Weird eBay error is preventing me from making another offer

[dmel678]

I made an offer for an item being sold on eBay. The offer was automatically declined and it said I have 4 offers remaining. But after trying to make another offer, I get this error message:

 

I have never bought anything from this seller and he only has one item listed. What's going on? Did he restrict it to only 1 offer every 10 days? 

[rebell45]

The message is obviously wrong, doesn't list the number of items supposedly purchased.  I'd try a different browser or,  if using the app, try a PC. Otherwise, you could contact the seller to see if there is a problem with you making another offer.

[dmel678]

It seems like I was able to make 2 more offers after waiting 15 to 20 mins. Maybe eBay has a frequency limit? 

[7606dennis]

Not knowing precisely what you're trying to buy it is difficult to determine why you would receive such a message.  Of course, it could be one of eBay's rare glitches ( cough, cough). 😉

Could it be that the item is not permitted to be sold in Canada where you are registered?

[mudshark61369]

@dmel678,

  "It seems like I was able to make 2 more offers after waiting 15 to 20 mins. Maybe eBay has a frequency limit?"

According to your profile you haven't made any purchases in over a year and I doubt you made enough purchases back then to get past the new buyer limits.  There also seems to be a glitch on ebay's end that is confusing offers with bids, that is self clearing after 15 to 20 minutes, since your offers are being auto declined.  Below is a link to ebay's new buyer limits. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/buying-limits/buying-restrictions?id=4012

Unfortunately, when the new buyer limit policy was rewritten a few years ago they left out info on Open Transaction limits.

Open transactions are;

1. Items you've committed to buy but haven't paid for yet.
2. Bids placed on auction(s) that have not ended.  All bids place on auctions are active until an auction ends even if you are outbid.
   
3. Offers on listings that have not expired. Most last 48 hours unless a buyer chooses a shorter time frame, or the auto accept/decline feature takes action.
4. You are allowed 4-5 open transactions at any one time. This is a rolling number that as an item is paid for, an auctions ends and you lose or win and pay, or offers expire or are accepted and paid for, roll over to be reused.

You can burn through open transactions when bidding on an auction if you get into a bidding war quickly. The best way to bid on an auction is to place 1 bid for the most you are willing to pay for an item + S&H, and to place that bid late in the auction so others have less time to react. That's called automatic bidding and how it works is described in the link below.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/bidding?id=4003

[mudshark61369]

@dmel678,

Since you are an inexperienced member, you may not know that when making offers the amount you offer is not what a seller receives after ebay and PayPal take their fees which add up to 12.9% + .30cents, of the total paid including the shipping cost.

Example;

If a seller has an item listed for $100 w/ free shipping and you offer $80 (20% off).

After ebay and PayPal fees the seller receives $69.38 and still has to pay the shipping cost out of that. Something to consider when making offers.

You may also find that if you make an offer on an item that is is not responded to until it expires after 48 hours.  That can be because even though there is a Best Offer button on a listing the seller may not want to receive them. eBay's quick listing tool forces Best offer to be placed on all listings. 

  If a seller considers an offer to be way too low, they may choose to ignore it, rather than respond thinking you are too far apart in price to negotiate. Sometimes a seller will block lowballers because there have been issues with a person having an offer declined/ignored who uses Buy It Now. When they receive the item they claim Not As Described, asking for a partial refund. Which coincidentally just happens to bring the price back to the original offer price.