eBay: people who ask for discounts on fixed price listings

[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.