Ebay Best offers….

[727sportscards]

Longtime Ebayer here…from the late 90’s. Does anyone have any opinion or insight as to why a seller would have an item at a price or best offer and NOT counter when they receive an offer.

Example…Card is listed at $20 or best offer.

I throw out an offer (lowball, I admit…but that really isn’t relevant) of $10. Seller rejects my offer (which is fine and expected) but doesn’t even counter. Why not throw me an offer of $17-18 or even 19.75? What does it hurt?

Are people so offended by a lowball offer that they don’t even want to attempt to make a sale.

For the record, I would pay close to the asking price and may make a better offer…but with a different seller. The card definitely isn’t rare.

[JeffG1954]

Originally Posted by 727sportscards

Longtime Ebayer here…from the late 90’s. Does anyone have any opinion or insight as to why a seller would have an item at a price or best offer and NOT counter when they receive an offer.

Example…Card is listed at $20 or best offer.

I throw out an offer (lowball, I admit…but that really isn’t relevant) of $10. Seller rejects my offer (which is fine and expected) but doesn’t even counter. Why not throw me an offer of $17-18 or even 19.75? What does it hurt?

Are people so offended by a lowball offer that they don’t even want to attempt to make a sale.

For the record, I would pay close to the asking price and may make a better offer…but with a different seller. The card definitely isn’t rare.

For me it would depend on if my listing is a BIN/OBO type or an auction with BO option.

[txrngr34]

Two most common reasons, for me, are the odds of making a sale or I don't want to sell to you.

Over the years, odds are that a buyer that's far away from my desired selling price isn't getting close enough to negotiate up to my range. And it's just annoying and feels like someone I'd rather not deal with. I don't blame them, but I'm not a dealer - I just sell to subsidize my hobby, so I don't need to make a sale. Perhaps dealers here have different insights.

While I'm not researching a $20 card buyer too often, for higher cards I look at the Feedback Left by the buyer to gauge whether or not I think they'll become a problem buyer. The way people leave feedback can indicate whether they're reasonable or not, should an issue arise - I want a chance to fix it before someone lashes out via negative/neutral feedback and never even contacted me.

[Bosoxfan5990]

Originally Posted by 727sportscards

Longtime Ebayer here…from the late 90’s. Does anyone have any opinion or insight as to why a seller would have an item at a price or best offer and NOT counter when they receive an offer.

Example…Card is listed at $20 or best offer.

I throw out an offer (lowball, I admit…but that really isn’t relevant) of $10. Seller rejects my offer (which is fine and expected) but doesn’t even counter. Why not throw me an offer of $17-18 or even 19.75? What does it hurt?

Are people so offended by a lowball offer that they don’t even want to attempt to make a sale.

For the record, I would pay close to the asking price and may make a better offer…but with a different seller. The card definitely isn’t rare.

It's definitely relevant.

I'm not sure what the card is or what the market value is, but if it's not a rare card and the market value is $15-$20, the seller may not think you're a serious buyer if you start at 50% of asking.

As a seller, I typically counter any offer, but not everyone does.

[Blazed]

Originally Posted by 727sportscards

Longtime Ebayer here…from the late 90’s. Does anyone have any opinion or insight as to why a seller would have an item at a price or best offer and NOT counter when they receive an offer.

Example…Card is listed at $20 or best offer.

I throw out an offer (lowball, I admit…but that really isn’t relevant) of $10. Seller rejects my offer (which is fine and expected) but doesn’t even counter. Why not throw me an offer of $17-18 or even 19.75? What does it hurt?

Are people so offended by a lowball offer that they don’t even want to attempt to make a sale.

For the record, I would pay close to the asking price and may make a better offer…but with a different seller. The card definitely isn’t rare.

Not receiving a counter offer has you so pressed you make a post about it then take your ball and go home?

Wild

[727sportscards]

They can easily check my feedback and see I buy a lot and pay immediately. I sometimes offer a low offer because perhaps the seller needs money…and $10 actually matters…maybe they have had the card for a while…who knows? Tons of variables.

Funny…I just got an offer to buy the card at 18.59 as the seller sent out one of those automated offers for a discount to anyone that has shown interest in the card.

I guess I can see the seller being wary of originally offering a counter and I come back at 11…which I wouldn’t do…I would go to 15…but yeah, it could turn into a hassle for the seller.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[txrngr34]

Originally Posted by Blazed

Not receiving a counter offer has you so pressed you make a post about it then take your ball and go home?



Wild

Gotta admit, my initial reaction to OP was, "then stop lowballing."

[727sportscards]

Originally Posted by Blazed

Not receiving a counter offer has you so pressed you make a post about it then take your ball and go home?

Wild

Again…I can buy the card from several other sellers. My post is not about this specific card, but just the unwillingness to counter so I can understand that mentality. The seller (at the time) was the one that ended negotiations…not me.

[ToastGhost47]

Not everyone knows how to set up minimum offer amounts.

[727sportscards]

Originally Posted by ToastGhost47

Not everyone knows how to set up minimum offer amounts.

Seller has over 10,000 feedbacks. They know and should use it.

[Bosoxfan5990]

Originally Posted by 727sportscards

Seller has over 10,000 feedbacks. They know and should use it.

Just buy a different card.

[brev87]

As a seller on eBay, the reason they don't counter your lowball offer is that we receive these absurd half-off the going price offers at least 5 times a day.

Sometimes, 10 times a day, I'll get offers for EXACTLY half-off. It's annoying, please stop doing that crap. Make a fair offer and stop getting offended by someone not appeasing your needs. It's not all about you and what you want.

[nephinfan]

If someone offers me half of my asking, I'm not wasting my time to check that they "buy a lot of cards." Why would I take a lowball offer serious enough to do that? I also wouldn't take the offer serious enough to counter.

If the offer is a serious one to begin with, then I will take the time to negotiate.

This is all assuming that my asking prices are reasonable to begin with, not these $1k 1990 Topps Griffey cards, etc.

[727sportscards]

Originally Posted by brev87

As a seller on eBay, the reason they don't counter your lowball offer is that we receive these absurd half-off the going price offers at least 5 times a day.

Sometimes, 10 times a day, I'll get offers for EXACTLY half-off. It's annoying, please stop doing that crap. Make a fair offer and stop getting offended by someone not appeasing your needs. It's not all about you and what you want.

Why don’t you set a minimum offer amount? Then you won’t be annoyed?

[727sportscards]

The automated offer went out at $18.59….I countered at $15 and they accepted. If the seller met in the middle originally….so yeah…that is why I made the $10 offer.

[JeffG1954]

Originally Posted by 727sportscards

Why don’t you set a minimum offer amount? Then you won’t be annoyed?

I don't set minimums because I do like to check feedback on buyers who make offers, and it also gives me the chance to look at recent comps for the card to see if I am high or low on my asking price.

[727sportscards]

Originally Posted by JeffG1954

I don't set minimums because I do like to check feedback on buyers who make offers, and it also gives me the chance to look at recent comps for the card to see if I am high or low on my asking price.

And that makes perfect sense. When I sold on Ebay more consistently…if I didn’t sell a card after a month, that told me I was priced too high. Was always glad to review ANY offers.

[Cactuspies]

I'm guilty of ignoring offers and don't really care about your feelings or buying history, if it's something you really want you have like 5 chances to make an offer that catches my eye or you can go elsewhere. I'm also very flexible and have many repeat buyers.

I just had someone message me about something I'm selling and sent pictures of the last 2 sales ignoring any other sale and player history/current production. I don't care. You didn't even make an offer and I'm not negotiating in messages like that. Make an offer, you get an agreement, a counter if we are close, a decline, or nothing. Nothing means you aren't close, that's about it. I have some set up for auto declines because yes I was annoyed at all the bad offers.

people also do this on Mercari and don't make offers they just send messages.

[brev87]

Originally Posted by JeffG1954

I don't set minimums because I do like to check feedback on buyers who make offers, and it also gives me the chance to look at recent comps for the card to see if I am high or low on my asking price.

BINGO! ding ding ding!!

I have thousands of cards listed, I'm not stopping to put a set minimum. Just STOP lowballing sellers.

And it's ALWAYS half-off offers. Really really annoying

[JeffG1954]

Originally Posted by brev87

BINGO! ding ding ding!!

I have thousands of cards listed, I'm not stopping to put a set minimum. Just STOP lowballing sellers.

And it's ALWAYS half-off offers. Really really annoying

1/2 price offers on a BIN/OBO type listings are so common....there must be an eBay buyers handbook out there somewhere that tells them this is how to do it. The ones that really annoy me are my listings that are Auction/OBO, and those offers come in at 50% off of asking price. It's my thoughts that the price you see in a BIN/OBO type listing is the max the seller wants, but will consider less.....but in an Auction/OBO listing the amount you see is the minimum that the seller is willing to take, or will consider offers over that amount.....probably just my twisted way of thinking.

And then buyers want to complain about BIN/OBO type listings being priced so high....it's because your offer is going to come in 1/2 of my asking price probably 90% of the time.

[zdawgs]

The offers that upset me are the 99 cent offers on just one card with free shipping by buyers. It costs at least $1.10 to ship a card with shipping cost, eBay fees and shipping supplies included. So I'm going to lose my time and money so you can get a card. PLEASE stop doing this. Or at least offer 99 cents on 2 cards so I can combine shipping and make a few pennies.

[Dragonman]

Originally Posted by 727sportscards

The automated offer went out at $18.59….I countered at $15 and they accepted. If the seller met in the middle originally….so yeah…that is why I made the $10 offer.

I usually do not have the offers turned on but the listings that do, I do not respond to low ball offers. It does not matter whether I respond or check the buyers feedback because I instantly block them when the lowball offer comes in...I do not want to deal with or do business with them.

[brev87]

Originally Posted by 727sportscards

The automated offer went out at $18.59….I countered at $15 and they accepted. If the seller met in the middle originally….so yeah…that is why I made the $10 offer.

No, you offered $10 to get the card at $10

[brev87]

Originally Posted by zdawgs

The offers that upset me are the 99 cent offers on just one card with free shipping by buyers. It costs at least $1.10 to ship a card with shipping cost, eBay fees and shipping supplies included. So I'm going to lose my time and money so you can get a card. PLEASE stop doing this. Or at least offer 99 cents on 2 cards so I can combine shipping and make a few pennies.

This annoys me as well. Really makes me want to change all of my listings to add shipping costs

[727sportscards]

Originally Posted by brev87

No, you offered $10 to get the card at $10

Obviously $10 would have been great but I wanted to pay no more than $15. If the seller originally met me in the middle instead of just declining without a counter…then the deal would have been made right away. Really surprised by how many people are not willing to negotiate and end up at 75% of their asking price and are pretty nasty about it…but so be it. Your cards sit for months for a reason.