eBay: people who ask for discounts on fixed price listings

[BobbyStrawberry]

As a seller, how do you feel about people on eBay messaging you asking about discounts on fixed price listings?

I used to not mind it, but it seems like it happens more and more...sometimes it starts to annoy me....your thoughts?

[STL1944]

Any transaction has to happen when a buyer and seller agree on a price.

As far as your question, I guess it depends. As a seller, I would want to know if there was a buyer out there for my item even if it wasn't at my asking price. Gives an option to make a deal on something. That being said, if you get a bunch of folks offering you 20% of your asking price, that gets annoying.

[butchie_t]

If the price is listed and no other offers are to be entertained. I’m good with that.


One that bugs me is a seller that lists a price ‘or OBO’ and then sets an offer drop of $5.00 less and auto denies lower offers. Just set the price $5.00 less and make it a buy now and stop with the OBO nonsense when they don’t really mean OBO.

Butch

[Brent G.]

I'd think being unwilling to negotiate would limit sales. I'll always send a reasonable offer to any fixed price seller, and I'd say 80% of the time they respond favorably. If someone sends a truly stupid offer, I wouldn't waste time responding.

[NiceDocter]

An offer of 75% or more of an item that has run repeatedly with no bidders or buyers should be greeted with thanks and a polite refusal , or better yet a counter offer. I recently had a seller respond to my offer of 80% of his MB on a listing that had run for months with no action with a terse “I didn’t ask for offers! If you want it bid on it.” It’s still on eBay no sale. Since when is it an insult or a bother when someone offers you money for something you’re selling? Sheesh…….

[Eric72]

I don’t mind when people send messages with offers. If their “offer” is ridiculous, I’ll just reply with “sorry, no” and block them.

Case in point. I had an item listed, buy it now or best offer. Offers of less than 50% (offering less than $75 on my $150 item) would be auto-declined. The “buyer” sent me a message to tell me eBay was no longer letting them make offers. They told me they “could do $50” for the album.

I checked eBay active listings. Yep, mine was still the only one for sale.

I checked Discogs. Yep, the handful available were all still more expensive than mine.

So, the “buyer” made five super low offers. They all got auto-declined. Since they couldn’t send any more, they went fishing with a message. Sorry, no. Go away.

[Fred]

If a seller uses OBO, does ebay allow the seller to to place an auto decline on the offer if it's below a set threshold that ebay allows a seller to setup in application?

Are unsolicited offers to sellers allowed in the application? I'm assuming that if someone uses the "ask seller a question" that ebay has something in place that doesn't allow for the buyer to send an email address (blocks that content). How would an ebay buyer ask the seller to take a lower offer if OBO is not used?

[Mike Eisenbath]

I tend to treat shopping on eBay the way I shop at an in-person card show, where negotiation is part of the culture. I don't always know how much they paid for the card, how long it has been in the case (and getting stale), and if they need money in the moment.

Plus sooooo many eBay listing are waaaaay too high. I find if I'm willing to still go over a recent price (the dreaded "comps" word) that is a discount from the listed price, I have a good chance at making a purchase. That tells the seller I'm putting it into my collection and not planning to flip for a profit.

Like at a card show, an eBay seller can say, "i appreciate the offer, but my price is firm." They always can say no.

Part of the fun in this hobby is that buyer-seller interaction. I've made collecting friends from such messaging.

IMHO, the keys on both buying and selling sides are politeness and respect.


Sent from my SM-S921U using Tapatalk

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Fred

If a seller uses OBO, does ebay allow the seller to to place an auto decline on the offer if it's below a set threshold that ebay allows a seller to setup in application?

Are unsolicited offers to sellers allowed in the application? I'm assuming that if someone uses the "ask seller a question" that ebay has something in place that doesn't allow for the buyer to send an email address (blocks that content). How would an ebay buyer ask the seller to take a lower offer if OBO is not used?

Yes, sellers can set an auto-decline threshold. Buyers get immediate notification their offer was declined. They can send a total of five offers. If they’re all auto-declined, the buyer cannot send additional offers on that item.

They can send messages. For example, “would you take X” messages have hit my inbox. Buyers do not get the seller’s email address; eBay will alert the seller (via traditional email) that they have a message in their eBay Seller Hub.

[doug.goodman]

I don't sell much, but when I do I :

1 - set a price that will net me an amount I am happy with
2 - counter or accept what I consider to be reasonable offers
3 - ignore or counter offers that I consider to be unreasonable

Easy peasy

[CardPadre]

Most unsolicited offers I receive are not even in the form of a sentence, or not formatted as a question, or not even formatted as money…those annoy me and are an instant block. Example on a $6k card::
Some idiot:



4200





If they can write an actual sentence I will usually reply.

[bcbgcbrcb]

One has to remember, when a seller has a ridiculous selling price on an e-bay listing, it is not always the buyer making the offer that is unreasonable if below 50% of asking. The buyer offer may be much more in the ballpark of market value than the seller asking price. Buyer isn't always the one in the wrong with these scenarios. I've done that a number of times, with my main intent being to stress to the seller that their asking price is way out of line. I have no delusions that they might actually accept my offer. Although I have seen best offers accepted at 25% of BIN price on occasion (when the seller knows they are shooting for the moon and agree to take just reaching the clouds instead).

[bcbgcbrcb]

Oh, and nothing irks me more than a seller with a OBO listing that doesn't bother to respond to an offer, even one that is a lower percentage of their asking price. Offer declined isn't that difficult of a button to click on, we're all capable of doing it (or we shouldn't be listing items for sale on e-bay if not). This stands out to me even more when we are talking about a 5-figure offer. If I am willing to spend that kind of money on an e-bay item, it deserves the respect of a reply.

[CardPadre]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Oh, and nothing irks me more than a seller with a OBO listing that doesn't bother to respond to an offer, even one that is a lower percentage of their asking price. Offer declined isn't that difficult of a button to click on, we're all capable of doing it (or we shouldn't be listing items for sale on e-bay if not.

If you make a crap offer, you don’t deserve even a “decline” and it helps the seller to let your offer rot as it will show as a “competing offer” is active to other prospective parties. So….tough luck.

[philliesfan]

I do not mind offers at all. It might be something I am willing to part with at a discount. However, stupid offers like less that 50% of my asking will be ignored.
Bob

[Fred]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

One has to remember, when a seller has a ridiculous selling price on an e-bay listing, it is not always the buyer making the offer that is unreasonable if below 50% of asking. The buyer offer may be much more in the ballpark of market value than the seller asking price. Buyer isn't always the one in the wrong with these scenarios. I've done that a number of times, with my main intent being to stress to the seller that their asking price is way out of line. I have no delusions that they might actually accept my offer. Although I have seen best offers accepted at 25% of BIN price on occasion (when the seller knows they are shooting for the moon and agree to take just reaching the clouds instead).

Phil - you get it! I've had offers of 33% lower than the listing accepted on the OBO. The price I'm offering is reasonable because the offers are being accepted.

Originally Posted by CardPadre

Most unsolicited offers I receive are not even in the form of a sentence, or not formatted as a question, or not even formatted as money…those annoy me and are an instant block. Example on a $6k card::

Some idiot: 4200


If they can write an actual sentence I will usually reply.

William, I don't know what you were selling for $6K and had an offer of $4.2K so it's probably not good to speculate if the offer was reasonable. Reasonable is obviously "subjective", just like grading. Just curious, what's your ebay seller ID, who knows, you might have something I could use and if the price is too high (my opinion), I can always send you a N54 offer (probably your asking price minus all the ebay fees).


To all -

Besides that resource (Vintage Links) which has ebay users, is there a list anywhere else in N54 which allows N54 members that ACTIVELY sell on ebay to make themselves known? Hey, I understand that ebay needs to make money, but they make a ton already - why not offer the stuff in the BST with a prices sans the reasonable ebay fees.
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[CardPadre]

Originally Posted by Fred

Phil - you get it! I've had offers of 33% lower than the listing accepted on the OBO. The price I'm offering is reasonable because the offers are being accepted.





William, I don't know what you were selling for $6K and had an offer of $4.2K so it's probably not good to speculate if the offer was reasonable. Reasonable is obviously "subjective", just like grading. Just curious, what's your ebay seller ID, who knows, you might have something I could use and if the price is too high (my opinion), I can always send you a N54 offer (probably your asking price minus all the ebay fees).


To all -

Besides that resource (Vintage Links) which has ebay users, is there a list anywhere else in N54 which allows N54 members that ACTIVELY sell on ebay to make themselves known? Hey, I understand that ebay needs to make money, but they make a ton already - why not offer the stuff in the BST with a prices sans the reasonable ebay fees.
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Even if $4200 was the price I’d actually sell for, I would not sell to someone who could not write a sentence or format numbers as a price, or format their offer as a question. But I’m not a dealer and nobody needs to buy stuff from me anyway, I just don’t care.

[BobbyStrawberry]

I appreciate all the replies. It's interesting to read different perspectives.

If someone offers me a price close to asking, unless it's a brand new listing, I will not get annoyed and will often accept it.

The ones that I don't love are:

- Just a price, like CardPadre mentioned ("$300?")
- "Will you take less for this?" (or some variation, not actually offering a price)
- Ones that want to debate you about your price ("This other one just sold for $X") - OK, but mine is nicer!

To NiceDocter's point: if my listings were in the "museum' category, I would definitely be more open to lower offers. However, I try to be conscious so as not to be that seller. I don't think I've ever had a listing up more than a few weeks without doing some sort of adjustment to it. In fact, I tend to take things down if they don't sell after some period of time.

Also, if someone offers me a lower price on here, I'll always entertain it. Buying and selling here feels more like an in-person environment where you are dealing with real people. There's a kind of anonymity to eBay where I feel like people act a way that they wouldn't in person.

[raulus]

The only ones that are annoying to me are messages asking me what my rock bottom price is.

Make me an offer!!

I’m not going to bid against myself. So typically I will let them know that my asking price is already listed, but invite them to make me an offer.

[Orioles1954]

Originally Posted by raulus

The only ones that are annoying to me are messages asking me what my rock bottom price is.

Make me an offer!!

I’m not going to bid against myself. So typically I will let them know that my asking price is already listed, but invite them to make me an offer.

I had a guy ask me what my "rock bottom price" was on a $10 card.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Orioles1954

I had a guy ask me what my "rock bottom price" was on a $10 card.

Rock bottom: $9.99

[premiercardcollectors]

I am an eBay seller and get tons of messages from people offering on cards that already have a “make offer” option. I have a preset response basically telling them that all price concessions are managed through the make offer system.

I can count on one hand how many cards I have sold out of thousands by people messaging with offers. Serious buyers will use the make offer system.


Geoff Bedine
Premier Card Collectors
Since 1977

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Oh, and nothing irks me more than a seller with a OBO listing that doesn't bother to respond to an offer, even one that is a lower percentage of their asking price. Offer declined isn't that difficult of a button to click on, we're all capable of doing it (or we shouldn't be listing items for sale on e-bay if not). This stands out to me even more when we are talking about a 5-figure offer. If I am willing to spend that kind of money on an e-bay item, it deserves the respect of a reply.

As a seller I often don't reply to offers, I consider not replying to be a reply, so apologies in advance Phil if I ever ignore an ebay offer from you. Insert smiley face here.

As a buyer my record for making an offer and having it accepted was in the 20 to 25% range, I politely explained my logic for the offer and said no hard feelings if the seller thought I was delusional. They may have thought I'm delusional, but they accepted.

[UKCardGuy]

I don't get the hostility to getting offers. I regularly get offers that are ridiculously low. I use it as a point to start negotiations. I explain that their offer is way too low and potentially point out recent comps. Sometimes they respond positively... Sometimes they don't. But I'm no worse off.

As a buyer, I'll make offers on fixed price listings... Especially if they've been up for a long time. But it's disappointing how many times sellers are just rude.

[hammertime]

Originally Posted by raulus

The only ones that are annoying to me are messages asking me what my rock bottom price is.

Make me an offer!!

I’m not going to bid against myself. So typically I will let them know that my asking price is already listed, but invite them to make me an offer.

Yep. I have "best offer" activated on all of my listings but I still get multiple messages like this per week. I just tell people I don't negotiate over messages, if they want to make an offer they can. I'd say 90% of the time I never hear from them again.

[hammertime]

Originally Posted by butchie_t

One that bugs me is a seller that lists a price ‘or OBO’ and then sets an offer drop of $5.00 less and auto denies lower offers. Just set the price $5.00 less and make it a buy now and stop with the OBO nonsense when they don’t really mean OBO.

Butch

Agree, that makes me crazy.

[ALBB]

seems fine to me..you can always say no

I see guys do it at shows all the time...Nothing is set in stone

[Gorditadogg]

I put things up on ebay because I want to sell them. If someone makes an offer, they are a potential buyer.

I read on this site a few months ago that the most important thing a person wants when he makes an offer is a quick response. So I try not to be annoyed at lowball offers and just make a prompt response. If I get a second low ball offer, wcich happens often, I just ignore it. But I have gotten to a lot of deals by countering with a small discount.

I've also had a couple times where my counter offers expired , and then the person came back and bought at my listed price a week later.



Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[Vintagedeputy]

I’m a reseller and almost all of my auctions are buy it now with best offers left open to be made. Many times I buy items where I don’t exactly know what the value might be so I take my best guess and let a potential buyer make an offer.

Sometimes I will do an actual auction, but those don’t do nearly as well as the buy it now sales. The key for me as a reseller is buying something so inexpensively that I can clearly make a profit on it. For example, I recently purchased a bank charger for handheld price scanners like you’d see used in a department store for $8.00. I saw similar ones selling online for between $75 and $115ish. I priced mine at $89.99 and someone offered me $75 so I took that. Maybe I left a few bucks on the table, but a $67 profit for a big, bulky item that only sat in inventory for about two weeks is a win in my book.

[gunboat82]

I don't mind the messages because they indicate that there's at least some level of interest and, in some cases, help me gauge the market. That said, the vast majority of my listings are set to not allow offers because I'm usually selling at cost and have priced the item exactly where it needs to be for me to break even (or lose only a little). I don't mind if an item sits because I priced it exactly 12.7% higher than cost.

Lately, I've been getting more messages from people who seem aggressive and unhinged, which makes me wonder if the breaker/flipper bro culture is crossing over into the vintage market.

They'll show me comps (usually selectively filtering out the higher sales).

They'll tell me that my card actually sucks and they're doing me a favor by offering to take it off my hands at 30% of asking.

They'll tell me it's their son's or dad's or dying uncle's favorite player, and they hope I can find it in my heart to do them a favor.

Sometimes if I don't respond within the hour, I'll have several messages from the same person: "hello?!?!?"... "at least u cud answer"... "take 50?"... "take 55 final offer u won't get better"

Sometimes, when I explain that I'm priced where I am to break even accounting for fees, I'll get responses that they don't care about my fees and I'm going to be sorry I didn't take what I could get when the card drops in value. They can't seem to understand that some people who list on eBay don't need to sell to survive.

I seem to be a magnet for this crap, and I only have a handful of listings at any given time. I can't imagine what it's like for sellers with real inventory.

[luciobar1980]

Originally Posted by CardPadre

Most unsolicited offers I receive are not even in the form of a sentence, or not formatted as a question, or not even formatted as money…those annoy me and are an instant block. Example on a $6k card::

Some idiot: 4200


If they can write an actual sentence I will usually reply.

Haha yes, this annoys me too.

But if people are pleasant, reasonable, and coherent, I don't mind them sending an offer.

[Leon]

I make offers on fixed price items many times.

What I am getting from this thread is that I need to start offering at least 51% of the fixed price .

And a stamp sheet for no apparent reason except it's bright and colorful. From the bay about a year and a half ago...

[insidethewrapper]

As a Seller , I like the "Dutch Auction" Option if you don't really know the price of an item and it has several sells at various prices. For example: Start the Sell at $100 and you can have the price lowered by any amount and any time frame. For Example: lower the price by $ 1 every 30 days until your minimum price is reach ( $ 75 ). This is done automatically so you don't need to relist or reprice an item.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

As a seller, how do you feel about people on eBay messaging you asking about discounts on fixed price listings?

I used to not mind it, but it seems like it happens more and more...sometimes it starts to annoy me....your thoughts?

Would that not depend upon how close the potential purchaser's bid is compared to your offering price?



On fixed price offerings I don't submit bids. I find that the sellers themselves send me discounted offerings when I put their offered item on my Watch List.

[Kco]

The issue for me is items that are listed 2x market and/or retail price. Ive made strong offers over auction and above retail in many cases and sellers want to come down 10% when they are 100% overpriced. I've reached out with strong offers on non OBO listings and didn't even get the courtesy of a reply to my inquiry. (Think $15k cash offer as a starting point on an item valued at 12-13k auction with a BIN of $27k).

At that point as a seller I cross you off the list of people I am willing to deal with.

[Knightlax5]

Originally Posted by Fred

Phil - you get it! I've had offers of 33% lower than the listing accepted on the OBO. The price I'm offering is reasonable because the offers are being accepted.





William, I don't know what you were selling for $6K and had an offer of $4.2K so it's probably not good to speculate if the offer was reasonable. Reasonable is obviously "subjective", just like grading. Just curious, what's your ebay seller ID, who knows, you might have something I could use and if the price is too high (my opinion), I can always send you a N54 offer (probably your asking price minus all the ebay fees).


To all -

Besides that resource (Vintage Links) which has ebay users, is there a list anywhere else in N54 which allows N54 members that ACTIVELY sell on ebay to make themselves known? Hey, I understand that ebay needs to make money, but they make a ton already - why not offer the stuff in the BST with a prices sans the reasonable ebay fees.
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Is there a list on this site with Net54 users and their ebay user names? If not i’ll create one. It would help those who always ask “is____ ebay user on Net54?”

[premiercardcollectors]

Originally Posted by Knightlax5

Is there a list on this site with Net54 users and their ebay user names? If not i’ll create one. It would help those who always ask “is____ ebay user on Net54?”

Thanks for doing that!

Mine is premiercardcollectors just like my user name on Net


Geoff Bedine
Premier Card Collectors
Since 1977

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by Knightlax5

Is there a list on this site with Net54 users and their ebay user names? If not i’ll create one. It would help those who always ask “is____ ebay user on Net54?”

There is this listing, but I suspect that it is far from complete: https://www.net54baseball.com/forum/...tagelinks.html

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Knightlax5

Is there a list on this site with Net54 users and their ebay user names? If not i’ll create one. It would help those who always ask “is____ ebay user on Net54?”

There's a field on the member's profile for eBay ID, but the member would have to manually enter it there when they create (or update) their profile. You can also search by the eBay ID in the advanced search from the member section.

[Knightlax5]

Originally Posted by jayshum

There's a field on the member's profile for eBay ID, but the member would have to manually enter it there when they create (or update) their profile. You can also search by the eBay ID in the advanced search from the member section.

I appreciate the education! I tried doing a plain search with ebay ID’s but didn’t know i could do an advanced search to better find them

[Kutcher55]

I did this just last night and got a deal out of it. I find this works best when there's an item up for bidding at a relatively competitive price (intro bid) that I'm interested in that closes without bids. There was an example of this last night. An item with a starting bid of $24.99 was closing with no bids, but I forget about it and it closed with no bids. So, just before I went to sleep I sent a very short message to the seller: "$22?" and then I woke up in the morning to find that he was game. So then I looked into his catalogue and found another card out there with no bids yet and we settled on a price for that one as well (initial bid of $47.59 and we landed at $42.50). Might as well since I already had shipping factored in, right? Obviously dealing with peanuts here, but it was all quite amicable and every bit of savings help when you're buying cardboard.

I have done this various times and the response tends to fall into 3 categories: 1. No I think the price is fair. 2. Sure. 3. No response at all. So far nobody has ever been rude about it.

[ullmandds]

I personally look at any fixed price item as having about 20% wiggle room off ask depending on how reasonable/ridiculous the ask....atleast that's the way I look at it. And I may offer even less based on recent comps/my whims or whatever reason. It's a negotiation! and you can't go backwards once you've thrown down a #!

[D. Bergin]

Case by case basis I guess. Usually they just amuse me.

Just today I got a simple “7.00…?” for an item I have listed at about 15.00 including shipping, and have sold a couple dozen at that price in the last 6 Months or so. I just ignore.

Anybody ever get “Will you take blank dollars for it…I can PayPal you right now” on an auction item that already has bids well above what they are offering? This has happened more times then you might think and it’s not because they sent their offer before the bids got put in.

[JJ McGraw]

Originally Posted by butchie_t

If the price is listed and no other offers are to be entertained. I’m good with that.


One that bugs me is a seller that lists a price ‘or OBO’ and then sets an offer drop of $5.00 less and auto denies lower offers. Just set the price $5.00 less and make it a buy now and stop with the OBO nonsense when they don’t really mean OBO.

Butch

I could agree more Butch……these days , I just move on from that “game playing”…..it’s a huge time waster!

[JJ McGraw]

And there is nothing wrong with asking or being asked about a better price on a fixed priced item on eBay…,we do the same thing on all other platforms. If the seller doesn’t want to do that and is set with the price, they will say so. More than not , sellers have worked with me on price as I have worked with others buying my stuff. Again, I hate the OBO , mentioned above when it’s only a few bucks( not even $5 off)
Remember….its a hobby

[Brent G.]

Whether fixed price or those with best offer option, I think there's a lot more people with ultra-high starting prices these days because of how hot the hobby is and how much cash from dumb people is flying around. There are plenty who'll take an actual market-price offer if you send it.

[glchen]

As an ebay seller, very few of my listings are Best Offer and most are Fixed Priced listings. I take and accept offers via ebay messages all of the time, so I am definitely open and happy to receive offers from potential buyers asking about discounts. I reply to every message from a potential buyer even ridiculous low ball offers. For the low ball offers or what I consider low ball, I usually just reply by telling the buyer that my list price is my best price. For others that give offers within my ballpark, I try to negotiate with them or even just agree to their offer right away. I do this all of the time.

The reason that I don't have many best offers on my listings is that I think that if BO is an option for a listing, most buyers automatically assume that the list price is not your best price and immediately give a lower price to try to get your lowest price. Therefore, my idea is that as a seller, you can get a higher overall sell price by not offering BO. I don't know if this is the best sales strategy, but just my thinking. A lot of other sellers offer BO regularly and they get more sales throughput and turnover. That is a perfectly reasonable sales strategy also.

[BRoberts]

Originally Posted by glchen

The reason that I don't have many best offers on my listings is that I think that if BO is an option for a listing, most buyers automatically assume that the list price is not your best price and immediately give a lower price to try to get your lowest price. Therefore, my idea is that as a seller, you can get a higher overall sell price by not offering BO. I don't know if this is the best sales strategy, but just my thinking.

This is my perspective, too.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by STL1944

Any transaction has to happen when a buyer and seller agree on a price.

As far as your question, I guess it depends. As a seller, I would want to know if there was a buyer out there for my item even if it wasn't at my asking price. Gives an option to make a deal on something. That being said, if you get a bunch of folks offering you 20% of your asking price, that gets annoying.

Unless of course the seller has a price that is about 5 times the going rate. Then a 20% offer seems reasonable to me.

Brian

[Mark17]

If someone makes a halfway reasonable offer, I give them a polite reply. Offers aren't the only, or the most annoying, questions I get asked.

A few days ago, a guy who had made an offer on my BIN listing made a follow-up offer even lower than his first one, which I had rejected. I blocked him. Yesterday, a guy who had made a couple offers which I turned down went ahead and bought the item at my listed price. It was a courteous exchange beginning to end.

So, sometimes it pays off, sometimes not, but since one never knows which tire kickers will become buyers, it's worthwhile, and the right thing to do I think, to be courteous. At least up until they become obnoxious.