Hey everyone.
I’m curious to know how you all handle offers you receive on items (expecially on ebay). When I’m looking to get offers I usually list at twice the price I’m willing to accept (in other words I’ll accept offers of 50% or better). This is a good rule of thumb that I think a lot of people go by. I’ve noticed a lot of ebayers make listings with the best offer option yet they refuse to negotiate or discount the price at all for that matter. Some may knock off 10% or so but at that point why even list with best offer? Might as well just list a Buy it Now with no offer option. I’ve noticed a lot of people don’t want to negotiate and I don’t blame them (it can be time consuming or annoying). However, I think there are lots of positive benefits to negotiating a deal.
Anyway I want to know:
How high do you list items according to the price you would accept?
Do you decline offers that aren’t high enough or do you try to negotiate a fair deal?
I’d also be interested to hear anything else you have to say about offers on ebay or elsewhere. Stories are good to.
I let eBay do most of the work.
I always set an auto accept at a price I am okay with (usually max 15% below my listing price) and an auto decline to get rid off the low ballers. eBay does a good job handling this for you while you sleep, working, driving etc. And you only get the mails in for the offers you really have to consider.
I think listing at 2x value is pushing it… you might even scare off potential buyers. That being said, I also get annoyed at sellers that basically list at their ask price which is usually overpriced anyway.
It’s really up to the seller really, but I think between 20-50% over sounds good. If you list a $1000 card at $1999, I’m probably not even bothering to send in a $1000 offer, which in your case you’d accept but a majority of dealers wouldn’t. Unless you’re the only one that has it and you,re my last resort.
Agree that putting something at double what you’d take can be pushing the envelope a bit. It sets a feeling you’re planning on selling it for close to that price.
Well I don’t know why people are scared to send offers. There are literally no negative repercussions of trying (unless you need a timely response to your offer). Listing higher than you expect can also result in offers higher than you might expect.
In addition, I’m not saying you should go around lowballing people either. You should always use common sense when making an offer. Oftentimes you can tell when people are looking for offers and when people want top dollar.
A lot of big ebayers do that so I assume the strategy works. I avoided those listings at first because even if I wanted to send a reasonable offer it would feel like it was a lowball compared to the listing price. I caught on after a while tho and have no shame in sending those offers now.
No, just make an offer at 50% and we’ll go from there if we need to. It’s easy that way. Kind of like a starting ground for negotiation. That’s just how I think of it.
As a buyer:
Making a high initial offer is a mistake. (It could also guarantee a card for you though)
Making a fair initial offer is fair. (You get to compete with any other fair offers)
Everybody seems to offer half because of the few who use that listing strategy. Even if you don’t have an offer they message you with an offer.
Personally it’s been a big pain in the arse and I don’t get it.
Hope to settle for 110/120 through negotiation but have my original price of 100 as a back up. If they won’t meet my minimum then I decline and move on.
I don’t sell very much but when I do I will usually accept around 75% Of the list price unless I have an item which nobody else has listed I which case I usually will be wanting around 85% and the best offer is simply to get the listing more views rather than me wanting to accept a lower sale price.