Creating a New Combined Listing for Multiple Offers

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

velvet@ebay   

I just had a buyer make an offer on two different listings. The items are similar, and could be combined for shipping, to lower the buyer's shipping costs. 

In the past, in order to avoid having to issue a refund if I accept the offers and then combine the shipping, I have sometimes "declined" the actual offer, but messaged the buyer that I have created a new listing for the buyer, with the two items in the same listing (at the price he offered) . Buyer then buys the new listing, and gets the benefit of the shipping discount, along with an item price that is the same as the total price he had offered.

This works for me, and usually delights the buyer.

And, as far as I know, this has never been any sort of rule violation.

However, I now have to ask----If I were to do this, would it be a problem?

In both cases, the offer includes the information that if I accept the offers, the PLS fee will be applied.

Which is fine.

But...if I create a new listing (combining the two items), will ebay apply the PL fee? Or not? (I'm fine with ebay applying it, just not sure if it would be applied or not.)

And if I create  new combined listing and ebay does NOT apply the PL (because it is an entirely new listing), would ebay classify that as fee avoidance?

Obviously, that is not my intent. My intent is to delight my buyer with the shipping cost reduction.

[wastingtime101]

I don't think eBay would examine things that closely. Create the new listing if that's what works for you and be done with it.

eBay's working on some kind of new bulk offer feature for the future. It was in one of the seller updates this year.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@wastingtime101  Well, what I did in this case was counter-offered at a penny over the offer price, with messages letting buyer know he should not pay immediately but wait for me to send a combined invoice. He just now accepted my counter offers. 

Do you know if there's an easy way for him to "request a (combined) invoice"?  He messaged me and said he can "request an invoice" but it looked like that would be for each one individually.  

[katzrul15]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@wastingtime101  Well, what I did in this case was counter-offered at a penny over the offer price, with messages letting buyer know he should not pay immediately but wait for me to send a combined invoice. He just now accepted my counter offers. 

Do you know if there's an easy way for him to "request a (combined) invoice"?  He messaged me and said he can "request an invoice" but it looked like that would be for each one individually.  

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If you have immediate payment required on your listings, they typically cannot ask for a combined invoice.

[wastingtime101]

If an offers were accepted and the buyer hasn't paid yet then you can send an invoice for both items combined and the buyer doesn't even have to request one.

If you're really concerned about the promoted listing, next time you can send the buyer a message, decline both offers, revise one of the existing listings to include both items and tell the buyer to purchase.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@wastingtime101 "If an offers were accepted and the buyer hasn't paid yet then you can send an invoice for both items combined and the buyer doesn't even have to request one."

Yep, that's what I did. Buyer had asked me how he could request it, but I realized he didn't need to formally request it, I could just send it.

"If you're really concerned about the promoted listing, next time you can send the buyer a message, decline both offers, revise one of the existing listings to include both items and tell the buyer to purchase."

LOL---Yeah, That's actually what I've done in the past, don't know why I was thinking about it as an entirely new listing.

I was probably overthinking this, but I like to avoid potential ebay landmines. 

Yep, should have thought of that....but in the end, I'm satisfied with this method. I think the key is, as long as the buyer reads the message , either method should work OK.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Just a follow-up:

buyer paid, ebay got its PL fees on both listings, so it all worked out just fine. LOL

[wastingtime101]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

I was probably overthinking this

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I agree. 😂

Good to hear you got it all worked out.

[velvet@ebay]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

velvet@ebay   

I just had a buyer make an offer on two different listings. The items are similar, and could be combined for shipping, to lower the buyer's shipping costs. 

In the past, in order to avoid having to issue a refund if I accept the offers and then combine the shipping, I have sometimes "declined" the actual offer, but messaged the buyer that I have created a new listing for the buyer, with the two items in the same listing (at the price he offered) . Buyer then buys the new listing, and gets the benefit of the shipping discount, along with an item price that is the same as the total price he had offered.

This works for me, and usually delights the buyer.

And, as far as I know, this has never been any sort of rule violation.

However, I now have to ask----If I were to do this, would it be a problem?

In both cases, the offer includes the information that if I accept the offers, the PLS fee will be applied.

Which is fine.

But...if I create a new listing (combining the two items), will ebay apply the PL fee? Or not? (I'm fine with ebay applying it, just not sure if it would be applied or not.)

And if I create  new combined listing and ebay does NOT apply the PL (because it is an entirely new listing), would ebay classify that as fee avoidance?

Obviously, that is not my intent. My intent is to delight my buyer with the shipping cost reduction.

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Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques! Looks like you already got an answer, but I wanted to follow-up so you didn't think I was ignoring you. I was just on vacation last week. 🤗 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

velvet@ebay  Hope you had a nice vacation. Thanks for getting back to me on this. I have a post from today as well, appreciate it if you'd take a look at that when you get a chance.