Buyers Offering Minimum Then Let Counter Offer Expire

[lc_pickers]

Hi All,

As new eBay sellers, we are still learning the art of pricing our items strategically. Due to this, we typically allow offers.

During the past several days, we have received a number of 'minimum offer' offers. I usually respond quickly with a counter in between asking and the buyer's offer to spare tedious back-and-forth. In each occasion (approximately 10 times this week), the buyer lets the counter offer expire.

Is this some weird offer bot thing or buyers attempting to snag a deal? It doesn't make sense that they don't counter back with their original offer if they are serious buyers.

Any advice/thoughts are appreciated!

[4pawsup*]

You can set a minimum amount you will consider on your listing.This way the low ball offer will refused with out you being bothered with buyers who are not serious.

[soh.maryl]

By countering their original offer, aren't you saying that you reject that offer? So what would be the point of their returning with their original offer? 

Some people shop with a particular price in mind.  

Ex:  You listed your widget for $80.

I offered $70.  You countered with $75.  I only had about $80 to spend and figure that the difference will be eaten up with postage and state sales tax, so I quite offering.  Make sense? 

[12345jamesstamps]

My other half does "best offer" and does the dirt cheap offer. I am so embarrassed sometimes when I hear about it. I have never done "best offer"...and I don't use it. I get enough of emails without using that on my sales from "potential" buyers...notice quotation marks of potential buyers.

And you need to look at your items for sale...at similar items for sale by other sellers under your item and go under these seller's pricing. 

And I would change to "14 day returns buyer pays for shipping"..."no returns" does not mean "no returns".

I never had a return yet...knock on wood.

Buyers have no idea what entails shipping something back. LOL

[lc_pickers]

Perhaps I'm misusing the minimum offer feature or rather attempting to use it differently than buyers are.

I set my minimum as the absolute minimum I would accept and obviously the asking as my ideal price, in hopes offers would be negotiated in-between the two, but buyers typically don't respond to counters.

Maybe the solution is a higher minimum offer. 

[caseypl]

I hardly ever use offers on my listingd, but decline all offers that are not within 25% of the listing price and go as far as to block a buyer who offers under 75% of my listing price. I recently had a buyer offer $40 on a $95 item. Didn't realize I had offers enabled, declined, blocked, sure enough saw an order from another account (possibly friend) with obviously the low offererers name and address as the ship to location. Canceled that order using problem with buyers address. I try to avoid selling to people who wanted to pay a very low price so they don't "find" a reason for a return or negative feedback. I don't need to sell.  

[albertabrightalberta]

I have b.o. on my listings for 2 reasons. 

1. I can let the buyer believe they're saving money by allowing them to pay less than my listed price (which is price slightly higher than I really want to allow a cushion)

2. It gives me the opportunity to vet my wannabe buyers by looking at their feedback left for others to see if they're high maintenance, like to leave negs, like to complain or if they're hard to please. 

With #2, I can't even count the number of bullets I've dodged by checking feedback and adding the IDs to my BBL.

When I get an offer, I handle them differently depending on the type of offer.

1. If a crazy lowball, I decline, assuming they aren't serious

2. If a reasonable offer but in the ballpark of what I'd like, I counter with a price slightly more than what I'm willing to take but at a decent savings from the BIN price.

3. If the buyer doesn't counter, I assume they aren't wanting to pay more. 

4. Sometimes the buyer will counter with a price between their initial offer and my counter. 

One thing that has happened and I find annoying is that they'll make an offer, I counter and they come back with a lower offer than their original! I can only assume they think I'm either desperate or too dumb to realize that I know they're the same person who made the previous offer that was too low. Or they think I'll counter their lower offer with the price they originally offered. 

In those cases, I ignore.

[albertabrightalberta]

---

@12345jamesstamps wrote:

And I would change to "14 day returns buyer pays for shipping"..."no returns" does not mean "no returns".

---

I had a "no return" policy although I never denied an honest return request. However after a NAD case in which a buyer damaged an item in order to return it, I changed to "30 days, buyer pays return shipping." 

Since my conversion, I've had 2 remorse requests, which isn't any more or any less than when I had "no returns."

I haven't found that my returns have increased since changing my policy. But I don't sell clothing and there are very few shoes, so sizing/fit isn't a big problem with the items I sell.

[caseypl]

Vetting potential buyers is a good practice. I do the same. Feedback left for others is good to look at. A long-time buyer who leaves negative feedback now and then almost always gets blocked. These are the types of buyers I believe know how to abuse guarantees the site has. Best types of buyers are those who never leave any feedback