When you ask me for a discounted price, and I agree, please don't insult me by trying to go lower.

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

Ok, this has happened a couple times now and just happened again.

Usually it goes like this...

Buyer: Hey! I got an offer from you last week, can I still get it for that price/is that offer still good?.

(As any seller knows, I can't send a 2nd offer to the buyer if the first one was one of the anonymous watcher offers)

Me: Sure! Unfortunately I can't send you it again, as EBay limits us to sending one offer per buyer, so I'm opening "Make Offer" feature on the listing, please submit it and we'll get it taken care of. (Usually, but not always, I clearly state the price. Sometimes I don't if the buyer already mentioned the price.)

Later, I get an offer from the buyer for a buck or couple bucks less than the agreed upon price. I'm nice and I send back the counter offer and put in the message a reference to how this was already the agreed upon price... when I almost rather decline and block over the shenanigans.

You passed up the discount before. You're coming back asking for it again. I could just say no. I say yes and you disrespect me by trying to skim a buck or couple bucks off. Seriously?

Also, i know some will say, instead of making "Best Offer" feature, just drop the Buy It Now price and have then BIN it, and I've done that before, but I usually only do that when I know the person is going to do it right away. Too often I have buyers wait 24 hrs or so and sometimes never come back, I rather not drop BIN price and forget about it if buyer doesnt come back

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

---

@albertabrightalberta wrote:

---

@farmalljr wrote:

I find your responses a bit petty, given the response after this one calling people looking to buy "bums".  These are potential buyers. THEY are doing you a favor, not the other way around. You want their money in exchange for something you have. They are under NO obligation to you. 

You opened up the offers, didn't set a lower limit, now you want to "vent" because someone had the AUDACITY to offer you less. OH THE INHUMANITY of it all. You expect buyers to pay your price, no room to negotiate a price you didn't already negotiate with yourself before talking to them. 

Surely YOU would never negotiate prices buying something yourself, right? Because it sounds like anyone who does negotiate with you and you don't like it, you call a bum. Are you a bum? Or do you always pay the asking price and never negotiate?

I might suggest to you that you never send offers, and never allow offers. You can't seem to handle the simple negotiations that ensue from such transaction types. To me, coming here to vent over something so trivial, seems a complete waste of server space and time. If it bothers you that much, never take offers and never send them. Problem solved. 

I don't know about you, but I put stuff up for sale because I don't want to own it/store it anymore. I want someone else to own it, and I have the money. 

---

@farmalljr 

I'm not sure why you're being so tough on the OP. 

Suppose your local grocery store had a sale on Cheerios during the second week in October. Would you go there today and tell them that you want to buy those $6 boxes of cereal for $3 and expect to be accommodated? 

While an occasional store manager might honor the sale price as a goodwill gesture, most would tell you to wait a month and General Mills will have a promotion again and they can buy them at that time.

In this case though, @ajs_coins_and_alchemy IS willing to honor an expired offer, something that isn't necessary and IMO, it was rather ballsy for a potential buyer to ask!

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy isn't complaining about negotiations during a period when there are open offers. These negotiations are weeks after the "sale" is over! And not only is the buyer now not willing to pay the price he was originally offered and which the OP agreed, but he's asking for a larger discount, something that was NEVER offered. 

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy 

I totally understand your frustration both with the buyer as well as some of the responses you've received. 

---

@albertabrightalberta 

Thank You ❤️❤️

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

---

@sakic92710 wrote:

I hear you!   I had a listing that was at $150.  Someone offered $60.  60% off.  I had the item for a long time so I accepted.  After that, they wanted a better shipping price.  I was not going to dig into my pocket to help pay for postage, as well.  They never paid.  Cheap people are everywhere!

---

@sakic92710 

Don't tell farmalljr I said this, but that buyer you dealt with is a BUM! 😂

[pls-consignments]

Just happened to me. Sent buyer a discounted seller-offer for a Swiss Army Knife. But, he was looking for a better deal. So he sends me this...

"$25 plus shipping? Your shipping is little too expensive at $6.90 for a 3.5 oz. item. Trying to buy a gift for my nephew. He is 40 and has cancer."

Of course, my suspicion made me check to see if he was a seller. Surprise! Not only did he sell Swiss Army Knives, his shipping costs were higher than mine! Since I knew what he was doing, I decided not to respond. He purchased the knife, but when he got it, he sent me this in another attempt to get it even cheaper...

"I didn't notice it until i received it. The smaller blade is slightly bent towards the tip. If you blow up picture 1 in your ad you can see where it is slightly bent. I spent well over 2 hours trying to metal work it with diamond plates, Dremel tools, and 4 different Arkansas Stones. I ended up with a shorter and narrower blade. Somebody tried to pry something with it and ended up messing up a very good knife."

You'll notice he didn't ask for anything, nor did he even mention returning it for a refund. I guess he was banking on me offering a partial. But again, I chose not to reply. Well, he didn't open a return, but he did leave the following feedback... 

"Knife arrived with one of the blades slightly bent. Contacted the seller after i received it. They never contacted me back with an apology, offer for a refund, or nothing. I spent over 2 hours repairing it."

What would you do with a buyer like this?

[stephenmorgan]

Obviously you had very good pictures because as he said "If you blow up picture 1 in your ad you can see where it is slightly bent".  

I would not have done anything either.

[albertabrightalberta]

---

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy wrote:

@albertabrightalberta 

This is absolutely hilarious because I just posted a reply here that referenced your signature line BEFORE I even saw you replied to the thread. I love your signature line and I'm not sorry for temporarily stealing it. At least I gave you credit LOL

---

You're welcome to use my siggy! 

There are so many threads here for which that signature line is soooooo appropriate! 

[gurlcat]

---

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy wrote:

---

So, to circle back, if I haven't lost you, lowering my BIN price to the discount price, I give up any chance of added premium if that "other" person buys. I don't want to give everyone the discount when 6-7 out of 10 times the buyer will pay full price anyway... so it loses that chance at a premium. Moreover, dropping the BIN price, if buyer doesn't come back to buy, then I will forget and it will stay at BIN price until someone purchases and well, same problem.

Many ways to skin a cat, of course, I choose different methods in different scenarios and I personally don't like dropping BIN and leaving it hanging... some of these buyers take 12-24-36 hrs to return and buy the item, been there done that.

---

No, I totally get what you mean, and my asking/offer sale amount ratio is pretty similar.  I think the reason why I have often gone ahead and dropped the BIN to match someone's offer (whether it was in the post-expiration period or not) is because I know sometimes my asking price is WAY higher what I really hope to get, and an offer might get me to consider that my price is more than probably anyone will pay -ESPECIALLY if the views and watchers are surprisingly low, like people are just scrolling past it in search because the price is too "Oh H no" you know?  So if I drop the price to what someone just offered for it, I would have done it pretty soon anyway, and here I have someone who may buy it as soon as I do that .... and if not them, maybe someone else.  

But here's another reason I do it.  Have you (like so many here) found that the buyers you have to "deal with" the most (via offers, questions, special requests, etc.) are more often the ones that become problems down the road?  I sure have.  Not saying "often" in general, just more often than straight asking price BIN buyers.  And if you think about it, it's really not surprising.  So going back to what I said before, if I've decided I'll let "this" guy have an item for "this" price, I won't be sad to get it from anyone else.  In fact -I may be better off if that's the case.  

[gurlcat]

I think you did the best you could with that person.  Ordinarily when it comes to partial refund fishers my reaction is to call their bluff, apologize profusely and offer to accept their return (which I know they don't actually want to do).  But in this case, the dude admitted he spent two hours DAMAGING the item, so you probably wouldn't want to get it back.  Also if a slightly bent tip is so unacceptable to him, then why did he buy a knife with a slightly bent tip VISIBLE IN THE PHOTO??  

Sadly, as a seller he also knew how to word his feedback in such a way that I doubt you could get it removed.  -Probably the best you can do is 1. BLOCK HIM, and 2. Carefully reply to his feedback, keeping future buyers in mind more than telling him off.  Like use it to showcase the fact that you offer free returns for any item that isn't satisfactory.  -This will give confidence to good buyers, and ward off partial refund scammers.  Win-win. 

By the way, YOU HAVE SO MUCH COOL STUFF!!! 😲 I've saved you so I can do more looking later. 

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

---

@gurlcat wrote:

---

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy wrote:

---

So, to circle back, if I haven't lost you, lowering my BIN price to the discount price, I give up any chance of added premium if that "other" person buys. I don't want to give everyone the discount when 6-7 out of 10 times the buyer will pay full price anyway... so it loses that chance at a premium. Moreover, dropping the BIN price, if buyer doesn't come back to buy, then I will forget and it will stay at BIN price until someone purchases and well, same problem.

Many ways to skin a cat, of course, I choose different methods in different scenarios and I personally don't like dropping BIN and leaving it hanging... some of these buyers take 12-24-36 hrs to return and buy the item, been there done that.

---

No, I totally get what you mean, and my asking/offer sale amount ratio is pretty similar.  I think the reason why I have often gone ahead and dropped the BIN to match someone's offer (whether it was in the post-expiration period or not) is because I know sometimes my asking price is WAY higher what I really hope to get, and an offer might get me to consider that my price is more than probably anyone will pay -ESPECIALLY if the views and watchers are surprisingly low, like people are just scrolling past it in search because the price is too "Oh H no" you know?  So if I drop the price to what someone just offered for it, I would have done it pretty soon anyway, and here I have someone who may buy it as soon as I do that .... and if not them, maybe someone else.  

But here's another reason I do it.  Have you (like so many here) found that the buyers you have to "deal with" the most (via offers, questions, special requests, etc.) are more often the ones that become problems down the road?  I sure have.  Not saying "often" in general, just more often than straight asking price BIN buyers.  And if you think about it, it's really not surprising.  So going back to what I said before, if I've decided I'll let "this" guy have an item for "this" price, I won't be sad to get it from anyone else.  In fact -I may be better off if that's the case.  

---

Absolutely agree on your point of recognizing when you're priced too high. I usually find the cusp and am not far off. Some items I notice the low traffic, drop the price a smidge and boom, the people are coming in the door so to speak. You need to be conscious and cognizant of when the market speaks to you. If people are telling you you're priced too high (with their actions) then they are right. Just remember to ignore the buyers who tell you you're priced too high LOL. I had a couple buyers tell me I'm priced too high only to sell at my asking price the same day. Always get a good laugh on that one.

I agree the BIN buyers are the best, they don't need any hand holding. You're right the ones you deal with the most are the most problematic. I've been very fortunate to have little issue after the item has been shipped/delivered, all the issues seem to happen prior to sale/shipment. Like the one guy who asked me tons of questions, accepted the discount offer, but prior to paying he started to pester me about the "no returns" policy. I've never begged someone to ask me for a cancellation. That was what I did there. 

I understand some people are having a real tough time with sales. There are those who will comment towards others some version of "Wow your sales must be good if you BBL buyers so quick", I don't look at it as lost sales, I look at it as prevented headaches.

[gurlcat]

---

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy wrote:

---

I understand some people are having a real tough time with sales. There are those who will comment towards others some version of "Wow your sales must be good if you BBL buyers so quick", I don't look at it as lost sales, I look at it as prevented headaches.

---

Well yeah, plus there are literally MILLIONS of other buyers.  Who needs riff raff?  

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

---

@gurlcat wrote:

I think you did the best you could with that person.  Ordinarily when it comes to partial refund fishers my reaction is to call their bluff, apologize profusely and offer to accept their return (which I know they don't actually want to do).  But in this case, the dude admitted he spent two hours DAMAGING the item, so you probably wouldn't want to get it back.  Also if a slightly bent tip is so unacceptable to him, then why did he buy a knife with a slightly bent tip VISIBLE IN THE PHOTO??  

Sadly, as a seller he also knew how to word his feedback in such a way that I doubt you could get it removed.  -Probably the best you can do is 1. BLOCK HIM, and 2. Carefully reply to his feedback, keeping future buyers in mind more than telling him off.  Like use it to showcase the fact that you offer free returns for any item that isn't satisfactory.  -This will give confidence to good buyers, and ward off partial refund scammers.  Win-win. 

By the way, YOU HAVE SO MUCH COOL STUFF!!! 😲 I've saved you so I can do more looking later. 

---

I didn't reply at first to pls-consignments because I knew my response would be a long rambling response about the buyer. 

That buyer knew EXACTLY what they were doing... I didn't realize you offer free returns, so that's a shot in the foot for that buyer. 

I 100% agree with @gurlcat ... My rule of thumb is: Buyers leave feedback with past transactions in mind, Sellers leave feedback/replies with future transactions in mind. Although you address the buyer in your response, your target audience is every future potential buyer.

I would do exactly as gurlcat said and showcase your free returns and address the fact that you offer free returns but unfortunately at the time of contact the buyer had already damaged/altered the item during an attempted "repair". The buyer could have taken advantage of your free hassle-less returns but opted not to.

What a PITA

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

Hey, not to mention, it all depends how the buyer corresponds.

One buyer asked me extremely respectfully for a small discount on an item that I was asking a healthy premium on (didn't ask for a specific price, just said small discount), and guess what, I gave him more of a discount than he was probably expecting (10% off $200). That individual was happier than heck, came back that next week and bought an item full price ($165). I made more combined between the sales than had I sent/sold at my typical discount offers. All happened because the buyer was extremely polite.

When I get a random message from someone saying "Can I buy this at a discounted price?" on an item I'm already priced pretty low on...and I've sold tons of the item at this price and higher prices... I decide to go read their feedback for other sellers. I found that the person had left neutral/negative feedback for more than 7.5% of his purchases (460 total FBs...) Yep, BBL-ed that guy.

You reap what you sow...

[inhawaii]

Have you ever heard the term...

"If they accepted your offer you could have got it cheaper."

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

More of a phrase or adage than a term 😉

But yes absolutely and that is 100% at play, no doubt, of course.

[vintagecraze50]

Usually I somehow convince them that THIS IS A GOOD DEAL, you better buy IT FAST  before someone else does. LOL. AND IT WORKS SOMETIMES.

[vintagecraze50]

Yep, always check the buyers feedback when they are sending these barter barter and barter again offers, and block when you see things that look like excessive complaints, soft positives, and other nonsense looking feedback. Some are serial returners, false not as described and partial refund seeking junkies.