Bit of a rant… So, I’ve gotten this a couple times when making offers. I make and offer on a listing, and I’m declined and the seller tells me someone has already offered more, even on items that have sat on eBay for 6 months. This is an extremely easy way to destroy my confidence on making offers or bids on a seller’s listings…
I feel its both disrespectful to the person making the offer, as it serves nothing over a blank decline except to feel like conning them into offering more; and to person the item is being held for if its actually being held for them if the seller tries to pit the two people against each-other. I do understand not reserving an item for someone, this angle is more on the communication.
I hate when I submit an offer only for it to be declined without any explanation and/or counter-offer. And don’t even get me started on eBay’s Auto-Decline… Generally, I am willing to pay a little more than my original offer; however, if I make an offer and one of these things happen, I’m just moving onto the next listing.
from the other side tho its kinda annoying when people offer you 5% of the buyitnow price then after a decline go up like 10cent… the amount of offers i get that are like £3 for something like a psa9 base charizard is crazy.
I also tell people i have had higher offers so the person doesnt have to waste their time doing 2 more offers adding 25cent extra each time lol
To be fair though, if I have a BIN best offer for $100 and someone offers me $15, I am going to decline and not going to counteroffer or provide explanation. Simply because I don’t feel like putting in any more effort than a single click for someone who clearly isn’t a serious buyer.
Just decline with no reason, rather than have buyers think you’re conning them, Especially if its on eBay since we can see offers made.
Edit: To clarify, these were strong offers on niche items with no sales that sat on eBay for months, and will likely still sit there.
I made such an offer on a card for $525 for example, which is still up there to this day. The card has many sales between $300-$400 now, and I just ignore the sellers other listings.
@oldskoolpokemon If every buyer were like you I would remove all auto declines! However as @teraz mentioned, the $15 offers on $100 items are too frequent, especially when you have 100’s of items.
As a seller myself, I face the same situation. And it’s not just a few odd-ball offers every once in awhile; unfortunately, it’s something that occurs all the time! I take a different approach though and counter-offer everything at least once. You’re correct with most situations - the “buyer” is not serious and will either just decline the counter-offer or submit another ridiculous offer. In that case, I’ll just decline the the second offer and move-on. However, there are also a few situations where a buyer will submit that same ridiculously low offer - to which I counter-offer. The buyer will then turn-around and submit another legitimate offer - and we’re eventually able to reach an agreement.
Sure, this system does require more time and effort (a lot of time / effort if you consider over the course of a month or year) - and the majority of these situations are in-fact the first example. It’s really just preference though - and how much time / effort you have / are willing to devote to eBay. Personally, the time-factor really isn’t an issue - and I strive to run my eBay Business from the buyer-standpoint. I can’t stand when seller’s do that to me, so I avoid doing this to other people.
I feel it. If I were a proper seller, I would likely follow your methods. However, I’m really just a casual seller (<$1000 /month) and it’s not much that negotiating takes too much time, it’s more I just have no interest in responding to some buyers. Let’s call it grumpiness.
I didn’t use to put auto declines but too many people were either lowballers or were goofing off so I started AD.
I put my auto declines well below what I would really accept just for negotiation sake. If someone offers below that, well, they aren’t my type of customer so I prefer they move on and bother someone else.
As a buyer I like auto decline a lot because it means I don’t have to waste my time anxiously waiting for a reply when it would otherwise just be turned down.
Also on this topic, I don’t appreciate that you have to commit to a purchase when you submit an offer.
I’m one of the people who straight decline without a counter offer
I really dislike the bartering/bargaining/‘trying to get items for as cheap as possible’ involved in a listing with a best offer option, often people will message me asking what’s the deal when they get straight declined, I tell them, just offer what you’re willing to pay, if its a good enough offer, I’ll accept, if not and I decline your top dollar offer, we were never going to reach a deal anyway.
