Offers that are Ridiculous

[bingodot3]

We have very low prices on our clothing, because we don't sell much nor are we rich, we can only afford the basic store package.  We didn't have any sales for almost 6 months but a eBayer gave us a couple of suggestions and we followed them and are making more sales.  We averaged our prices made them as low as possible but still make a few bucks and listed them with free shipping.  So here we have a $60 blouse and it is for sale for $16.99, then we made a special promotional offer of 10% off so the item is now for $15.29.

Then in comes an offer $12.  The item is heavy so our minimum shipping cost is $7.02, more if further away.  Take that out and we have an Item that cost us $4 plus tax we make less than a dollar on the sale.   It seems they don't consider the cost of free shipping for us in not free and to accept their offer is over half the cost they offered.  Then we drive out to the bulk clothing auctions bid on NWT bundles and after Gas, our Time and a small not even what stores mark their Items up at, which is 30%.  We have to buy labels, envelopes, boxes drive it to the post office and they want us to do it for 80 cents.

These offers are ridiculous and we should never have to even do them.  I will take the make offer button off of my ads because it is a waste when people want us to pay for an Item to give it to them for a $1.

[castlemagicmemories]

Maybe raise your prices so you make more profit?

You can decline offers.

You can schedule pick up online for USPS; that will save you time and money.

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@bingodot3 wrote:

We have very low prices on our clothing, because we don't sell much nor are we rich, we can only afford the basic store package.  We didn't have any sales for almost 6 months but a eBayer gave us a couple of suggestions and we followed them and are making more sales.  We averaged our prices made them as low as possible but still make a few bucks and listed them with free shipping.  So here we have a $60 blouse and it is for sale for $16.99, then we made a special promotional offer of 10% off so the item is now for $15.29.

Then in comes an offer $12.  The item is heavy so our minimum shipping cost is $7.02, more if further away.  Take that out and we have an Item that cost us $4 plus tax we make less than a dollar on the sale.   It seems they don't consider the cost of free shipping for us in not free and to accept their offer is over half the cost they offered.  Then we drive out to the bulk clothing auctions bid on NWT bundles and after Gas, our Time and a small not even what stores mark their Items up at, which is 30%.  We have to buy labels, envelopes, boxes drive it to the post office and they want us to do it for 80 cents.

These offers are ridiculous and we should never have to even do them.  I will take the make offer button off of my ads because it is a waste when people want us to pay for an Item to give it to them for a $1.

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It can be annoying to receive low-ball offers, but $12 for a $15 item is not really that low in my opinion, especially when you have Best Offers on the listing. If you have cut your prices to the bone, then I wouldn't recommend even using BO. Also keep in mind that a lower offer is an opening to negotiate a more attractive amount. If you are unhappy with $12, then counter with whatever price you feel is equitable. Keep in mind that the buyer has no idea you have cut your prices closely, or what your financial health is like, or what your needs are on a personal level, nor should they. It's a business where personal is best left out. Low offers are not meant to be an affront, taking them that way will only muddy the waters. Try not to take it personally.

Lastly, you can set up an automatic accept/reject for defined amounts offered on eBay. You don't need to even see the offers set  below the threshold of what you will consider. Here is a link on how to do that: 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/selling-buy-now/adding-best-offer-listing?id=4144

[escuintla]

There's more than one topic for this type of situation. 

[femmefan1946]

Free Shipping means the cost of shipping is included in the asking price for the item.

If the item is heavy and the cost of shipping will be higher, then you have to charge more for the top than you would for a thinner, lighter one.

Fortunately with clothing, there should not be many exact comparables, so you can set your price where you are comfortable.

I spotted two similar but not matching Aeropostale knit blazers that were slightly cheaper than your price and below the BO.  Why not reply "Thank you for your offer. This blazer is New With Tags, has been discounted by 10%, and shipping is free. My price is firm /My best counter-offer would be $14.99".

Your customer does not care about your costs or needs. Your response only has to be polite and professional.

BTW- They are a pain, but you can double the number of your listings by making 250 of them Fixed Price and 250 of them Auctions with Buy It Now.

You could if you get a lot of Best Offers raise you prices above your acceptable level, then add BO, and accept anything that meets your original price.

EG- you want to get $15.29, you list at $16.99 and add Best Offer. You set your BO to accept any offer over $15.28.

I am old and cynical.

[duncanvr]

On the BO option when I use it on few items I put auto reject at a certain amount and auto accept 1 cent higher than that lowest refused price. Then I don't see those crazy cheap skate low ball offers. And if someone puts a price above my lowest it sells. I would not offer free shipping on clothing it eats in your profits. Try to get a niche in the collectible market my vintage letters & documents sell all year round. Sometimes its better to keep an item at a higher sell price with a fixed store shipping cost like $5.95. $7.95 etc with the exception of bulkier heavier items.

[dhbookds]

Buyers have no idea what shipping costs or what you paid for an item.   If your prices are low enough that you can't entertain offers, take B/o off.......... or set the auto to the minimum you will accept........  Getting all uptight about about a buyer offering $1 less than what all that cost you is simply not logical, unless you explain every detail of your price in your listing (which is NOT advised)..........

[*madison]

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@bingodot3 wrote:

We have very low prices on our clothing, because we don't sell much nor are we rich, we can only afford the basic store package.  We didn't have any sales for almost 6 months but a eBayer gave us a couple of suggestions and we followed them and are making more sales.  We averaged our prices made them as low as possible but still make a few bucks and listed them with free shipping.  So here we have a $60 blouse and it is for sale for $16.99, then we made a special promotional offer of 10% off so the item is now for $15.29.

Then in comes an offer $12.  The item is heavy so our minimum shipping cost is $7.02, more if further away.  Take that out and we have an Item that cost us $4 plus tax we make less than a dollar on the sale.   It seems they don't consider the cost of free shipping for us in not free and to accept their offer is over half the cost they offered.  Then we drive out to the bulk clothing auctions bid on NWT bundles and after Gas, our Time and a small not even what stores mark their Items up at, which is 30%.  We have to buy labels, envelopes, boxes drive it to the post office and they want us to do it for 80 cents.

These offers are ridiculous and we should never have to even do them.  I will take the make offer button off of my ads because it is a waste when people want us to pay for an Item to give it to them for a $1.

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It's quite simple,

if you're not happy with the offer, you can decline it.

Buyers are not interested in your costs to sell an item, they are only interested in their costs when they buy an item.

And I think that's fair enough.

[thevintagesilvershop]

You should be including the cost of the shipping in your item price when you offer “free” shipping or you’ll never make any money. 

[juststuffisell]

I understand your frustration. Clothing is a very competitive niche and it seems a lot of sellers are in a race to bottom in that category.

I would personally rethink your model. You cannot sell and make net 2 or 3 bucks on everything you sell and make any money worth the time to sell on the items you make super small margins on.

All a low price infers to a prospective buyers is; low quality, good value, or a steal.

If you have a quality piece, you sell for a quality price. If you have a low quality piece, you sell for the appropriate price.

I don't know your business, but even when I have sold clothing, I Have sold it at a higher price - usually jackets or jeans - and I don't give free shipping. I probably sold 70% of what I listed in that category.

Between laundering, setup for photographing, write up for listing, packaging costs, and all the time invested...you need to make a good return.

i.e. you buy a nice piece for 10 bucks, flat rate shipping is 15 bucks, so you are in it 25 bucks with free shipping. so your gross sale need to be minimum 50 bucks and ideally 65 bucks. List at 95 bucks best off auto decline everything under 49.99 and drive on. This gives you room to have a sale and still negotiate with a buyer that loves what you are listing.

This is simply an example. Unless I am "liquidating" inventory I picked up, I am never going to be the cheapest. I don't want to be the cheapest. The minimum I want to make - not including shipping, is 2x money and ideally 2.5 to 3x money invested and in many cases more and I sell in just about every category.

Finally, yeah, the buyers on eBay are like any other buyer anywhere else. Everyone wants a deal. Your job is a seller is to structure your pricing so that the buyers feels like they got a deal and you made the money you needed to make to make the deal work.

Cheers

[bingodot3]

We did we have our prices raised and for three years we were lucky to make 10 sales a year.  Some of those sales were not for clothing.  I have a friend who sells antique Dolls.  He is having the same issues.  A fully restored Antique Doll from the 1800's worth a minimum of $900 They reduced to $600 and people want to offer $400 the problem being it cost them more to restore the doll that the offers.

No, we had our prices up to try and make more but we would sell none for months on end.  But since we averaged the prices we have had 400% increase in sales from this time last year.  the problem is people want it for nothing or they want us to pay for most of the items price and the shipping.

I simply tell them "Free Shipping to them is not free shipping for us", and I tell them the cost of the shipping then they see the real price and usually buy it because it is still very inexpensive compared to others for the same cost.  We were just tired of sitting on some clothing for t years.  Interestingly enough we have been selling a lot of the older stuff recently as well.

[bingodot3]

When an Item that cost $12 to $15 with free shipping, then the shipping cost us $4.98 to $7.50  Now subtract that from those numbers.  If I had taken the offer that was n sale or $15.29 and accepted the $12 offer then paid for the shipping which was $7.50.  I was left with a $4.50 and the Item cost me $3, then I made a little over a dollar.  If you can't make your cost and a little it ain't a business anymore it is a charity.  Large Online retailers make money have bulk shipping discounts we can never get with eBay. 

[bingodot3]

We used to have no free shipping and Ask $19.99 for NWT item that cost $69.  That way they could see how much the shipping is when paying for it.  But our sales dropped so bad that 2017 and 18 were so low in sales only Ebay made money for out basic store.  $.19.00 plus $4.89 is $23.89 for a $69 retailed item online or in store.  That is less than half the price of the original retail cost and they still want more off or just don't buy.  So we did Average costs.  When Items cost us $3 we triple it 12. then we average our time online, driving, sales and have to add another $3  Now it is $15,  then add the Less than 1 pound shipping $4.29(average) Item is now 19.29 we round it down to 18.99.

One thing we are running into is that more and more people are bidding on the bundles of NWT clothing that have been sent to auctions from Retail outlets.  One of the biggest buyers who sell or buy for discount retailers like  Ollies, most of us can't compete with them and many at the auction have been complaining about them having inside info on what is in what bundle.  Some time we win on blouse bundles and other times we win on mixed Items but we have never won a Pants bundle these buyers for discount retailers gets them.  We also keep to the smaller bundles something those discount retailer are not.  they usually go for the large bundles.  there are two ways the auction off NWT clothes by number in the bundle which we win from time to time.  And then there are specific items like Jeans (Wrangler, Levi, Gap etc on the label with the total weight these are usually in a wire bin on a forklift pallet.  You go through and all bids are silent and by the end of the day winners are notified to pay and pick up their bundles.

[bingodot3]

The model you suggested is exactly how we were doing since 2013.  We were lucky to make 12 sales a year.  But when I changed our strategy to what an Ebayer suggested we have sold 20 or more items since last December.  The low price is now starting to cover our cost if we can keep this going we could make a profit for the first time.

If I was buying Norstrom's line of clothing I would surely have the prices higher and keep them there because I know they would still sell.  But sales were really bad for a few years and this is starting to move so I have to say the latter selling model is moving and we can list more and more of what has been sitting in the storage because we couldn't afford a larger store.

We have also now have repeat customers and word of mouth customers come to our Ebay store.

[mvls1]

You need to find something different to sell. Your current business model is not working and will never work as currently structured. Clothing is too competitive and is a race to the bottom. 

I would start adding more diverse items that yield higher margins. Think outside your comfort zone. Offer a more eclectic mix of item that will bring in a broader spectrum of buyers than just those looking for clothes.

Example - someone looking for a water filter you have listed might purchase a tablecloth you also have listed. At the same time they may see a blouse and buy that so they save on shipping by combining the order. It works for us.

I would limit ratio of clothing to other item you list to maybe 25%. Just my opinion. We have sold some clothing, but it is just too competitive and the margins TOO low. Good luck with whatever you decide too do.