Fake Offers

[granny2236]

Can someone explain why "buyers" submit fake offers. Is it just for kicks or is there some nefarious reason? I dont fall for them anymore, but I still get them every once in a while.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Not sure how you can determine the offers are 'fake'; but there are many things that a seller needs to be aware of.

Was the offer much higher also asking for a 'gift card' to be purchased and they will 'cover your costs' for it??

Was the offer then asking for a 'phone number' or 'email' ?? 

Many 'offers' and 'messages' are sent to 'new sellers' to scam said seller

[granny2236]

Thank you for responding. The few offers Ive gotten have been for way more than the item is worth.  The buyers usually just signed up for ebay that day and have 0 FB. I have been asked for a phone number, but didnt respond. I have a current offer for 3 skeins of yarn for $30 (worth maybe $10) from someone with no buying history but signed onto ebay a few years ago. I never know what to do, so I have been ignoring the last few offers. 

[solidguitar1961]

Are they worth more than $10 , Best offer on auctions don't have to be lower. Let's your start a $100 item at auction for $10 someone might say I'll give $75 for it instead of waiting for the auction to end. 

[jahood1984]

I always provide them with the FBI crime line tips number that starts with 877 lol

[theteamsetguy]

That seems pretty devias (sp?) of you? 

[dbfolks166mt]

     I quit using OBO a long time ago for this very reason. For some people what you refer to as "fake offers" is just something they do to kill time similar to the sport bidders on auctions that never pay and just use multiple guest accounts to keep on bidding. 

    Then as granny2236 there are the offers for way over the BIN price which is an immediate scam red flag. A lot of sellers use OBO but I just got tied of dealing with it and have better things to do with my time. 

[soh.maryl]

Regarding offers, sellers can accept, decline, counter or simply ignore.

So I respectfully suggest you choose option #4.  

[calicorecordsandcds]

I am not tracking.  What constitutes a fake offer?  I get very unreasonable offers yes.  It is hard to tell if it is because of lack of knowledge, they are hoping you will except by accident or if they are in their mind a super negotiator.  I typically decline them and state we are too far off.  If they do it too often and it is the same person I will ban them from my store.

[dollysg71]

I have the same problem . Offers for EXACTLY the buy it now price and then no payment or reply to messages  Always have a weird spelling of first name and 0 rating just joined ebay recently  WASTES time and keeps me from selling to legitimate buyers  this has to stop ! and baffles me why except to mess  with sellers on ebay

[iamalwaysright]

Regarding low offers. What may be fake according one person can be very real to another.

Regarding obvious scams disguised as offers. They are around because they have a high enough success rate. Sellers fall for them.

[reallynicestamps]

Dolls and auctions.

Two difficult categories.

Over 85% of listings are now Fixed Price, and many of those are Immediate Payment Required.

If you know how much you want (or must) get for your product, use Fixed Price.

You can add Buy It Now to your Auctions at the price you want to get. This also gives some indication to bidders of what you expect to get, discouraging bottom feeder bids.

But remember that the winning bid is set by the underbidder.

If you open at $10 and get two bids one at $100 and one at $20, the winning bid will be $21, an increment higher than the underbid.

If you add Best Offer to a Fixed Price listing, you can also set parameters for acceptable and unacceptable offers. The offers that are too low get a polite boilerplate notice automatically.

[mam98031]

How are you determining what is Fake and what is real?  There wouldn't be any labels on the offers, so how are you defining this????