eBay

chapabargain · ‎05-10-2021

I've been shopping on eBay for a while. Recently I have noticed a new phenomenon. Lets say I make a $15 offer on a $25 item, instead of the seller countering $20 the sellers simply decline my offer (not auto-decline).

Even on a $500 item if I offer $400 many seller wont even bother making a counteroffer.

What's going on here?

iart · ‎05-11-2021

Sending lowball offers doesn't deserve a counter. What it deserves is to be put on a Block List.

chapabargain · ‎05-11-2021

Yes, but that's a 2% discount after sales tax. (I live in NYC)

chapabargain · ‎05-11-2021

Then don't put the make offer option on your listing.

Or do a auto-decline.

chapabargain · ‎05-11-2021

That's what I'm looking for...but may seller are not making counteroffers...

chapabargain · ‎05-11-2021

@mudshark61369 wrote:

"...many seller wont even bother making a counteroffer. What's going on here?"
Using your example of offering $400 on a $500 item 20% off. If the seller counters with $450 and it is accepted. After ebay's 12.35% fee the seller would receive $394.53 (less than your original offer) and if the listing had Free shipping, they still have to pay the shipping cost out of that amount.

Then make a counteroffer for 15% less.

chapabargain · ‎05-11-2021

They they should take off that option...

chapabargain · ‎05-11-2021

I don't message the sellers. I make offers.

chapabargain · ‎05-11-2021

@iart You block buyers for send offers a bit too low for your ego?

Anonymous · ‎05-11-2021

@chapabargain wrote:
@iart You block buyers for send offers a bit too low for your ego?

These same lowballers often turn out to be vindictive problem buyers later on. Has nothing to do with ego.

iart · ‎05-11-2021

We block ANYONE who wastes our time. Lowball offers are only one example.

@chapabargain wrote:
@iart You block buyers for send offers a bit too low for your ego?

dariudaudery_0 · ‎05-11-2021

Absolutely true 😂 Had keychain listed for 10 + shipping or something like that, some fella made 1, 2, 3 usd offers and i did accept the 3 dollar offer because i just wanted to get rid of that item and he contacted me twice before estimated delivery was up asking where is his item.

Keychain was badly scratched and was not something i should have listed as high so did not mind giving it for about what i paid for it (after fees).

Lets say for me it all depends on situation - how long item was listed for, do i have something else to ship for the day, am i in a rush to sell it, how much did i pay for the item, did person buy something else from me or made offers on multiple items, etc. Usually just keep best offer on every listing even thought there are items i am not very willing to accept offers on (yet if offer is close to asking price why not).

As for low offers - ignore or decline, do not bother with that.

kenyatabks · ‎05-11-2021

OK, so this happened today.

We have a hard to find Mike Trout baseball card, price isn't huge, but we were asking $20. The auction ended with no bidders when we were asking 19.95. So we bulk relisted the stuff that didn't sell yesterday, and included a "best offer" on everything, but with limits on what we would accept or not accept.

For this card, we've only had it for a week, so we would accept $18, and decline offers under $17.

Next thing I know, we have an offer! I click on it... and it's for $11. That is an offer that is supposed to be auto declined, so I click on the item, fill in the correct information as to what should be auto declined (no idea why it wasn't there before, that for some reason was ignored by eBay when I entered it in the first time) - and then go and try to send the person a counter offer of $18. I get an error message. I try again. I get an error message.

So I decline the person's offer, and tell him $18 is my minimum.

He offers me $15.

I try to send him an offer of $18, but get an error message. Now, I've already changed the parameters of the auto decline, but he could still offer me less than that. Again... no idea what's going on with eBay.

He asks me why I don't stop declining and just tell him what my minimum is, and I tell him that I'm trying! And my minimum is $18.

He offers $18. I take it.

The bottom line is - eBay has a lot of work to do. And sometimes when sellers decline instead of countering, it might not because they don't want to counter.

doc-holmes · ‎05-11-2021

Slightly off topic, I had an item listed for $140 obo. I received an offer of $95, and I countered at $110. The guy then counters back with his original $95. That's happened to me a couple of times and it's infuriating.

plymouthsales4165 · ‎05-11-2021

@chapabargain wrote:
I've been shopping on eBay for a while. Recently I have noticed a new phenomenon. Lets say I make a $15 offer on a $25 item, instead of the seller countering $20 the sellers simply decline my offer (not auto-decline).
Even on a $500 item if I offer $400 many seller wont even bother making a counteroffer.

What's going on here?

As a seller who uses Best offer on most of my listings I agree with you. I use auto decline so that I don't have to see the $10 offers on $1000 items (yes that does happen). If you get past the auto decline you get countered or accepted 99% of the time. There has to be a reason for me not to counter. To me this is like a buyer who asks a question, gets the "correct " answer and does not buy the item. Example "is your new item new" answer yes, then they don't buy the item. Were they only going to buy it if it was used?