Questions for sellers who list items w/ Best Offer or Promoted/Sponsored listings with auto offers
As a seller myself, I stopped using Best Offer years ago. But when I did have it on my listings I did check to see if there was a message sent with an offer explaining the reason for an offer's price. Most did mention a much lower price another of the item had recently sold for, but I read them anyway.
Question One;
Do you take the time to see if a message was sent with an offer, and read it, or just look at the offer price?
Question Two;
How do you feel about a buyer messaging you in advance about an offer they intend to make, explaining the reason(s) for it, giving you their price? Are you likely to; ingnore it, block the buyer, or respond one way or another?
Question three: For Sellers of Sponsored/Promoted listing's
Basically the same as Question 2, An explanation for a counter offer to the discounted price, in advance of one being sent.
boosterboy
·5 months agoI read and appreciate any offer a customer sends. The types of comments I find most effective are the ones that treat it almost like a real estate offer - focusing on how excited they are about the item, or how much the intended recipient is going to enjoy it, etc. I tend to be less swayed by any that attempt to guilt me into lowering the price, or cite disclosed flaws from the description.
fabrics24
·5 months agoFor me, Best Offer is an algorithm tool; I can go neck-and-neck with two or three big competitors in my category of choice all because I allow offers and they don't. I don't have promotions on, but my listings often appear above theirs because I'm more active and I allow offers.
I will admit that because I'm <100 sales at the time of this post, I'm likely more inclined to accept offers than most sellers. Right now, positive feedback is worth more than revenue; I need to play the long game. A seller with lots of sales and traction can afford to be a bit firmer in their pricing than me.
Answer 1: I'll look at the message, especially if they have an interesting (or amusing) offer.
I once had someone offer less than half the item's worth (I have it set to auto-refuse anything that low) not once, but twice. They proceeded to explain how they wanted to match the much more affordable price of a defective model.
If someone makes an offer and it includes something of note (links to a comparable listing, recalls/defective model papers, or other important info about the item), I read that very carefully.
Answer 2: In general, I'm not bothered by messages about wanting to make an offer. However, the feel I get from the buyer during that conversation is really important. Repeats are more likely to get their offers accepted. If they're new, I check the kind of feedback they leave for sellers. If they leave good and/or thoughtful feedback, I'm more than happy to cut a deal. I proceed with caution (but won't block) if their feedback is mostly either neutral or automated. Consistent bad feedback left for every seller they interact with gets The Block; I have no time for serial-complainers.
christworks
·5 months agoI rarely use the best offer option. When I do it is so I have the ability to screen the feedback the buyer has left for other sellers. Then is generally on more sensitive items in categories that tend to be ripe with fraud.
The other time I use best offer is when I do not have a good handle on the market. If I cannot find comparable sold comps and it is an item I know has some decent value to it, I may turn on best offer.
I will read any messages that come in with a best offer. If a buyer messages me an offer on an item that has best offer turned on, I will respond. I really like that eBay has added a "send offer" button to messages. I've gotten several sales because of that button being there.
When buyers message offers on items I do not have offers turned on, I generally block them. Almost always those type of offers are going to be something insane, like half off my asking price or worse. That insults me. It makes me think they think I'm desperate for a sale. I block them.
In my experience it never ends well for me when I agree to a deal with people on items I do not have offers turned on. I broke my own rule a few weeks ago and gave someone a discount per their request and, of course, within an hour of them receiving their item they opened a return. That is how it always turns out. I do not know why I did not follow my own rule a few weeks ago. I guess I was testing the waters to see if it would be any different. It wasn't.
mudshark61369
OP5 months ago@christworks ,
"In my experience it never ends well for me when I agree to a deal with people on items I do not have offers turned on".
Since 95% of the items I sell are done using the auction format, I haven't had many unsolicited offers. If memory serves, I did revise 2 items adding Best Offer and accepted them. There were no problems with the transactions. That was many years ago however.
albertabrightalberta
·5 months agoMy main reason for using (and appreciating) the best offer option is that it gives me the opportunity to check buyers' feedback left for others.
I don't respond to, accept or counter a b.o. until after checking their feedback.
I can't even count the number of bullets I've dodged by blocking instead of responding to best offers.
mudshark61369
OP5 months ago@albertabrightalberta ,
As mentioned in my post, I stopped using Best Offer. That was because of the extreme low ball ones I received. Maybe I was being mean, but I made the last few wait the 48 hours (back then) without a reply. To me it didn't matter what a buyer's FB left for others showed, and I was more liberal about adding them to my BBL.
shire123
·5 months agoCompletely agree with the answer Jonathanbrightlight gave.
mudshark61369
OP5 months ago@shire123 ,
WHICH ONE ?
bonanza125
·5 months agoYes I read all messages sent to me through offering. Basically it reads this is the best I can do. Some give an ultimatum which I immediately decline. This includes "Take it or leave it", "You need to ship immediately", "I expect the item to be in excellent condition when I get it", "I expect "something not included in the listing" to be included in with this offer." I don't mind buyers messaging me in advance in regards to negotiations. In fact I encourage it cause then I can talk directly to the buyer without going back and forth with offers which aren't getting accepted anyway. The furthest thing from my mind is blocking a buyer who is makes offers.
mudshark61369
OP5 months ago@bonanza125 ,
"Some give an ultimatum which I immediately decline. This includes "Take it or leave it", "You need to ship immediately", "I expect the item to be in excellent condition when I get it", "I expect "something not included in the listing" to be included in with this offer."
I think the above demands go without saying, but may be good advice if a buyer reads this topic.
I don't mind questions like: I need this quickly, will you be able to ship within your handling time?
My handling time: Same day, Monday through Saturday if payment is received by 9:00am. Next day after that.
kensgiftshop
·5 months agoOn question two, I don't use best offer, but have had a few buyers message me with an offer.
I just tell them that I'm not accepting offers at this time.
As far as blocking, no I never block them.
jonathanbrightlight
·5 months agoYeah, we have a saved response: "Thank you for your interest! At this point, our price is firm."
And I wouldn't block for that either. Only if they get abusive or overly pushy afterwards.
jonathanbrightlight
·5 months agoI look at any message on an offer, because sometimes they are requesting things like including the shipping cost which we can't agree to. If it's just an explanation of why they offered that amount, I'm unlikely to give it much consideration unless it's an older listing or maybe one we were less confident in the pricing for, but I can't afford to not see if there is a message.
For customers that send us messages ahead of a formal offer, it depends. As long as it's an item we are willing to accept offers on, and they're not rude, I'll give a simple answer and sometimes if the offer is good, I'll just respond in the message with an official offer from us for that amount.
In either case, though, we don't try to justify our response to the buyer. No saying "this is why it's priced this high" or "we can't accept that offer because of x". I rarely include any message in counter-offers or declined offers.
Not ignoring the last part, but it doesn't apply to us since we don't do any promoted listings anymore.