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

[greatmidwestcoin]

I had one buyer continue to do that. He had purchased tons from me but I was making very little. I told him finally I didn't want to do any further business with him and blocked him. I did tell him why and later found out several other dealers did the same with the guy. That just wasn't how I do business after 50 years. I don't need money that bad.

[greatmidwestcoin]

I usually raise the price then.

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

---

@farmalljr wrote:

Great! Maybe there won't be another thread from you where you are going off about "bum" buyers and how it's all their fault you didn't edit your own listing right. Great to see you have accepted responsibility for your own actions. That's quite the adult, mature thing for you to do. 

---

It's funny because I completely addressed your point/suggestion about adjusting the "BIN" price in the original post. I "took responsibility for my own actions" long  before you even came along here. Thanks "Buddy". You've been extremely helpful

[toomuchstuffagain35]

FWIW, I don't see that SENDING a limited time offer is the same thing as putting BO on a listing which WOULD be "opening it up to lower offers".

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

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@dhbookds wrote:

So you let it drag on, down to $10?  Sorry I misunderstood........I would have declined/not answered if they didn't pay at $13........  just don't understand why you are so upset........  So, the buyer is a jerk.......why waste time on it?

---

In the scenario I gave you, they aren't the exact prices but yeah basically. Listed would be $15, buyer requested the expired discount price of $13, i agreed, then buyer submitted offer of $11. 

I could have declined outright and blocked, but I countered with the $13 and noted in message that was the previously agreed to price.

I posted about it to vent, and honestly because it's happened at least 3 times now. No more than 5 but probably 3-4 different times? Just a pattern I have noticed and has been a little obnoxious. I already acknowledged solutions in the original post, and those are paths I have taken before, and i explained why I didn't do it in this situation. Shame on me, I should only take the "correct path" next time, and never divert for any reason 🙄 I will do better next time. 😛

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

---

@ruby_deals wrote:

When I decline offers, I too often tell people I'm not looking to negotiate further and it gets completely ignored. I think the main issue is, people don't see the added messages added to declining offers because they are using a phone and just get a notification that it's declined and immediately hit back a counter offer without ever seeing the seller's message. 

---

This is really frustrating. It's one thing as the seller to include a message to the buyer in a decline, and the buyer doesn't read it... but I have learned that a buyer will likely never see/read the messages attached to "declines".

What's worse though is when a buyer leaves a message with their decline. If I send an unsolicited offer to a buyer, and I do not include a counter offer option, the buyer can accept or decline. Often, the buyer will include a message with their decline saying "I'll buy it for X price, please let me know". 

Now, I didn't include counter offers because I won't entertain counter offers, so I didn't lose out and don't care from that side of things, but I do feel a little bad that the buyer said "Let me know" and there is no chance in heck I ever see their message. I feel back because that buyer is actually expecting the seller to see the message and may actually be expecting a response. That easily makes sellers look bad for not responding, and of course some sellers wouldn't respond anyways, but it doesn't give those a chance who would respond...

I do wish buyers (or everyone for that matter) knew that the other member is likely to NEVER SEE the message you attach when declining an offer. 

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

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@greatmidwestcoin wrote:

I had one buyer continue to do that. He had purchased tons from me but I was making very little. I told him finally I didn't want to do any further business with him and blocked him. I did tell him why and later found out several other dealers did the same with the guy. That just wasn't how I do business after 50 years. I don't need money that bad.

---

Exactly, Amen.

Sounds like (and I'm of course not blaming you) that you enabled him once so he continued the behavior until you cut it off. If that is how someone wants to do business, by all means let them, but I am with you, I don't want business like that. Repeat buyers are cool, but that's not the type of repeat business I would want. That's why I try to just nip it in the butt when it happens, (or as some will argue, when I "let it happen"...)

[imagine-vintage]

just block the seller and move on

[gurlcat]

---

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy wrote:

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

---

-I agree 100% with most of your post; the "nudgers" are irritating and yes I think it's at least mildly disrespectful.  But this last paragraph makes me wonder if you view offers differently from me.  To me, they're for reminding watchers of the items they were interested in, and trying to tempt them with a better deal.  If the person writing missed out on that deal but still wants it, you clearly have their attention and clearly you already decided you can live with the amount you sent out as an offer.  So at this point, why not make that the BIN price for everyone viewing it?  Enabling the 'Make Offer' feature requires revising the listing anyway, taking your time for this person, and what's so special about them that that you should have to do it for only them?  -Bear in mind, if they do go through with the arrangement, they may not pay for days!  Whereas if you make this offer the new BIN price, whoever gets it will have to pay immediately.   That's what I do in cases like this, but I do reply to the message letting them know I changed it.  Then if the want to put their money where their mouth is, they can, no more chit-chat or offer-response needed! 

[broto_64]

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@ajs_coins_and_alchemy wrote:

---

@broto_64 wrote:

---

See, the title of this thread is misleading, it states:
When YOU ask ME for a discounted price (and I agree etc)

But then in the post you state the buyer mentions that they got an offer from you!

So which is it, did the buyer come up and ask you...
Or did you send an unsolicited offer?

In most cases the unsolicited offer is an automatic email message sent out by the seller's pre-formatted store seller settings... 

But hard to say, again did you (or your store) send the offer or did the buyer ask you?

---

@broto_64 

My offers aren't "automatic" but that's honestly irrelevant. Whether they are manually done or automatically done, makes no difference.

Yes, the buyer originally received an offer from me.  .... here is the part you may be missing?... TWO WEEKS LATER (or some period of time later, one instance was 2 weeks) AFTER THE OFFER ALREADY EXPIRED the buyer contacts me.

At this time they are then asking for a discounted price, the discounted price they originally received in an offer. They are faced with a full asking BIN price. They are coming to me now asking for a discount, with the specific price ...being the price they received in the previous offer. 

So yes, they are ASKING ME for a discount. It was a timed discount offer that is long gone. If you want to be a stickler about it, the offer is long gone and I'm under no obligation to honor it. (Of course I will honor it). But the buyer has initiated dialogue at this point, asking for the original offer price to be honored. They asked for a discount, they set their price. They could easily ask for a lower price, they asked for THAT price.

I don't see what difference it makes in this case anyway???

---

Because this thread is confusing and misleading...
First in the title you state the buyer asked you, then in opening post (and just now) it turns out you actually sent the first offer (and whether automatic or manual, it's still unsolicited) and yes that makes a difference.

Then the way this whole thing reads, the buyer and you first agreed on an offer and then the buyer asked for even more of a discount. But now it turns out the buyer simply asked for the original offer that you sent which had expired...

If this kind of confusing and misleading version of things is also how you conduct your business I am again not surprised by this buyer's behavior.

[albertabrightalberta]

---

@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. 

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

---

@gurlcat wrote:

---

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy wrote:

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

---

-I agree 100% with most of your post; the "nudgers" are irritating and yes I think it's at least mildly disrespectful.  But this last paragraph makes me wonder if you view offers differently from me.  To me, they're for reminding watchers of the items they were interested in, and trying to tempt them with a better deal.  If the person writing missed out on that deal but still wants it, you clearly have their attention and clearly you already decided you can live with the amount you sent out as an offer.  So at this point, why not make that the BIN price for everyone viewing it?  Enabling the 'Make Offer' feature requires revising the listing anyway, taking your time for this person, and what's so special about them that that you should have to do it for only them?  -Bear in mind, if they do go through with the arrangement, they may not pay for days!  Whereas if you make this offer the new BIN price, whoever gets it will have to pay immediately.   That's what I do in cases like this, but I do reply to the message letting them know I changed it.  Then if the want to put their money where their mouth is, they can, no more chit-chat or offer-response needed! 

---

Your "put your money where your mouth is" and non-payment perspective is spot on. That is something I didn't consider, mostly because I have very few and far between non-payers. I had a rash of non payers back this summer for maybe a month, but it generally isn't an issue for me overall.

To address your question, and honestly it's been on my mind for most of the duration of this thread, but simply put, TO MAKE MONEY. So, when I list something, I always list with at LEAST a 5-10% cushion. I don't believe I ever list anything at my go-to price. So, if it sells at asking, I got a "premium" for my item (cha-ching). I send out discount offers all the time (I don't wait long if at all) ... because I'm trying to entice the buyer.  Buyers feel good getting a discount. Let them feel good, right? I still get to sell it at or above "my (real) price". 

So, we must view offers differently for sure, because if I list my item at the discounted price (either my "real" price or lesser premium) then I'm shooting myself in the foot for my added profit margin.

I don't have any statistics as far as how many of my sales come from discount offers vs full asking, but I did a quick scroll/eye-ball through my last 100 or so listings and I can say well over 50% sell at asking. Probably in the 60-75% range sell at asking price?

I send out tons of offers, do you know how many items I send offers out on and still sell at asking price? I mean I may send out a couple offers or even as much as 10, but it still sells at asking. You may ask "why send offers?" sending 5-10% discounts on pretty much every item, leads to only 30% of sales resulting in a discount, and I can increase volume of sales and traffic to my store, that's completely worth it to me! That's like my ad-spend. I promote 3% on every item but about 70% of my sales come from promoted ads. So I set 3% on all items but spend a net 2.1% on ads. That's pretty darn good I think.

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.

[sakic92710]

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!

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

---

@broto_64 wrote:

---

---

Because this thread is confusing and misleading...
First in the title you state the buyer asked you, then in opening post (and just now) it turns out you actually sent the first offer (and whether automatic or manual, it's still unsolicited) and yes that makes a difference.

Then the way this whole thing reads, the buyer and you first agreed on an offer and then the buyer asked for even more of a discount. But now it turns out the buyer simply asked for the original offer that you sent which had expired...

If this kind of confusing and misleading version of things is also how you conduct your business I am again not surprised by this buyer's behavior.

---

Okay, I'm sorry you are confused and feel misled. Most other people on here seem to have understood what I wrote with the exception of a few. It may be difficult, especially when you take things out of context? I responded to your post and answered the questions. You now seem to believe that the response to your questions amounts to the ENTIRE story. No, I retold the portion and clarified the portion that pertained to what you asked.

You still seem to not have a firm grasp on the scenario here as you must not be reading and understanding much of what I have written. That's fine. I get it. I'm wordy. Also, no, there is no problem with how I conduct my business, thanks.

Can we please agree to disagree on whether it matters that there was an unsolicited offer first or not? Because I don't see the relevance to the actual issue that I am about to describe (the issue is something you don't seem to have caught on to).

-Asking price is $20.

-I send a discount offer 2 weeks ago for $18.

-Today, buyer messages me "Hey, I got an offer from you 2 weeks ago, can I still buy it for $18?"

-I say yes.

(Because an unsolicited offer was sent, I can't send another. So I open Make Offer and ask buyer to submit that price [$18] as an offer.)

-Buyer submits offer for $17.

Whether the buyer's requested price of $18 is based on an offer I sent them, or not, the point is they asked to buy it at $18, which was agreed upon, and proceeded to attempt to pay $17. That in and of itself is the issue at hand.

We can debate over how misleading my post is in your eyes, or how you think I must conduct my business poorly because I was so confusing in this post, but this is what occured in it's absolutely most simple form. They Asked for the discount offer to be honored later on down the road after it had expired... after it was agreed upon to sell at the discount price and honor the price, they tried to get the item for an even LOWER price than that.

Someone has a great signature line on here saying something to the effect of "I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you". 

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

@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