Confused About Purchase Attempt on eBay

G.Allyn

O.G.
Dec 12, 2013
518
217
I do not do a great deal of buying or selling on eBay, but I recently tried to make a purchase of a NWT Dooney bag and am somewhat puzzled by the experience.

I found a bag I liked and put it on my watch list. The seller offered a discount and wanted $218.00 for the bag. It had a make an offer option and I offered $205.00. My offer was immediately declined. I continued to watch the handbag and this morning I received an email that the listing had ended. The seller accepted an offer for $165.00.

I am not upset about this, but I am curious about how buying and selling D&B handbags works on eBay. As a buyer, I have always left five star feedback. A few times I was a little disappointed, but I feel condition is subjective and opinions can vary quite a bit. I have never caused any trouble to a seller.

Does anyone have any ideas about how/why I lost out on this item?
 
I do not do a great deal of buying or selling on eBay, but I recently tried to make a purchase of a NWT Dooney bag and am somewhat puzzled by the experience.

I found a bag I liked and put it on my watch list. The seller offered a discount and wanted $218.00 for the bag. It had a make an offer option and I offered $205.00. My offer was immediately declined. I continued to watch the handbag and this morning I received an email that the listing had ended. The seller accepted an offer for $165.00.

I am not upset about this, but I am curious about how buying and selling D&B handbags works on eBay. As a buyer, I have always left five star feedback. A few times I was a little disappointed, but I feel condition is subjective and opinions can vary quite a bit. I have never caused any trouble to a seller.

Does anyone have any ideas about how/why I lost out on this item?
Thats odd. I know sellers can choose to sell to people with more than lets say 5 or more positive ratings.. or 10 pos ratings... etc. I remember watching an item and the seller rejected me. I emailed them as to why? They told me because they didnt sell to new ebay members I needed at least 5 positive reviews ( i was super new to ebay at the time )

Did you email the seller to see as to why ?
 
Thats odd. I know sellers can choose to sell to people with more than lets say 5 or more positive ratings.. or 10 pos ratings... etc. I remember watching an item and the seller rejected me. I emailed them as to why? They told me because they didnt sell to new ebay members I needed at least 5 positive reviews ( i was super new to ebay at the time )

Did you email the seller to see as to why ?
It could be anything really. Sorry that happ to you!! Huge bummer but something will come along...
 
Thats odd. I know sellers can choose to sell to people with more than lets say 5 or more positive ratings.. or 10 pos ratings... etc. I remember watching an item and the seller rejected me. I emailed them as to why? They told me because they didnt sell to new ebay members I needed at least 5 positive reviews ( i was super new to ebay at the time )

Did you email the seller to see as to why ?
I didn't email anything after the item sold. The decision had been made. It may have been nothing more than an impulsive decision, but I wondered why the seller, who had 18 watchers, didn't contact buyers on the watch list with a further discount offer. The seller could have asked me if I was still interested at my previous offer of $205.00, and sold for $40.00 more than they received from today's buyer.

I think some sellers are understandably concerned about buyers who have made very few purchases, but I have made over fifty purchases that have received feedback. Actually, I buy more than it looks like, because some sellers do no believe in leaving feedback since they can only leave positive feedback for buyers.

I did write a note when I made my offer, to thank them for offering a discount and to let them know I make payment immediately upon acceptance of my "make an offer" price. I had been looking for an Alto satchel in grey, so I was a little disappointed because they do not seem to come up very often.

Perhaps, D&B will have another sale in the near future. I did buy three Alto bags during this latest July sale, so I haven't been completely handbag deprived.
 
I didn't email anything after the item sold. The decision had been made. It may have been nothing more than an impulsive decision, but I wondered why the seller, who had 18 watchers, didn't contact buyers on the watch list with a further discount offer. The seller could have asked me if I was still interested at my previous offer of $205.00, and sold for $40.00 more than they received from today's buyer.

I think some sellers are understandably concerned about buyers who have made very few purchases, but I have made over fifty purchases that have received feedback. Actually, I buy more than it looks like, because some sellers do no believe in leaving feedback since they can only leave positive feedback for buyers.

I did write a note when I made my offer, to thank them for offering a discount and to let them know I make payment immediately upon acceptance of my "make an offer" price. I had been looking for an Alto satchel in grey, so I was a little disappointed because they do not seem to come up very often.

Perhaps, D&B will have another sale in the near future. I did buy three Alto bags during this latest July sale, so I haven't been completely handbag deprived.
Oh okay. Yes D and B will come with another sale im sure like you said. Again sorry that happ to you.
 
I do not do a great deal of buying or selling on eBay, but I recently tried to make a purchase of a NWT Dooney bag and am somewhat puzzled by the experience.

I found a bag I liked and put it on my watch list. The seller offered a discount and wanted $218.00 for the bag. It had a make an offer option and I offered $205.00. My offer was immediately declined. I continued to watch the handbag and this morning I received an email that the listing had ended. The seller accepted an offer for $165.00.

I am not upset about this, but I am curious about how buying and selling D&B handbags works on eBay. As a buyer, I have always left five star feedback. A few times I was a little disappointed, but I feel condition is subjective and opinions can vary quite a bit. I have never caused any trouble to a seller.

Does anyone have any ideas about how/why I lost out on this item?
When an item sells for a b.o., you can't tell what it actually sold for, AFAIK. I know that there was a time that you could get the info from an outside site but the ebay listing itself doesn't show the selling price if it's less than the full BIN.
 
My thanks to all who offered suggestions about this attempted eBay purchase. The seller an I both live in the U.S. in neighboring states.

All I can come up with is it was an impulse decision by the seller. The reason I know it sold for $165.00 (and I offered $205.00 earlier in July) was because I received an email notification the item had sold and the sale price.

I see Alto NWT and NWOT handbags on eBay all the time. I will stay on the lookout for a grey satchel Alto. Also, who knows what Peter Dooney may show in the Autumn/Winter line. Hopefully, there will be a grey to fill the gap in my handbag wardrobe.

Again, thanks to all!
 
This has happened to me too (not D&B though).

I made an offer that was refused (ok, fine with that) and they I see it sold for less than what my offer was. I have lots of feedback (100%), live in the same country as the seller, don't know why I lost out and why the seller was willing to take even less for the item. I thought maybe it was some sort of ebay rule like the seller could not contact the bidder and say "changed my mind, I'll take your offer."
 
I think sellers can set an automatic rejection on offers when they are below a certain $ amount. Your offer was probably lower than the threshold and the seller did not even see it. However, if there was not a reserve on the listing, then bids can start at any amount, and the winning bid might actually be lower than what you had offered.
 
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When an item sells for a b.o., you can't tell what it actually sold for, AFAIK. I know that there was a time that you could get the info from an outside site but the ebay listing itself doesn't show the selling price if it's less than the full BIN.

I think if you search by completed/sold items and filter by price sold, b.o. listings appear with the original asking price crossed out so we may not know the exact price that the seller accepted, but can guestimate based on the sold prices of items the appear above and below it.