Best Offer: A waste of time?

fatherofcaitlyn

fatherofcaitlyn

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For those of you using fixed price listings ...

What is your opinion of the Best Offer feature?

I'm having an overwhelming large number of stupid offers compared to acceptable offers.

For a stupid offer example, somebody offered me $1 (YES, 1 DOLLAR!) for Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 for the Xbox. The other copy I had for sale sold a few hours before for $62.99.

For a acceptable offer example, somebody offered me $23.99 for my Top Spin 2. I only wanted $24.99. If I couldn't cut $1 from my margin, I'm doing something terribly wrong.

Is there some phrase that can be put in listings to reduce the number of stupid offers?
 
[quote name='fatherofcaitlyn']
Is there some phrase that can be put in listings to reduce the number of stupid offers?[/quote]
Please no low balling bitches...?
 
Any lowballers get added to my blocked bidders list so I never have to deal with them anymore.

I just had one guy make me an offer and then he went to an auction-style listing and bid $15 more than his "best" offer that he made to me. :roll: Then he won the other item and retracted his offer for mine saying that he couldn't contact the seller (when he never messaged me anything). So I blocked him too.

I don't really think there's much you can say in your listing, people are always gonna try to lowball.

I have had some people give me reasonable offers, but it's very rare to get a good offer whenever I use best offer. And it always seems like the people whose offers I accept take a longer time to pay (a couple days later) than if they had just used BIN.
 
Is there any incentive for a seller to use "Best Offer"? Seems like an easy mark for non-serious buyers.
 
Another thing that is pretty useless is second chance offer. I have sent about 50 and only one of them has been accepted.
 
It got me a complete copy of Ecco Jr. for about half of what the seller was asking. The thing to do (which nobody seems to be WILLING to do) is contact the seller beforehand and ask if they would accept an offer of $____. The worst they can do is say no or meet you halfway.
 
[quote name='m0dem']Another thing that is pretty useless is second chance offer. I have sent about 50 and only one of them has been accepted.[/quote]

Since you have to wait for the winning bidder to pay or back out of the deal for whatever reason (which might take a few days), by then the next highest bidder will have already won another auction for a similar item. So that's why second chance offers will get passed up. Plus, eBay doesn't give a person very long to take the offer, so sometimes they won't check their e-mail until after the offer's expired.

I had a seller send me a second chance offer recently. I wanted the seller to answer a question for me before I took the offer, but by the time he replied, it was too late and he'd already relisted the item. :( I wish eBay would give people 48 hours instead of 24 on second chance offers.
 
I generally don't use the best offer feature on normal listings, store items however are a different story, everything solely in my store has a best offer box. Good for the rare, high dollar stuff but not much else.

Oh, and this is what I put in my auctions:

This is from a sealed Zelda WW Non PC Listing:

A BRIEF NOTE ABOUT THE BEST OFFER FEATURE: PLEASE, SERIOUS OFFERS ONLY. THIS IS A HIGHLY COLLECTIBLE ITEM. THIS LISTING IS SPECIFICALLY FOR COLLECTORS OF RARE GAMES. I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU CAN GET A SIMILAR COPY OF THIS GAME AT YOUR LOCAL GAME STORE FOR UNDER $20, AND THAT'S SUPER. BUT PLEASE, I DON'T NEED TO HEAR ABOUT IT, SAVE YOUR COMMENTS FOR SOMEONE ELSE.
 
I use it here and there with fixed price listings. Haven't gotten an offer I've accepted yet, but it hasn't really bothered me. If it's too low I just decline it.

One fairly lame thing is that a buyer can't make a 2nd best offer (which makes sense based on the name eBay gave to the thing, but doesn't always make sense in the real world) It would be nice if eBay let the seller decide when declining 'No more offers from this buyer on this item' or 'Allow more offers'. OTOH I guess it could just lead to buyers starting at $1 and keep offering $1 more until the seller accepts or they get to their true best offer...

Miranda - The seller actually chooses the time limit for the best offer. 24 hours is the minimum, but you can do 2 or more days as well IIRC.
 
I only put them on things I REALLY want to get rid of, or rare items. I've had some great luck with my BIN prices though. I think all of my auctions were won by someone who used BIN.
 
[quote name='Miranda']Since you have to wait for the winning bidder to pay or back out of the deal for whatever reason (which might take a few days), by then the next highest bidder will have already won another auction for a similar item. So that's why second chance offers will get passed up. Plus, eBay doesn't give a person very long to take the offer, so sometimes they won't check their e-mail until after the offer's expired.

I had a seller send me a second chance offer recently. I wanted the seller to answer a question for me before I took the offer, but by the time he replied, it was too late and he'd already relisted the item. :( I wish eBay would give people 48 hours instead of 24 on second chance offers.[/quote]

On some things I have had extra items so I just second chanced it right after the auction ended. Ebay doesnt set a time on best offer its the sellers option they had an option for 1,3,5, and 7 day.
 
[quote name='fatherofcaitlyn']For those of you using fixed price listings ...

What is your opinion of the Best Offer feature?[/QUOTE]

Best offer is basically where a person is allowing people to offer a price as if you was buying it from them directly without a price.

With best offer you can save money and hope the seller does not know the auctually value of the item. At the same time you must make the bid something fair to both the buyer and seller.

For a stupid offer example, somebody offered me $1 (YES, 1 DOLLAR!) for Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 for the Xbox. The other copy I had for sale sold a few hours before for $62.99.
Click to expand...

Marvel Vs. Capcom is a Arcade. You can play online for free with Kalleria and via the PS2. Also X-Box users are mostly FPS and DAD users who would buy there games via a PC but know the use the X-Box.

For a acceptable offer example, somebody offered me $23.99 for my Top Spin 2. I only wanted $24.99. If I couldn't cut $1 from my margin, I'm doing something terribly wrong.
Click to expand...

When you put best offer you are saying to the seller I am very negotiable in the pricing of this item or lets not waste time with people bargaining after the auction is over bit.


Is there some phrase that can be put in listings to reduce the number of stupid offers?
Click to expand...

You can put

E.G.
I will not take any 1% offers unless you offer me something in exchange. It could be anything.
 
The funny thing about Best Offers is that I've found the items that get the most Best Offers will eventually sell for my listing price :lol:. If I get 3 or 4 (ranging from a few $$ to a couple $$ below my price) I just wait a day or two and invariably they sell at 'full price'. If the listing has been up for a few days, though, and one offer comes in, I'll usually take it if it is within reason (say $15 on an $18 Buy It Now).

I had one person for the first time ever do what someone suggested above - contact me first about what I would accept. While we were negotiating someone else bought the item for full price :rofl:.

And I also agree with the person who said Best Offer buyers don't pay very quickly. I'm still waiting on 2 from 2-3 days ago. I'll be pretty pissed if they end of non-payers because I gave them pretty good price breaks.

One thing I do is make sure the bidder hasn't won the same item since putting in the offer. I think it is highly likely someone will forget to cancel their bid if they do this. If they've won another I certainly don't accept the offer. Sure, it is possible they want more than one, but not likely.
 
io - Excellent tip. I'm sure many buyers do put best offers in on multiple copies of whatever hoping at least one will be accepted.

[quote name='RegalSin2020']Marvel Vs. Capcom is a Arcade. You can play online for free with Kalleria and via the PS2. Also X-Box users are mostly FPS and DAD users who would buy there games via a PC but know the use the X-Box.
[/QUOTE]

That's great, but it's a valuable Xbox game anyway. There really is no need to theorize or wax poetic about the value of a game, just do a completed auction search on eBay and you get the value.
 
[quote name='wubb']
That's great, but it's a valuable Xbox game anyway. There really is no need to theorize or wax poetic about the value of a game, just do a completed auction search on eBay and you get the value.[/QUOTE]

I'm glad you tackled that one Wubb, I had no idea where to start :rofl:.
 
[quote name='io']I'm glad you tackled that one Wubb, I had no idea where to start :rofl:.[/QUOTE]

OK, I'm glad that I wasn't the only one that thought that what regal posted about MvC made ZERO sense.
 
[quote name='toper']OK, I'm glad that I wasn't the only one that thought that what regal posted about MvC made ZERO sense.[/QUOTE]

Will you please refresh my memory why this port of MVC2 is worth it?
 
[quote name='RegalSin2020']Will you please refresh my memory why this port of MVC2 is worth any money at all?[/QUOTE]

It is out of print, will not likely ever be reprinted (due to licensing issues), and it is hard to find. Simply put, it just IS worth a lot of money - does there have to be a specific reason? I believe the PS2 version is worth even more though :lol:.
 
[quote name='wubb']io - Excellent tip. I'm sure many buyers do put best offers in on multiple copies of whatever hoping at least one will be accepted.
.[/QUOTE]

A buyer can only submit one best offer per ID, hence the term "best offer", since it is the best offer you can give.

Best offers are retarded anyways, I got lowballed way too much so I just turn them off now, and the few times I did get reasonable offers the game sold at full price anyways.
 
[quote name='Roufuss']A buyer can only submit one best offer per ID, hence the term "best offer", since it is the best offer you can give.

Best offers are retarded anyways, I got lowballed way too much so I just turn them off now.[/QUOTE]

Yes, but I think he is saying they can put in Best Offers on multiple items - ie, multiple copies of the same game from different Sellers, hoping one will bite. Then if you accept their offer, they are likely to ignore you. Or they could simply have bid on another regular auction or won another Buy In Now. My point was to check their completed auction history to see if they won the same item before accepting any "Best Offer".
 
Another strike against Best Offers - I had some Best Offer jackass just bounce a check on me. Luckily I was about 2 days away from mailing it AND my bank agreed to reverse the $6 they charged me for his check bouncing (damn banks and their damn fees). We're talking $16 shipped - pretty pathetic.

I have always waited 2 weeks for check clearance and this is the first time that has proven useful - I deposited the check last Monday, and didn't see until today (Weds) on my online statement that the check was returned. I would have mailed this Friday most likely. From now on I am definitely waiting the FULL 2 weeks just to be safe, since this took kind of a long time to play out.

No response from him yet. He is a 100+, no negative feedback bidder too...

(Ok, so this isn't really a reflection on Best Offers as anyone on eBay could do this, I just had to vent SOMEWHERE and I remembered this thread!)
 
I think best offer only really makes sense when you intentionally place a high BIN because you think someone might bite, but you really want to be rid of the item regarless. I like that ebay added the feature but I don't see a lot of use for it.
 
[quote name='Supreme']I only put them on things I REALLY want to get rid of, or rare items. I've had some great luck with my BIN prices though. I think all of my auctions were won by someone who used BIN.[/QUOTE]

this sounds like a decent plan. I probably should have done this with a few items that didnt meet the reserve but I never bother with best offers, maybe i will in the future
 
I agree with Zion - high BINs with best offers are good for price checks on items.

I also use best offers on all store items - it doesnt hurt to see what pops up. Also, since I have 300 items, its hard to find time to revise prices when the value of an item drops, so best offers can allow me to look at completed auctions to see if it is closer to market value than my price I set for it months before.

ALSO, I JUST NOTICED THIS. Turbo Lister 2 has a awesome feature - you can click AUTO-DECLINE and set the price for which all offers will be declined.

Dave
 
[quote name='MightySlacker']I agree with Zion - high BINs with best offers are good for price checks on items.

I also use best offers on all store items - it doesnt hurt to see what pops up. Also, since I have 300 items, its hard to find time to revise prices when the value of an item drops, so best offers can allow me to look at completed auctions to see if it is closer to market value than my price I set for it months before.

ALSO, I JUST NOTICED THIS. Turbo Lister 2 has a awesome feature - you can click AUTO-DECLINE and set the price for which all offers will be declined.

Dave[/quote]

I noticed the price increases on store listings. Is that going to put you out of business or drive you to Yahoo! auctions?
 
[quote name='MightySlacker']Im still figuring out numbers. When I do, Ill probably post in the appropriate thread or make one if there isnt one already

Dave[/quote]

I was almost convinced to go with a store, then they pull a 10% cut out of their ass.

I understand why, but 10% is still a high percentage for keeping a static html page on file.
 
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