Make Offer/Auto Decline ... Why Even Bother?

[inhawaii]

So i tried to buy 2 of an item listed at $10.49/make offer.

My first offer of $8.00 was auto-declined.

My second offer of $9.00 was also auto-declined.

If the seller already knows he's not going to take $9.00 for a $10.49 item, why even bother taking offers? Just set your price as $10.00 or what ever he has it set at to accept.   Why even bother wasting our time making offers?

Have a great Thanksgiving everybody!

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

You let a total stranger affect your emotions over a business deal?

Even now knowing that EBay is putting best offer on listings without the sellers consent?

SMH

[atikovi]

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@guybemis wrote:

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Why not $9.01?  Declined. $9.02, declined. $9.03 declined...

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You only get 3 chances.

[audioarchive]

I would never presume what I think is a fair offer as a buyer is the same as what a seller feels is a fair offer.

[inhawaii]

I've decided to not bid $10.00 and just let the item go.   It's not something i HAD to have.

If the item had a $10.00 buy it now price, i would have bought it. Because the seller decided to go with make offer and auto decline, he just lost a sale. 

Just my humble opinion, but the make offer should be when you want to make an offer for less than the buy it now price, and you want the seller to CONSIDER/THINK ABOUT IT.  As a matter of fact, i always include the message "Thank you for your consideration" when ever i make an offer.  In this case the seller did not consider anything. He already knew what his lowest price is and auto declines anything below that.  

I really don't have a problem with make offer.   I just can't stand auto decline!

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

If the seller already knows what they won’t take whywould you prefer to be strung along when you can know immediately and go find something else.

I think you’re trying to control the sellers end and frustrated that the seller gets to control it. You only get to control you.

[belka004]

Recently Ebay had a promotion - they would wave an incertion fee if you use the BO option. I accepted this offer and set auto-decline price $1 less then Buy It Now price, which was arledy very reasonable. Should say, it made some buyers wonder Why's that? They sent me multiple angry e-mails asking "What do you want?".

I can understand it could be confusing! Buyers should not take it personally and create all that anger, just move on and find another seller.

[yuzuha]

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@jason_incognito wrote:

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@lex-talon wrote:

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@inhawaii wrote:

So i tried to buy 2 of an item listed at $10.49/make offer.

My first offer of $8.00 was auto-declined.

My second offer of $9.00 was also auto-declined.

If the seller already knows he's not going to take $9.00 for a $10.49 item, why even bother taking offers? Just set your price as $10.00 or what ever he has it set at to accept.   Why even bother wasting our time making offers?

Have a great Thanksgiving everybody!

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Some sellers don't quite understand the concept of best offer. So they end up using auto decline. But hey, it's their choice, the seller can do whatever they choose.

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And then wonder why nothing ever sells.

If I get countered on an offer that is less than 10% off I move on. It happens alot. I've had situations like yours and bid $10 only to be declined. On a $10.49 item..... But if there is an offer option, why pay full price?

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Exactly.  Having an offer option is a signal that the seller is willing to take less for the item, so why on earth wouldn't potential buyers want to make an offer and see if they can get it for less first? 

[audioarchive]

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@atikovi wrote:

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@guybemis wrote:

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Why not $9.01?  Declined. $9.02, declined. $9.03 declined...

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You only get 3 chances.

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Not anymore. I believe it's category dependant, but in some you get up to 8 or so.

[clearchoiceaquatics]

Ebay started to just add that to listings.  I got tired of it and turned it off, margins are already slim so the price I set for BIN is the price I want to receive.  Mostly I liked it for multiple item purchases because shipping would only go up a little bit so I could accept a lower offer however, for example I have an item for $4.89 that I don't make a ton of money on but shipping is cheap so I offer it.  when I had best offer I would get offers of $2 with free shipping.  the shipping alone is $2.66 becuase it needs tracking so after so many offers I just stopped offering them.  Now with volume discounts it solved the issue mostly. 

[mycheaperstuff]

@inhawaii  If you did in fact always put a message with your offer, you wouldn't have gotten rejected by auto decline.

My understanding is that auto decline / accept doesn't operate on offers with something in the message field.  Isn't that still the case?

I'm sorry for your frustration. I use the feature and appreciate that it is there. However, I do wish ebay would send an alert message to sellers that an auto decline was triggered, and also that there was a thank you with a personal message (set as part of the decline). 

[guybemis]

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@atikovi wrote:

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@guybemis wrote:

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Why not $9.01?  Declined. $9.02, declined. $9.03 declined...

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You only get 3 chances.

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@atikovi wrote:

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@guybemis wrote:

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Why not $9.01?  Declined. $9.02, declined. $9.03 declined...

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You only get 3 chances.

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Thanks. See I didn't even  know that. I have never gotten past the first decline.

[guybemis]

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@audioarchive wrote:
I would never presume what I think is a fair offer as a buyer is the same as what a seller feels is a fair offer.

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I have asked a number of people their opinion of what a reasonable best offer would be, to get a feeling of what it should be. Almost everybody thinks that a 20% discount is a reasonable offer. Which I agree with. However I usually keep my best offers in the 10% - 15% area, just to be safe. 15% is if I think the price is pretty high to begin with. Until recently that formula never failed me. So I think the vast majority of sellers agree that 10% - 15% off is a fair offer.

If you reject best offers under 20%, you are going to lose sales. If you can't give that much of a discount, then you probably be better off just not having  Best Offer on your listing. You are just going to confuse your buyers.

[mikeystoyz]

So raise your prices by 20 percent and have your best offer set to 20 percent 🙂  Lol

[audioarchive]

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@guybemis wrote:

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@audioarchive wrote:
I would never presume what I think is a fair offer as a buyer is the same as what a seller feels is a fair offer.

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I have asked a number of people their opinion of what a reasonable best offer would be, to get a feeling of what it should be. Almost everybody thinks that a 20% discount is a reasonable offer. Which I agree with. However I usually keep my best offers in the 10% - 15% area, just to be safe. 15% is if I think the price is pretty high to begin with. Until recently that formula never failed me. So I think the vast majority of sellers agree that 10% - 15% off is a fair offer.

If you reject best offers under 20%, you are going to lose sales. If you can't give that much of a discount, then you probably be better off just not having  Best Offer on your listing. You are just going to confuse your buyers.

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Ok. Still, the majority may think this or that, but it's obvious that this seller doesn't.

[johnrj1226]

You had 3 more tries to hit the magic number