Offers lower than the Starting Bid … when is it okay?

[house*of*paws]

Good Morning!  😊

As a non-seller, I think of a Starting Bid as ‘the lowest amount a seller is willing to accept for the item’ … and would only make an offer higher than the SB.  A seller-friend of mine said otherwise recently when the subject came up in a thread on the ‘Ask a Mentor’ Board.

I’ve only seen one thread on this subject … and I’d really appreciate input from sellers as to what you personally feel is appropriate regarding the amount of an offer on an auction listing.  TIA.

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

There was a lot of debate about this when eBay first introduced offer on auctions.

Most sellers here voted that offer amounts should be higher than the starting bid, idea being you know the item will be bid up and the offer is to see if the seller is willing to get rid of it faster for a fixed amount. <- That's where my opinion falls.

A smaller, yet not insignificant, number of sellers here voted that all offers are meant to be lower, regardless of auction or fixed price format.

Many sellers don't know how to use auction format, so it wouldn't surprise me to hear those sellers expect offers to be lower than starting bid. They set their starting bid way too high at what should be a final bid price. They use auction format on general commodities that should be listed as fixed price. eBay doesn't help by defaulting all new sellers into auction format.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

There are many Ebay buyers who feel any offer they chose to make is valid.

There are some Ebay sellers who feel that any offer the feel is insulting, is a reason to block the buyer. There are some Ebay sellers who will take any offer they can get.

There is no absolute right or wrong, just a decision on whether respect is more important than money.

[dhbookds]

To me.........there are no "rules".......so it's entirely up to the buyer to do what he wants and up to the seller to do what he wants. 

[soh.maryl]

Offers and bids are two different things.  An offer is expected to be less than the opening bid.

If a prospective buyer is making a higher offer, then why not just bid that amount? 

[soh.maryl]

Respectfully, where does "respect" come into play in relation to bids vs offers?

[soh.maryl]

Makes sense to me.  Don't shop here so often any more, but will occasionally make an offer of a bit less than the opening price, like $32 on a $35 item.  The seller can accept, refuse, counter or just ignore completely.  And, yes, I know there is very little difference and I may wind up paying $35, but there is no harm or damage in offering less.  

[wastingtime101]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

If a prospective buyer is making a higher offer, then why not just bid that amount? 

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Because the buyer risks someone else bidding higher.

If the auction is listed at $20 or best offer, and the item typically sells for $60-$80, a buyer might make a $60 offer to the seller hoping the seller will accept it outright. If the offer is accepted, the buyer benefits from a slightly lower price point and the seller benefits from a quick sale and eliminating risk the auction might not get bid up.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I have, when running an auction, received offers which are higher than the opening bid, higher than the current bid and lower than what the final price on the auction became.

Some buyers send offers in order to try to stop the auction. Another example of a bird in the hand for some sellers. I ignore these offers,

[house*of*paws]

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@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

Some buyers send offers in order to try to stop the auction. Another example of a bird in the hand for some sellers. I ignore these offers,

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@tobaccocardyahoo 
Then why add ‘offers’ to an auction in the first place?  [Trying to understand expectations and thinking about offers on auctions.]

[kensgiftshop]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Offers and bids are two different things.  An offer is expected to be less than the opening bid.

If a prospective buyer is making a higher offer, then why not just bid that amount? 

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If they place a bid, they could be out bid and loose the auction.

If they make an offer for what they are willing to pay, they don't have to wait a week to see if they get the item or not.

If the offer isn't accepted, they can look at other listings.

[djvp53]

I think the one time I made an offer on an auction item, the item had no bids and the auction was due to end in a few minutes. I made an offer for a bit less than the opening bid and it was accepted immediately. The seller probably roughly broke even but got a damaged item off his shelf and got positive feedback.

[coolections]

It depends. Many sellers start an auction waaaay toooo high. They just do not understand how an auction works and are actually just saying BIN at that starting bid. IMO those are NOT auctions. So lets say you start a bid of $45 for an item that typically sells for $35. I would make on offer of $30.

[a_c_green]

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@house*of*paws wrote:

I’ve only seen one thread on this subject … and I’d really appreciate input from sellers as to what you personally feel is appropriate regarding the amount of an offer on an auction listing.  TIA.

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To answer the question asked in the title: It's okay to make an offer lower than the Starting Bid if you feel that the SB is way above the value of the item. The challenge is to persuade the seller that he's way overestimating its worth. I get such offers from time to time.

Making an offer higher than the SB is acceptable if no bids have been received yet, in which case the seller, if he's agreeable, would add a BuyItNow price of that amount to let the buyer pay for it.

You can make a lower offer on a Fixed Price listing, too, if you can persuade the seller to accept it.

The only option you cannot do is offer more than the Fixed Price. That's what scammers do, in the hopes of bypassing an Immediate Payment Required setting and getting the seller to believe a fake payment notification, and ship without actually getting paid. With the new practice being introduced of requiring buyers to provide payment details before submitting offers, hopefully that abuse will be reduced.

[bennotbill]

The few times I've made an offer below the starting bid is after I checked and found out the items had been relisted several times.

In both cases my offers were accepted almost immediately. I guess the sellers were just glad to be shot of the items.

But in the normal course of things BIN offers are always less, while auction offers are always more than the start price. Personally I wouldn't dream of offering less if an auction was new. And as said doing that might put you on their block list.