Sellers must offer at lest 5% discount when making an offer to a Buyer - a new restriction

[beautifulbeauty2012]

Not that that option ever worked to get a sale (honestly, waste of time, but I still was sending, so I knew I was using tools provided - not a single sale after maybe 200 offers sent), but until today`s afternoon, the price you are offering to a buyer must be at least 5% less the original price, otherwise you won`t be able to send an offer.

The percentage was not restricted before, and you could send any % off below the original selling price. More restrictions, that`s all. 

[bigdeals.etc]

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@pburn wrote:
Kind of pointless to send an offer that's 1% or 2% or 3% or 4% off the original price, isn't it? That really would be a waste of time for both you and the potential buyer. If you were making that kind of offer, it's not surprising you didn't get any sales from those 200 offers.

As a buyer, I use "Best Offer" quite often. I offer about 20% less than the listed price. My offers are accepted about 95% of the time.

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Hm, thanks for the buying tip. I'm a newbie buyer and I often never want to bother with making a best offer. I just fear that the seller would jerk me around and not even accept my offer of 1 dollar off a 20 dollar item. I'll give the 20% off tactic someday.

[beautifulbeauty2012]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

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@pburn wrote:
Kind of pointless to send an offer that's 1% or 2% or 3% or 4% off the original price, isn't it? That really would be a waste of time for both you and the potential buyer. If you were making that kind of offer, it's not surprising you didn't get any sales from those 200 offers.

As a buyer, I use "Best Offer" quite often. I offer about 20% less than the listed price. My offers are accepted about 95% of the time.

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Hm, thanks for the buying tip. I'm a newbie buyer and I often never want to bother with making a best offer. I just fear that the seller would jerk me around and not even accept my offer of 1 dollar off a 20 dollar item. I'll give the 20% off tactic someday.

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Usually sellers with large volume of sales such as yourself work hard and don`t want to offend another seller because they know what kind of fees etc Sellers have to pay. I am, too, hardly ever send any offer, I just buy if I like an item and the price is in a range of what I have in mind. 

[pburn]

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@beautifulbeauty2012 wrote:

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

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Hm, thanks for the buying tip. I'm a newbie buyer and I often never want to bother with making a best offer. I just fear that the seller would jerk me around and not even accept my offer of 1 dollar off a 20 dollar item. I'll give the 20% off tactic someday.

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Usually sellers with large volume of sales such as yourself work hard and don`t want to offend another seller because they know what kind of fees etc Sellers have to pay. I am, too, hardly ever send any offer, I just buy if I like an item and the price is in a range of what I have in mind. 

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If sellers are concerned about sales, they will accept reasonable offers just to get merchandise moving. I'm sure there are even sellers who add a percentage to the listing price of an item, just to give them some flexibility to accept a lower offer. Everybody wins.

As I'm sure you both already know, it's a really good idea for sellers to use a different id when buying.

[gamersbaystore]

I agree with that. If the price is reasonable to begin with, I wont make an offer, just click buy it now. I did that just this last week with a lot of blu-rays I bought. I could've made an offer, but I thought the listing price was more than reasonable.

I get the mentality of not wanting to offend other sellers too. We should show them the same level of dignity and respect we would expect for ourselves. We're all in this together.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@gamersbaystore wrote:

I agree with that. If the price is reasonable to begin with, I wont make an offer, just click buy it now. I did that just this last week with a lot of blu-rays I bought. I could've made an offer, but I thought the listing price was more than reasonable.

I get the mentality of not wanting to offend other sellers too. We should show them the same level of dignity and respect we would expect for ourselves. We're all in this together.

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Yea, but on a related note I don't believe sellers should be offended at getting best offers if they advertise it and have that setting enabled to entertain them. Obviously if they don't have OBOs, there's no way I'm going to message them to negotiate. That's where your "sellers don't want to offend other sellers" statement holds true. TBH, 99% of the time I get a buyer who tries to negotiate price... I get annoyed because I don't have any OBO listings. 

I think as a buyer I got turned off at making offers because the few times I did, I would always get a counter offer for the smallest increment below their original price. That just gave me the thought that many sellers with OBO aren't really serious about price negotiating so I stopped bothering. I'll probably try the 20% lower offer the next time I see an OBO listing and see what happens.

[gamersbaystore]

I've had pretty much the same experience with offers I made, the sellers almost never come down in price. I just ignore the OBO and look at the asking price. The other thing I can't stand about making offers is waiting for a reply. I don't have much time on my hands, I'd rather just buy and be done with it.

[myangelandmyprincess]

I'm with eBay on this one.  As a buyer I love getting the offers on items I'm watching. It's Led me to buy several items but if you're offering less than 5% off that's a waste of my time and the emails on offers become annoying 

[*madison]

That's good news

Some sellers have sent me some ridiculous offers, way less than 5%, a complete waste of time.

[pburn]

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@*madison wrote:

That's good news

Some sellers have sent me some ridiculous offers, way less than 5%, a complete waste of time.

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Here's an exchange I had awhile back:

Listing price:  $15.99

My offer: $13.00

Seller's counteroffer:  $15.50

My counteroffer: $12.50

Seller: Declined

I occasionally run across the same listing months later. I sometimes wonder if the seller wishes s/he would've accepted my original offer . . .

[luxe_beauty_4_less]

IMHO, if you aren't willing to come down 10%, you shouldn't have BO on your listing.  My BO are almost always set with auto decline for offers below a certain amount.  If you find the sweet spot, the offer will hit my inbox and I'll respond within an hour or less (unless I'm driving or riding the m/c).   I also get offers on items without BO on the listing.  Some are ridiculous and some are reasonable.  If they're reasonable, and I need to move that item, I'll usually reply with offer accepting or an amount that I'm willing to accept.  As a buyer, I never message a seller with an offer on a listing without BO.  If you have BO though, and I'm willing to wait on a response, I will make an offer if I think the price needs to come down a little.  We all have experience negotiating...make it as pain free for yourself as a seller and use it as a buying tool when appropriate.  No one should get offended at a reasonable offer.  Just my 2 cents.

[this*old*attic]

I just don't see this as a restriction on any level - it's common sense.

And, frankly, 5% is pretty ignore-able. It wouldn't move me to change my buying behavior.

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

I can answer these questions easily. Lets say i have xbox video games for $250 and you offer $180 and i see you live across the country making my free shipping cost another $30 on top of the $25+ im paying in fees. Ending up with half of what felt was a fair start doesnt work. The fact that buyers dont take free shipping and sellers fees into account but expect massive discounts is tiresome and insulting.

Sometimes i look at a buyer feedback left after they make an offer to see if they may be a good return buyer to other sellers. Or if they are a problem. If they lots of negs on top of lowballing me out the gate then yep......just decline and move on. Maybe even block.

We want good buyers who are fair and reasonable. You should want the same in sellers. Why not just offer a fair amount you would pay first instead of lowballing? Its just as bad a first impression as a seller only offering $5 off $250.

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

Lol 10 cents? I literally just had an offer of $6 for a $80 car part with free shipping from ga to ca that weighs 3lbs. Not crying. Just laughing when it sales full price on a local site with no fees since its $30 cheaper than all others on the web. Just not cheap enough to sell to the kind of buyers here.

[kataggr-44]

Thanks for the clarification.  I personally do not like sellers contacting me if I watch their item.  That used to be anonymous.  Instead why not just mark your price down.  Watchers and non watchers alike will see it.

[sin-n-dex]

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@beautifulbeauty2012 wrote:

Not that that option ever worked to get a sale (honestly, waste of time, but I still was sending, so I knew I was using tools provided - not a single sale after maybe 200 offers sent), but until today`s afternoon, the price you are offering to a buyer must be at least 5% less the original price, otherwise you won`t be able to send an offer.

The percentage was not restricted before, and you could send any % off below the original selling price. More restrictions, that`s all. 

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Why would this be an issue?

1% off a $100 item making it $99 is a waste of my time and I don't want to see these offers

5% off a $100 is still a waste of time

When I have a $100 item, I offer $10-25 (10-25%) off. If it's not at least 10%, I don't see why the buyer would pay attention.

C.