Interesting article on eBay offer negotiations

[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.

[Exhibitman]

Obvious flaw in the research is inductive reasoning. They conclude that a slow response is indicative of something about the offer when it may just be indicative of having to go to a family dinner, watch the kid's Little League game, go to a religious service, or work the day job. Or maybe just a product of different time zones. An offer made at 7:00 PST to a seller in NYC may not be dealt with until the next day. I've made offers in L.A. and gotten nothing back until the next morning, usually because the seller is back east and stopped working for the night.

Mark, I don't generally use best offers but will send offers when eBay informs me that I can send an offer to watchers. Converts to a sale maybe 5% of the time.

Has anyone tried to set a Best Offer with a price way above the auction minimum? I've done that a few times when I put up an item that I think will get a lot of interest and that someone might pay a premium for it. I usually write what I am doing into the description. Doesn't work; usually it just confuses and then pisses off people.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Mark, I don't generally use best offers but will send offers when eBay informs me that I can send an offer to watchers. Converts to a sale maybe 5% of the time.

When there's something I want with an OBO, that tells me the seller will take a lower price. I decide what I'm willing to pay, submit that offer, and if it's rejected or countered, I walk.

I agree with you that this study makes assumptions on why a seller might delay responding. Among the reasons you mention having to do with different time zones, family activities and so on, I would add that all sellers do not approach the process the same. For example, several times when I've made my offer, the seller never replies. The study might suggest he was considering the offer, but the other explanation would be that he rejected it and letting it expire was his way of declining.

People go to Best Buy and never haggle over the sticker price of a TV or computer. The same people go to a car dealership and haggle over the sticker price of a new car. It's an oddity of our culture I suppose. In some situations, haggling is nonexistent; in others, it's a game that's always expected to be played.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by Mark17

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.

Car dealers must love you. Or do you take the bus?

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Gorditadogg

Car dealers must love you. Or do you take the bus?

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

My last 2 cars were given to me by my brother in-law, when he got new ones for his family. They come to me with well over 100,000 miles, but they are Subarus so they last past 200k. My current one is at 205,xxx.

When I bought cars in the past I did very little haggling. I remember when I got my conversion van, I asked the seller if the price was firm, he said yes, and I paid it.

[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.

[Vintagedeputy]

This post and article are timely for me. I am a reseller on eBay and was just today laughing about a best offer that I received.

I have an unusual item with no comps listed for $49.95. The item has been listed for less than 24 hours and I’ve had five views. Today someone offered me $25. That’s a 50% offer. I countered with $35 and a nice message saying thank you for your offer, I’ll be happy to meet you in the middle at $35. Now that’s really not in the middle and it’s giving more for the buyer and less for me but I was willing to take $35.

They countered my offer of $35 and went up three bucks to $28. I have a hard time believing they think that three dollar bump is really going to win the item for them when their initial offer was at 50% of my asking price. Lowballers really seem to not want to win the item sometimes.

ETA - 5 minutes after I posted this someone offered me $45 for the item and I took it.

[vintagerookies51]

I must be getting offers from different people than y’all. I routinely get offers that are just ridiculous, like sub-$3000 for a decent 1933 Goudey Ruth. When I see that notification on my phone, I don’t even bother going into the app to reject it. I always list mine at quite a bit more than I’m willing to take for it since I know people will haggle no matter how fair the starting price is, so I usually have a pretty sizable percentage I’m willing to go down. But when I get goofy offers like that, I don’t bother acknowledging them. I suppose I could set up automatic rejections, but sometimes it’s entertaining seeing what people will offer.