Help me understand "Or Best Offer" (eBay)

[Violet CLM]

I mean, I understand the basic mechanics of it, though I wish there were some way to look at completed listings and see how much they went for, for price checking purposes. And I'm still not convinced I'm not supposed to pay in oboes. But what's the motivation behind using it? Why list something as OBO instead of auction or fixed price?

Alternative question: how low do you go? When I see an OBO listing it seems like it's usually for at least twice what I'd want to pay, but I rather doubt the seller would be okay with that. What kind of range do you usually have in mind if and when you use this option?

[Thunderwing]

It basically works as a buy it now, but with the option to make an offer. As a seller, you set up your auction with a Buy It Now price, and you have the option to accept offers or not. If you choose to accept offers, you have a couple of options. One is that you can 'Consider All Offers', where someone makes an offer, any offer, and you get the chance to look a it. Or a seller can set a minimum and maximum offer: So you can automatically reject offers below a certain dollar value, and/or automatically accept offers above a certain dollar value.

So as a seller, I can set up my auction for Tux and Tails with a BIN of $100, and leave it at that if that is the price I definitely want. So I would choose to not consider offers.

Or I can set up my auction for Tux and Tails with a BIN of $100, and Consider Offers. If a buyer makes an offer, I then have the option to accept it, reject it, or make a counter offer. So if someone offers $50 and that is too low, I can counter offer $75 (or any other amount) and the buyer then has the choice to accept or reject my counter offer. So it is like haggling. (If offers are not accepted or rejected, they auto-delete after 48 hours).

Or I can set up my auction for Tux and Tails with a BIN of $100, Conisder Offers, and auto accept any offers of at least $75, and auto reject any offers below $50. You can choose your own auto accept and reject numbers. I always set at least the 'auto reject' to eliminate stupid offers. In this case, I would love to get $100, but I would be happy with any amount over $75, but definitely wouldn't go below $50.

I have had good luck buying things by making an offer on them. I think sellers may price their BIN's high in the hopes of a good sale, but out of ten offers I made recently, five were accepted at 2/3 the BIN price, three were counteroffered for an extra dollar (so around $13 instead of my offer of $12, which I accepted), and two were ignored.

[lunar_scythe]

*nods* say a price check gives you results of $80-120; you can hope for the $120, but odds are the real price will be closer to $80, right?  You can set a BIN for the $120, but take offers, because who knows, maybe someone *will* pay the higher price, right?  If someone offers above $80, that's still a fair price that might get accepted.

[Haruna]

I guess I see the motivation behind Best Offer as being "I want [this amount], but if the listing is about to end and I'm not getting [this amount], I'll include a Best Offer just to be safe." In a way, it's safer than an auction or fixed price listing (for the seller). I don't like them very much, though; people who don't know what ponies should cost often want to get too much money. And I'm usually too intimidated to make a best offer when the Buy It Now price is so high. Like you, I see the high price and then I'm afraid the seller will not like my offers. Often my offers, when I dare to make them, are too low for the seller, but sometimes the seller takes me up on them. Case in point: There was a lot of about six common, early-year G1s up, and I just wanted Majesty. I think I offered about $35 for them (the seller wanted somewhere around $75). We went back and forth, but she didn't want to go lower than $70ish. I was sad. On the same day, however, a similar, smaller lot that also had a Majesty was up for $75ish, and I offered $30 and the offer was accepted. Free shipping, too!  

On the other hand, if I know the seller is from the Arena or is otherwise reasonable and nice, I usually don't feel too bad about making a Best Offer because I know they know pony pricing. 

[Ringlets]

You have some good advice and explanations here. I hope that has helped you a bit
 I don't think I can add anything really .
I wouldn't be worried about making an offer if there is an option for it. If the seller doesn't like your offer they can just turn it down (it may be automatically set to turn down offers less than what they'd be willing to consider anyways- at which point your offer will be rejected right away and you'll get a message )  or they can send you a counter offer. If its still too high you can submit another offer to the seller (up to 3 offers) 

[CloudyGlow]

I don't like to do Best Offer because I'm cheap and the price I usually want to pay is much lower than the price the seller put up.  What if they get offended?  Can they message me a nasty response or block me from ever buying from them again?

Thunderwing, I like your story.  For now, I'm gonna try using the 2/3 as a rule of thumb for making offers.

[Stormness_1]

I've never had a reasonable offer accepted on anything. The way you guys are talking sounds like how it's supposed to work, but every time I make an offer, I get a counter of $1 less than the BIN. It drives me crazy, and I'm thinking why use the OBO at all?! I like haggling, but ebay drives me nuts!

[lunar_scythe]

Hehe on a selling app I have a few things listed, and someone offered me $11 for something I listed for $50, that's brand new in package.  I told them $50 was already lower than the $75 it formally goes for, but they asked again if I would sell it for $11, so I just ignored them...it's a good example of what *not* to do as far as making offers lol!

[SunnyDazeAhead]

Lol recently I listed an item for $50 and got an offer of $15. I declined it right away but countered for  $30 and never got a reply back. xD

[pyrodarknessanny]

ive have a bit of luck with  pitching offers.
like a ds game the BIN was  35
i offered 30 and they accepted it.

some times its easy  sometimes tho i have to wounder why  a seller even bothered to put  OBO  on a listing.

there was another  thing  i was looking at with a BIN of  15,    the seller  was not  willing to move  much at all on that time,   they rejected all of my offers *( you only get 3)  and would not go below 14 on it. 

but that happens some times.     pitching offers can be fun you never know  you might get lucky and the seller accepts your offer,   as a rule  tho  i do try not to pitch offers that are too low.
I always tell my self "if i was selling that item and some one offered me  that  for it  how would I feel?"

[Taffeta]

I don't like to do Best Offer because I'm cheap and the price I usually want to pay is much lower than the price the seller put up.  What if they get offended?  Can they message me a nasty response or block me from ever buying from them again?

Thunderwing, I like your story.  For now, I'm gonna try using the 2/3 as a rule of thumb for making offers.

I'm also cheeky. Sometimes it pays off. Recently I made an offer on a MOC UK carded pony outfit. It wasn't listed that expensively, but there was a bit of damage to the bubble at the bottom, so I made an offer. The seller rejected it, but I made another one and they accepted. I think I got a good price, and, when I got the item, it was clear that it had had a price label on from a carboot sale or fete which had been quite cheap, so they also got a profit out of it.

In the end, the seller was happy, I was happy (carded fashions on US card are very common, but not so much UK ones, and it was something from my childhood that I hardly ever see). It's a negotiation just like on the Arena, when you discuss what kind of price you want to pay. I like best the sellers who counter-offer if they don't like the offer you make. It shows they're up to negotiate and there's one seller with whom I have had several transactions like this (they are in Germany and super nice in that regard).

Less fond of the people who set up a best offer option but then set the auto-reject so high that it's about $3 less than their BIN price. Those people should just not put best offer on.

[Einhornbaby]

I've never had a reasonable offer accepted on anything. The way you guys are talking sounds like how it's supposed to work, but every time I make an offer, I get a counter of $1 less than the BIN. It drives me crazy, and I'm thinking why use the OBO at all?! I like haggling, but ebay drives me nuts!

lol same here, youre definitely not the only one... For example a few weeks ago there was a pretty Twilight Sparkle blanket, the BIN was 50$. I bid 45$ and got an offer of 49$ back. o.0 This is only one example lol... this has happened dozens of times.
I dont see the point in this.

[kitkatvintage]

I think the flexibility of the price on a Best Offer depends greatly on the individual seller and the item. It's hard to generalize, even from my own experience as a seller. Sometimes I will have an item that I'm not super familiar with, so I list high & hope for the best, but will consider offers much lower than the listed price. Other items I know the value well, list at a fair price, but may accept a few dollars less.

I'd say about 50% of the offers I get are insulting low. Those are the ones I will counter with an offer just below the asking price, more-or-less to get the point across that the offer was unreasonable. The other 50% of the offers I get are either acceptable or worth countering somewhere in the middle. Sometimes Best Offer works out, and sometimes it does not.

I really dislike haggling in person or even in an online deal with more direct communication. I would much rather have the price clearly set (in both circumstances of me being the buyer or seller). I mainly use it in my listings because I want to move stuff that may be harder to sell.

[Emerald]

I just put an offer in using this feature on eBay for the first time and I'm a nervous wreck. I hope my offer wasn't too low and the seller ends up offended. EBay is hard!

[goddessofpeep]

I don't make offers often, but I've actually never had an offer outright rejected. Occasionally I'll get a counter offer, but usually it's just accepted outright. I never try to lowball a seller, and before I make the offer, I check their past auctions.  If the seller has a few accepted offers in their history, it's more likely they'll take my offer.  If the seller has no accepted offers in the history, I don't bother trying.

I also check to see if an item's been relisted a few times. If it has, I might make a slightly lower offer.  If it hasn't, I'll just aim to shave a couple bucks off the final price.

I think a bit of research increases the odds of a successful offer.