Do you ignore lowball offers? I do

[ten_o_nine]

I used to counter offer with what I would accept, but since I had no luck with those counter offers, I decided to just ignore them, just like this one ebay sent me a reminder on today, it's listed for $49 with free shipping and the offer was $12 .

I know I can set my best offers to auto accept/decline but wanted to evaluate each offer based on product/demand/inventory, I also know I can reject but that only means a $13 offer is coming and if I reject again, it creates a "not so good feeling about transaction", so what do you do? Should I reject or Ignore?

[bigdeals.etc]

Back when I used to sell concert and sports events tickets, I used to get low-ball offers all the time.

Many times I would even get sob stories from buyers asking me to give them the tickets for free.

[mudshark61369]

@fashunu4eeuh,

"In some cultures haggling over the price is customary. In many places it is expected. So in a globally diverse marketplace like eBay, expect all kinds of opening offers to be made as the buyer settles in for negotiations. What we might consider insulting is just the beginning effort of a possible serious buyer."

Yes and many of the people from those cultures, will agree on a price, then show up with less money, or saying this was all they could get their hands on at the moment.  I won't do business that way, and send them packing. Sometimes it turns out they did have the money on them and they were trying to nickle and dime an even better price. I don't mind haggling but, there's a point when its smart to walk away.

"One thing for certain, ignoring and blocking will insure the sale won’t take place. Countering will give it a chance".

Sometimes, its better to risk not making a sale, than to go through with it, and end up with problems later on.

[irinahat]

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@retrose1 wrote:

I don't use best offer as it contributes to the race to the basement in price.   And it encourages playing games with buyers that do not need to be played.

So if I get an offer I immediately put the id on my BBL.  If the buyer can't be bothered to take into consideration my terms in the listing, it is obvious that they will be equally inconsiderate about the seller after they get the item and the seller is in the mercy of ebay's buyercentric policies.

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I don't feel as though the best offer feature encourages playing games. It also depends on what you are selling. For cookie cutter listings (brand new, modern, have model or item #, etc), I can see why getting lowball offers would be annoying if you're selling something such as brand new video games, electronics, books, etc. and you have the lowest price on Ebay as it is.

But best offer does wonders for me because I tend to find a lot of OOAK folk art, original art, primitive hand made things, and items that are so obscure and crude that I'm the only one who has anything like it, so, me figuring out how to price something like that is this huge guessing game of not knowing where to start.

If I have an item such as this, that's rather obscure or one of a kind, or perhaps hand made, I'll usually price high and if someone offers me 40% less, I'll honestly take it because I pulled the starting price out of thin air as it is. I've had success before where I'd find some hand made item at an estate sale and I'd price it at $500, for example, and someone would make an offer of $400 and I'd immediately accept considering I made the starting price up, as I said.

I feel like the best offer feature works amazingly for certain items in certain categories, no doubt about it.

[grayirongolf]

I'd ignore it.  After it's all said & done it sounds like you'd be taking a loss. Your not here to lose $.

I like to look at all my best offers for shipping calculations.  It can sometimes be the diffrence between making money or losing it. 

[retrose1]

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@myboardid wrote:

First, I have the lowest prices on my items to start with, or equal prices to my competitors on MAP items.   I have my Best Offers set at only 5% off, and offers below that are blocked so I never see them.  I sell a lot with BO, I never let an offer come in without a counter or a decline if I don't like the potential buyers' feedback record.  I think that's only happened once or twice. 

I find the claims repeated here about buyers who make offers being a nuisance further into the sale process as being a rumor that a few sellers have started and others have taken as gospel.  I have never had a single buyer cause a problem after I accepted their offer, and I sell a lot via this method.  I don't believe the nuisance buyer happens any more ofter when Best Offer is involved than it does when the buyer just buys without using BO. 

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Sorry to burst your bubble, but it happened to me a few times on ebay and once on the other site.

A few years ago, I had an item that was big, low scam and relisted on ebay a few times and I was tired of it.  Got an offer and I figured, what the hey, lots of posters that I respect do it, I'll give it a try (ignoring the happenings in the past) and sure enough minutes after they got it the buyer was working the ebay system all about the 'problems' the item had and it was worth so much less than what they offered - and this was my favorite part.... they actually said that since I had negotiated before, I should be willing to do it now after I told them to return it.

On the other site, since the scambag was using ebay terminology, I just figured that an ebay scammer had expanded their horizons.  After that, whenever I get a offer on one of my items there, I do a general search for the id on ebay (found one years ago who used the same id on both) and prices on like items on the site and almost always find that mine are the cheapest listed there and turn them down and jack up my prices to closer than the others listed.

I will entertain offers on the other site - mostly because their policies do not favor buyers in their entiretity and so the risk of losing the item, the money or both are much smaller there. 

[retrose1]

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@irinahat wrote:

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@retrose1 wrote:

I don't use best offer as it contributes to the race to the basement in price.   And it encourages playing games with buyers that do not need to be played.

So if I get an offer I immediately put the id on my BBL.  If the buyer can't be bothered to take into consideration my terms in the listing, it is obvious that they will be equally inconsiderate about the seller after they get the item and the seller is in the mercy of ebay's buyercentric policies.

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I don't feel as though the best offer feature encourages playing games.

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Of course it's a game- it's called Guess how much I am willing to pay/take.

[pingpong517]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

I used to counter offer with what I would accept, but since I had no luck with those counter offers, I decided to just ignore them, just like this one ebay sent me a reminder on today, it's listed for $49 with free shipping and the offer was $12 .

I know I can set my best offers to auto accept/decline but wanted to evaluate each offer based on product/demand/inventory, I also know I can reject but that only means a $13 offer is coming and if I reject again, it creates a "not so good feeling about transaction", so what do you do? Should I reject or Ignore?

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Seems like you answered your own question... if they bother you and you don't wnat to counter or decline ...then YOU set a min accept.....and there is no stress...anything under you don't hear about it....anything over..cha ching..done.

[keziak]

I didn't see this thought mentioned: for really lowball offers I decline at once. I feel that even lowballers don't deserve to be left hanging for a few days only to get declined. I would not appreciate that so I don't want to do that to others.

[grayirongolf]

ebay scammer had expanded their horizons. 

That's good stuff..

[mudshark61369]

@ten_o_nine,

"I know I can set my best offers to auto accept/decline but wanted to evaluate each offer based on product/demand/inventory".

Because of the number of items you have listed, and that many are available from other sellers, what I do may not work for you. 

When I list an item for the first time, if I use Best Offer I set the auto decline / accept at between 7.5% to 5%, if none have sold after a couple of weeks, I may increase the parameters.  Doing that allows me to evaluate offers on the same criteria you use.

I do not use Best Offer often, usually reserving that for items that do not have a history on ebay.  Of course I have the price set at my hoped for sale price, and I've found 4 out of ten times I do that, within the first 48 hours a couple of people will burn through all of their offers. Funny how often those people buy and sell on the same ID in the same category.  Then come the messages saying the price is too high and will never sell... ad infinium.  Even more often the item sells for my BIN. 

Before starting to use the auto system, I tended to ignore really low offers. I figured if the person really wants the item they will take the hint, and come back with one closer to haggling range. If they make a second lowball offer, I decline and block.   Even with the auto system I'll leave space between the accept / decline prices, which allows for some haggling. That gap will depend on if the item has gone through a listing cycle or not, and the number of views or watchers.   

[ersatz_sobriquet]

It all depends. 

On an expensive antique I've taken as much as $500 less than what I had it listed for. I still made excellent money. 

The ones I avoid are the ones that try to get a $25 item for half. I don't like cheapskates. Comparing that to the huge reduction on an expensive antique you might think--You took $500 less but you won't take $12 less on the $25 item? How does that make sense? 

It makes a lot of sense. The expensive antique when rare is a matter of waiting for the right buyer to come along, and those items are so unique there is rarely a true comparison item, and/or the other like items are again "shoot for the moon" prices. So I sell it for less and still make a bundle. 

But the $25 item that the buyer wants half off feels to me more like a cheap person trying to take advantage of the ebay garage sale. The $25 price was not extreme to begin with. It's just some buyer who always fishes to try to get less than market value, and I'll be honest--I don't like those kinds of buyers. For some reason, that feels more insulting to me.  I try to avoid them because I agree with others that they are possibly the type to complain after the sale too. 

[lex-talon]

Most of the low ball offers I received are countered and usually the buyer is never heard from again. 

[blacktopautoparts]

I tend to counteroffer when someone comes in with a lowball offer and I explain to them why my offer is what it is. But I recently learned a valuable lesson even after selling on here for 14 years. I had someone try and lowball me on an offer a month ago, we ended up agreeing on a price. They received the item and a few weeks later they try to play the card that the item was damaged and wanted $150 back. I kept telling them to send the item back or accept a few dollars back, they would never respond back about sending the item back. Then she proceeded with feedback extortion which is a big no-no.

They we’re playing the after the sale low ball offer game with me and even the CSR saw it but with the new stupid eBay policies she couldn’t do anything. Only thing they guaranteed me was removal of the feedback if negative was left.

At this point, if they are persistent on the low ball offers I just block people. As Crazy New York Driver says on his YouTube channel, these people are “Fitchy” buyers. I don’t need or have the time for them.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

Exactly.

I have a friend of many years that this is the one thing about her that drives me nuts. She is like that on any exchange of money, anywhere she goes, any purchases she does. That's just how she is, and she's never going to change. I learned a long time ago to keep any monetary dealings out of our friendship. 

[kim_y_buran]

I've had two instances where I rejected a lowball offer (unsolicited too, AFAIR) and the person then purchased the item at the full price and promptly filed a SNAD.  Since then I BBL without mercy.