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

red_boots2

Perfect case in point as to why I block someone;

This morning someone messaged asking if I would accept £20 on a £22.50 item, they explained they would have made an offer, but eBay was being glitchy and wouldn't let me enable offers.... I lowered the price to £20, messaged them explaining I had done this.

Next message from them; ideally "I want this for £15, can you go lower?"

np1v08

I've been a private seller on eBay since I was a student about 20 years ago. Obviously, the eBay business model has changed so much over the years; I've just come back to eBay after a year off from selling and discovered there's such a thing as... Simple Delivery! 

I always allow offers (using minimum offer and auto accept when I list), but if someone contacts me like this, I won't just give them the minimum offer price. Instead, I ask if they've tried making an offer yet. This happened yesterday; I've just listed a limited edition item, newly launched, and retailing for £149. It comes with a GWP set that also sells separately on the very-well-known retailer's website for £42 (retailer accidentally sent my order twice, and when I let them know, they rewarded my honesty by saying I could keep the duplicate order).
Someone messaged me asking what was the lowest I would accept.  I gave my standard response, and her reply was that she wanted to make a "cheeky" offer of £50. Bearing in mind my starting price of £99 and the fact other eBay sellers are selling this item - minus the bonus gift - as a BIN for £199. 

Personally I am wary of people who make extremely lowball offers that are not realistic or even in the ballpark for the item concerned. Not only are they just irritating timewasters, but they are the ones who would be more likely to try and work the system (in my opinion/experience) by claiming item not received or not as described./faulty etc. Touch wood, I've only ever had a few sales go sour, and we've all got funny stories from the trenches – like my buyer who bought a BNWT Radley umbrella from me and then contacted me 3 months later to say they'd only just used it for the first time and it was broken, so could they have a refund ?! 

subjecttocontract

I understand that in Scotland for property the asking price is the minimum and only offers above will be considered.......have I got that right ? Perhaps you can add a line to your item description. .....something along the lines of.....only offers at or above the asking price will be considered. 

red_boots2

subjecttocontract said:

I understand that in Scotland for property the asking price is the minimum and only offers above will be considered.......have I got that right ? Perhaps you can add a line to your item description. .....something along the lines of.....only offers at or above the asking price will be considered. 

Not sure I follow, the items are set at a fixed price?

prowla

subjecttocontract said:

I understand that in Scotland for property the asking price is the minimum and only offers above will be considered.......have I got that right ? Perhaps you can add a line to your item description. .....something along the lines of.....only offers at or above the asking price will be considered. 

That sounds strange re. Scotland asking prices, but I'm no expert.

As for adding conditions to your description, that's fine but they may put people off (I don't like stuffy comments in descriptions) and/or not put people off asking anyway (they may decide to chance their arm).

Further (not sure if this s still the case), but eBay did have a thing where they'd default to putting a "Make Offer" button; I've had a couple of times where I've clicked on that and made an offer and the seller has messaged back asking why I'd offered (and I said I'd clicked on the button inviting me to); I've also had occurrences where the seller has sent a counter-offer at the asking price (which I viewed as them blaming me for their listing mistake).

molerat

I put an offer on an item Friday night.  Offer expired with nothing from seller.  If they want a minimum why not set it for automatic refusal.  Just ignoring offers is a bit rubbish.

soolin

molerat said:

I put an offer on an item Friday night.  Offer expired with nothing from seller.  If they want a minimum why not set it for automatic refusal.  Just ignoring offers is a bit rubbish.

I've touched on it before  but I think Vinted is beginning to affect how people use ebay. You only have to read any of the Vinted forums to see some wildly antagonistic posts over what i would consider trivial issues- buyers allegedly sending vile and hateful messages when a seller doesn't accept an offer- but also sellers who use vile language  in discussions on threads about buyers  who dare to make an offer they feel is unacceptable. 

You may find your seller is ex Vinted who is already ranting on a thread somewhere about horrible buyers making offers , without perhaps realising they actually have 'offers enabled' by default on their listings. 

I like Vinted and make a lot of sales on there, but I have had some extraordinary messages from both buyers and sellers on there before who feel I wronged them somehow. A lot of those users have also started drifting across to ebay and bringing that behaviour with them. I still think a polite, 'sorry I'm not taking offers' is better than leaving an offer hang for the full 24 hours unanswered. 

molerat

My daughter sells a bit on Vinted and put a batch on at £5 each, generally sell for £4-£6 so a fair starting point.  Had an offer from one buyer for a few at £1 each so politely refused, got a tirade of abuse.  It turns out that buyer was a seller of the same things so obviously wanted to buy cheap and flip them.

red_boots2

molerat said:

I put an offer on an item Friday night.  Offer expired with nothing from seller.  If they want a minimum why not set it for automatic refusal.  Just ignoring offers is a bit rubbish.

This really annoys me, even if someone low balls me with an offer I always take the time to respond.

soolin

molerat said:

My daughter sells a bit on Vinted and put a batch on at £5 each, generally sell for £4-£6 so a fair starting point.  Had an offer from one buyer for a few at £1 each so politely refused, got a tirade of abuse.  It turns out that buyer was a seller of the same things so obviously wanted to buy cheap and flip them.

That’s not unusual for Vinted unfortunately. I’ve had a couple of nasty messages, I had someone do the ‘I’m disabled so you need to sell me your £10 item for £2 as that’s all my benefits will stretch to’, and when I declined with a more reasonable offer I got a message along the lines of she hoped I ended up with her disability and had to suffer just like she does. That one did get blocked!