Using "Best Offer"

[distelfink]

Anyone use the ebay feature "Best Offer" ? If you do, has increased your sales or do you just get a lot of "low ballers" ? TIA

[caldreamer]

I don't see that need for having "best offer" because EBAY allows customers to "make a offer" (even without having "best offer" turned on.    Customers are not shy about making an offer if they are interested in your item.

[inhawaii]

Will giving the customer an option to pay LESS increase sales?

Logically thinking, it will increase sales but decrease profits. 

[bbravo65]

...what is the percentage of asking price that considers the buyers will earn the title of "low ballers"...???

...and if sellers worry about receiving unpleasant offers, practically, sellers can increase the asking price or simply just don't provide any offers in listings...

...I don't offer "Best Offer" on mines...as I don't like to deal with unhappy buyers if I didn't accept their offers, let alone facing a negative feedback after a transaction was made from that ill fate sale...

[myboardid]

I use Best Offer frequently and it works well for me.  There are many ways to approach it and many factors which influence how much success you get with it.  For me, my items are usually priced the lowest to start with, so my BOs are only 5% lower than the listed price.  I also strongly suggest that you use the option to automatically decline offers that are lower than you want to consider. I do not use the auto-accept option because I want to see my buyer's User ID & check his feedback left before deciding to accept his offer. 

Buyers have varying ideas about how they think BO should work.  Occasionally they get angry because their half price offer isn't accepted.  You need to learn how to handle those people & hopefully turn them into buyers.

[kensgiftshop]

I don't use the best offer option.

My best price is already shown in the listing.

[ckimodog]

I don't offer best offers in my listings, but if a best offer pops up because I have a watcher, I'll make an offer. The most I will discount is about 15%.  I also turn off the counter off option.  I had two sales from a best offer last week and both were happy campers. 😊 

[myboardid]

Regarding the percentage of asking price - there is no answer to that question.  Each seller is going to have a different idea of where that number falls.  It probably depends on what they paid for the item, how much markup they've used, how long they' ve had it listed, and what side of the bed they woke up on! 

You don't have to receive unpleasant offers.  You can auto see line any below your tolerance level.

I've done thousands of BOs and have never had any problems with feedback because of them, even from buyers who bought after having their offers refused.  

[inhawaii]

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@bbravo65 wrote:

...what is the percentage of asking price that considers the buyers will earn the title of "low ballers"...???

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I've asked that question here before as I hate the term "low ball". 

What exactly is a low ball offer and according to who?

My scientific findings were: A low ball offer is 50% or less than asking price.
I still don't like that term. 

I don't like the term "scalping" either but that's a different topic. 

[myboardid]

Word I typed was Auto-decline, not "auto see line"!

[collectfest]

you can put a minimum on best offers therefore you will never know if you've been sent a lowball offer unless you check offer history.

Lately, I have not used best offer because I like the immediate payment option. I do not have a lot of free time right now to babysit my eBay items. 

When I have more time, best offer has worked well for me. So, not aginst it.

As a buyer I like it. There are a lot of items I am watching where the item is 125 bucks that I'd pay 100 with no best offer. They have control to see that and send an offer if they want. I'm not going through the time messaging sellers if they would take less. Many sellers with thin skin have tizzies over it.   

[lepke1979]

Have best offer on. No way to really know if it gives me more sales than if I had it off. Do get more than a few of what I'd consider low ball offers. But a handful of them also turn into sales. For instance, just had one that offered $3 on a $10 item and they accepted my counter of $9.

[coolections]

Your asking prices look very high. The higher your asking prices the lower the offers you will receive. An example is when you list something for $125 but they typically sell for $70 than the offer you would expect to get is around $60.

[bashort]

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@distelfink wrote:

Anyone use the ebay feature "Best Offer" ? If you do, has increased your sales or do you just get a lot of "low ballers" ? TIA

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Best offer is good when you have a item that you can not find comps for, price it high and see what happens.

[femmefan1946]

I occasionally use Best Offer either on listing or after an item has lingered too long in stock. (Most of my items are One of a Kind-OOAK).

While buyers can make offers even if the seller does not have that option enabled, the seller has more control with the Best Offer option.

She can set parameters which automatically reject Offers below a set value and/or accept Offers that are above.

The two values can differ, which allows the seller time to check the buyer's feedback Left for Others and any other clues.

And Best Offer allows the seller to counter-offer.