eBay 'make an offer' frustration

[TimS]

I don't get it. A razor I made a reasonable offer on (IMO) just sold for less than my offer. Am I missing something??

Me: 10+ years member of eBay, 100% positive reviews.

I'm not gonna lose sleep over this; just doesn't make sense.

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[AndroiDad75]

I don't know if the sellers get a perk for listing it as a Make an Offer type of sell, but I have never had any offers get accepted. On one item I offered a reasonable offer, and it was rejected almost immediately. I wanted to see what would happen, so I made an offer for $5 less than what they had the Buy it Now, and it was rejected as well.

At that point, I had tried a number of different make an offer items and none were accepted, so I have just given up even making offers on anything.

 

[TimS]

I've had a couple of good experiences negotiating a fair price in the past, but my recent experiences mirror yours--always immediate rejections.

You're probably right--maybe it's just not worth the trouble anymore.

 

[mrb7]

I don't get it. A razor I made a reasonable offer on (IMO) just sold for less than my offer. Am I missing something??

Me: 10+ years member of eBay, 100% positive reviews.

I'm not gonna lose sleep over this; just doesn't make sense.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Same here. On eBay since 2000, 100% positive on thousands of transactions.

I've had exactly the same thing happen, although not a razor, at least 10-15 time in the past decade of dealing with the bay.

My thoughts are that the seller believes the item to be worth far more than it's really worth, even in exaggerated eBay dollars, So your fair offer is rejected in favor of waiting it out. After a while they figure out that it isn't the beauty they thought it was, so they let it go for the next fair offer.

Once *YOU'VE* gone through the offer process, you are blocked out until it ends and is re-listed. So by the time they figure out that yours was a decent offer, they've thrown you under the bus.

The number of outrageously dumb people who sell stuff on eBay is astonishing to me. I could get along with it better in the early days when you could contact a member, etc. But the eBay decision makers are working hard to turn eBay into a global mall kiosk. And the individual blokes can just get pushed aside. After all, we might contribute $500 million to eBay, but the professional vendors easily are an order of magnitude more.

 

[pmaster]

I'm thinking the "make an offer" is an option a lot of sellers forget to uncheck or something like that!

I've had two offers accepted in the past, so it does work

 

[mrb7]

I've had a couple of good experiences negotiating a fair price in the past, but my recent experiences mirror yours--always immediate rejections.

You're probably right--maybe it's just not worth the trouble anymore.

There is a minimum threshold offer that will get immediate rejection. The seller doesn't even see the offer before the system generates a reject. It's normally about 50% of the BIN price. If an item is listed for $100, and you offer $35 or $40 you'll probably get an instantaneous reject.

 

[entropy1049]

I've made offers for items that were immediately rejected and contacted by the seller after the item had not sold offering to accept my offer. Maybe sellers are using it as a tool to hedge their bets so to speak if their item fails to sell at full price...

 

[sthpaw6969]

There are settings to allow instant rejections below a certain price set by the seller

I actually sell everything I list on eBay as a best offer...but I often sell for 60-70% of what the buy it now price is that I list...I am not one of those sticklers for trying to squeeze out every last penny.

I also have had tremendous luck with getting things well below list prices with fair offers.

if the seller is stubborn just use your 3rd and final offer to send in 0.01 offer with a nice note saying "I love you"

 

[SliceOfLife]

I've seen three cases.


Seller has a Make an offer option pretty much solely to let them counteroffer you what their "reserve" is in the case of a BIN listing.
Seller has a Make an offer option on a listing they list for WAY above what they expect anyone to pay, have a set minimum they reject any offer below, and consider any offer above that as gravy.
Seller has a Make an offer option but really doesn't mean it. You've seen these. $100 OBO listings that refuse $95 offers... People who just checked the box without considering if they really wanted it.

 

[pmaster]

There are settings to allow instant rejections below a certain price set by the seller

I actually sell everything I list on eBay as a best offer...but I often sell for 60-70% of what the buy it now price is that I list...I am not one of those sticklers for trying to squeeze out every last penny.

I also have had tremendous luck with getting things well below list prices with fair offers.

if the seller is stubborn just use your 3rd and final offer to send in 0.01 offer with a nice note saying "I love you"

Haha I like it, I'll keep that in mind.

 

[cb91710]

It does work... there's a seller (Toyota dealership) offering a box of 10 oil filters for $45 or $50, but 9 times out of 10, they'll accept an offer of $40 shipped.

 

[Gamma]

Most of my ebay purchases are from making offers. Sometimes, I get rejected, other times - my offer gets accepted.

 

[kcb5150]

It's awesome if you have very expensive items as you can screen potential problems assuming they don't bin outright.

 

[Copierguy]

I have had the full spectrum of success and rejections, but when I am rejected I almost always go ahead and bid my offered amount.
A fair amount of the time I will win the item. I really love it when I win well below my offered price...lol

 

[badger123]

Just today, I had a seller counter-offer with a price that was $0.06 below the BIN price. *facepalm*

 

[Atalk]

Just today, I had a seller counter-offer with a price that was $0.06 below the BIN price. *facepalm*

I have had my fair share of rejections with a sprinkling of acceptance here and there so I know it's worth a shot. I remember a long time ago offering $59 and getting rejected on a brush that cost...........$60. It's funny that I use OBO submissions as a way to indirectly control/tame my Acquisition Disorder. I offer a price that I have convinced myself is acceptable then I hit the enter button. If they accept then I celebrate...if they reject then I blow a huge sigh of relief

 

[badger123]

I have had my fair share of rejections with a sprinkling of acceptance here and there so I know it's worth a shot. I remember a long time ago offering $59 and getting rejected on a brush that cost...........$60. It's funny that I use OBO submissions as a way to indirectly control/tame my Acquisition Disorder. I offer a price that I have convinced myself is acceptable then I hit the enter button. If they accept then I celebrate...if they reject then I blow a huge sigh of relief

Usually, I've noticed that sellers are willing to work with me on price. But, that may be because I often buy stuff that no one else wants.

Conversely (also today), I had another seller reply that she would happily lower the starting price for an item for me because I was so polite. People are interesting .

Yesterday, I had a seller (who resisted an item I had already paid for) be very rude to me, call me crazy in several different messages, deny that I had ever sent them any payment, and say that they did not have the item. (I called eBay, but the CSR basically said that they didn't care and to call my credit card issuer). I'm not generally a particularly vengeful person, but I'm going to wait the several weeks until I can file an eBay dispute and see if I can get that seller NARUd.

 

[froogle_jimmy]

I rarely have had offers on the bay accepted. 2 weeks ago I got a Fatboy for a $30 offer. The BIN was $50 I think. I was surprised it went through to be honest.

But I think a lot of sellers leave the best offer option checked so that there goods come up on more search filters.

 

[mrb7]

(I called eBay, but the CSR basically said that they didn't care and to call my credit card issuer). I'm not generally a particularly vengeful person, but I'm going to wait the several weeks until I can file an eBay dispute and see if I can get that seller NARUd.

As much as I've grown to dislike PayPal I generally will not deal with any item in eBay that is not a Paypal transaction.

 

[DimeBlade]

I had an offer accepted recently, about $75 below asking price, so I guess sometimes it can work. This was the only time I had an offer accepted, but I've only been active on eBay for about a year.