Selling - Offer system

[shantynas]

Im wondering, as I suspect many are, how does ebay select which items go into your eligibility for offers? It used to be if there were watchers or even 1 watcher we could send offers. Now the only offers we can send on our items are those ebay selects.... just a question that many would like answers to.

[jonathanbrightlight]

There are several factors that determine if an item is eligible to send offers to watchers or viewers (yes, offers can be sent to people not watching your item, but who have viewed it recently and/or multiple times).  I don't believe all the details are available anywhere, but among them are whether that buyer has opted out of receiving offers from sellers, and whether they have already received an offer on that item from you.  I doubt you'll ever get complete transparency about why some items you can't send offers on, but I wouldn't worry about it, honestly.

[shantynas]

I am not worried, the system needs to be vetted more carefully for all buers sake. Ebay benefis from.more sales too. I get loads of "offers" from items I compare prices on and with only 1 view, while item I have listed with multiple watchers are not eligible to send offers. It needs work!

[myfrugalboutique]

I find it annoying if I just look at an item one time.

[jonathanbrightlight]

That's fair, plenty of people (buyers and sellers) have complained about it.  I get the same types of offers on items I'm just checking prices on.  I do try to actually decline those offers so the sellers aren't sitting in limbo (assuming they are paying attention to that, not all do), but it is annoying.

[reclaimed_denim]

The whole offer system is out of control lately with all the unsolicited offers.  It reeks of desperation and discourages buyers from making an immediate purchase....why not delay and see if you get multiple unsolicited lower offers, right?  I don't see this as a selling improvement from eBay and wish they would just do away with it.  Go back to simply having a best offer option on a listing.

[jonathanbrightlight]

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@reclaimed_denim wrote:

why not delay and see if you get multiple unsolicited lower offers, right?  

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While it could have the effect you describe, I would note that anyone who thinks they're going to receive lower offer on the same item later misunderstands how eBay's offer system works.  Each user can only ever receive one offer per item from a seller, so the seller can't send an offer for 5% off and then a few days (or even months) later send an offer for 10% off.  The only exception would be if they end and relist the item at some point (and even then I don't think this would work if they choose Relist, they have to choose Sell Similar or else recreate the listing from scratch), and even then it would require the buyer to view or watch the new listing first.  So while some buyers might think that could happen, it actually can't. 

That's not meant to be a correction of what you're saying buyers might think, just a note on how it actually works for anyone curious.

[shantynas]

Savy buyers know now that if they watch and hold off chances are they will receive a discount with this new system. Yes sellers can not do it... which I am beginning to ignore the items on the "send offer" list especially on newly listed items.