Random Thoughts Thread

[stickem]

I dont get the make offer listings on Ebay. About 90% of the time I can be within a buck of the asking price and get declined. Why offer the "make offer" option if you don't take any offer?

[opa]

What gets me is when you submit a best offer and they make a counter offer of 50 cents more. "Best Offer" means "this is my best offer!" not "nickle and dime me for another few pennies".

[prfsnl_gmr]

Making an offer is harder for videogames, movies, media, and other fungible items. We use it mostly to buy furniture where the seller likely has a harder time gauging market price. We can also tell how long something’s been up by how often we’ve tracked it being re-listed.

[RCBH928]

I dont get the make offer listings on Ebay. About 90% of the time I can be within a buck of the asking price and get declined. Why offer the "make offer" option if you don't take any offer?

My only guess its "ON" by default so sellers don't bother changing it for each item they list especially when you are selling 100s of items

[stickem]

I dont get the make offer listings on Ebay. About 90% of the time I can be within a buck of the asking price and get declined. Why offer the "make offer" option if you don't take any offer?

My only guess its "ON" by default so sellers don't bother changing it for each item they list especially when you are selling 100s of items

I was actually thinking the same thing but I've never sold anything so didnt know. Just didnt bother to uncheck that box lol.

[isiolia]

My only guess its "ON" by default so sellers don't bother changing it for each item they list especially when you are selling 100s of items

It's also possible that the majority of offers they get are so ludicrous that they tune it out. Years back, I monitored car ads on eBay for a dealership, with the option there to make offers. Next to none of them were remotely realistic. If they were within reason (like inside $5k), I'd forward things on to a salesperson, but that almost never happened. Instead, you'd just get things for a fraction of the listed price. I still had people complain about not having a counter-offer a handful of times, but it was like, yeah, you offered $10k on a $35k car.
Similar to that though, it might also be the person listing items/etc doesn't have the authority to change the price and doesn't want to bother bugging their supervisor (or whatever) for low dollar items.

[RCBH928]

It's also possible that the majority of offers they get are so ludicrous that they tune it out. Years back, I monitored car ads on eBay for a dealership, with the option there to make offers. Next to none of them were remotely realistic. If they were within reason (like inside $5k), I'd forward things on to a salesperson, but that almost never happened. Instead, you'd just get things for a fraction of the listed price. I still had people complain about not having a counter-offer a handful of times, but it was like, yeah, you offered $10k on a $35k car.
Similar to that though, it might also be the person listing items/etc doesn't have the authority to change the price and doesn't want to bother bugging their supervisor (or whatever) for low dollar items.

Yes, its true some people will send unrealistic offers "Low-balling", but the seller should expect it when he is also asking unreasonable price for an item like $500 for a brand new PSX game. I believe a nice middle ground is that eBay should have an option where a seller will choose an auto-responder of denial for any offer that is "$X or less" that the seller will not even consider. Save seller time and frustration, and low ballers get their answer.

What gets me is when you submit a best offer and they make a counter offer of 50 cents more. "Best Offer" means "this is my best offer!" not "nickle and dime me for another few pennies".

I think it might be psychological that they got the final say, and thus they "won"! I don't see a reason why would any one counter for 50 cents more. On most items it should be increments of $5 at least, imo.

You are right, best offer is your best offer, but I never saw it that way. I always understood it as "make an offer". I for one willing to negotiate lower price, if I offer $20 and they counter with $30 I am ok with that (assuming unit price is $40 for example).

[pierrot]

I believe a nice middle ground is that eBay should have an option where a seller will choose an auto-responder of denial for any offer that is "$X or less" that the seller will not even consider. Save seller time and frustration, and low ballers get their answer.

This is what Ebay does. I've listed things that had OBO attached to them, and any offer that was below a set amount, I wasn't even notified about. The only way I even knew about them was looking in the offer history page if I got an offer that was above the set amount.

[pierrot]

Does anyone ever wonder if dreamcast4ever83 actually stroked out?

[BoneSnapDeez]

I was thinking of him the other day, and the weird scam he attempted to pull. Hope he's doing okay.