Why do so many sellers not understand the concept of make offer?

[bargainsandbaubles]

All of these had the make offer function on their listing.

Offered $25 on a thing of printer toner from a seller that was listing it for $29.99, they came back with $29.59.

Offered $21 on a $24.99 item. Offer expired, I reached out to the seller, and they said "oh no, we could not possibly sell it this cheap". No "cheapest I could go is $23". I guess they didn't want to barter...

Offered $5 on a $7.99 item, offer declined. I come back with $7, seller messages me saying "are you poor or what?". I messaged them and they said "making offer is only for buying in bulk, at least 20 pieces". Um no..that's what VOLUME DISCOUNT is for. This was also a hard to find part for a radio, why the heck would I need 20 of these?

I feel like the make offer function is a waste of time anymore, and sellers think it boosts their listings so they turn it on and not actually take any offers.

[luckythewinner]

Why do you think sellers should offer you any deals when you don't offer buyers any deals?

I see nothing "ironic" the OP's stance at all. The OP does not entertain offers, so he does not put Best Offer on his listings.

The OP's point is about sellers who DO put Best Offer on their listings but seem to have no intention to accept anything but an insignificant discount (ex. 40 cents on a $30 listing).

[postcardcountry]

I do best offer on some items.

However, I set a minimum amount so that any offer that matches or is higher gets auto accepted.

I also set it up so any offer below that amount is automatically declined.

I have a listing buddy who does best offer on most of her items.   yes, the folks who offer 75% off do annoy her.  And sadly, a lot of the best offers she accepts turn into non-payers.

[caribbeanrock]

Seems like a waste of time if they want to only counter off and reply for a 50 cent difference. But I can tell you when it comes to counter offer reply time they really don't give sellers enough time. If they offer at night and we're asleep on top of that  8 hours and then a couple more hours we still don't get to our ebay account and then  we might  get to it  the next day , it expires before we notice it.  They only give you two days.

Most of us are just regular people or businesses that just work office hours and we don't keep our notifications on all night long because it will alert constantly. Not everyone is on there eBay store everyday. Very short counteroffer time 

[chariot_badges]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:

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@bargainsandbaubles wrote:

All of these had the make offer function on their listing.

Offered $25 on a thing of printer toner from a seller that was listing it for $29.99, they came back with $29.59.

Offered $21 on a $24.99 item. Offer expired, I reached out to the seller, and they said "oh no, we could not possibly sell it this cheap". No "cheapest I could go is $23". I guess they didn't want to barter...

Offered $5 on a $7.99 item, offer declined. I come back with $7, seller messages me saying "are you poor or what?". I messaged them and they said "making offer is only for buying in bulk, at least 20 pieces". Um no..that's what VOLUME DISCOUNT is for. This was also a hard to find part for a radio, why the heck would I need 20 of these?

I feel like the make offer function is a waste of time anymore, and sellers think it boosts their listings so they turn it on and not actually take any offers.

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I would assume that as a seller yourself, you understand that sellers aren't required to accept offers or to counter. You probably also are aware that sometimes ebay adds "make offer" by default and the seller never intended for the listing to have a b.o. option. If a seller notices the default offer setting, they can uncheck it, but often, it goes unnoticed.

If there's a b.o. option and the seller declines it, that's his prerogative and for buyers to expect to be entitled to discounts is a good way to end up on BBLs. 

And FWIW, when I have lowball offers I decline without any comment to the buyer. (Your $5 offer on a $7.99 item is 37.5% off-more than 1/3 and insulting! In fact, yesterday, I declined a $7 offer on a $40 item.)

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Yes.

I sell a LOT on BO button.  I never go lower than 20% and usually 10%.

And that is built into price. 

Probably half of my sales involved a BO.

If I get an offer of 90% off I counter with 10% off.

If I get another offer that is stupid low - I ignore it and put 'buyer' on BBL.

[toysaver]

"Why do so many sellers not understand the concept of make offer?"

Make offer in a listing does not always mean the seller wants to accept offers.  It can mean they didn't realize it was set as a default and have no clue how to remove it.  

[cardsforauction]

The reasons the seller does that in my opinion may be one of the following:

1.   They messed up on their item listing and accidentally put "Make Offer" on it.

2.  They are testing the waters to see how much interest there is in their listing, so they put a tiny "spec" offer,   for example the BIN is $190 and they come back with $189 to counter your offer. 

3. Lastly, the seller might be a jerk. Just ignore the seller's item listings unless you decide paying their price or perhaps full price is worth it.

[plumeriabreeze]

Depends a bit on the price point, quantity etc. Best offer needs to be improved a bit.  There are some things that we might be "giving away" at the buy it now price if 1ea so we do not want a lower offer for 1ea.  If you want to buy 100 of them where we can ship all in one box we might take a larger percentage off. A $7.00 widget shipped for free might net us $1 after fees. You might offer $3.00 for 1ea which would be in the negative if we shipped so we would decline.  We might gladly accept $3.00ea for 100ea all put in one box.

[ten_o_nine]

Many sellers use bulk editing to enable best offers, as manually editing thousands of individual items is impractical. This means that some items may be priced at a loss, and sellers must carefully consider each offer. While most sellers want to sell their items, they may still decline an offer if it's not acceptable, even if it's just a penny less than their desired price. It's important to recognize that sellers have the discretion to accept or reject offers based on their own business needs and pricing strategies.

On the other hand,

A significant number of buyers fail to grasp the 'Make Offer' concept, example, offering $7 on a $7.99 item. While the 99c difference may seem trivial to sellers, they become more concerned with the buyer's intent to repeatedly negotiate over a small amount. Busy sellers prioritize efficient transactions and don't have time for prolonged back-and-forth haggling over pennies.

[farmalljr]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

Why do you think sellers should offer you any deals when you don't offer buyers any deals?

I see nothing "ironic" the OP's stance at all. The OP does not entertain offers, so he does not put Best Offer on his listings.

The OP's point is about sellers who DO put Best Offer on their listings but seem to have no intention to accept anything but an insignificant discount (ex. 40 cents on a $30 listing).

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Yeah no. It IS ironic that a seller who does not use BO on ANY of their listings, talks about what they figure an offer should entail. Then complains when sellers are not even really giving a discount. THAT is ironic. Because the OP themselves DO NOT entertain offers. 

[farmalljr]

Some of the responses in this thread a hilarious. You have "mentors" and sellers here that have no clue about selling. People are quickly forgetting that buyers are key. 

Just like the OP being upset at sellers who LIST with a BO option, but are not actually taking offers ..... What do you think BUYERS think of that? Only a blockhead would not realize it ticks off buyers, YOU aren't getting the sale, and LIKELY the buyer will just go to another platform. DUH. If you don't want offers, that's fine. DON'T list with offers if you don't want them. If you are, and you are not accepting offers, it's bait and switch, and sales will and do suffer because some sellers are stupid when it comes to playing games here. 

Sellers here are their OWN worse enemy. Buyers are not going to play stupid games. Buyers are not going to kiss a sellers backside. I swear, most sellers on this board must be closet cleaners and like looking at the piles of junk they have laying around. It's painfully obvious many people who are "sellers" here are a complete joke and do not take selling serious at all. Unless someone is buying, you aren't selling.  You are just storing junk if you are not selling. If eBay went back to making everyone pay listing fees every month, it would clean out half or more of the sellers here. Most people are not serious about selling. Billions of listings and most of it is not selling. Get rid of these items that do nothing but hang around by charging listing fees, and there will be no problems with search. 

[frecklesfinery88]

You are always going to have those who offer the lowest to see if you'll come down at all. If they offer you something ridiculous, say $5 on a $16 item. Just decline it and move along your day.  It all depends on your item and only you know how quickly you want to move it out of your shop.

At the end of the day  you are the one who is either storing it or shipping it out.

[farmalljr]

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@frecklesfinery88 wrote:

At the end of the day  you are the one who is either storing it or shipping it out.

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This is a very good reason to charge listing fees. I would advocate for no more stores. If you want the benefits of a store, then make it 19.99 a month but all listing are charged a fee month. Bigger sellers should get a cut rate on the cost, but every listing should pay a fee. 

Every listing takes up eBay's server space. Every listing adds to the clutter in search. Forcing sellers to pay a fee for a listing is going to make them get serious about selling, or pay for the privilege to take up eBay's server space to look at their listing that will not sell. How many months/years are sellers going to pay for something to just sit and hope for a sale? My bet is the fee would eliminate MUCH of the clutter and games seller's play here. 

[simba6]

Sellers often have an inflated idea of the value of there wares.   I just put the item in my watch list.  You often get an offer that way from the seller.  They tend no to discount much however.

[monster-deals]

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

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Any inquiry (best offer, message)  is an opportunity to close the deal.

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To me it is an opportunity to remove problematic buyers from my life forever and give them to someone else.

[reallynicestamps]

I believe that Best Offer (not "make" offer) has been added to many listings without the seller's knowledge.

However, the Seller who is willing to consider offers can also set up parameters for Accept/Don't Accept.

So if the seller wants at least $90 for their item, but would be happier with $100, they can set up Best Offer to accept anything over that $90 and- this is the important part- reject automatically any offer under $90.

The buyer whose offer is rejected gets a polite notice from eBay encouraging them to try again.

That the notice works is shown by an Accepted Best Offer I will be shipping today, where the acceptance came on the third offer. (We are shown the offers that were not accepted when we accept one.)

There is no reason to get your panties in a twist over lowball Offers. Just make sure you never see them.