Best offers on fleabay am i being unreasonable?

Primer

Well-Known Member
I've been trading and buying on fleabay since 2004 and used to sell books and would often sell most via buy it now and on slow sellers I would offer the best offer option, I would be quite prepared to take 10-15% less to just shift the item, obviously you would get the idiots that would offer £5 for a book that would cost them £20 down Halfords (even though I was already £6-8 cheaper anyway) but you could automatically filter those numpties out.

However some sellers seem to think these days its either a tool to get you to buy direct from them to side step ebay/paypal fees or think a best offer should be within a £1 of the original price, for instance I've been looking at something on there the last few weeks that's on for £95.88 or best offer (gone up almost £10 in the past few weeks), so I thought I would be cheeky and start at near to 10% off at £87 but they came back with a counter offer of £95, yes a full 88p saving 0.91%, so I revised my offer to £90 (still £5 more than they were listing them for a couple of weeks ago) and again they countered the offer with the same £95, so why waste peoples time by offering best offer if you are not going to offer a reasonable saving, just price it at £95 and be done with it.


Or am I being unreasonable?
 
I have to admit I share your frustration. As a seller, I am frustrated at stupid offers, but equally as a buyer, if a seller wants a set price, then that is what BIN is there for. I am equally frustrated a putting things in my watch list to find them sold 'privately' halfway through the proposed auction time.
 
I think in general (not just ebay) an offer of between 10% and 20% below the asking price is not unreasonable or taking the mickey. The seller doesn't have to accept.

Expecting more than 20% is wasting peoples time in my opinion.

Having said this, I think that sellers should be realistic about their prices. Quite often on here you see things that are way overpriced. We are not allowed to comment in sales topics so it leaves it down to 'buyer beware'. Fine for experienced people but I hate to think that novices may be ripped off. No easy answer to this.

I think sellers should also state 'No offers please' if this is the case. Again this simply saves everyone time and hassle.

I agree that ebay sales should not be ended halfway through.
 
I will happily entertain transactions outside eBay having seen first hand how toothless the Paypal and Feedback system is when things go wrong

As for best offers I made one of $50 for a buy it now price of $68 that had been relisted twice and not sold at higher prices
He came back at $60 plus shipping but I don'd need it that badly so he wont be selling it

depends how badly you want something

I once put all the prices up from £20-30 to £40-50 on some items that I had previously tried to sell and failed
They all sold at the higher price!
 
I've been trading and buying on fleabay since 2004 and used to sell books and would often sell most via buy it now and on slow sellers I would offer the best offer option, I would be quite prepared to take 10-15% less to just shift the item, obviously you would get the idiots that would offer £5 for a book that would cost them £20 down Halfords (even though I was already £6-8 cheaper anyway) but you could automatically filter those numpties out.

However some sellers seem to think these days its either a tool to get you to buy direct from them to side step ebay/paypal fees or think a best offer should be within a £1 of the original price, for instance I've been looking at something on there the last few weeks that's on for £95.88 or best offer (gone up almost £10 in the past few weeks), so I thought I would be cheeky and start at near to 10% off at £87 but they came back with a counter offer of £95, yes a full 88p saving 0.91%, so I revised my offer to £90 (still £5 more than they were listing them for a couple of weeks ago) and again they countered the offer with the same £95, so why waste peoples time by offering best offer if you are not going to offer a reasonable saving, just price it at £95 and be done with it.


Or am I being unreasonable?

Because its cheaper to have listed as best offer rather than fixed price @ £95 from memory.
 
Buyer beware is right. I was in the market for a Yukon Photon recently. The general price from normal outlets is a smidgen under £400. But there's one on the old Fleabay at the bargain price of £440! I managed to resist that excellent offer, even though he's down to his last one.
 
I'm selling some suits on there as the diet's working. Nothing exceptional, mainly bog standard M&S with a couple of pairs of trousers. Some clown came on and offered £22 posted on a £40 plus postage suit because "money's a bit tight at the moment". I resisted the "well go find a suit in your budget" and accepted an offer of £35 plus postage an hour or so later. Ok, it's not a huge difference in £sd, but there's an offer and then there's just taking the p*ss!
 
I agree with the 10-20% less offer unless the item is clearly over priced as the seller has an over inflated view of its worth. A case in point is the Zeiss Duralyt for sale second hand, now the Conquest DL has replaced it. People are trying to sell them for less than they paid a year ago but at a price that is the same as they can be had for new now they're old stock.
 
Am I alone in thing it rather absurd to invite the prospective buyers' best offers and then to be annoyed or affronted if their best offer isn't as much as you'd like.
It seems a waste of energy as well as a misunderstanding of process to fret about the difference between your valuation of the item and the prospective buyer's: just accept the offer or not, according to choice.

As a buyer, I don't get cross about folk offering absurdly-overpriced stuff for sale. I just don't buy it, leaving it to those who think that the price is reasonable.
:)
 
i put my reserve as what i want so all else is gravy.and just ignore anyone who offers less ,reserve not met means that all else is just bums trying it on
 
It is the same the world over:)

I think that an honest seller prices with 10-25% factored in for negotiating but I am continually amazed by both buyers and sellers that either shoot a lowball offer that is insulting, or ask a price exceeding new.

On Facebook we have a lot of gun selling sites (I know, America, isn't it great?:lol:) but the prices will sometimes amaze you. There are fair deals to be had, but there are also people that will list a "gently used - only 500 rounds through it" offering for a price above new at the dealer. When they are called out on it, the seller acts as if they have been deeply offended and even threaten to try to get the commentator/bidder banned.

My sinister side actually cruises the site looking for those overpriced one of kind gems, in hopes I can munch some popcorn while I watch fireworks.
 
Ebay is crap now anyway.

There are hardly any auction listings compared to straight sales, most of which can be found cheaper elsewhere with a simple google search.
 
Ebay is crap now anyway.

There are hardly any auction listings compared to straight sales, most of which can be found cheaper elsewhere with a simple google search.

correct , ebay isn't what it was and as such I hardly use it now plus the seller fees are getting outrageous !
 
Well, I've been a member since 2002 and I still find eBay useful. I've made Best Offers and had them accepted - typically I'll go 10-20% below the Buy It Now. If buyers don't want offers made then they shouldn't advertise "Best Offers".

I'm also still picking up some excellent bargains. Most are for photographic kit, which is a very competitive market, but there are also bargains to be had shooting-wise. For example a new silver escutcheon plate for my 16g for £6 can't be argued with, and neither can a Brady 16g handsewn leather cartridge belt for £27.

It really comes down to doing your research, knowing the market value of what you are after, and then having a price in mind and sticking to it.
 
I've been buying and selling on eBay since 2003 and for certain things it's invaluable. But it is nothing more than the biggest flea market in the world, with exactly the same pitfalls, albeit backed up by a proper contractual framework. I have bought and sold over 200 items and I think I've had two real problems with buyers or sellers in that time. It enables me to find buyers for stuff that no-one around me would ever want, and to find obscure items that no-one stocks. OK, it's not the Ali Baba's cave that it was in the early days because as it's grown and matured, people have grown wiser, it's easier to find the market value of things, some of the stuff I used to pick up for 99p now sells for what it's worth. But it's greatest strength is the huge number of buyers and sellers it gives you direct access to. In my view it remains a tremendous service.
 
I've not really traded on there for the last 5 years as the profit margin in my market got so small it wasn't worth it but in busy years I was turning over £4-5k a month on it but I moved over to amazon a few years back as it was more suited to my market and initial fee's were cheaper as not charged anything to list (on certain accounts), only charged on sales but this is now a very hard market to sell in as not only do you have to compete with amazons low prices but now I see many listings from new sellers of supposedly brand new copies of some of my book titles being sold for a 5th of the cost price, I know what discounts are available from certain publishers (as I used to work for one of them) and I know the big boys such as amazon and Halfords were about 20% cheaper than I could get, so not sure where these sellers are getting them from so cheap unless its cheap pallet deals on returned damaged stock from Halfords.

Also a lot of people seem to be very lazy and perceive that if its listed on the bay then it must be the cheapest, which is often far from the truth, a simple google search will often find cheaper.
 
Am I alone in thing it rather absurd to invite the prospective buyers' best offers and then to be annoyed or affronted if their best offer isn't as much as you'd like.
It seems a waste of energy as well as a misunderstanding of process to fret about the difference between your valuation of the item and the prospective buyer's: just accept the offer or not, according to choice.

As a buyer, I don't get cross about folk offering absurdly-overpriced stuff for sale. I just don't buy it, leaving it to those who think that the price is reasonable.
:)

:thumb:


SS
 
Ebay is crap now anyway.

There are hardly any auction listings compared to straight sales, most of which can be found cheaper elsewhere with a simple google search.

This is why you need to use baycrazy.com it lets you search for everything within a set price range and maximum distance and that is auction only with no postage offered. This is particularly good for heavy or large items and ive got quite a few bargins this way over the last couple of years. As you're just browsing everything it often turns up things that have been incorrectly or badly listed and that's often where the best deals are.
 
Just yesterday I had a pen on eBay listed for £500, RRP £600 and it is still brand new. BIN or best offer. Some cheeky barsteward offers me £100! Get it all the time now, just reply with 'don't waste my time' and a counter offer of £499.99
 
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