"What's the lowest you will accept for this item?"

GadgetGuru

How would you deal with this question from someone who has placed no offer, and has had no prior contact?

I get this quite often - my view is I've listed an item at a certain price that I feel is fair. Obviously the listed price is what I would like - but I have placed the option to consider an offer. 
Why would I reduce my own price by X amount just because you asked? Seems counterproductive to me.
Give me your best offer so we have at least a starting point to negotiate!

Or do I have this all wrong?

vacheron

I get this a lot too. I guess it prevents the inevitable "high - low - highish - lowish - meet in the middle" game and could just potentially get straight to the sale. However if I give them my genuine lowest price and they come back offering lower they get ignored.

Sometimes I just respond with "I have make an offer enabled on all my buy it now auctions, so send one and find out!"

soolin

I'm usually happy to respond with my lowest  and then don't budge from that if they try offering lower. I'm careful though to always do it through the ebay system and ensure they realise they will have to make that offer formally on the listing.

Occasionally for a popular item I might ask them to submit a bid as 'I'm already considering offers made by another potential buyer'. 

vacheron

soolin said:

I'm usually happy to respond with my lowest  and then don't budge from that if they try offering lower. I'm careful though to always do it through the ebay system and ensure they realise they will have to make that offer formally on the listing.

I had someone ask me this once and I responded, I then recieved numerous questions about how the item was going to be packaged and what service I was going to use. Then a couple of questions about how to use / install the item in question which I responded to. 

A little later I got a message asking when the item was going to arrive as it had been 3 days now and he hadn't had any updates about his item. I had to politely point out that in order for me to do that he would actually need to MAKE the offer and PAY for it first! 

MattMattMattUK

I deal with those kinds of messages by blocking the buyer, it never ends well even if they do buy.

ButterCheese

Do you mean on eBay or Fcebook/other platforms?  I would never respond to anyone on Ebay if I had a BIN or Best Offer option on the listing.  That is literally what it's there for.  On other platforms (such as FB marketplace) it all depends on how long the ad has been up and how much pther interest I've had.  If I'm desperate to sell, I'll give a very reasonable low offer and if they don't accept I just don't reply.  If they're keen enough they will accept.  If it's something weird that you can't really put a price on, like hardcore/stones, soil, then I'll accept something lower if it's in my best interest to get rid.

knightstyle

I just tried to buy an expensive item with 'best offer' I put 3 bids, all refused immediately and the last one was just 6% less than the BIN.  So as I can't bid any more I asked what the best price is.
Why put best offer if you are not even cinsidering offers?

sustainable9911

Is this on eBay? 

They're just chancing their arm. Most of the time dealing with people that are asking similar questions is far more hassle than it is worth. They're far, far more likely to send things back too.

ButterCheese

knightstyle said:

I just tried to buy an expensive item with 'best offer' I put 3 bids, all refused immediately and the last one was just 6% less than the BIN.  So as I can't bid any more I asked what the best price is.
Why put best offer if you are not even cinsidering offers?

Yes I've had that too.  Quite a few items were £180 or best offer, so I offered low and was refused.  Then after a couple of days I offered £180 and that was refused as well.  I don't use Ebay now if I can help it; often I can buy new on Temu for cheaper than used on Ebay

PocketWatchMan

Nowadays I would concur with the above comments who are inclined to block. This person is highly unlikely to be a no-hassle buyer.  It is likely that they want the item at a silly price just so they can sell it on to make an easy buck without doing much work.

As indicated, no prior offer, no prior contact, or questions displaying interest, I think it's most likely they are not really a serious genuine buyer. So you could tailor a reply accordingly : assume your item is priced at £50. Say something like, "Well I think it's worth £60 but I'll take £50.." 

red_boots2

I just block them