Convert a Bid to an Offer

[nanjohnson]

I have a buyer who did a bid on my auction but actually wanted to do Make an Offer. Is there a way to convert a Bid to an Offer? Or, if I (the Seller) retracts his bid, can he do Make an Offer still? (I recall reading that a retracted bid prevents a new bid from that user on that item). Thanks for any help.

[marjen7102]

You can't convert a bed to an offer. There are only a few reasons that a buyer can retract a bid.

You could offer to counsel for them and allow them to place an offer

[*coins]

Hi, @nanjohnson.

No, you cannot change a bid to an offer. You could end the listing and relist it as fixed price with offers though.

[nanjohnson]

Thank you. Not sure what you mean my counsel, but I did find that as the Seller, I can cancel the bid if it's mutually agreed on by the buyer. Just not sure if he can Make an Offer after that or not. I could always end the auction, then relist I suppose. Thanks for your help.

[nanjohnson]

From what I read, Make an Offer only exists if you don't use Buy it Now. I'm looking at retracting his bid if he so instructs, then seeing if the Make an Offer returns on the item. If not, I will cancel the auction. Thanks!

[mycarolinavintage]

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@nanjohnson wrote:

From what I read, Make an Offer only exists if you don't use Buy it Now. I'm looking at retracting his bid if he so instructs, then seeing if the Make an Offer returns on the item. If not, I will cancel the auction. Thanks!

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Hopefully you are communicating through ebays messages in your My eBay. And hopefully your potential buyer is serious after you go through all that. Am I safe in assumming the Make an Offer price has been disclosed and you have agreed on it? Once a bid is made, it does negate the Make an Offer option.

[nanjohnson]

All has worked out, and yes, everything went through eBay messages. I cancelled the bid, the buyer then did Make an Offer which I accepted. Payment completed - so all worked out perfectly. Thanks for your help!

[janet9988]

Ebay advises the offers on auction style listings can only be made for LESS than the starting bid price and only if the make offer feature is shown. If thew offer is fore more than the starting bid price you are suppose to tell the buyer to place a bid.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/selling-buy-now/adding-best-offer-listing?id=4144&st=2&po...

If you have an auction-style listing with Best Offer, bear in mind that:

• If you receive a bid, current offers and counteroffers will be declined automatically and buyers won't be able to make any additional offers on your item.
• If a bidder retracts their bid, the Best Offer feature will be re-enabled.
• If you received an offer that was higher than the current bid, the buyer who made the offer will have to place a bid.
• This option isn't available in these categories: Cell Phones, Motors, Real Estate, Tablets, and Tickets.

.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@janet9988 wrote:

• If you receive a bid, current offers and counteroffers will be declined automatically and buyers won't be able to make any additional offers on your item.
• If a bidder retracts their bid, the Best Offer feature will be re-enabled.
• If you received an offer that was higher than the current bid, the buyer who made the offer will have to place a bid.
• ...

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That bullet point list doesn't make any sense.  The first point says that if you get a bid, then it's not possible for anybody to make an offer, then the third one (highlighted in red) refers to what happens if you gt an offer after you get a bid.  It can't work both ways. OR is that third bullet int referring to offers that were cancelled due to getting a bid??

[7606dennis]

You will have to cancel any bids, end the listing and re-list.  I would suggest that you re-list as a fixed price listing though.  Of course, if there has been more than one bid placed, doing this will not enhance your reputation and may cause bidders to shy away from any other of your auctions.

[annasunicorns]

Ive made offers higher than the opening bid and been accepted. I also have tried adding that make offer feature to my auctions and setting the minimum amount to the opening bid plus $1. Effectively changing it to a negotiable buy it now above the bid amount. Bought successfuly with this feature, failed to sell with it, dislike its ambiguity overall.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@7606dennis wrote:

You will have to cancel any bids, end the listing and re-list. ....

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No, he doesn't have to do that.  The BO option reappears if the bid(s) are canceled.  

You seem to have missed post #7: "All has worked out ... I cancelled the bid, the buyer then did Make an Offer which I accepted. Payment completed - so all worked out perfectly."

[7606dennis]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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@7606dennis wrote:

You will have to cancel any bids, end the listing and re-list. ....

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No, he doesn't have to do that.  The BO option reappears if the bid(s) are canceled.  

You seem to have missed post #7: "All has worked out ... I cancelled the bid, the buyer then did Make an Offer which I accepted. Payment completed - so all worked out perfectly."

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I suppose that if there was only one bid and it was cancelled that would be correct.  However, I believe that if there were multiple bids placed or the bid cancelled were made by someone other than the person making the offer, it would probably alienate bidders and hurt future auction participation.  However, if canceling the bids gets the BIN to become active again, I stand corrected.

Glad to hear that things worked out well for the buyer and seller in this case.

[7606dennis]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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@7606dennis wrote:

You will have to cancel any bids, end the listing and re-list. ....

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No, he doesn't have to do that.  The BO option reappears if the bid(s) are canceled.  

You seem to have missed post #7: "All has worked out ... I cancelled the bid, the buyer then did Make an Offer which I accepted. Payment completed - so all worked out perfectly."

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Actually, upon further reflection, I'm not sure that cancelling a bid on an item being sold at auction and then accepting an offer outside of the bidding process would be legally acceptable in all jurisdictions.  While the owner of property being offered for sale at auction may take the item off the block at any time prior to the hammer falling, except in the case of an absolute auction, to enter into negotiations while the item was still on the auction block may raise legal and ethical questions.  Therefore, I believe my first reply was the correct one and if eBay's system allows otherwise they could be putting the seller in legal jeopardy in some instances.

As I mentioned in my second reply, if in the case of a BIN becoming active again after a bid has been canceled, that might be a different story.  However, I still feel that it has the potential to hurt the seller in bidders perhaps avoiding his auctions in the future.