Getting lots of offers, just above minimum auto decline price.

[azjustin]

Don't get me wrong, we do offers, lots of offers, love offers.  However, I became suspicious when all of a sudden almost every single offer started coming in at the exact price we have the auto decline set to.  Typically that lower price is meant to get the conversation started for us, and as most of you know, most buyers don't counter back or accept after a counter.  Most noticeably is that almost every buyer had 4 offers remaining, meaning that they "guessed" the lowest price the first time, almost every time.

Soooo, started looking around and sure enough there is apps, extensions, pages, scripts, etc., all designed to "help you get the best price you can on eBay!".  Looks like they can pull the minimum offer price right out of the code on the page and even see what the previous offers have been accepted at.  And these are offers that are coming in from buyers that have been longstanding members using this ability, not just new members with minimal feedback.  My favorite one was an extension that had a search that only showed sellers that would take offers (there's a button for that now!) and showed the minimum price the seller would take.  No other items or sellers were displayed that didn't fit that criteria.  

My wife didn't believe me, so to prove myself wrong (she's never wrong), I set an auto decline at $80.78.  Sure enough, a couple days later an $80.79 offer came in and the buyer had 4 offers remaining, miraculously guessing the lowest price available on a $100 item.

All that being said: yes, I know we can change the settings.  Yes, I know that offers are optional (sort of).  Yes, I know pretty much all the self help options. 

However, my complaint is that eBay can't/won't encode the page enough for people to find this information, that shouldn't be available in the first place.  Why even have the offer option in place when someone will just attack your lowest price right out of the gate?  IMO, offers are there to get the conversation started, not for someone to automatically know what the lowest price you'll take for something. 

Playing the offer game has been interesting at best, very punishing to the bottom line most times, although seemingly a necessary evil for ebay to send you more traffic for sales.  I'm all for playing games, but not if I'm getting kneecapped at every sale.

Anyone have any good insights?  Dealt and conquered the issue?  Am I just off base and need to stop being irritated?

Thanks in advance!

[castlemagicmemories]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

almost every buyer had 4 offers remaining,

I thought the new normal was 10 offers-- it stuck in my memory because it was such a time-waster.

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Ten offers are only allowed for certain categories, such as Motors.  Generally, offers were changed from three, to five. 

[ekmadonna]

So basically your saying anyone can do this which means you do not need a special app?

[jeannicho22]

Yes, I imagine your auto decline price is in the code of every eBay item:

view-source:https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pelican-Hardigg-iM2750-Storm-Rolling-Travel-Case-Lid-Bag-22-17-12-7-1620-Eq...

I'm just not smart enough to find it.

[jeannicho22]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@18704d wrote:

I did see the listing price, then shipping price

and then the other price which I believe may be the best offer.

Make sense?

Lynn

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Indeed. Can you find the OP's $80.78 listing, by any chance? (Got to run out the door or I'd dig further into this. Back later to check for further discoveries. )

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Thank you, I believe I found it.

Pelican Hardigg travel bag.  $89.95.  I do believe I know what the auto decline number is and if so, it is in the page source for anyone to see.

Man, if that is so.... what a **bleep**.

[jeannicho22]

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@ekmadonna wrote:

So basically your saying anyone can do this which means you do not need a special app?

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You do not need a special app.

[jeannicho22]

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@18704d wrote:

Well everyone,

it looks like the OP has only done 2 posts on these boards

each of which was an opening thread which they didn't respond back to.

(which is ok, or course)

I got curious,

I opened one of the OP's listings, then

on that page, I Right Clicked and selected View Page Source.

That allows my browser to show me the entire source code for that page.

I use Firefox, but I'm certain Chrome allows this too.

then,

with the Huge amount of code.. I did Control F (for find)

and told it to find $  dollar signs.

I figured any 'hidden' price would have a dollar sign next to it...

It showed me the first $ and then I hit F3 (for repeat)

to one at a time, show me everything with a dollar sign in it.

I did see the listing price, then shipping price

and then the other price which I believe may be the best offer.

Make sense?

Lynn

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I said thank you to someone else for suggesting the $ and it should have been to you.  Before reading your suggestion I posted about the page source and was using the word "offer" which wasn't the key.  I'm pretty sure I found the auto decline price on the Pelican Hardigg.

[ohnojoey]

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@18704d wrote:

@azjustin 

Your listing:
Pelican 1620 Protector Rolling Case | 24.76" x 19.57" x 13.90" | Foam | Hardigg
which has a price listed of 94.95

Is your best offer 72.95?

Thanks
Lynn

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That could be for item number 332995913212, which is one of another seller's listings under the OP's listing, as the code is all lumped together.

[ittybitnot]

Re: Getting lots of offers, just above minimum auto decline price.....

What about "auto accept"?   I have not looked yet, but is that visible as well?  

[turquoisetulips]

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@escuintla wrote:

I got a $215 on a $299 listing. 

Thanks but no thanks! 

I am barely making $ to pay for a lunch for our family this Sunday. 

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I listed an item two days ago priced at 42 dollars with free shipping .This price was very close to being about 20 dollars cheaper  than almost  all of the comparables . Since then I've been swamped with extremely low ball offers  so much so I finally raised the price by 3 dollars and  put a limit on the lowest price I would consider. Like most people I don't mind getting offers  but I refuse to be taken advantage of by resellers . Tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

Unless they changed back - I thought it was 10 offers too. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some new program wherein a buyer can input an item number and the lowest acceptable offer is shown. I have links to tools that show me a lot more than we are shown on these venues.

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I have an item priced at about 12 or 13 dollars right now  with just a minimal shipping fee. The other day a buyer offered me 2 dollars ,,I declined it,, then they offered 3 dollars  LOL . I wasn't sure just how far up they were going to be able to go before the game stopped . Tulips

[mr_lincoln]

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@ekmadonna wrote:

That's a really interesting tidbit of news, because I have been noticing this same exact thing so much to the point I came to believe it was no coincidence. Now I know for sure. I had 3 high priced items come in at exactly my lowest set decline price right around April 1st, I accepted them all only because I wanted to get a good start to the month. Then another came in-- a $350.00 item with auto decline set at $199.99, an offer came in at $200, I did not take this one because I noticed the pattern. and the item is worth every penny of the $350 price so I countered at $275 and the guy vanished. I will make sure to set my auto declines higher now. Thanks for that very helpful piece of info. I may just stop and go back to NO OFFERS!

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That's what I would do without hesitation ...

[klhmdg]

I guess we should all stop using the "auto accept" or "auto decline" -

We could still accept offers just not do "auto" anything.

And with buyers being able to send offers only good for 12 hours.... many sales will be lost.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@jeannicho22 wrote:

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@18704d wrote:

I did see the listing price, then shipping price

and then the other price which I believe may be the best offer.

Make sense?

Lynn

---

Indeed. Can you find the OP's $80.78 listing, by any chance? (Got to run out the door or I'd dig further into this. Back later to check for further discoveries. )

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Thank you, I believe I found it.

Pelican Hardigg travel bag.  $89.95.  I do believe I know what the auto decline number is and if so, it is in the page source for anyone to see.

Man, if that is so.... what a **bleep**.

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If I may ask, where in the page source?  I got that far but didn't see  it.

[castlemagicmemories]

I did it again and I found it!  Thank you, everyone!

[azjustin]

Hey all, sorry for the delayed response.  We're changing warehouses and I have been working every hour that I'm not sleeping.  Not much computer or phone time.

@18704d 

@castlemagicmemories 

@a_c_green

The specific auction with the random minimum auto decline has been sold and ended for a while, but I'd be more than willing to change some others to further prove the point.  The pelican cases always sell, it's just a #'s game.  Just msg me, I'm willing to trade secrets.

And again, a massive flurry of offers all right above the minimum auto decline all this weekend and almost every one with 4 offers left.  I'd love to hear an eBay rep comment on all this.

Part of the problem with raising the minimum auto decline is that I counter offers, and then they have to marinate until the offer expires unless accepted.  However, another, and another roll in and basically can't change any settings without just outright declining offers, which I won't do.  So, the frustration continues.

The odds of someone "guessing" a minimum offer the first time, and then 15 other people doing it after that, are far far worse than guessing and winning the powerball at $325+ million. 

Thanks for the suggestions from some, but the eBay algorithms will direct traffic to auctions that accept offers, not just the search pages that have the "Seller accepts offers" button.  Again, we do offers, and don't mind doing offers.  But the rub is with eBay showing the code to whomever wants to find it. 

This all reminds me of playing poker with my cards facing the wrong direction.  Except I'm the only idiot in the room doing it.

I'm sure auto accept is visible also, but no one would probably think twice about it while packaging said item up for shipping.  What might make you think about it (like me) is the 15+25+10+15+7+15......   that is potentially lost in sales over the course of a day/week/month or year.

Thanks everyone for paying attention to this issue.  I'm still here, just busy.