- Was this an auction or a Buy It Now listing?
- If the OP was willing to take $25, he would have simply accepted that offer. The "buyer" offering $20 later in the process doesn't really make sense. The seller didn't accept a higher offer, so why send a lower one?
- Sellers on eBay have a "Tasks" section of their seller page. Within that section, there's a "Suggested actions" item. Some people, myself included, will routinely clear this by sending offers.
- Buyers shouldn't get offended because the offer they got was "unsolicited" and/or not a steep enough discount. Someone offered to sell something cheaper than it was before. $45 to $39 is a discount of 13.33% That doesn't seem like a valid cause for angst.
- The seller then went down to $35, a total discount of 22.22% Again, this doesn't seem like an unreasonable thing to have done.
Candidly, I would have blocked the buyer, too. The unconventional negotiating "tactic" makes no sense to me. If I wasn't going to take $25 for that, why would I take $20? If it was a typo, then I've lost a customer...a tire-kicker who apparently loves to spend time haggling and doesn't spend time making sure they've typed their two-digit offer correctly.