Ebay Sellers That Don't Respond.

soolin

With regard to daft questions I have been away so I used my time away feature (which I love!) and I had an automatic message that was sent if anyone contacted me saying that I would not be able to post until Tuesday 5th October and anything bought before then could not be posted before that date. As usual I set the time away to disallow sales for the first few days as I allow for people not noticing the lengthy despatch times and complaining when their item isn't there the next day- but I do switch back to allow sales that give me 2 working days to post.

Last week (wednesday or Thursday) on my private account someone emailed me to say that they wanted to buy my widget and would I accept X and could I guarantee they would have it by Saturday as they needed it urgently - and they obviously got my out of office response. However I then received another email pointing out this was very bad customer service and perhaps I should make an effort to send their item in a better time frame. Again of course they got the same automatic out of office response!

theoretica

kalsha said:

stig said:

Pollycat that’s really interesting - I’ve started using Ebay more and am struggling to understand the reason for using offers below starting price in auctions instead of BIN with offers? I’d always thought of auction listings as “this is the lowest I’ll accept but more would be nice” and BINs as “ I know it’s worth around this but if it’s been hanging around awhile. I’ll take less”

If you don’t mind why do you use auctions with lower offers rather than BINs? Am I missing something about closing fees, or anything else?

Stig

I am thinking the same as you Stig.  I just do not understand why people have "make an offer" on the auction price.  Don't see the purpose of it.

Offers aren't just lower than the starting auction price - as a buyer, most of the offers I have put in on auction items have been above the starting price.  May get you the item faster, may stop other bidders snipping away at the last minute. 

kalsha

theoretica said:

Offers aren't just lower than the starting auction price - as a buyer, most of the offers I have put in on auction items have been above the starting price.  May get you the item faster, may stop other bidders snipping away at the last minute. 

So if your auction starting price is £20, you are not expecting people to offer £16 - but you are expecting offers of say £25?

theoretica

kalsha said:

theoretica said:

Offers aren't just lower than the starting auction price - as a buyer, most of the offers I have put in on auction items have been above the starting price.  May get you the item faster, may stop other bidders snipping away at the last minute. 

So if your auction starting price is £20, you are not expecting people to offer £16 - but you are expecting offers of say £25?

Not necessarily expecting - but wouldn't accept 16 and might accept the 25 over the uncertainty of maybe 27 maybe 20. 

Spoonie_Turtle

kalsha said:

stig said:

Pollycat that’s really interesting - I’ve started using Ebay more and am struggling to understand the reason for using offers below starting price in auctions instead of BIN with offers? I’d always thought of auction listings as “this is the lowest I’ll accept but more would be nice” and BINs as “ I know it’s worth around this but if it’s been hanging around awhile. I’ll take less”

If you don’t mind why do you use auctions with lower offers rather than BINs? Am I missing something about closing fees, or anything else?

Stig

I am thinking the same as you Stig.  I just do not understand why people have "make an offer" on the auction price.  Don't see the purpose of it.

I've used it as a buyer to effectively get a discount for buying multiple items, which for the seller means one postage cost (if they are items with free postage, it makes a difference) and means multiple items guaranteed gone.  In fairness for anything that is clearly already minimally priced I will offer the starting price rather than lower though, and it's especially useful if the seller has items going off at all different times throughout a week that I want to buy together.  And I have used it to put in a higher offer as well, like theoretica explained.

allconnected

Thanks all - I was thinking particularly of offers below the starting price, as I've found that when listing Ebay seems to automatically populate the offers field at a low of 50% of the starting price whether BIN or auction style. I completely agree about offers over the starting price, although in practice I've found an early high offer nearly always means a bidding war and a higher price achieved at auction, so I tend to refuse both high and low offers!

Pollycat

kalsha said:

stig said:

Pollycat that’s really interesting - I’ve started using Ebay more and am struggling to understand the reason for using offers below starting price in auctions instead of BIN with offers? I’d always thought of auction listings as “this is the lowest I’ll accept but more would be nice” and BINs as “ I know it’s worth around this but if it’s been hanging around awhile. I’ll take less”

If you don’t mind why do you use auctions with lower offers rather than BINs? Am I missing something about closing fees, or anything else?

Stig

I am thinking the same as you Stig.  I just do not understand why people have "make an offer" on the auction price.  Don't see the purpose of it.

My answer is the same as theoretica's.

I decide what I would be happy with and list it at a higher price.
Sometimes I've had an offer that is higher than the opening bid price, sometimes much less.
If someone bids at the opening bid price, I've made more than I actually wanted - even if the item sells with just one bid.
If it's an item that I suspect will sell well - for example a rare, vintage pair of Doc Marts - I'll not allow offers at all.

Bear in mind that I only sell my own unwanted items - shoes, clothes, bric-a-brac.
It's not a business to me.
I list for 7 weeks, then end the auction and donate the item to my local hospice charity shop.
I used to do that before I started selling on eBay.
I've sold less than 40 items since mid June.
The average item price is less than £10.00 but it clears out my wardrobes and gives me a little cash.

hermante

Some sellers are unrealistic about the value of their items. I often make offers of less than half of the starting bid, because that's how much the items are worth, as evidenced by the winning bids of similar items (which can be seen in the sold items section).

Usually my offers get rejected but sometimes they are accepted. Those who reject start to see the light after 6-12 months of relisting over and over again with no bids. But by that time my offer will have reduced.

There was a seller listing a collection of items for a starting bid of £100, they were in excellent condition, but really only worth about £20. Ebay tends to have a collector's premium so I offered £45, rejected. No bids, relisted. Every 2-3 months the seller lowered the starting bid by £10, I continued to offer £45, rejected. Eventually it started at £40, but I wasn't going to pay that by then, £35 rejected, then it started at £20, someone else bid and won it.

This was all the way through the pandemic. In the meantime I'd bought most of the collection items elsewhere for about £15 and resold them for £25, multiple times.

Murphybear

Belenus said:

I saw a very long snake advertised for sale on eBay so I sent this question.

'How many feet?'

The reply from the seller was:

'None, it's a snake'.

That is without a doubt one of the funniest things I’ve seen on MSE for years 

mellyflewus

hermante said:

Some sellers are unrealistic about the value of their items. I often make offers of less than half of the starting bid, because that's how much the items are worth, as evidenced by the winning bids of similar items (which can be seen in the sold items section).

Usually my offers get rejected but sometimes they are accepted. Those who reject start to see the light after 6-12 months of relisting over and over again with no bids. But by that time my offer will have reduced.

There was a seller listing a collection of items for a starting bid of £100, they were in excellent condition, but really only worth about £20. Ebay tends to have a collector's premium so I offered £45, rejected. No bids, relisted. Every 2-3 months the seller lowered the starting bid by £10, I continued to offer £45, rejected. Eventually it started at £40, but I wasn't going to pay that by then, £35 rejected, then it started at £20, someone else bid and won it.

This was all the way through the pandemic. In the meantime I'd bought most of the collection items elsewhere for about £15 and resold them for £25, multiple times.

sometimes when i'm selling one of my beloved items i price it to keep away resellers and give other buyers a chance to acquire.

sometimes i need the space more than i love the item but i always price to ensure i'm not selling at a loss.

i've never used an offer or buy-it-now on an auction.

i have used offers on fixed price listings but never make the offer price more expensive than the listing price.