Best Offer is VERY VERY helpful in international situations. I have Best offer on a lot of my items just so that buyers have the option to make an offer at market price and not have to pay. Ebay makes it hard to combine orders at times and this is an easy way around it. There are many useful reason to put best offer on a listing other than you want a buyer to come in and give you a lower price.
I am never offended by anyone who puts a price out there. It is the “What is the lowest you will take” message I do not like. If I already have my price out there and the buyer thinks it is unfair, then the buyer needs to step up with his best offer in a message. If it seems reasonable I will check out the market and consider it. So you offered 83% of value and he auto-rejected. That just means he won’t sell at that price. He already haggled with himself in his message by knocking off 3€, you did well. I would not do that. I always counter with “What do you think is a current fair market value?” or if I am not interested in going lower “Currently price is firm”
I am not writing this to pick on your response “At this point i decided to write to the seller just to ask the price he was willing to accept”
just saw it as a good opportunity to give an idea on where a seller’s head can be. I know for my items I take on research for each of the items and set a fair current price. I get bombarded with people all the time trying to work me lower, in many cases 5 minutes after an item goes up haha. Most of the time it is for no apparent reason other that a buyer sees it as a haggling opportunity.