Interesting article on eBay offer negotiations

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Lobo Aullando

Or – just hear me out – they were out of town. That's been 100% of such occurrences for me.

(The auto-reject threshold feature is pretty good at weeding out, too.)

Was auto-rejection available in 2012/13 when this data was from?

[Lobo Aullando]

Personally, I don't recall seeing it a decade ago. I have an increasingly bad case of Internet Brain, though.

Originally Posted by jayshum

Was auto-rejection available in 2012/13 when this data was from?

The study does use another dataset from 2020-23*:

The preexisting data from eBay indicate that most sellers (62%) do not use automatic thresholds. In the subset of data that we analyzed, 17% used only rejection thresholds, 5.4% used only acceptance thresholds, and 15.7% used both thresholds. To examine the effect of seller experience on automatic threshold use, we looked at the number of best-offer listings created by each seller (dating back to 2008). The relation between seller experience and threshold usage was quadratic—both inexperienced and highly experienced sellers used thresholds more than medium-experience sellers. While these results do not rule out that sellers have plans, the low rate of automatic thresholds suggests that sellers prefer to evaluate offers as they arrive.

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


* - On a re-read, there's yet another dataset, and the quote doesn't relate to the 2020-23 one.

[nwobhm]

Originally Posted by Lobo Aullando

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

An offer can be rejected/countered. A polite reply many times brings the potential buyer up to an acceptable price point. A rude response can chase them off forever.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by nwobhm

An offer can be rejected/countered. A polite reply many times brings the potential buyer up to an acceptable price point. A rude response can chase them off forever.

True

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[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.

[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"

[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.

[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.