Make an offer question

[annsimp1]

Hello, I made an offer for $8.00 on an item that was listed for $8.30. The seller declined my offer.

I then sent them a message asking politely why they have the "make an offer" option, if they are going to decline an offer that is 30 cents under the selling price. I have not gotten a response. Do you think this practice is reasonable?

[annsimp1]

‎03-01-2025 10:27 PM

I wasn't making an issue of .30. I am new to ebay and was just seeing how the make an offer feature works. My question wasn't a complaint. I started with an offer of 7.00, and raised it .50 twice, and I kept getting declined. Apparently I wasn't clear enough in my question.

[annsimp1]

You are assuming that I have been active since 2004. I have not.

[annsimp1]

‎03-01-2025 10:27 PM

I wasn't making an issue of .30. I am new to Ebay and was just seeing how the make an offer feature works. My question wasn't a complaint. I started with an offer of 7.00, and raised it .50 twice, and I kept getting declined. Apparently I wasn't clear enough in my question.

[annsimp1]

Thank you for giving me a detailed, respectful, non judgemental response. These are the facts I wanted to know. You have answered my questions.

[annsimp1]

Thank you for giving me that information. I appreciate it.

[bdmh-enterprises]

Some sellers like to "trick" the system by adding offers to everything so they don't get filtered out when buyers search for items with offers. They then set it to auto decline all the offers.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@annsimp1 wrote:

You are assuming that I have been active since 2004. I have not.

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Ummmmm. We can look at the feedback you've received over the years and knowing that many sellers don't leave feedback, we can see that you've still received 195 feedbacks from sellers. 

Of those 195, 4 were within the last month, 7 were within the last 6 months and 10 were within the last 12 months. The rest are over a year old. I consider that you've been quite active.

However that doesn't necessarily mean you understand how best offer works or sellers' responsibility in responding to offers or even in adding the option.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

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@annsimp1 wrote:

Hello, I made an offer for $8.00 on an item that was listed for $8.30. The seller declined my offer.

I then sent them a message asking politely why they have the "make an offer" option, if they are going to decline an offer that is 30 cents under the selling price. I have not gotten a response. Do you think this practice is reasonable?

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Many sellers block buyers who, when they make an offer, make them think the buyer will be a "high maintenance customer". This is a subjective decision. Your message may have led to a block, as well as not deserving an answer.

The attitude of buyers and sellers toward Make an Offer spans a wide range. There are sellers who are more desperate than others, and desperate buyers too. There are sellers who are easily insulted and buyers too.

Buyer who make a practice of using Make an Offer will encounter sellers who will immediately resent them for any real or imagined slight.

[errkl]

They may have been listing a lot of items and forgot to take the "make an offer" option off this listing. You can always bypass the offer and just But It Now if you want it. But I find sellers don't usually answer questions like that. You're lucky if they answer specific questions about the item itself.

[errkl]

That is ridiculous. All they're doing is pissing off the buyers. I will always make an offer if the option is available because that is telling me that the seller doesn't expect to get full price and will be open to offers. If they don't answer or decline a good offer without explanation I will not buy the item at any price because the seller is not operating in good faith. Every seller - and I sell a lot on ebay, but I buy more - should realize that there are a lot more sellers than buyers and it's not easy to sell anything unless you're giving it away. So it's probably not a good idea to **bleep** them off for no reason. If they can't buy that, they'll buy something else. If you don't want to take an offer don't have that option on your listing. Or if you don't like the offer decline it. If you don't answer at all the buyer can't make another offer - often the first offer is feeling out the seller, it doesn't mean they won't go up. Don't miss an opportunity 

[aproudparent2010]

We get your question but if you'd pay 8.00 then why not just pay the extra 30 cents?

[ebooksdiva]

You may be an Infrequent user,  but new, not at all. 

[janet9988]

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@annsimp1 wrote:

I wasn't making an issue of .30. I am new to ebay and was just seeing how the make an offer feature works. My question wasn't a complaint. I started with an offer of 7.00, and raised it .50 twice, and I kept getting declined. Apparently I wasn't clear enough in my question.

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You are NOT new to ebay.

You have been a member since 2004.