Chancers

hermum

JPS29 wrote: »

When I get derisory offers like this I NEVER decline them, just leave them pending for the 48 hours. Other potential buyers see that you have an offer pending and it normally brings forward more serious offers and the silly offer loses out.

I would have rather charity shopped it then let him have it.
Face, nose, spite maybe but there's a line between people having a good business head & taking the mickey.

JPS29

Agree, if the offer is on the low side but not taking the p1ss then i counter offer, sometimes/usually results in a sale, otherwise i stick to what I said above

Crowqueen

It's worth what it's worth. OP - presumably if it doesn't get too many bids you are happy to sell it for £20. I don't think it's unreasonable for a buyer seeing a £20 auction (presumably no reserve) and no bids to offer £18. You don't have to be psychic to buy on eBay, but it seems to help.

If it sells at £1500, great, but if it doesn't, and people are offering £200 for it, then perhaps it's only worth £200. Hopefully it will sell, but if it doesn't...will you then lower your price? You will get nothing from a charity shop so you might as well have taken the £200 for it.

gunsandbanjos

Having done my research they tend to sell for £50-£65. I started at £20 because i didnt want to put people off and it is the minimum i would be prepared to accept hence why i started it at that price. If it didnt sell i would relist, but having followed similar auctions i'm confident it will sell for a reasonable amount more than £18.

JPS29

Crowqueen wrote: »

If it sells at £1500, great, but if it doesn't, and people are offering £200 for it, then perhaps it's only worth £200. Hopefully it will sell, but if it doesn't...will you then lower your price? You will get nothing from a charity shop so you might as well have taken the £200 for it.

Not necessarily. I have some car parts which have taken 6 months to sell because they are not common parts that fail, but when they do fail they are expensive. In this case when I have put them on at first I get the derisory offers. If you keep hold of it long enough and your price is realistic then it will sell eventually. And dropping from £1500 to £200 you could afford the listing fees for probably a decade (OTTOMH) before selling at that low a cut.....

scheming_gypsy

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

I just got a message about an item i am selling.

It is BNIB, worth just under £100. I've started my auction at £20 and have loads of watchers.

Message 'Will you sell for £18, so i can buy them now?'

Erm..... NO! Idiots.

I can understand maybe if they didnt sell you can message the seller and see if they will take a little less than the price they have listed. There is no best offer on this auction so why would you ask to make an offer less than the start price?

I always start my auctions at the minimum i'd be willing to accept and dont over price my items.

that's the kind of thing i'd do if it was a local one.. Although not offering £18 if it had a BIN of £100 as that's a bit too cheeky.
If you had a BIN of £100 and you were local I'd offer you £90 and not hit BIN. I could hit BIN and you'd pay 10% to eBay so you'd only get £90 anyway but if i gave you £90 you can cancel the auction and still only get £90 for it.

giantmutantbroccoli

It might be harmless but it's always irritating when people try that. If it's a ridiculous offer I usually counter it at £5 off the asking price, and if they're serious about buying it they'll make another more reasonable offer.
I think that how the value of your item relates to what people are willing to pay depends very much on what you're selling and where. If you sell collectables or antiques on eBay then they're pretty much worth what people are willing to pay, but if you have a shop and an eBay site then your stuff is worth the amount you'd get in your shop, not the amount someone on eBay wants to pay you. You wouldn't think that there'd be so much of a disparity between the two, but there really is especially with expensive items. People don't seem to realise or care that it's insulting when they tell you that your stock is only worth 25% of your asking price. Fair enough if they want to make an offer on the offchance that you're desparate to get rid of the thing, but I've had people message me to argue that their price is "totally reasonable" or "the best you'll get" - only for the item to sell at full price a few days later.
Never end an auction early is my advice, not unless they're willing to pay higher (not lower!) than the starting bid.

gunsandbanjos

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

that's the kind of thing i'd do if it was a local one.. Although not offering £18 if it had a BIN of £100 as that's a bit too cheeky.
If you had a BIN of £100 and you were local I'd offer you £90 and not hit BIN. I could hit BIN and you'd pay 10% to eBay so you'd only get £90 anyway but if i gave you £90 you can cancel the auction and still only get £90 for it.

Thats what the guy did last week. I had a BIN of £110 he offered £90 cash so i took it. No fees, no postage, no hassle.
That i dont mind one bit.

andrewsi

porto_bello wrote: »

I've had similar experiences: 2 bids on an item then selling for £37 and an offer hits my inbox for £17, if I relist as a buy it now! :rotfl:

A few months back, I had someone message me an offer for an item I was selling. The offer was for about half the starting price.

Not only were there multiple bids on the item, but it had already finished when the offer was made. I'm not entirely sure what that chap was thinking....