Best offer

Baglover1982

Baglover1982

Member
Sep 14, 2012
533
156
#1
I've been on ebay a fairy long time I have sold and bought so I wanted to know people opinion on best offer, I put a best offer on an item and twice the seller returned with a counter off of £2 less if that's the case why have best offer its hardly worth it or is that just me? If I put anything for best offer I have a minim it's set to but I always make it fair not only a few pounds off!!
 
#2
Yeah, some sellers are very inflexible when it comes to what they really mean by "Best Offer". I put in a best offer of $500 on an item that was listed at $550 and the seller countered with $545. That didn't really leave me much space for further negotiation. Have to wonder why they even use that option...
 
#5
Best offer can be sooo variable. There are sellers who will happily accept a best offer of $100 for a $200 item.. and others will only take a dollar or two off. Up until a few weeks ago, eBay used to list the original price and best offer accepted price, but they recently removed that. You can always counter their counter offer, I suppose.. but some sellers are just inflexible bargainers.
 
#6
^^^ While some sellers may be relatively inflexible, often buyers send offers of 50% or less than the listing price, which perhaps may work for some--as I've seen many sellers list prices that are inflated that much, i.e. by twice what the market price is, so it looks "good" when they accept 50% of that--but for those who list at a fair price, asking them to take 50% of that is a bit much.

ETA: I just declined an offer for 50% of my listing price, as that is way below the cost of the item (it's NIB), and with ebay & paypal fees, I would lose even more. This is for an item which is rare and no longer available retail. My listing price is set at a fair price, so 50% is pretty much an affront. I am not a professional seller, only an occasional one, and I will accept reasonable best offers, but I'd rather donate to charity than to lose money selling to buyers who offer what they know is an unfair price. I buy more than sell, and I would not think of offering lower than value prices to sellers. I do my research so I know what the going prices are for things.
 
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#7
girliceclimber said:
Best offer can be sooo variable. There are sellers who will happily accept a best offer of $100 for a $200 item.. and others will only take a dollar or two off. Up until a few weeks ago, eBay used to list the original price and best offer accepted price, but they recently removed that. You can always counter their counter offer, I suppose.. but some sellers are just inflexible bargainers.
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I understand people have different ideas on what they will accept but it's just seems so pointless to have BO and only accept £2 less!
 
#8
Baglover1982 said:
I understand people have different ideas on what they will accept but it's just seems so pointless to have BO and only accept £2 less!
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If it's not an item that is listed at twice that price, then it does seem pointless to not accept just a little less, but perhaps, as said by a previous poster, they are trying to check out buyers so they can find out who looks to be serious.
 
#9
tutushopper said:
If it's not an item that is listed at twice that price, then it does seem pointless to not accept just a little less, but perhaps, as said by a previous poster, they are trying to check out buyers so they can find out who looks to be serious.
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Yeah this is very true it's ok as I have good FB so I have nothing to hide if they want to check me out :biggrin:
 
#10
tutushopper said:
^^^ While some sellers may be relatively inflexible, often buyers send offers of 50% or less than the listing price.
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Lots of sellers accept those so I usually try something like 50% off first and cross my fingers. I don't want to offer just 10% off in fear of offending them when they're actually willing to go lower.
 
#11
redskynight said:
Lots of sellers accept those so I usually try something like 50% off first and cross my fingers. I don't want to offer just 10% off in fear of offending them when they're actually willing to go lower.
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To me, and this is just my personal opinion, if a seller who has just listed an item is willing to take 50% of the price listed, then they have listed the price too high in the first place. I have seen this to be the case quite often in some categories. I don't see how offering 10% off would offend anyone, but that's just me. :smile:
 
#12
tutushopper said:
To me, and this is just my personal opinion, if a seller who has just listed an item is willing to take 50% of the price listed, then they have listed the price too high in the first place. I have seen this to be the case quite often in some categories. I don't see how offering 10% off would offend anyone, but that's just me. :smile:
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I agree with everything you've said in this thread, with a caveat. Sometimes sellers have access to really good deals (such as an SA with an employee discount). They might be able to buy a current item for 60% of retail, but since it's currently selling for full price, they might list it for near retail price just in case a buyer is willing to pay that. On the other hand, someone else might have bought the same item for full price, and want to recoup their money so they list for near retail also... in the first case, the seller would probably accept a BO for much less than the second seller, even though both listed their items for the same price.

Also, I think redskynight meant that offering 50% for a BO might offend someone.
 
#13
girliceclimber said:
I agree with everything you've said in this thread, with a caveat. Sometimes sellers have access to really good deals (such as an SA with an employee discount). They might be able to buy a current item for 60% of retail, but since it's currently selling for full price, they might list it for near retail price just in case a buyer is willing to pay that. On the other hand, someone else might have bought the same item for full price, and want to recoup their money so they list for near retail also... in the first case, the seller would probably accept a BO for much less than the second seller, even though both listed their items for the same price.

Also, I think redskynight meant that offering 50% for a BO might offend someone.
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Thanks for that explanation. :smile: That would be great to be able to get deals of 60% off retail while something is current! I worked retail for a short time long ago, and we didn't get anywhere near that kind of a discount. One would hope in that case that the fees did not eat up the 10% they would be left with after taking a 50% bid.

With the things that I list, for the most part, I know I would never be able to recoup my prices paid; it's only for rare no longer available but in high demand items that this happens, such as some collectibles. But again, I'm just a casual from my own items seller, not one who buys to sell.

I can see where offering 50% would offend many, however, I have seen many sellers in some categories who do routinely list at twice what they expect to get (which is still way way over retail) just so that it looks good when they accept a lower bid.

As to what to offer, when they used to show what people routinely accepted, it was easier to see who did the kind of pricing that I was just mentioning, and who did not, so you could more easily gauge what price to offer. Now that it's hidden, it really makes it more difficult.
 
#14
tutushopper said:
As to what to offer, when they used to show what people routinely accepted, it was easier to see who did the kind of pricing that I was just mentioning, and who did not, so you could more easily gauge what price to offer. Now that it's hidden, it really makes it more difficult.
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;) There is a way to see what the b.o. was that was accepted. In the ebay.com listing, replace the .com with .ca. Other countries might work also, but i know ebay Canada works.

For example, this is a random b.o. listing I found.

On ebay.com, the sold item looks like this:
(In the list of completed, the listed price is shown with a strike-through.)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Coa...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

On ebay.ca, the sold item looks like this:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-Coac...587?pt=US_CSA_WH_Handbags&hash=item20cedd00a3
 
#15
tutushopper said:
^^^ While some sellers may be relatively inflexible, often buyers send offers of 50% or less than the listing price, which perhaps may work for some--as I've seen many sellers list prices that are inflated that much, i.e. by twice what the market price is, so it looks "good" when they accept 50% of that--but for those who list at a fair price, asking them to take 50% of that is a bit much.

ETA: I just declined an offer for 50% of my listing price, as that is way below the cost of the item (it's NIB), and with ebay & paypal fees, I would lose even more. This is for an item which is rare and no longer available retail. My listing price is set at a fair price, so 50% is pretty much an affront. I am not a professional seller, only an occasional one, and I will accept reasonable best offers, but I'd rather donate to charity than to lose money selling to buyers who offer what they know is an unfair price. I buy more than sell, and I would not think of offering lower than value prices to sellers. I do my research so I know what the going prices are for things.
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I completely agree with you tutushopper! I think some offers are just not reasonable to even considered. JMO.
 
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