Oh, the joys of Best Offer on Ebay.

swingaloo

I listed a dress with a starting price of 7.99. I also had a 'Best Offer' on it on which I had 'Accept offers above £7.

I had no watchers and it was the 2nd time the dress had been listed.

Just 10 mins before the end of the auction someone made me a 'Best Offer' of £16 which was automatically accepted and they paid straight away.

Had they just placed a bid it would of been theirs for £7.99.

I feel guilty!

pinkshoes

Hahahahahaaa.

Sorry. Couldn't help laughing. Some people really are TSFE!!

theonlywayisup

I hope it works out well for you. TSFE needs an upgrade perhaps a suffix for the advanced TSFE buyer - TSFE+

Trickytrotter

Had similar today. Something on sale for £3.45 since last November. As Easter week and going away the week after - so not relisting - put price up yesterday at £3.95 in minor fit of pique. Had an offer today for £4.50. Joy.

twhitehousescat

I have sold my Homing pigeon "best offer" 27 times

hollydays

That’s a big difference in price for a dress.

NaughtiusMaximus

To be fair to the purchaser of the £16 dress, different ebay sellers have different thought processes when considering best offers on auction listings.

Some are like the OP where they set a highish start price but are willing to accept a best offer of around that price, other sellers will set a much lower start price in the expectation they will receive a number of bids and will only consider accepting a best offer which is in the region of the price they would hope to make by letting the auction run it's course.

The only auction listing I have ever made a best offer on fell into the latter category, my best offer was around double the start price and was rejected, the item ended up selling for closer to treble the start price.

swingaloo

Well its happened 4 times now. A few days ago I had an offer for a coat which was listed at £5.99. They offered £8. I had it set to accept offers at £5.

I also had a bag with a start price of 4.99 and a Best Offer which would have been accepted at £4 but a buyer went straight in with an offer of £6.


I have a sale at the moment where it is a dress with a £3.99 start which is all I expect to get for it. But, it has a 'Best Offer' on which I have it set to accept anything over £3.00 but someone has bid the £3.99 starting price.

People just don't seem to understand how to use the Best Offer option.

I always start my auctions at the least I am happy to take. I no longer do the 99p starts as Im not prepared to risk an item going for that Some things sell first time, others take 3 or 4 times listing but usually go in the end.

mimi1234

Mine wasn't a best offer option but had something for sale originally at £15. Kept dropping the price each free listing cycle until it got to about £6. In the end, I just wanted to get rid so had it for £4 which also didn't sell.

Free listings so shoved it on again at £30 for a laugh and sold within half an hour.

soolin

mimi1234 wrote: »

Mine wasn't a best offer option but had something for sale originally at £15. Kept dropping the price each free listing cycle until it got to about £6. In the end, I just wanted to get rid so had it for £4 which also didn't sell.

Free listings so shoved it on again at £30 for a laugh and sold within half an hour.

The same thing happens at real auctions, I was at an auction a month ago when something went unsold at £12, today the item was re offered, shot past £12 and ended up at £28.

stripeyfox

I sold an old video game cartridge many years ago expecting it to go for £3 - £4 maybe.

Then it went crazy in the last few minutes and the end price was over £ 28 after a "bidding war" between two bidders. There must have been dozens of counter bids in a few minutes.

When I contacted the buyer he thanked me describing it as a "great auction" even though he paid about £25 too much!