What is your Best Price? Question 12 February at 11:19PM in Ebay, auctions, car boot sales, post & parcels 21 replies 1.2K views

Bobo_Brazil

Hi folks,

As per the title of the thread, really.  This refers to BIN listings.
In the past I've sent across a reasonable answer back, eg. if my item is £25 I will say, I'll deal for £20. expecting some kind of counter in the £14-18 region. invariably they have come back with something a long way apart, expecting way more than a 50-60% discount and this has gone on for 2 or 3 messages; I figure people like this are not serious, and generally just move on. It's not a question of item price or condition - always price items reasonably and appropriately and only sell things that are in very good saleable condition, that I would be more than happy to buy myself. 

This pattern kept repeating itself, so I changed my reply to a couple of variations:
1) just repeat the price that I stated in the listing,
2) point out I'm not really sure I can negotiate with myself, and ask them to buy or make an offer via the listing page.

Still haven't got any serious replies using the above approach either. 

I'm asking now as I have had this question (on separate items, from separate buyers) about 6 times in the past 3 weeks.. so was intrigued to know if other ebay sellers get this question at all, and how do you approach it?  is everybody who asks this question just a timewaster? 

MikeJXE

Some people love to play silly games

Raise your price next time 

soolin

I just tell them I’ll consider sensible offers made through the eBay best offer system, and leave it at that. 

Bobo_Brazil

MikeJXE said:

Some people love to play silly games

Raise your price next time 

I was half thinking that... because obviously my "best price" will be as much as I can possibly get for something!

Literally just got off messenger with someone who had asked 'I want your best price', I said please use the listing if I you are interested in making a purchase or offer, or I will happily answer any other questions... got a quick reply back that he's no longer interested and hopes I get another buyer because I didn't answer his question properly? 
some people I guess I just will never understand....!

forgotmyname

Far too many variables from both sides.  You may think their offer is stupidly low but their offer maybe closer to the
actual market value than you wish it was.

The item maybe worth a lot more than your starting value so any offer below that could be seen as a joke and
instantly dismissed.

Normally I just buy at the listed price but a little while back I made an offer for an item and the seller declined. They
relisted it something like 18 times before finally putting it up for auction. It sold for considerably less than I offered.

They may have thought my offer was silly low but the true value was less than I offered.

IftiBashir

Item listed at £570 - BIN with Best Offer. 
RRP for item is around £650.

I have sold one at £540, and another 2 at full BIN price - so I know I'm about right with my listed price. 
I have 3 units left. 

Offer received for £300.
I refused offer - when I get a lowball offer like this I don't even counter offer. It obvious the buyer isnt too serious about teh item and is just trying his/her luck. 

Message received from same buyer - "rather then faff about with offers going back and forward, why don't you let me know your best price"

I generally politely inform any buyers that send me this question that I would obviously like the listed price, but will consider any close, and sensible, offers. 

GrubbyGirl_2

I don't do offers, the price is the price but having said that I do make sure my BIN price is a fraction lower than anyone else

FFHillbilly

IftiBashir said:

I refused offer - when I get a lowball offer like this I don't even counter offer. It obvious the buyer isnt too serious about teh item and is just trying his/her luck. 

for low ball offers I just stop responding and let the 24 hours run out, must be really annoying for them.
however thats quite rare now as I have an auto amount set most of the time it's at 75% of BIN

vacheron

Most of my items are BIN / Best offer, but I am clearing out the garage so things are priced at a fair price, but not exactly giving stuff away.

I disabled all the "auto accept and decline" settings from the best offer option as I don't get enough offers to warrant filtering any out so I deal with each manually.

When I get an offer my response is based on how long the item has been sitting about for (some of my stuff has been listed for 4+ years) and how much I would like to see the back of it! Some stuff I've accepted 50-60%. but other things I have declined 90% offers. 

I tend to get 80-90% of my offers through the best offer option, but a few still message with the "best price" question, and these rarely lead to a sale!

I have also been making much more use of the "seller eligible to send offer" option to shoot some discounted prices at interested buyers, and this has been quite successful, but again, I think some sellers are playing clever games with this feature too by constantly adding and removing the same item from their watch lists in the hope that I will send a lower offer next time!

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Bobo_Brazil said:

 so was intrigued to know if other ebay sellers get this question at all, and how do you approach it? 

Usually delete and block. I don't have best offer on listings so don't see why there would be any expectation of a discount, perhaps 20 years of eBay has tainted my views but I think those after a cheaper price are more likely to result in a problem transaction. 

I do send offers out to watchers on some items and get a few sales from that but it's don't without any real communication with the buyer so is easy and under my control. 

Buster_Danog

My way of dealing with this was either to ignore them, tell them my lowest price which would usually be above what they wanted to pay, or best of all recommend they look at the same item from another seller in worse condition.

These kind of buyers often have other options at the price they want to pay, but don't want to buy what is available at that price when the condition is worse.