How would you respond to an unsolicited lowball offer?

trust.no.1

I've recently listed a widget on Ebay. Someone has messsaged me with an unsolicited offer that is incredulously low - in the realms of fantasy .  How would you respond?

soolin

Offers are a part of life on eBay, and if you think eBay is bad don’t try using Vinted!

They’re  nothing to stress about, just politely decline or counter offer, it takes 20 seconds and who knows, you might get a sale. 

Pollycat

If by 'unsolicited' you mean that you haven't listed allowing offers, I'd reply saying 'sorry, I don't accept offers on this item'.
If you have allowed offers, you should put the lowest amount of offer you'd accept when listing. Just decline.

It's no big deal.

RFW

I had a message of an offer recently. "X sells for £20 from other sellers so I'll offer you £10 for yours". I replied that they were welcome to put an offer in via the offer link but it wouldn't be accepted.

One thing I've noticed in the past is that if someone offers £1 on something listed at £100 they may well be willing to pay £98 for the same item, so never totally reject a potential customer. Of course some will try your patience but everyone's just after a good deal.

I was an auctioneer for a few years so I've seen some remarkably stupid offers in my time, I've also made a few that have been accepted. So, on either side, you never really know.

vacheron

I don't think there is any harm in trying your luck. If they make 20 silly offers and get accepted on one, they still have got theselves one great bargain. 

The ones that amuse me the most are the buyers who assume that all sellers are desparate to sell. So you get offers like "I can offer you £8 today, cash money".... how exactly do you think all the other sellers are intending to pay me? Junk Bonds? Cattle?    

Or " <other eBay username> are selling this in better condition for less money".
My usual response: "Great. Just buy theirs then, problem solved"! 

trust.no.1

Pollycat said:

If by 'unsolicited' you mean that you haven't listed allowing offers, I'd reply saying 'sorry, I don't accept offers on this item'.
If you have allowed offers, you should put the lowest amount of offer you'd accept when listing. Just decline.

It's no big deal.

Yes - by unsolicited I meant that my listing is not configured to allow offers. If it had then fair enough - I would have no cause for complaint.

rollingmoon

soolin said:

They’re  nothing to stress about, just politely decline or counter offer, it takes 20 seconds and who knows, you might get a sale. 

Agree it's nothing to stress about, but the chances of the sort of potless chancer who offers you 20% of your price coming good is about the same as me winning the lottery (I don't play the lottery). I block them every time; if you indulge them all that will happen is that your time will be wasted.

soolin

rollingmoon said:

soolin said:

They’re  nothing to stress about, just politely decline or counter offer, it takes 20 seconds and who knows, you might get a sale. 

Agree it's nothing to stress about, but the chances of the sort of potless chancer who offers you 20% of your price coming good is about the same as me winning the lottery (I don't play the lottery). I block them every time; if you indulge them all that will happen is that your time will be wasted.

I can afford 20 seconds to send a one sentence response, I have had some daft offers where people have gone on to pay near asking price, so I won’t block a potential buyer.

rollingmoon

soolin said:

I can afford 20 seconds to send a one sentence response, I have had some daft offers where people have gone on to pay near asking price, so I won’t block a potential buyer.

It's not the 20 seconds to reply to the initial offer that's a problem, it's when they then agree a price then don't pay/ask to pay in instalments/ask if I can wait till their Giro comes and then go silent that I can't be bothered. And that's what usually happened IME, so now I just save myself a load of grief and block them all.

vacheron

soolin said:

rollingmoon said:

soolin said:

They’re  nothing to stress about, just politely decline or counter offer, it takes 20 seconds and who knows, you might get a sale. 

Agree it's nothing to stress about, but the chances of the sort of potless chancer who offers you 20% of your price coming good is about the same as me winning the lottery (I don't play the lottery). I block them every time; if you indulge them all that will happen is that your time will be wasted.

I can afford 20 seconds to send a one sentence response, I have had some daft offers where people have gone on to pay near asking price, so I won’t block a potential buyer.

Ditto, I've had many a lowball offer who then just came back and paid the full price a short while later.
Not sure if they realise they get to make 3 offers?
It often feels like I' should be educating them like the seller in the haggling sketch from Life of Brian! 

horsewithnoname

I sold some stuff a while back and though I didn’t have offers on them, I still got offers. I just replied something along the lines of “thank you for your interest, but I’m not accepting offers on this item.“
No one seemed upset and most bid on the items anyway.