Why block when someone makes an offer for a lower price?

[sin-n-dex]

OK, so after a post I made yesterday about not understanding the logic behind blocking someone who makes an offer (when Best Offer is not activated). I do understand a seller being a little peeved if the offer that was made is unreasonably low (that will vary by seller, how low I go will depend on how much I marked it up before I listed it).

So let me share...

At 3am I get a message from a buyer on a coin set. Set was listed for $200, buyer offered $180 including shipping (which was $8.91). First thing I did was make sure their country was on my ship-to list in the listing (since some of my more expensive listings I restrict beyond the eBay exclusion list). I "replied with offer" at a price that would come to $180 once shipping.

At 6am I received another message from a buyer. They want several coins, ballparked how much they intended to spend, and asked about a quantity discount. I replied back that I can only discount coin-by-coin (I cannot afford to blanket discount stuff, I need to review each and every item before agreeing), plus the reply with offer requires a message be sent in each listing. I provided the buyer with instructions. He agreed with my prices. When he finishes work, provided all goes well... that's going to be $175 in sales.

So I just made $355 today in sales because I discussed an offer with someone and accepted a lower price. But I read often that people say they will block anyone who makes an offer... 

Cheers, C.

[castlemagicmemories]

Reading your OP, I realized that there is a VAST difference between your situation and the usual posts about blocking a buyer who messaged an offer.

The offer you received was around 10% off your listed price of $200.00.

Many times, users who send a best offer and are blocked are only offering 50% or much less of the item's listed price.  

Seller may feel they are too far apart to ever meet in the middle, there may be more negotiations post sale or post delivery, and they don't want to put effort into a back and forth that may never pan out.

Just my thoughts.  Not every best offer is acceptable.  And some sellers may feel that the price they have listed is the price they want, and that is that.

[myboardid]

I don't always accept and I don't always negotiate, but I don't block buyers for making an offer.  Now, I will block if I think that for some reason the potential buyer is angry and could buy for the purpose of leaving me bad feedback.  But that's extremely rare. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

Reading your OP, I realized that there is a VAST difference between your situation and the usual posts about blocking a buyer who messaged an offer.

The offer you received was around 10% off your listed price of $200.00.

Many times, users who send a best offer and are blocked are only offering 50% or much less of the item's listed price.  

Seller may feel they are too far apart to ever meet in the middle, there may be more negotiations post sale or post delivery, and they don't want to put effort into a back and forth that may never pan out.

Just my thoughts.  Not every best offer is acceptable.

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I hadn't known what people offered in other categories, just because I rarely ever get an offer on something that isn't a coin or token. (And truth be known, on the tokens when there's no precedent of anything like it that I can find sold, I make something up based on what similar items have sold for in my store). But generally on low priced things, under $20, it's usually just a dollar or two, or a request for free shipping (which is $2.66 on a coin, plus the 65 courier fee I pay to send it to NY).

Anyway, thought it would be a good discussion to start up and share some experiences on offers. I'm branching out a bit on other collectable product, so I might see more of that 50% stuff happening soon.

Cheers, C.

[stanley2erols]

I would love a $180 offer on a $200 item.  Sometimes you will get a $20 offer on a $200 item though.  Then when you decline that you get a $22 offer on that same $200 item.  Then when you decline that you get a message complaining that you didn't negotiate.  I don't block them, but it gets annoying.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@stanley2erols wrote:

I would love a $180 offer on a $200 item.  Sometimes you will get a $20 offer on a $200 item though.  Then when you decline that you get a $22 offer on that same $200 item.  Then when you decline that you get a message complaining that you didn't negotiate.  I don't block them, but it gets annoying.

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There are sellers, though, who most likely would block in that case.  They might be afraid of later negotiating, but they might also fear negative feedback because the buyer was angry that their offers weren't accepted, or because they want to use that as leverage to get a better deal from the seller in exchange for revising that feedback.  (Yes, I know that's feedback extortion)

[sin-n-dex]

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@stanley2erols wrote:

I would love a $180 offer on a $200 item.  Sometimes you will get a $20 offer on a $200 item though.  Then when you decline that you get a $22 offer on that same $200 item.  Then when you decline that you get a message complaining that you didn't negotiate.  I don't block them, but it gets annoying.

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In an attempt to try something different, I put best offer on most of my items (prior to setting up auto accept and auto decline feature). One night I was harassed with 100 low offers from another dealer. I had accepted his first offer of 50% because of what the item was, but then the offers just kept coming and coming and I was declining each one to not be rude. Finally he didn't pay for his item, and I did end up blocking him. I quickly took best offer off my listings after that. I entertain offers, but that's when someone sends me a message and tells me something, not because of the best offer feature.

Cheers, C.

[castlemagicmemories]

You're fortunate.  Apparently your experiences have been good ones.

Sadly not all categories may see the same results.  I suppose it all depends on what you are selling and what people it attracts.  Probably a lot of sellers would love reasonable offers, but that may not happen.  

Congratulations on your sales!

Just read your above post.  So NOT all your experiences have been good ones!

Sorry.  It must all boil down to who you are dealing with.  Good Luck

[sin-n-dex]

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

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@stanley2erols wrote:

I would love a $180 offer on a $200 item.  Sometimes you will get a $20 offer on a $200 item though.  Then when you decline that you get a $22 offer on that same $200 item.  Then when you decline that you get a message complaining that you didn't negotiate.  I don't block them, but it gets annoying.

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There are sellers, though, who most likely would block in that case.  They might be afraid of later negotiating, but they might also fear negative feedback because the buyer was angry that their offers weren't accepted, or because they want to use that as leverage to get a better deal from the seller in exchange for revising that feedback.  (Yes, I know that's feedback extortion)

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I would say auto decline is handy, because you don't even see the offer. I did have someone place an offer on a USA coin which was auto declined, and I got a message from them right after. They were pretty angry because it was declined within seconds. I explained it's a setting, that anything I can't consider is auto declined, anything I want to review I'll see and respond, and any offer that's good for any customer will be auto accepted. I can't remember what happened to that transaction, but I think I accepted his second offer and he didn't pay. I relisted it and sold it a few days later.

Cheers, C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

You're fortunate.  Apparently your experiences have been good ones.

Sadly not all categories may see the same results.  I suppose it all depends on what you are selling and what people it attracts.  Probably a lot of sellers would love reasonable offers, but that may not happen.  

Congratulations on your sales!

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My mantra is "the item matters the most". If you sell something that scammers are attracted to, you'll get a lot of scammer buyers. (Think of the iPhone). But a token from a small town that's 100 years old is a little piece of history that only one person will be interested in... I'm trying to find that one person. 10% of my tokens sell very fast, the others sit and wait for someone to find them for sale.

Cheers, C.

[bigdeals.etc]

I don't have Best Offer on any of my listings, and never have. I just got a message from a buyer this morning for a 15 dollar item, asking if I'd sell it to them for 6 dollars. I already wrote this buyer off as someone who's wasting my time. But I didn't block them and told them they are welcome to purchase any time at the stated price. Sometimes these guys still don't get the message and come back with another offer (like 8 dollars). I just lather, rinse, repeat.

When the OP says "block"... is it different for best offers? Are they unable to send you an offer or unable to buy at full price? They should still be able to message you I assume.

Out of all of the "message negotiation offers" I get, I only remember 1 offer that was actually respectable. I think it was somewhere around 15% off. The only one I accepted in the past year.

[lewisburggold]

There is no real reason to block someone for just making a offer unless there are very rude about it.   Blocking someone for just making a offer is only going to hurt yourself.   Best regards

[rolenboy01]

Because a lot of times people who like to negotiate before the sell also like to neogiate after the sell when they know they got you over a barrel because they can claim snad and cost you return shipping.

[keziak]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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In an attempt to try something different, I put best offer on most of my items (prior to setting up auto accept and auto decline feature). One night I was harassed with 100 low offers from another dealer. I had accepted his first offer of 50% because of what the item was, but then the offers just kept coming and coming and I was declining each one to not be rude. Finally he didn't pay for his item, and I did end up blocking him. I quickly took best offer off my listings after that. I entertain offers, but that's when someone sends me a message and tells me something, not because of the best offer feature.

Cheers, C.

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I would block that person. I had some collectible books from a major publisher. Every time I relisted I got the same lowball offers from 2 dealers who buy low, sell high. Finally I got tired of it and blocked them.  They were never serious about buying at a modest discount. I would not bail out of Best Offer. It's a great engine for sales and I can't think  of a time when it has resulted in a negative transaction. Books tend to be lowkey though.

[retrose1]

So I just made $355 today in sales because I discussed an offer with someone and accepted a lower price. But I read often that people say they will block anyone who makes an offer... 

And 10 minutes after the items show delivered, I'll bet the buyer will contact you with another lower offer or SNAD dispute because they now know that you are willing to negotiate.

That is why i block buyers who make offers.  My items are priced reasonably, there is no reason to haggle with me further.  If you want flea market prices and selling style, go to a flea market - I will not participate in a race to the basement prices that ebay has become.