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What's the deal?

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For those who sell on e-bay--if you use the best offer option when selling an item on e-bay, what do you do when you receive an offer that is too low? Do you reject the offer, make a counter offer, or just ignore the offer?

 

I made a low ball offer on a comic on e-bay and never heard boo from the seller. The offer expired. I then made a more reasonable offer, about 15% off his asking price, and again I didn't hear anything: no rejection, no counter offer, nothing. That offer has now also expired. What am I missing here? Why would a seller include a best offer option on an item if he isn't going to use it to at least negotiate?

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Your offers are probably just way too low for he thinks would be a serious buyer and doesn't even think it's worth the time to respond.

 

He should use the auto reject feature for low-ball offers though.

I do. :insane:

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For those who sell on e-bay--if you use the best offer option when selling an item on e-bay, what do you do when you receive an offer that is too low? Do you reject the offer, make a counter offer, or just ignore the offer?

 

I made a low ball offer on a comic on e-bay and never heard boo from the seller. The offer expired. I then made a more reasonable offer, about 15% off his asking price, and again I didn't hear anything: no rejection, no counter offer, nothing. That offer has now also expired. What am I missing here? Why would a seller include a best offer option on an item if he isn't going to use it to at least negotiate?

 

If I add the best offer option to an ebay listing, it means the price is negotiable - within reason. If you send me a lowball offer (say 50% of the BIN price), I'll assume you're a clueless twit, and reject your offer without countering.

 

If your offer is reasonable, but still too low for my liking, I'll happily fire a counter-offer back to you.

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Best offer can mean "wait until I get all offers in, and then decide whether to accept any of them or not".

 

Personally, if I had a "best offer" option (which I have never used), I would be insulted by a really low ball offer, and ignore you.

 

If you go back later with a higher offer than your first offer, then the first offer wasn't your best offer, was it? It may have been the best offer I received, but it wasn't YOUR best offer. I would ignore and wait until you got closer to my original price, and then MAYBE sell it to you.

 

Some people have pride and ignore really low ball offers. If I have an ASM #1 in 5.0 with a best offer option, and you offer me $400, should I counter offer or just ignore you?

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Best offer can mean "wait until I get all offers in, and then decide whether to accept any of them or not".

 

Personally, if I had a "best offer" option (which I have never used), I would be insulted by a really low ball offer, and ignore you.

 

If you go back later with a higher offer than your first offer, then the first offer wasn't your best offer, was it? It may have been the best offer I received, but it wasbn't YOUR best offer. I would ignore and wait until you got closer to me original price, and then MAYBE sell it to you.

 

Some people have pride and ignore really low ball offers. If I have an ASM #1 in 5.0 with a best offer option, and you offer me $400, should I counter offer or just ignore you?

 

But since you're listing it, that assumes you're also interested in seeing it sell in a relatively timely fashion? So what's so hard with placing a counter? Depending on the book (i.e. key or not), I might toss an offer out there to get the ball rolling and let the seller know I'm up for negotiating the price. It's my best offer at that time until s/he comes back with a counter. Many BO listings I've cleared have rarely followed the "offer / counter-offer / sale" scheme, instead usually having a couple back and forths between the seller and myself.

 

And those that ignore my offer--great! Probably someone I wouldn't normally buy from in person anyhow, so no point in doing so online.

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Another reason to have the Best Offer feature is that it allows a seller to accept an offer that is lower than they would typically accept because in this case it is made & accepted as part of a large or bulk transaction.

 

Example:

 

Single item Best Offer of $5 against a $10 BIN. Ignored.

 

50 different items Best Offers of $5 each against 50 $10 BIN's. All accepted.

 

The Best Offer feature allows for this type of discounting where otherwise a seller would only accept say a 10% discount on a single item.

 

The Penny comes once more to the rescue :acclaim:

 

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I'm not saying that a best offer option on Ebay ads is a bad thing. What I am saying is that YOU should not try to squeeze every nickel out of a seller that you can. If you want the book, make a REASONABLE offer and maybe you will get a counter offer or an acceptance of your offer. But to offer 10% of the sellers stated starting price, is well, cheap and chincy.

 

Offer a new car dealer $4,000.00 for a car with the sticker price of $22,000.00

 

See how that works for ya. I bet you do not get a counter offer. Just a laugh or smile. Or more likely, a frown and roll of the eyes, accompanied with a walk away by the salesman.

 

The difference here, being a reasonable offer and a rediculous offer.

 

P.S. Just because something is listed, does not mean that the seller is interested in selling it quickly or soon. There are threads here about books that have been for sale on Ebay for a very long time.

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Personally, I respond to every OFFER even if it's just to decline it outright.

 

Most of the time, I'll quote GPA at them, explain that shipping may or may not be included, etc.

 

 

Usually, I'll thank them for their offer.

 

 

 

 

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For those who sell on e-bay--if you use the best offer option when selling an item on e-bay, what do you do when you receive an offer that is too low? Do you reject the offer, make a counter offer, or just ignore the offer?

 

I made a low ball offer on a comic on e-bay and never heard boo from the seller. The offer expired. I then made a more reasonable offer, about 15% off his asking price, and again I didn't hear anything: no rejection, no counter offer, nothing. That offer has now also expired. What am I missing here? Why would a seller include a best offer option on an item if he isn't going to use it to at least negotiate?

 

If you were to offer me 15% of my asking price, I would either think you're clueless or just a frigging jerk who has nothing better to do than to send lowball offers out just to see what happens. I'd probably reply with something like "Please don't insult me."

 

 

 

Almost every comic listed in my eBay store (mikesmarvels1957) has the Best Offer option. This is the method I normally use:

 

1) All raw comics in my eBay store are listed with a BIN price in the 60-90% range of Overstreet guide value (unless it's a special issue or something).

 

2) I use Turbo Lister to list all of my eBay stuff so I use the function in there where it allows you to specify a minimum offer amount you will accept and those offers which will be automatically declined.

 

Example:

 

I list a comic at a BIN of $14.95. In Turbolister, I specify that I'm willing to accept any offer of $10.00 or more. I also specify that all offers under $7.00 should be automatically rejected.

 

I like this because it prevents me from having to deal with buyers who send very low offers. I also sell a lot of stuff seamlessly this way. And there are still times when people hit the BIN even though the Best Offer option is there. I actually think there are a lot of people out there who still don't know how the Best Offer option works.

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But how would you respond to an offer that was 15% off of your BIN instead of 15% of your BIN, which is what the OP said he offered the second time? Would you treat that offer with silence is the question.

 

 

My bad. :blush:

 

I read it as 15% of his asking price, not off his asking price. :foryou:

 

To answer your question, it would be automatically accepted. 85% of $14.95 is $12.70 which would be over the $10.00 minimum I specified in Turbo Lister.

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But how would you respond to an offer that was 15% off of your BIN instead of 15% of your BIN, which is what the OP said he offered the second time? Would you treat that offer with silence is the question.

 

 

My bad. :blush:

 

I read it as 15% of his asking price, not off his asking price. :foryou:

 

To answer your question, it would be automatically accepted. 85% of $14.95 is $12.70 which would be over the $10.00 minimum I specified in Turbo Lister.

 

He He. Now I know where to pick up some sweet books for 10 bucks each. :)

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For those who sell on e-bay--if you use the best offer option when selling an item on e-bay, what do you do when you receive an offer that is too low? Do you reject the offer, make a counter offer, or just ignore the offer?

 

I made a low ball offer on a comic on e-bay and never heard boo from the seller. The offer expired. I then made a more reasonable offer, about 15% off his asking price, and again I didn't hear anything: no rejection, no counter offer, nothing. That offer has now also expired. What am I missing here? Why would a seller include a best offer option on an item if he isn't going to use it to at least negotiate?

 

If you were to offer me 15% of my asking price, I would either think you're clueless or just a frigging jerk who has nothing better to do than to send lowball offers out just to see what happens. I'd probably reply with something like "Please don't insult me."

 

 

 

Almost every comic listed in my eBay store (mikesmarvels1957) has the Best Offer option. This is the method I normally use:

 

1) All raw comics in my eBay store are listed with a BIN price in the 60-90% range of Overstreet guide value (unless it's a special issue or something).

 

2) I use Turbo Lister to list all of my eBay stuff so I use the function in there where it allows you to specify a minimum offer amount you will accept and those offers which will be automatically declined.

 

Example:

 

I list a comic at a BIN of $14.95. In Turbolister, I specify that I'm willing to accept any offer of $10.00 or more. I also specify that all offers under $7.00 should be automatically rejected.

 

I like this because it prevents me from having to deal with buyers who send very low offers. I also sell a lot of stuff seamlessly this way. And there are still times when people hit the BIN even though the Best Offer option is there. I actually think there are a lot of people out there who still don't know how the Best Offer option works.

 

Well, I am cheap, but not that cheap. :foryou:

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