example of the item, its condition will not be identical to mine since most of what I sell is over 100 years old.
farmalljr
·2 years agoLOL. It's quite ironic you mention Walmart as your model for pricing. Walmart comes into a town and lowers prices until they have run any mom and pop retailers out of business. THEN they can charge whatever they want because there is no local competition. As a matter of fact, Walmart offers cheaper options through third party sellers on their dot com site.
The business that gets to "set" the price, is the one that dominates the category here. You don't, so your pricing model is just about your ego, rather than getting sales. A business buys inventory as an "investment". It's sole purpose is to take $1 and turn it into more than $1. When you know competitors are selling an identical product for less money, and you refuse to compete with them, you are the loser.
1 Because buyers will go back to the seller who gives them good deals and treats them decent.
2 If you are not selling you are sitting on useless inventory. It's not a profit until someone else buys it.
3 The inventory you sell is not high demand or "need" items. People that collect that stuff are older, and older people die or just finally stop hoarding useless junk their heirs don't want.
4 The more items you list and don't sell, the less traffic you are going to get, even if you promote. Smart sellers know there is more benefit to turning inventory then just a quicker sale (or a sale at all).
You can hate on those "idiots" that sell at a lower price. They already won the game. They got paid, moved the inventory and are already moving on to the next thing to sell, while the other sellers who will not budge, wish they could get more sales and are frustrated they can't seem to get more no matter what they do.
Sure, you can set your price to whatever you want. You can wait around for the "right" buyer, if that ever happens. You are free to keep pushing yourself lower in search by not getting sales, not working with buyers, and adding everyone to your blocked list. It's not getting you more sales. It's not moving your inventory. In the mean time, other sellers who "price like idiots" get the sales, the traffic, and the money.
There are certain items I watch/buy. I see this ego trip all the time. Smart sellers let stuff go for what it's worth rather then waiting for a unicorn. One of my latest purchases are an example of that. A book that other sellers "think" is worth $200, I bought for under 30. Solds show that book selling for around that 30 dollar mark, yet ego sellers keep thinking some brain dead buyer is going to come along and give them $200. Might happen, but way more likely to not happen. But hey, at least those sellers are holding out, right? Lol. Those "idiot" sellers are making money, ego sellers are just complaining with empty pockets. Not saying sellers should give everything or anything away. But far too many sellers are the actual "idiot" when buyers are not choosing them. To get top dollar you need to offer the best of everything, AND find the buyer who thinks you offer it too. Many sellers do a really poor job of selling that to buyers, and expect them to just know that.
gurlcat
·2 years agoShow a screenshot of a Sold listing where it shows what the accepted offer amount was. You say it's recorded forever on the internet, yet I have never seen a single example of it.
gurlcat
·2 years agoIt looks like I didn't make myself completely clear. What I should have said was (and this is true), once I enabled 'Make An Offer' on my listings, I stopped getting those insulting emails. I don't get any emailed offers anymore, because those buyers just use the Make Offer feature now.
And the reason I included all that stuff about using both boxes for 'minimum' and 'auto-accept' -that was to address your stated concerns about how annoying and time-consuming it is to respond to offers. By using the automated features, I don't have to respond to anything!
As for whether offers "distorts pricing" I guess you would need to be more clear what you mean by that. I think when it comes to eBay and the wide variety of items, also wide variety of sellers, AND the fact that this is not the only place where people can buy most things, it's nearly impossible to say what "true" price of something is getting "distorted" by anything. I would say things like money laundering and even fads create more distortion.
brightlightbookseller
·2 years agoI like it. On my buying account I'll watch things to see if the seller makes an offer, since that obviously saves me money. Some do, some don't, no harm done either way. This is a site made for haggling.
13crackers
·2 years agoI really don't think this site is made for haggling. I have had several buyers make low offers, but when I counteroffer, they just pull out. It seems like many buyers want things for practically nothing or garage sale prices. Right now I have all my items listed as "buy it now or best offer" because I thought I would get a better price than using the auction. What do you think?
brightlightbookseller
·2 years agoWe have adopted an approach of not using Best Offer for the first few months an item is listed, then adding it at that point. We found when we had it available, we got some lowball and some reasonable offers, and we could take the ones we wanted and ignore the others, but when we don't have it available, we actually sell a bit more and at the original price we set rather than a little below (hard to quantify since most of our items are different from each other rather than having a large stock of each item).
When something doesn't move for a little while though, having offers on is a great way to make it more attractive to those who might not have purchased it initially. We also send offers only on the ones we have Best Offer enabled on, since at that point we're happy to take a little less than originally listed for.
Then we also run sales based on an item's listing date, so older items get discounted more until they reach our lowest we're willing to take. We keep items up for about a year usually, sometimes longer, so that gives us a number of steps down in price depending on where it started.
Point being, yes, I think this site is great for haggling, even though some buyers don't do back and forth. We love offers, but we don't use them universally on everything we sell.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoThey're really not doing much to discourage the "flea market' image they say they hate so much are they?
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoThis thread brought to mind a trip I made to Morocco. We traveled through out the country. And the haggling intensified when we reached Marrakesh, where if you did not end up paying half of what the initial price was, you were doing it wrong.
A few days later, we were in the capital, Rabat. Using our best haggling techniques, we could not successfully purchase anything. A gallery owner took pity on us, he told us that THIS IS THE CAPITAL, RABAT. YOU ARE BARGAINING AS IF YOU WERE IN MARRAKESH!
Each seller's listings are their own city. Mine does not have a souk.
gurlcat
·2 years agoNot sure what you would call "new" but I've been selling since 2018 and I believe there were already offers at that time. Buyer since 2003, but not very often so I can't remember if I saw offers enabled on listings or received any from sellers.
youn2240
·2 years agoI don't send offers but I leave offers open on my listings and probably around half my sales come from haggling. If you want it you want it. If you low ball with under 60% of the asking price I'll respond with 1 penny off and never give a discount. I'm petty like that. I'm a collector and don't mind people trying to get a deal you never know what I have into an item or how long I've had it but recently some of these offers are getting absurd not too many but just yesterday I got an 8.00 dollar offer on something I had 37.99 dollars on lol. so I send back 37.98 and then they message me asking lowest price I'll take and I tell them I am saving it for someone who appreciates it more. I like haggling though.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoThere are still sellers who do not enable make an offer on their listings.
There have always been bottom feeding buyers who want to haggle who send offers whenever they want to buy something.
There are sellers who refuse all offers.
There are sellers who have made offers to their watchers who have enabled Ebay to send the same offer to new watchers.
There have always been sellers who price based on a wish, not any feel for the market.
There are sellers who need a quick turn and sellers who will wait for the right buyer and the right price.
We all know how to categorize ourselves.
What we may not know is that some of those bottom feeders will pay the listed price if they want the item, it is worth the asking price, and they have encountered a seller who knows how to price, knows his items, and is in no rush to make the sale.
I've stopped responding to unsolicited offers other than from my past customers. I have stopped enabling make an offer on my existing listing. I have marked up some listings.
Knowing your products, your business and yourself has not become any less important.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoHaggling is just the reverse of auctioning. Nothing new.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoYou don't even have to add them to your watch list anymore.
I just look at listings I have no plans on buying and they send me offers all the time.
ckimodog
·2 years ago@kensgiftshop
I got an offer for a loaded vape cartridge...PS Prohibited...lol!
sapphire_studio
·2 years agoDesperate Economic Times call for desperate offers
wmsakalaucks
·2 years agoWith the Promoted Listings, I find I have better success with sending offers than doing promotions.
ckimodog
·2 years ago@Anonymous
Some sellers will send offers when their items have been listed for a while. I know I do. Usually get some bites too!
Happy Buying!
silverstatetreasureboxes
·2 years ago@Anonymous
Well I personally love it! Now sometimes I place a watch on an item because I have it and need the description and price but most of the time please throw me a bone!
bashort
·2 years agoAs a buyer ebay has taught me that even if you are sure you are going to buy a readily available item put it on watch list and see if you get a lower offer.
As far as driving prices down I do not think that offers make much difference.
What matters is supply vs demand
soh.maryl
·2 years agoeBay is no different than any other similar venue in that there will, of course, be haggling. There will ALWAYS be potential buyers making offers. You have choices in how to respond: accept, decline, counter or ignore.
Ditto from sellers. This has been true from the very beginning of eBay.
an-57470
OP2 years agoAnd yes, I’m replying to my own post simply because there’s no way to go back and edit and I forgot to say that I also think that this offering business sets of precedent of price decline on this site. Just like in an antique mall if several dealers are offering 25% off shoppers think that everybody is offering 25% off or should be, and if they’re not getting 25% off they’re not buying… so with all these offers I think it’s becoming the norm that people expect them.
fern*wood
·2 years agoYou have a few minutes to edit your post by clinking on the tiny down arrow on the upper right of your post.
Yes, it is a newish technique to try to nudge a buyer. I use it on some of my listings and have had moderate success with the nudge.
broto_64
·2 years agoThat may be, unfortunately the paid promotions that started last year has had sellers increasing the price of items to compensate for the cost and that has made it to where today Ebay is not the cheapest anymore. So it could also be that buyers simply want things to return to where they were, most buyers on ebay are not newcomers but seasoned veterans who like things to retain a status quo and so they're pushing to get back to that, my oil pinion.
bashort
·2 years agoYes, "increasing the price of items to compensate for the cost" this applies to promoted listings, free shipping and make a offer. Sellers will add in all of these costs to item prices.
I agree with you, driving up item costs with promoted listings in my opinion may make ebay some short term money at the long term cost of loss of market share because if increasingly higher item prices.
chariot_badges
·2 years agoMy pricing strategy is rooted in a thorough analysis of past sales and current market offerings. I strive to position my asking price at the midpoint of the value curve, seldom going below a 20% discount. This ensures a fair valuation of the item while considering market dynamics.
In drawing parallels to everyday expenses, buyers on platforms like eBay are no strangers to managing their budgets responsibly. They've purchased groceries, paid utility bills, and covered housing and transportation costs, giving them a keen awareness of prevailing prices. They face the same price vs value push/pull forces that I do.
Just like major corporations such as Chevron, Safeway, and PG&E, I, too, cannot absorb rising costs. It's a reality that these expenses are passed on to the ultimate buyer. In essence, if the market doesn't meet my required margins for my offerings, they risk becoming disposed of as trash which is where items of no value belong.
While some sellers here may opt to sell at a loss, I am committed to maintaining a sustainable business model. I believe that, in the long run, this strategy positions me to weather market fluctuations and emerge as a resilient player. Success, in my view, isn't always about winning; sometimes, it's about avoiding losses ... and lasting.
.
lonebuck-books
·2 years agoYou can edit your posts by clicking the down arrow at the top right corner of your original post. There is a time limit but it is well within the couple of minutes between first and second posts.
As for offers, I like them. If you put an item in your cart or wish list, more often than not you will get a seller offer for less than the listed price. If you can wait to buy, it is always worth putting the item in your cart or wish list and wait a day or two. I will say that I wish they would change the wording in the header of the emails you get. The look way to similar to the email you get as a seller when someone makes an offer.
gurlcat
·2 years agoFYI the time limit to edit is now GONE! Give it a try!