DynaEtch
05-26-2023, 07:42 AM
Anyone else use this offer strategy?
When you make an offer, make it just a notch above a round number, even down to $1 more. This way if a seller is confronted with 2 or more offers, it would be nonsensical to not go with the one that is the most, even if it's just $1 more. For example, if asking price is $1000, instead of offering $900, which someone else easily might....offer $901 since if the seller does get offers for $900 and yours for $901, they'll just accept yours (why not just get the extra buck..assuming feedback doesnt look suspicious on either account). Now other people might be thinking the same thing (although not likely), and you could always make the differential a bit more, like $905, which also doesnt look as bad to a seller with the "1" in it also. (But then the other people could be thinking the same thing, and this thought process could be conceivably carried all the way up to the purchase price...but that's not necessary, it's unlikely someone else is making an offer $5 more than a round number in the first place).*
Here is a concrete example, that just helped me (at least I believe) succeed in purchasing a box of cards:
-Item was listed at $200 or best offer
-I offered $165, and it was auto-declined
-It said there was 1 competing offer in the offer screen (ebay tells you this, just not what the offer is)
-Thinking that the offer could be $170 (unlikely it would be strictly between 165 and 170), my next offer was $171
-My offer got accepted. So the other offer was almost surely 170, and confronted with 170 and 171, it makes no sense to not just go with 171**
Now there are conflicting data, for example an article I read recently- I think in WSJ- said that studies have suggested that sellers are more likely to accept round offers, no doubt just psychologically. So for example, if an item was priced $400, a seller might more likely accept your $200 offer, obviously over like a $195 offer, but even more than if your offer was $225 (seller is thinking...hey ok I'll sell it for half). But Im not sure if that's enough to combat the advantage described above of offering a notch higher than a round number, when there is a possibility a seller is considering multiple offers.
*: I would not recommend making the differential just $.01 more...like an offer of $900.01. That would just look weird to a seller. Even $1 may be stretching it at the price involved ($1000). $5-$10 differential seems a better sweet spot at that level. If the item was $20 obo, then $1 might work better- $11 vs $10. It's all relative to the asking price.
**: If my offer had been 170, which probably equaled the other offer, either the seller would choose between the two, maybe randomly, or, and I've had this happen before, tell me someone else made the same exact offer, sending a screenshot of the other offer to me, essentially wanting to get me into a bidding war with the other offering buyer (at which point I promptly told them to just accept the other buyer's offer).
When you make an offer, make it just a notch above a round number, even down to $1 more. This way if a seller is confronted with 2 or more offers, it would be nonsensical to not go with the one that is the most, even if it's just $1 more. For example, if asking price is $1000, instead of offering $900, which someone else easily might....offer $901 since if the seller does get offers for $900 and yours for $901, they'll just accept yours (why not just get the extra buck..assuming feedback doesnt look suspicious on either account). Now other people might be thinking the same thing (although not likely), and you could always make the differential a bit more, like $905, which also doesnt look as bad to a seller with the "1" in it also. (But then the other people could be thinking the same thing, and this thought process could be conceivably carried all the way up to the purchase price...but that's not necessary, it's unlikely someone else is making an offer $5 more than a round number in the first place).*
Here is a concrete example, that just helped me (at least I believe) succeed in purchasing a box of cards:
-Item was listed at $200 or best offer
-I offered $165, and it was auto-declined
-It said there was 1 competing offer in the offer screen (ebay tells you this, just not what the offer is)
-Thinking that the offer could be $170 (unlikely it would be strictly between 165 and 170), my next offer was $171
-My offer got accepted. So the other offer was almost surely 170, and confronted with 170 and 171, it makes no sense to not just go with 171**
Now there are conflicting data, for example an article I read recently- I think in WSJ- said that studies have suggested that sellers are more likely to accept round offers, no doubt just psychologically. So for example, if an item was priced $400, a seller might more likely accept your $200 offer, obviously over like a $195 offer, but even more than if your offer was $225 (seller is thinking...hey ok I'll sell it for half). But Im not sure if that's enough to combat the advantage described above of offering a notch higher than a round number, when there is a possibility a seller is considering multiple offers.
*: I would not recommend making the differential just $.01 more...like an offer of $900.01. That would just look weird to a seller. Even $1 may be stretching it at the price involved ($1000). $5-$10 differential seems a better sweet spot at that level. If the item was $20 obo, then $1 might work better- $11 vs $10. It's all relative to the asking price.
**: If my offer had been 170, which probably equaled the other offer, either the seller would choose between the two, maybe randomly, or, and I've had this happen before, tell me someone else made the same exact offer, sending a screenshot of the other offer to me, essentially wanting to get me into a bidding war with the other offering buyer (at which point I promptly told them to just accept the other buyer's offer).