Send an offer

[treschic53]

eBay very often suggests that I "send an offer" to interested buyers. 

Do you send offers?

Do you think it's too aggressive?

Do ou think it is positive?

Or do you wait for a buyer to make an offer if you are selling BIN or Best Offer?

----or do you not use the Best Offer feature?

I am curious to get some opinions.

Thanks!!

[ebooksdiva]

I used to send offers, found it was mostly a waste of time. Of 100-200 offers I sent I might get 2-3 sales from it. I even had buyers message me with their displeasure of receiving unsolicited offers.

I don’t use the Best Offer feature. 
Also sending offers locks your listing for 96 hours, so if you find an error in a listing you either wait until the offer expires or end the listing, fix the error and relist. 

But it’s  entirely up to you if you send offers or not. 
FYI….most “suggestions” by eBay are just that, suggestions. I usually ignore them. 

[kobebray]

If I have an item listed and it doesnt sell after a week if I have any watchers I will send an offer. Ive  sold a lot of items that way. Thats just my experience with offers

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I used to use the Make An Offer feature on my listings, I no longer do.

Hope springs eternal so during some slow periods I send offers to watchers. The positive results are far lower than they were in the past. Of course, most of my items are price inelastic. If someone wants them, my price is fair.

I get unsolicited offers from some buyers. I find most of them insulting and reject them.

[m60driver]

Given the ease of it all I send offers whenever possible.  I sell mostly high margin slow selling items so I can easily absorb sending a 20% discount offer.  The percentage of takers is small but every sale helps with cash flow and cash flow is king.

[roccotacodad54]

   Hi. I don't sell but from a buyers viewpoint (at least this one).>>>

  I find them a nuisance unless they are for a significant discount. A discount of less than 20% doesn't even get my attention except to click remove from offers received after it expires.

  The things I search for and buy are usually difficult for me to find in the first place though so most often I just buy it before someone else does.

  That's just me. Others searching for less hard to find items might respond differently.

   If an offer for something is really good sometimes I'll bite if it's something I don't usually buy and could put to use.

[mam98031]

@treschic53 

I'm not sure why you feel that way.  I go through the available send an offer options a few times a month.  It gains me a few sales every month.  I don't think it is aggressive.  Many buyers actually know if the watch an it may catch the attention of the seller and they might get an offer.

If a buyer doesn't want to receive offers, they can turn it off in their site preferences.

I personally do not every put Best Offer on any of my listings.  To me, and this is only my opinion, it tells my potential buyers that all my stuff is overpriced.  That is merely my personal opinion.

[christworks]

I do send offers. Like others, my conversion rate is low. I think many of the "watchers" turn out to be other resellers. I know when I do research when listing, sometimes I will click into a listing to look at something, and the next day I'll have an offer. I feel bad for rejecting. 😒

I've gone through periods where I've used the Make An Offer feature. I'm not a fan of it. Most of the offers are lowball. Sometimes 50-80% off my asking price. I'll normally send back the best price I'm willing to take and I put a note in the message box. I'm just not into the whole going back and forth 3 or 4 times. When I've had it turned on, by far most of my sales come from people who pay my asking price. That's the type of buyer I like. They know what they want and because they are confident, they are happy to pay the asking price. 

[kensgiftshop]

I get those messages/emails all the time, I just ignore them.

I don't do offers and know what's like to receive a bunch of offers when you don't want them.

[2ndhandgentleman]

All my listings are BINOBO. I often use the 'send offers' option. Sending offers to interested buyers used to result in a decent percentage of sales, but this has followed the catastrophic downwards trend since the start of 2025, so I have less success with it now than I used to. I still do it, though. It costs me nothing, and I figure that any chance of making a sale in this climate is better than nothing. If buyers find such offers intrusive, they can turn off the notifications.