offering on ebay

[rosierjay]

i like the idea of being able to make a best offer on ebay, and making that available for people on my listings as well, but it's frustrating, when people offer less than half the current going price.
then get upset with you when you counter offer.....
especially if its day 1 of 30.
yes i want to sell it, and i want to make sure both of us are happy with the price, why i have the "best offer" option on my listings,
but why is low-balling so common and why do people get upset with a counter?

[Anitas_Mom]

I love an auction with a Best Offer option.  It's a lot of fun.  I never mind a counter offer.  Sorry you are having an issue with rude buyers.

[bluerose9978]

I am happy when a seller counter-offers! What I don't like is when a seller just ignores my offer completely. Why accept offers if you're going to ignore them? And my offers are always above 50% of the current price. Below it, the seller is never going to accept! That's just silly.

[rosierjay]

good to know that's i'm not crazy in this.
i know there was once i offered lower than 50%, but that was because they had a baity g1 baby glory for 20$.... i needed it for a custom, and hadn't found one elsewhere, so i offered 5 and gave a reason, explaining value etc. and the common nature of the pony. they accepted. my guess is they just saw ponies going for high prices and tried to cash in on it, not knowing that different ponies are worth different things. did i pay too much, yeah, but i needed it, and well. i call it my convenience tax.
i got what i needed for a swap, and she got paid more than she would have normally.

now i keep of stock pile of baitable ponies. so i'm usually ready for whatever my swap partner prefers.

[LadyMoondancer]

Look on the bright side:  even if they offer something ridiculous, the attention will cause eBay to bump your item up in Search, so more people will see it. 

But yeah, lowballers are annoying.  I once had someone sending me really condescending messages about how no one would EVER buy my item for it's BIN price and acting like they were doing me a huge favor by offering less than 50% of the price.  Well, I declined their offer and a couple days later someone BINed it for the full price ($100).   That was the last time I used OBO on my eBay auctions. 

Although apparently there is a way to set an auction to auto-decline offers that are below a certain amount.  But I never figured out how to do it.

[bluerose9978]

Although apparently there is a way to set an auction to auto-decline offers that are below a certain amount.  But I never figured out how to do it.

If you're NOT using the phone app, the option to decline offers under a certain amount is a check-mark option, then all of a sudden they open up a new box that allows you to enter an amount if you choose.

[LadyMoondancer]

Although apparently there is a way to set an auction to auto-decline offers that are below a certain amount.  But I never figured out how to do it.

If you're NOT using the phone app, the option to decline offers under a certain amount is a check-mark option, then all of a sudden they open up a new box that allows you to enter an amount if you choose.

Oh cool, thanks for the info!

[Ringlets]

Although apparently there is a way to set an auction to auto-decline offers that are below a certain amount.  But I never figured out how to do it.

If you're NOT using the phone app, the option to decline offers under a certain amount is a check-mark option, then all of a sudden they open up a new box that allows you to enter an amount if you choose.

yes this is true   When you list the item check the box that says "fixed price" under that one there will be a best offer box. Check the best offer box and it will allow you to automatically accept offers of over a certain amount (you type the amount in)  or to decline offers under a certain amount. You can choose either of those options , or you can choose both    or you can leave them blank and then all offers will have to be reviewed by you first.
 I use it for all of my listings where there is a best off option to avoid the silly lowballing offers a lot of people send.  If I don't know the actual value then I may leave it so that its open to any offer but if its something I wont allow to sell under a certain value then I always do this.
I always send a counter offer if someone sends me an offer I cant accept but the person is genuinely interested and the offer isn't too low. If it is too low by a mile (and I forgot to do the auto decline setting), then I'll just decline with a small note (if I'm feeling in a good mood. If I'm not then I'll just hit the decline button but that's not very often. I prefer to counter offer)

[SpaceButtPonies]

I've had this happen before, I put up a SDCC Muffins in box up for 85 or OBO. Someone tried to offer 15 for her, when I counter offered they got on to me saying she wasn't even worth that price. Even though she was the cheapest on there at the time, the next day someone bought her for my full price. Funny how different people can be.

[bluerose9978]

I've had this happen before, I put up a SDCC Muffins in box up for 85 or OBO. Someone tried to offer 15 for her, when I counter offered they got on to me saying she wasn't even worth that price. Even though she was the cheapest on there at the time, the next day someone bought her for my full price. Funny how different people can be.

People do that to put pressure on the seller to sell it cheap. They think you don't know what it's worth. That is why I don't like using the OBO option.