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.

[bigoljim47]

To make money selling clothing totally depends on the brand and condition. I sell pre owned and new items. My pre owned item cost averages $5.

First you have to learn your brands, which ones will sell for higher profits.  Last month  I found a dress that I know sells new for $300-$400. Condition was like new and it sold for $80 with free shipping (5 years ago would have gotten more). With lower cost items like a $60 blouse I would ask 50-65% off retail, I would start with $24.99 with free shipping. If that would not sell I would change it to $19.99 with $4.50 shipping. 

I have very few items sell for less, because I am here to make money and not to break even. I very seldom do BO because of the low ball offers. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

---

@bingodot3 wrote:

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. 

---

Thank you for your reply. If you revisit my post, you can see i am not advocating you accept that $12 offer. Coming at it from a buyer’s perspective, i am saying such an offer might seem reasonable. Buyers want the best deal they can get, it is just the nature of selling. The seller on the other hand is trying to optimize profits, and it can be a challenge to find that equitable price that works for both parties.

I share your frustrations but also realize that buyers do not concern themselves with sellers’ needs. Nor do i think they should. 

Wish you all the best moving forward.

[femmefan1946]

@juststuffisell 

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

Yes indeedy.

Here in British Columbia, the minimum wage is 18 cents a minute.

If it takes 20 minutes to prepare the item for listing, and then another 10 to write and upload the listing, the seller has "spent"  another $5.40 by the time the listing indexes.

[lilbama911]

Did you make a counteroffer to the $12.00 offer?

[yuzuha]

---

@bingodot3 wrote:

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.

---

What that tells me is that those things are not actually worth the prices you were originally asking for them.  Something is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it.  If NO buyers are willing to pay a given price for an item, then it isn't actually worth that much at all.

[juststuffisell]

That is a narrow view of item value. I have items I sell on eBay that don't sell in other venues for a good price - I have items that people ignored for a couple years on eBay that sold on other venues in weeks for the original selling price.

Selling an item at a solid return is usually more about finding the right buyer than it is entirely about a price being to high. Most sellers do their homework before selling and set a price typically at the same price or a bit lower than the sold data points from comparables.

Markets can change - value can drop overnight on some items, but that is usually more niche driven from a dramatic shift standpoint.

Cheers

[bingodot3]

Funny, I have already made 7 sales in the first 5 days of this month.

I do add other items when I get them.  I just don't want to hold on to larger items more than a few days.

[tkinnebrew]

all offers are good offers.  you can counter or have auto decline set up if its bothering your daily activities.  best wishes, offers rock!

[bingodot3]

I wish I knew what is in the bundles when we buy by weight or number.  They are shrink wrapped, and there is a number says 126 Items NWT.  Then people put in silent bids from a set starting price.  Only one bid per bundle.  I have a feeling the Auction we go to seems to favor some of these big Buyers.  I hear they buy for discount retailers and it would seem they buy larger bundles, and sometime (I have heard) someone tells these guys what is in which large weight bundles.  I have seen Pallet loads of Jeans NWT Shrink wrapped, they give a poundage of around 350# the bid starts to high for me to bid on them.  But there are a lot of jeans on that pallet.

[bingodot3]

---

@tkinnebrew wrote:

all offers are good offers.  you can counter or have auto decline set up if its bothering your daily activities.  best wishes, offers rock!

---

I try to turn off offers I will get emails from the contact buyer button, and they will ask if I will take this amount for it.

[baantiques]

I have found that if you lower your prices too much, you attract bottom feeders who will try to knock you down even further.

[uzumakey]

On the upside: lowballers like this make it easy to weed out the buyers you want to block. With the huge influx of Chinese junk sellers and great sellers leaving eBay due to poor sales and scammers, many good buyers have left as well. That leaves just the bottom feeders who will see a reasonably priced item then want it slashed to half price.

[bingodot3]

I had another one today on an Item we did not add a make offer too originally.  It turned out it relisted and ebays program automatically add the make offer button.  I am trying to figure out how it keeps doing this.

It was marked down to $15.62 and they offered me $8  Shipping would cost me $7,  well you can see it is like me buying them NWT clothing and then paying for the shipping to give it to them.  I would lose money if I accepted these types of low ball offers.

If they want dollar clothing they need to go to a thrift store or goodwill.  But I doubt they would find NWT at either place for a dollar.

[jsweet]

Set the auto-decline offer price at the lowest price you can accept and still at least break even, then you will not have to be bothered by offers lower than you are willing to accept.

I don't buy clothing on ebay but very frequently when I see some overpriced item I'm mildly interested in that is getting close to ending I'll toss in a lowball offer, rarely more than half the asking price and a significant portion of the time the seller accepts. Sometimes the asking price is waaay too high to begin with, other times the seller is tired of tripping over the thing and just wants it gone. Other times they decline or ignore my offer and relist it, I move on and look for a different one. Ever since they made it free to relist items ebay has been cluttered with ridiculously overpriced stuff that just sits there month after month. Very little of what I'm looking for is even auctioned anymore, it's all BIN at often double or more what the same item would sell for in an auction. Someone lists something at an inflated price, then someone else comes along with the same item, sees what that one is listed for and so on, pretty soon you have a dozen of whatever thing listed at sky high prices and they all just sit there, getting relisted week after week. Sometimes a lowball offer is really just offering what the thing is actually worth. My favorite auctions are the ones with an opening bid that is a decent price but not a steal, I watch those and bid at the last minute, usually with no competition. Meanwhile an identical item that starts at a buck will have a frenzy of bidders nickel & diming each other and it almost always gets bid up substantially higher.

As a seller I do a mix of auctions starting at 99c and BIN, occasionally I'll accept a lowball offer when I just want something gone, as long as it's not so low that I lose money on the fees vs just putting the thing in the donation box at the local thrift store, whatever, space in my home is not free, in fact it's one of my most valuable assets and is in limited supply. It's a better deal for me to give something away than to store something I don't need and never use. When I auction an item I *always* set the opening bid to 99c. Sometimes I lose and it sells for a steal but usually I do well, it attracts a lot of bidders at the start because it's cheap and then people get excited and bid it up. It's a gamble but that's part of the fun.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

This post is a year old.