OFFER PRICES DETERMINED BY EBAY???

[legalnurseconsultant]

Why does eBay put their parameters on the price of an offer? I just posted an item yesterday and have 2 watchers. I was putting in the offer price and I get an immediate message stating, "Offer amount must be $xxxx  or lower".  

Thanks for any insight into this.

[meme6253]

They have a Mandatory Minimum of 5% off, I do not Agree with it either, But it is what it is!

[luckythewinner]

---

@legalnurseconsultant wrote:

Why does eBay put their parameters on the price of an offer? I just posted an item yesterday and have 2 watchers. I was putting in the offer price and I get an immediate message stating, "Offer amount must be $xxxx  or lower".  

Thanks for any insight into this.

---

I think eBay wants to prevent sellers from using offers with small discounts as advertising - in other words, as an excuse to remind buyers about an item on their watch list. 

Sending an offer to an unknown buyer is essentially an unsolicited message - which is little more than spam - and eBay wants to make sure buyers are not annoyed. 

So eBay (correctly IMHO) decided to require offer discounts of 5% (items priced under $200), 3% (priced $200 to $1000), or 2% (priced over $1000). 

[luckythewinner]

As an aside:

IMHO the offer system is already showing signs of unintended consequences.

I watched an item priced at $69 the other day, and within 24 hours I got an offer from the seller at $19. That's right - 24 hours later the price had dropped by 72%. 

It's getting to the point that I no longer buy fixed priced items right away. I put them on my watchlist, and wait a few days to see if I get an offer. And about 25% of the time, I do. Then I wait a couple more days, and send an offer to the seller at 10-20% below whatever offer they sent to me. 

[m60driver]

---

@luckythewinner wrote:

It's getting to the point that I no longer buy fixed priced items right away. I put them on my watchlist, and wait a few days to see if I get an offer. And about 25% of the time, I do. Then I wait a couple more days, and send an offer to the seller at 10-20% below whatever offer they sent to me. 

---

Smart move.  I have had far better luck by pricing items towards the higher end of the trading range and then sending offers of about 20% less to watchers.  This sort of hedges my bets as just as often as my offer is accepted  I sell the item at full price.  If, after awhile, nobody bites on my offer then I lower the listed price by about 20% and rinse and repeat when possible.  But I should note that I do not allow counteroffers.

[eburtonlab]

I watched an item priced at $69 the other day, and within 24 hours I got an offer from the seller at $19. That's right - 24 hours later the price had dropped by 72%.

Possibly the seller intended to drop the price to $50 but entered the difference amount as the offer amount by mistake.

I think I saw a thread from a seller about a similar issue recently.

[coolections]

Because Ebay is trying to move away from sellers listing at outrageous asking prices then offending potential buyers by offering a small percent off.

[legalnurseconsultant]

I have seen far more than 5% required by ebay. 

Thanks for all of the input!

[katzrul15]

---

@legalnurseconsultant wrote:

I have seen far more than 5% required by ebay. 

Thanks for all of the input!

---

Then this must be a glitch - minimum % off on an offer is 5%.  You can certainly use higher, but required minimum, is 5%.