Enabling "Make Offer" on some listings is the worst thing I have ever done on Ebay

[goldrushfinds]

What a mistake. Enabling "Make Offer" has been a huge time and money waste. I think it only works on expensive items, where you have room to lower the price or something you just want to get rid of. Some list intentionally high so they have room to lower the price (also think thats a bad idea). I listed a Lacoste polo shirt yesterday for a very competitive price and have been flooded with low ball offers. I tried to elimate "make offer" feature, but since I have active offers it won't let me do so. I feel it almost surely would have sold at full price if I hadn't enabled the feature. My belief is having Make Offer activated just screams you are willing to take a lower price (and then potential buyers are insulted if you don't take it). From now on, price at the lower end of comparable sold's range and at a fixed price. 

[chapeau-noir]

Sometimes experiments return results we'd rather not repeat. If you want to try it again, put a lowest limit you will accept. I send offers to people who have the item on their watch list when I'm clearancing it out -  I don't use best offer otherwise anymore, though I did try it - I'm not sure what it tells people or not, that really wasn't my concern.

[reallynicestamps]

items, where you have room to lower the price or something you just want to get rid of.

Well, yes.

Some list intentionally high so they have room to lower the price

Also yes.

have been flooded with low ball offers.

Did you set parameters?
We can choose an automatic rejection below our chosen level and an automatic acceptance above our chosen level.

We never see the automatic rejections, but since I often see that a customer has made two or three offers before hitting the sweet spot, I believe eBay is sending  a very nice "sorry no, but do try again" Message.

My belief is having Make Offer activated just screams you are willing to take a lower price

I disagree.

I have Best Offer on most of my listings and yet just today one took one hour and 22 minutes to sell at full price.

Anecdote is of course not data.

It may also depend on the category, most of my stamps, while not rare, are not necessarily common either.

[goldrushfinds]

My belief is list it at the most competitive price you can afford (and make a reasonable return). If the item doesn't sell after a month or 2 then lower the price and send out offers to watchers. I think when people make offers and you decline them, it leaves a bad taste in some peoples mouths. Buyers can still contact you with regards to an offer even if you don't have the feature enabled.

[goldrushfinds]

I don't think there is a right answer, as there are too many variables in play. Someone trying to make $5-$10 a pop, who is a high volume seller may be able to make it work. Or high priced items with lots of margin. In my case, I think I will stick to what worked quite well in the past (that is not having Make Offer). My experiment only brought me grief. 

[fbusoni]

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@goldrushfinds wrote:

What a mistake. Enabling "Make Offer" has been a huge time and money waste. I think it only works on expensive items, where you have room to lower the price or something you just want to get rid of. Some list intentionally high so they have room to lower the price (also think thats a bad idea). I listed a Lacoste polo shirt yesterday for a very competitive price and have been flooded with low ball offers. I tried to elimate "make offer" feature, but since I have active offers it won't let me do so. I feel it almost surely would have sold at full price if I hadn't enabled the feature. My belief is having Make Offer activated just screams you are willing to take a lower price (and then potential buyers are insulted if you don't take it). From now on, price at the lower end of comparable sold's range and at a fixed price. 

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@goldrushfinds 

Make an offer does indeed scream that you are willing to take a lower price, for the simple reason that you are advertising that you ARE willing to take a lower price.

And yes, your experience with low ball offers is a common one -- including potential buyers being insulted when you decline.

FWIW, when I receive a message from a potential buyer that emits even the faintest hint of disgruntlement or entitlement, I add the buyer's name to my blocked buyer list immediately, precluding the buyer from purchasing from me.  It takes effect immediately.

The reason I do this is that in my own experience selling here for 25 years, I have discovered that these are precisely the sorts of buyers who -- at least 50% of the time -- will turn around and pay close to what you are asking, only to make the seller's life miserable after the sale, with requests for shipping discounts, partial refunds and the like.  That of course opens a can of worms for INADs and bad feedback.

None of which is worth the chump change that you as seller will save in the course of the sale.

[johnrj1226]

I'm with you.   When I sold  I set my price at a  mid point of the range, after discarding the lowest & highest of what other sellers sold the  same or similar item as long as I achieved my  set  profit %.    On an occasion or  2 I would receive and unsolicited   reasonable price offer I would accept .  Low ballers  would ignore.

There are  certain cultures  price  negotiations is a way of life  - e.g. in Japan  business negations must  be a 3 times negotiation to be consider a successful business transaction - price or  terms are considered.   In Mexico  open  air  market districts,  price  negotiation can be  endless - once I had a a merchant chase me down the street to finally accept my best offer.  On the other hand once in Monterrey in park next to my hotel I noticed a shoe shine boy and my shoes need a shine.  He wanted 50c US.  The best shine I ever had, gave him $5.00 US  he gave a great smile in return.  BTW would  have paid 8 bucks at the Houston TX airport - so I saved 3 bucks.

[luckythewinner]

My belief is having Make Offer activated just screams you are willing to take a lower price

In other words, you should only activate "Make offer" for items that you are willing to accept an offer on. That seems like it should be obvious. 

I think it only works on expensive items, where you have room to lower the price or something you just want to get rid of.

In other words, you should only activate "Make offer" for items that you are willing to accept an offer on. That seems like it should be obvious. 

I don't think there is a right answer

IMHO the "answer" would be to decide whether you are willing accept offers on an item-by-item basis, and  if so whether you are willing to take on the additional hand-holding that will result. 

[l5vw]

 We like the make offer option and use it on all of our listings. Approx 25 percent of our sales come from buyer offers and another 25 percent come from offers we send.

[dirk12955]

What works for seller one might not work for seller two.

I don't use "best offer" and never really have.   That will change when I decide to close things out within the 

next year or so.

I do use "Send offer"  with mixed results.    I usually limit my Send offer use,  to when business is slow.   

I've had better luck running % off sales if the buyer spends a certain amount on certain items.    

[kensgiftshop]

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@goldrushfinds wrote:

My belief is having Make Offer activated just screams you are willing to take a lower price (and then potential buyers are insulted if you don't take it).

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Ya, either willing to take a lower price or desperate for a sale.

[a_c_green]

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@kensgiftshop wrote:

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@goldrushfinds wrote:

My belief is having Make Offer activated just screams you are willing to take a lower price (and then potential buyers are insulted if you don't take it).

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Ya, either willing to take a lower price or desperate for a sale.

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Quite possibly, yes.

In my buying account, I will almost always send an offer if Make Offer is showing, unless I think the seller has underpriced the item to begin with so I'd better snatch it right away.

Occasionally my opening offer is too low and I find that the seller has set an auto-decline limit, but at least eBay tells me that right away so I can try again with a higher price, until the offer goes in for consideration. (You only get to make 5 attempts.) 

The only sellers I cannot understand are those with Make Offer on everything, but no response is ever forthcoming, until finally the offer times out a day later. If I look at their Sold items, it becomes obvious that they never accept offers, despite having that button on the listing. I can only wonder why they bother with it; they just waste everyone's time that way.

[sin-n-dex]

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@goldrushfinds wrote:

What a mistake. Enabling "Make Offer" has been a huge time and money waste. I think it only works on expensive items, where you have room to lower the price or something you just want to get rid of. Some list intentionally high so they have room to lower the price (also think thats a bad idea). I listed a Lacoste polo shirt yesterday for a very competitive price and have been flooded with low ball offers. I tried to elimate "make offer" feature, but since I have active offers it won't let me do so. I feel it almost surely would have sold at full price if I hadn't enabled the feature. My belief is having Make Offer activated just screams you are willing to take a lower price (and then potential buyers are insulted if you don't take it). From now on, price at the lower end of comparable sold's range and at a fixed price. 

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The "make offer" is something I enabled on listings several years ago when I was trying to see if I could make more sales by taking less money if an offer came in. I ended up with people making one semi-reasonable offer, and then 100 lowball offers, then they wouldn't pay for their one coin because they wanted to combine postage but I wasn't taking their low ball offers.

It was the source of a lot of frustration. When I found out I could put a minimum acceptable price and it would auto deny (which I advise you to do if you want to continue to try to accept offers), I would get nasty messages from people telling me I didn't take any time to consider their offer before rejecting it, their offer is fair, blah blah blah.

So I ditched that. I only put that on when I can't send an offer to someone and we're making a deal, then they can make the offer to me. If they don't take advantage of it, I remove the option and the listing reverts back to the way it was. It doesn't happen often though, most times a deal is made.

C.

[inhawaii]

I've experienced first hand "make offer" listings where I offered ONE DOLLAR less than asking price and my offer was denied.

Many say the explanation for this is that the seller did not intend/want "best offer" enabled.

[chapeau-noir]

The worst thing I ever did on eBay was purchase the stock from a closing bridal shop and then sell it here.