Why doesn't Ebay show final sales amounts on Best Offers? Annoying!

[goldrushfinds]

Why won't  they show actual final sales amounts on Best Offers anymore. This is invaluable information for a seller, and without it makes pricing of an item all that much harder. Just one less tool for the reseller. 

[7606dennis]

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@goldrushfinds wrote:

Why won't  they show actual final sales amounts on Best Offers anymore. This is invaluable information for a seller, and without it makes pricing of an item all that much harder. Just one less tool for the reseller. 

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Because it is no one's business to know what a particular seller was willing to accept for that particular item from that particular buyer at that particular point in time.  You need to do your research and determine what is a competitive selling price for your item.  By not knowing the seller's particular reason for accepting an offer, there is no way that knowing the amount of the offer is likely to help you in determining the market value of the item that you are attempting to sell.

Plus it would be detrimental to a seller position in negotiating (haggling), if that information were public knowledge.  

[city*satins]

There's a workaround that can sometimes help you to figure out what an item is actually selling for.

Search for sold items with search criteria that will bring up that item in the list.  Then SORT BY PRICE

The item will be placed in the list by its relative position in terms of sale price compared to the other items, regardless of what it actually says on the PRICE.

So you at least can see if an item with a BIN of $100 actually sold for between $82 and $90 for example.

It"s a handy trick>

[glgenterprise]

Depending on how badly you want to know the final sale price and how much time you want to devote to it - you can figure it out eventually by going to the "more filters" and selecting price. It then gives you an option for a price range and you can eventually get to the sold amount by just shrinking the window until you get to the amount.

[itsjustasprain]

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@7606dennis wrote:

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@goldrushfinds wrote:

Why won't  they show actual final sales amounts on Best Offers anymore. This is invaluable information for a seller, and without it makes pricing of an item all that much harder. Just one less tool for the reseller. 

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Because it is no one's business to know what a particular seller was willing to accept for that particular item from that particular buyer at that particular point in time.  You need to do your research and determine what is a competitive selling price for your item.  

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He IS doing his research. That is why he is looking at Sold prices.

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@7606dennis wrote:
By not knowing the seller's particular reason for accepting an offer, there is no way that knowing the amount of the offer is likely to help you in determining the market value of the item that you are attempting to sell.

Plus it would be detrimental to a seller position in negotiating (haggling), if that information were public knowledge.  

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It doesnt matter what the original asking price was. What matters is what it sold for. That is HOW you determine the market value of the item. Knowing actual sale prices helps sellers to determine an asking price and buyers to determine an offer price. Showing asking prices instead of actual Sold prices in the Sold search results is not useful. It defeats the purpose of having a Sold search option in the first place.

[slippinjimmy]

I don't do Best Offer but if I did I certainly don't want everyone and anyone seeing the price. Best Offer is a negotiating tool, how do you negotiate your "lowest price" if the other party knows what deals you have previously given to others?

[city*satins]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

I don't do Best Offer but if I did I certainly don't want everyone and anyone seeing the price. Best Offer is a negotiating tool, how do you negotiate your "lowest price" if the other party knows what deals you have previously given to others?

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I dunno.  We used to have similar disagreement over revealing the reserve price.   Face it, people want to know what the going price is for something and pay accordingly.

It's not like anybody signs an NDR - and eventually people are apt to find out if they paid way more for the same thing as someone else and that discourages return sales.  JMHO

[mr_lincoln]

@goldrushfinds   I agree 110% ... actually 150% ... the Sold items with the Strike through prices are meaningless, absolutely meaningless ... they either need to show the Sold price or don't both to show sales that were from a Best Offer or Accepted Offer ... period.

[corvettestainless]

Just like a car dealer that shows $25,000 on a car, and then have an 8x11 sheet on the windshield that says 'we sold the last one for $21,500. Never happen, never should happen and never will. 

The 'crossed out' price is the market price (or should be). 

[a_c_green]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

I don't do Best Offer but if I did I certainly don't want everyone and anyone seeing the price. Best Offer is a negotiating tool, how do you negotiate your "lowest price" if the other party knows what deals you have previously given to others?

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This is one of the more interesting topics recently.  I think this boils down to whether you can have what's essentially a "secret" final sale price in a public marketplace. I don't think I would much care about the exact sale price of a Make Offer transaction being shown unless I was selling the same items over and over, such that my previous track record of sale prices would show what I was settling for, but in such a case, I could save a lot of time by simply listing my items at that (lower) price and not messing about with haggling.

I think it's probably more significant that your visible trail of crossed-out sale prices will show that you do entertain haggling, so regardless of the exact numbers, every future buyer will be lining up to have a whack at you, and you'll never sell for full price again.

What I would suggest instead is that eBay stop displaying the struck-through original prices (which are really irrelevant in that context anyway), and simply show the final sale price that actually occurred. There's no need to indicate whether it was a Fixed Price, auction price or a haggled/negotiated price. The actual agreed-upon value is shown to anyone who's researching their own items, and the seller is free to list future BuyItNow/Make Offer listings without being branded as a softie on price by having their bargained-down price history shown as a series of struck-through numbers to anyone who's simply browsing their sale record or feedback page.

[goldrushfinds]

@chris94546 wrote:

Why won't  they show actual final sales amounts on Best Offers anymore. This is invaluable information for a seller, and without it makes pricing of an item all that much harder. Just one less tool for the reseller. 

Because it is no one's business to know what a particular seller was willing to accept for that particular item from that particular buyer at that particular point in time.  You need to do your research and determine what is a competitive selling price for your item.  By not knowing the seller's particular reason for accepting an offer, there is no way that knowing the amount of the offer is likely to help you in determining the market value of the item that you are attempting to sell.

Plus it would be detrimental to a seller position in negotiating (haggling), if that information were public knowledge.  

What? Why so secretive. Of course it is my business. How can I do my research, when so much of the necessary sales data is absent. Why is it so precious to hide the price someone sold an item for. They allowed it before. 

[goldrushfinds]

There's a workaround that can sometimes help you to figure out what an item is actually selling for.



Search for sold items with search criteria that will bring up that item in the list. Then SORT BY PRICE



The item will be placed in the list by its relative position in terms of sale price compared to the other items, regardless of what it actually says on the PRICE.



So you at least can see if an item with a BIN of $100 actually sold for between $82 and $90 for example.



It"s a handy trick>


Thanks for the tip!

[earlyant-77]

But what price is being sold to Worthpoint or Terrapeak?

Asking price? Best Offer price?

[a_c_green]

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@earlyant-77 wrote:

But what price is being sold to Worthpoint or Terapeak?

Asking price? Best Offer price?

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Har! Good question. Someone with an account on either of those sites would need to compare what's shown there with what's shown here, and let us know.

It may be that the actual sale price can be obtained via the relevant API call for anyone who's writing licensed third-party software for apps that provide an eBay interface. I've got one on my phone that can show me Sold prices. I'll take a look as soon as I get a chance...

[bearswatching]

I’ve used city*satins workaround for ages, often coming within a dollar of actual sold price. Kind of a pain to use but as long as eBay wants to play games...