I wish to report something that works

[fbusoni]

As has been discussed, eBay recently extended to 96 hours the amount of time a buyer has to consider an offer sent by the seller.  And as has been reported on the last couple of months, buyers are not receiving notifications of offers that sellers send in the first place.

My conclusion is that eBay wants to dissuade sellers from sending offers, so I have stopped doing so.

Instead, whilst looking at the the page that designates listings eligible to send offers, I am merely lowering the price of the item.  I am not / not sending an offer.

The results have been surprisingly very positive, with buyers making their purchase within an hour or less.

This has happened now fairly consistently for the last several days.

PS: I know that sellers can lower the price at any time.  What strikes me as unusual is the speed with which buyers are responding.   This morning, I dropped the price of a book from $45 to $40 and the response from the buyer was almost instantaneous, as if eBay has somehow jump-started its notification system.  Perhaps its just coincidence... but I did read that eBay has appointed recently a new director of communications.  

ETA: I just conducted an experiment with a friend and he did indeed receive notification that I sent him an offer.  Congrats to eBay for finally fixing that hot mess. 

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@fbusoni wrote:

As has been discussed, eBay recently extended to 96 hours the amount of time a buyer has to consider an offer sent by the seller.  And as has been reported on the last couple of months, buyers are not receiving notifications of offers that sellers send in the first place.

My conclusion is that eBay wants to dissuade sellers from sending offers, so I have stopped doing so.

Instead, whilst looking at the the page that designates listings eligible to send offers, I am merely lowering the price of the item.  I am not / not sending an offer.

The results have been surprisingly very positive, with buyers making their purchase within an hour or less.

This has happened now fairly consistently for the last several days.

PS: I know that sellers can lower the price at any time.  What strikes me as unusual is the speed with which buyers are responding.   This morning, I dropped the price of a book from $45 to $40 and the response from the buyer was almost instantaneous, as if eBay has somehow jump-started its notification system.  Perhaps its just coincidence.  

---

A few questions if you don't mind.

Are you discounting the price once you see an offer can be sent? (timing)

Do you have a store where you put the item on sale or are you just discounting the item?

Are you considering raising the price after some time or are you reducing the price permanently?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@fbusoni 

 I can live with the 96 hours period...not happy with it, but my main objection is not the extension, it's the failure to announce the change. 

I'm going to have to start watching my notifications a little more carefully, but I think (not sure) that I've been getting "reminders" about items I only looked at (no watch list) and the price hasn't even been reduced, so these aren't seller initiated offers, they are just reminders from ebay. So, ebay might be sending those reminders (whether you reduce or not) and the buyer sees the reduction and buys.

So, yes, I think what you are doing can certainly work. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I run sales events sometimes, and I often try to include items eligible for offers, because a discount is a discount. When I think of it, I use my store newsletter to announce the sale, but I'm not sure that actually does much good. I also use the Banner on the store home page, but again, does it do much good? I can't say.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@fbusoni "And as has been reported on the last couple of months, buyers are not receiving notifications of offers that sellers send in the first place."

And I've been wondering if that's part of the reason for the extension. If ebay glitches and sends the offers out late (but the clock is already ticking) buyers might not be seeing the offer till after it has expired. So, did ebay extend the timer frame to compensate for ebay's delays in actually sending the offers? Maybe. If so, I doubt ebay will ever admit it LOL

[fern*wood]

---

@fbusoni wrote:

  And as has been reported on the last couple of months, buyers are not receiving notifications of offers that sellers send in the first place.

My conclusion is that eBay wants to dissuade sellers from sending offers, so I have stopped doing so.

---

I'm curious about the above.  I had missed seeing complaints that buyers aren't receiving notifications of offers.  I wonder how any seller would know this since we don't know IDs they are being sent to.    I also can't think ebay wants to dissuade sellers sending offers or they would just stop showing us eligible people to send them to. 

I'm glad lowering the price has helped sell your items.  I guess ebay is sending watchers this notification?

[stainlessenginecovers]

@fbusoni @my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

I don't have anyway of knowing if/when buyers receive; but if you click on 'offers sent' you can then click on an item and it shows who it was sent to and how long it has left

I used 'sending offers' for the first time 2 weeks ago and:

1) got 30 orders from it (out of about 200 sent out) the first time; about 20 orders the 2nd time (which the system then sends to the 'next 30 that were watching'). 

2) can see how long and how many went for each item

3) I did NOT click the 'automate' so offers ONLY went to watchers that were watching at the time offer was sent and anyone that had item in their cart and was NOT sent to any 'just viewers'. 

4) did NOT click the 'counter offer' button so I would not get any. 

I do not do 'best offer' on any of my items- so again, this was just the 'send offer' system used. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

---

@fbusoni wrote:

My conclusion is that eBay wants to dissuade sellers from sending offers, so I have stopped doing so.

---

@fbusoni Sorry to say, that is 100% the wrong conclusion. This site created this system because this site makes money when something sells so they don't care if you sell it for $100 or for $80; they only care that it gets sold and they get money. It is the sole reason this site exists. A $2 item takes up the same band width/space on THIER site as a $100 item so they do NOT care what it sells for; just that it sells.

Sales which makes them money. 

[chapeau-noir]

I've done this for quite a while - it's an easy change and sometimes works, sometimes not, always worth trying.

Not sure eBay is trying to "dissuade offers" - this site seems held together with duct tape and bailing wire and I doubt they're trying NOT to make money but get in their own way.

But good that you discovered another way to reach buyers and keep sales moving!

[fbusoni]

---

@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

---

@fbusoni wrote:

As has been discussed, eBay recently extended to 96 hours the amount of time a buyer has to consider an offer sent by the seller.  And as has been reported on the last couple of months, buyers are not receiving notifications of offers that sellers send in the first place.

My conclusion is that eBay wants to dissuade sellers from sending offers, so I have stopped doing so.

Instead, whilst looking at the the page that designates listings eligible to send offers, I am merely lowering the price of the item.  I am not / not sending an offer.

The results have been surprisingly very positive, with buyers making their purchase within an hour or less.

This has happened now fairly consistently for the last several days.

PS: I know that sellers can lower the price at any time.  What strikes me as unusual is the speed with which buyers are responding.   This morning, I dropped the price of a book from $45 to $40 and the response from the buyer was almost instantaneous, as if eBay has somehow jump-started its notification system.  Perhaps its just coincidence.  

---

A few questions if you don't mind.

Are you discounting the price once you see an offer can be sent? (timing)

Do you have a store where you put the item on sale or are you just discounting the item?

Are you considering raising the price after some time or are you reducing the price permanently?

---

@chevymontecarlo88 

1.  Yes, as soon as the item is offer eligible, I drop the price.

2. I have a store, but the price drop is done manually, NOT by adding to or creating a sale event (although that is a strategy that I need to try).

3.  Yes, I intend to raise the price after a certain period of time, perhaps a week

[fbusoni]

@stainlessenginecovers 

I just emended my original post.

eBay appears to have fixed the send-an-offer notification glitch.

[fbusoni]

@fern*wood 

Happy to report that the send-an-offer notification has indeed been fixed... I just had a friend work with me and he did indeed receive notification once I sent him an offer.  regards

[fern*wood]

---

@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

NOT click the 'automate' so offers ONLY went to watchers that were watching at the time offer was sent and anyone that had item in their cart and was NOT sent to any 'just viewers'. 

---

How do you know no viewers were sent an offer?

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@fbusoni wrote:

---

---

1.  Yes, as soon as the item is offer eligible, I drop the price.

2. I have a store, but the price drop is done manually, NOT by adding to or creating a sale event (although that is a strategy that I need to try).

3.  Yes, I intend to raise the price after a certain period of time, perhaps a week

---

Thanks for the reply and for the info you have provided.

[pjcdn2005]

---

@fern*wood wrote:

---

@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

NOT click the 'automate' so offers ONLY went to watchers that were watching at the time offer was sent and anyone that had item in their cart and was NOT sent to any 'just viewers'. 

---

AFAIK there is no way for the seller to specify who gets offers whether automatic offers are off or on.  

I wish there was as I find it very annoying to receive an offer just because I viewed an item.