Interesting article on eBay offer negotiations

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Lobo Aullando

I guess a lot of folks have the patience to deal with people who offer 30% of current market.

A reasonable offset to sellers who list at 3X the current "market".

[jingram058]

A couple of eBay points, from someone who has bought AND sold there since 1998, with 100 percent feedback:

If I, as buyer, make you an offer and you refuse to answer within several hours, then you as the seller are off the island. If you are away on vacation, then inform eBay of such. It isn't hard.

If you decline, so be it, I will move on.

If you're truly interested in selling, you will pay attention to your listings.

I don't worry about hurt feelings when it comes to best offers. If you don't like my offer, fine, let me know and I will move on, untethered to your listing.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by jingram058

A couple of eBay points, from someone who has bought AND sold there since 1998, with 100 percent feedback:

If I, as buyer, make you an offer and you refuse to answer within several hours, then you as the seller are off the island. If you are away on vacation, then inform eBay of such. It isn't hard.

If you decline, so be it, I will move on.

If you're truly interested in selling, you will pay attention to your listings.

I don't worry about hurt feelings when it comes to best offers. If you don't like my offer, fine, let me know and I will move on, untethered to your listing.

Define "several hours." If you send an offer at 10 p.m. and the seller doesn't respond until the morning, are they off the island?

[ajjohnsonsoxfan]

Ebay should also allow sellers to restart negotiations by allowing an offer to buyer if they change their mind and want to accept a buyer's offer previously rejected.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

I really wish the OBO would be eliminated for good. Additionally, if that actually happened, buyers would be given X number of warnings for sending PMs offering less before having their accounts suspended.

Straight prices across the board; no haggling, no wasted time with lowballers and tire kickers.

If you're a potential buyer and the price is too high, you move on.

If you're a seller and your piece isn't moving, either lower your price or give the item a rest for a set period of time.

It would also spell the demise of the ridiculous six and seven figure "OBO" listings, just fishing for whatever the highest offer is that comes their way. This needs to stop.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

I really wish the OBO would be eliminated for good. Additionally, if that actually happened, buyers would be given X number of warnings for sending PMs offering less before having their accounts suspended.

Straight prices across the board; no haggling, no wasted time with lowballers and tire kickers.

If you're a potential buyer and the price is too high, you move on.

If you're a seller and your piece isn't moving, either lower your price or give the item a rest for a set period of time.

It would also spell the demise of the ridiculous six and seven figure "OBO" listings, just fishing for whatever the highest offer is that comes their way. This needs to stop.

When you go to a show, do you just pay the dealer's asking price or do you try to negotiate a lower price?

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by jayshum

When you go to a show, do you just pay the dealer's asking price or do you try to negotiate a lower price?

When I go to a store, or a barber shop, or take one of my collies to the vet, I never make a counter-offer. I've never gone into a supermarket and asked them, "What's the best you can do if I take 5 apples..."

For some reason, people who buy cards and memorabilia have a completely different mindset.

I never list anything on ebay with an OBO because all that does is broadcast my listed price isn't real. I don't enjoy the haggling process. See the price and either pay it or move on.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

I really wish the OBO would be eliminated for good. Additionally, if that actually happened, buyers would be given X number of warnings for sending PMs offering less before having their accounts suspended.



Straight prices across the board; no haggling, no wasted time with lowballers and tire kickers.



If you're a potential buyer and the price is too high, you move on.



If you're a seller and your piece isn't moving, either lower your price or give the item a rest for a set period of time.



It would also spell the demise of the ridiculous six and seven figure "OBO" listings, just fishing for whatever the highest offer is that comes their way. This needs to stop.

This is a goofball take. I make a lot of offers as a buyer and I accept a lot of offers as a seller. That's the way deals get done.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Eric72

Define "several hours." If you send an offer at 10 p.m. and the seller doesn't respond until the morning, are they off the island?

Use common sense. I'm not going to submit an offer at 10 p.m.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by jingram058

Use common sense. I'm not going to submit an offer at 10 p.m.

Don’t be a jerk. I did use common sense. People frequently send offers late at night.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by jingram058

Use common sense. I'm not going to submit an offer at 10 p.m.

You have common sense, and I have common sense. The rest of the eBay population...Well, George Carlin said it best: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that"

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

You have common sense, and I have common sense. The rest of the eBay population...Well, George Carlin said it best: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that"

If there was ever a more timely point in history where the world needed Carlin...

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by jingram058

Use common sense. I'm not going to submit an offer at 10 p.m.

I'm not sure what common sense has to do with what time you submit an offer. The seller usually has 48 hours to respond to so (aside from what this research is trying to show), I'm not sure why it makes any difference what time the offer is sent.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by jayshum

I'm not sure what common sense has to do with what time you submit an offer. The seller usually has 48 hours to respond to so (aside from what this research is trying to show), I'm not sure why it makes any difference what time the offer is sent.

Rest assured, after letting me go for 48 hours before responding, or more likely no response at all, I will never again buy anything from that seller.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by jingram058

Rest assured, after letting me go for 48 hours before responding, or more likely no response at all, I will never again buy anything from that seller.

Sure, if they never respond then I can see not buying from a seller, but I don't have a problem submitting an offer late at night and not getting a response for a day or so. A lot of people selling on eBay are also working full time jobs and may not be able to respond right away.

[raulus]

Some interesting takes on here, particularly for people who have been willing to express an opinion regarding ratios and percentages. I'll share a sale from just 2 days ago on eBay, and the negotiation that occurred.

I had a nice little PSA-graded Mays exhibit for sale, not real common for the grade, with a couple of recent sales on eBay at that grade. One recent sale at $360, and another at $357. Knowing that everyone loves to play the game and feel like they got a deal by talking me down, I priced it slightly above this level at $390, and included the possibility to make offers. Can't remember where I set the automatic rejection level, but it was probably around $330 or $340. I figure anything below that, it's not worth even trying to counter.

Couple of days ago, I received an offer at $350. It looks like his first few offers were autorejected, as he had just 2 offers left. For those of you doing the math at home, this is a 10.25% discount off of the asking price. So for some who expect a bigger discount when making offers, I suppose this would have been aggravating.

Knowing that he and I probably weren't far apart, but wanting to get right up to where the last few sales had occurred, I countered within about 30 mins at $360.

He accepted, and I shipped it off to him yesterday. If he had countered at $355, would I have accepted? Probably? I guess we'll never know, since he didn't try. I suspect he decided that $5 wasn't enough to bother arguing about, although other buyers have certainly haggled with me back and forth with offers over such small pricing differences in the past.

In many ways, the whole thing seemed a lot less exciting than most of the comments on this thread. But maybe it's because my asking price wasn't much more than comps, and I was happy to come down to comps, whereas the buyer was happy to come up to comps after probing me at a little below comps, and in spite of a couple of autorejections.

In the end, no one got banned, and I was happy with the sale. With any luck, the buyer will be happy with his purchase, at least once it gets there after going through the authentication process.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by jingram058

If I, as buyer, make you an offer and you refuse to answer within several hours, then you as the seller are off the island. If you are away on vacation, then inform eBay of such. It isn't hard.

I'm pretty sure the "away on vacation" setting is only available to sellers who pay extra to have a "store".

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by raulus

I'm pretty sure the "away on vacation" setting is only available to sellers who pay extra to have a "store".

No it is available for everyone as I have used it.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by bnorth

No it is available for everyone as I have used it.

Interesting. I guess my intel was bad.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by raulus

Interesting. I guess my intel was bad.

Just click on the help icon and then type in "time away" and it lets you schedule it.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Just click on the help icon and then type in "time away" and it lets you schedule it.

Thanks. I’ve done it several times, but I have a store. Thought I read somewhere that it wasn’t available without a store. But apparently I was wrong, and not for the first time!

[ASF123]

In my opinion eBay shouldn’t let sellers turn on the auto-reject for offers of over, say, 75-80% of the list price. I’ve offered 90% and been auto-rejected multiple times. That’s not “or best offer” in any meaningful way. It is, however, a great way to assure that I’ll move on rather than consider paying the list price.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by ASF123

In my opinion eBay shouldn’t let sellers turn on the auto-reject for offers of over, say, 75-80% of the list price. I’ve offered 90% and been auto-rejected multiple times. That’s not “or best offer” in any meaningful way. It is, however, a great way to assure that I’ll move on rather than consider paying the list price.

I think I have offered 5% less and gotten auto-rejected! I think I contacted the selller and said "what the heck"...It was around a $50 item...(Vans shoes).
.