Communication Preferences > Competing Offers

[wastingtime101]

Communication Preferences > Buying Activity > Competing Offers

"Competing Offers" is a recent addition. It's separate from "Offers to buyers" and "second chance offers" Can you tell us what that setting controls devon@ebay kyle@ebay ?

I've asked a few experienced buyers and sellers, but none of them had an answer. The best guess I've seen so far is maybe eBay is now alerting buyers when another buyer makes an offer on an item from their watch list?

[wastingtime101]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

I'd be interested in reading that if you have a link handy.

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Found it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ebay/comments/1cbfoes/auction_bots_reacting_immediately_after_my_offer/

I'm unclear if it's talking about "make offer" or if it's talking about placing a bid because "auction" was referenced. Seems eburtonlab came to the same conclusion based on the comment to the post.

Could be a buyer that's auto-outbid by someone else's proxy. The way it reads to me it's about auction bids, not best offer. 🤷

[valueaddedresource]

@wastingtime101 looks like the OP on that reddit thread has confirmed they were talking about auction bids, not offers.

[wastingtime101]

Hi devon@ebay . Any chance you've found someone at eBay that knows what this "competing offers" communication preference controls? What messages it triggers to buyers?

[devon@ebay]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

Hi devon@ebay . Any chance you've found someone at eBay that knows what this "competing offers" communication preference controls? What messages it triggers to buyers?

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Hey @wastingtime101! I have not been able to get any more insight on this as of yet but I will message the Product team again to see if I hear back!  

[wastingtime101]

After 6+ months this is the closest I've seen to a potential answer:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/New-buyer-notification-quot-Another-buyer-has-made-an-offer-qu...

Thanks @gurlcat .

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

After 6+ months this is the closest I've seen to a potential answer:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/New-buyer-notification-quot-Another-buyer-has-made-an-offer-qu...

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I'm coming back to confirm what @gurlcat saw was, indeed, a competing offer. Just saw one of these on a screenshot a friend sent me and it does use the term "competing offer."

It was sent as a push notification through the app, not found in eBay messages.

In short, the system sends a notification to let you know another buyer used the "make offer" button on an item you're interested in (in your cart, on your watchlist, etc), alerting you the window of opportunity to send a competing offer is shrinking.

With this in mind, I can now see what devon@ebay said upthread is correct, but was worded in a way that was missing a piece of the puzzle so it wasn't clicking for some of us.

"We are still waiting to get 100% confirmation but based off of the various people I have spoken to, this feature is designed to allow buyers the chance to still send offers and purchase an item even if the seller has another offer from another potential buyer."

Thanks again, Devon, for your assistance with this. 🙂

Edit to add: I just re-read the OP and it looks like my original guess was correct. That's kinda funny.