Let's start a thread about advice and anecdotes regarding the ebay best offer feature (which can technically also apply to other negotiations). A few tips that I think are useful for buyers: 1) Be nice to the seller; don't use insults or talk the item down (i.e. "that coin is ugly; you're lucky I'm even making an offer"). 2) Usually fair offers are between 10%-25% off (there are sellers who take 50%+ off due to unusually high starting prices...do your research on the seller before making the offer). 3) Know the value of the item or sale prices of similar pieces. 4) Sometimes it's best to just buy something for full price and not negotiate. This can be the case where the item is already priced low and might sell before the seller responds to the offer. It can also be true when cherrypicking. 5) There are times when it's best to just pass and not make any offer.
And some for sellers: 1) Be nice to buyers. Don't let rudeness ruin a sale. 2) Try to always reply to offers. Even if it is really low, be polite and say no thank you (if the buyer seems exceptionally unreasonable, blocking or using auto-decline may be warranted). 3) Be willing to accept reasonable offers. If you can't take even a few dollars off the price, reconsider having a best offer option (just set a buy-it-now). 4) Try to avoid using offers on low priced items (i.e. if it's under $10, just list it for $9 if that's your best).
And a recent anecdote that inspired this thread: I'm looking for coins for my Dansco Type Set and came across a relatively inexpensive coin with a best offer option. I researched what similar pieces were selling for, and felt that my initial 7.50 offer for a 9.50 item (about 21% off) was a good starting point for the negotiation. I expected a counter or maybe a chance that the seller would accept. Nope! I got the dreaded offer declined message. No worries, I try again at 8.25 (13% off). Well, I got the declined message again. This isn't a rare item or something that is hard to find, so I'm not quite sure why the seller doesn't even feel like countering or just changing the price to a firm no offer option. At this point, I will use one of my own tips and just move on to look for another coin.
I got a $25 offer on a coin listed for $8500 a couple weeks ago. About twice a year that happens to me. Someone trying to be funny.
I have had those experiences as well. One offered 50% off on a coin I was selling. I countered at 15% off. The buyer must have become angry for not getting their way and their next offer was $1. It is also amusing seeing cases where buyers go down on their 2nd offer or sellers go up.
I used to get ticked off, because you see that notification of an new offer and you get all excited. Then, boom. Lowball timewaster. But these days I just brush it off and move on.
I set items at a price that I feel will get action and set my Auto reply to a price that is best I can do. I might need to think that strategy over. It gets offensive when a person tries to offer an amount out of line with the market. I expect more of people, but I can understand that we will get cross over buyers from the stacking market. Hmm, now you have me thinking..
When I have a BIN with an OBO, my BO price is about 20% off of the BIN. The BIN is normally "retail" (Coin World value). The BO is about CDN. And I ALWAYS use the "ignore offers below" option to weed out the ridiculously low offers. I hold to that with slabbed coins (PCGS or NGC). I'm looser with raw coins and other TPG's.
Thinking is good! It means this thread is serving it's purpose. In terms of auto-accept or auto-decline, I believe those are good features if used correctly (i.e. don't set the auto-decline on a $100 coin at $99).
I'm more receptive to offers after the listing has been up for a bit. I'm not going to jump on an offer made a few minutes after the listing appears -- I'll wait to see if there are higher offers. I realize it's a bit unfair to say I'm entertaining offers if my heart isn't in it, but I don't think eBay provides a way to convert from straight BIN to BIN/BO. Conversely, if I've done a couple of 30-day listings on an item and received only low offers, I might be ready to entertain another low offer. Or I might leave it up, hoping that the right buyer will come along a few more months down the road; that happens, too. I've had at least two occasions where someone made a BO, then bought at BIN before I got a chance to respond. The first was silver offered below melt (to get an eBay promo deal), and I'm sure the buyer realized someone else would snatch it at the asking price if he didn't. On the second, I was seriously considering the offer, and I ended up giving the buyer a small refund out of the goodness of my heart. It costs nothing but a few seconds of time to make an offer, so I can't see getting offended by a lowball offer. I'm sure there are people out there who spend all day lowballing; if they get an acceptance even 1% of the time, hey, bargain item! It's not for me, though. Similarly, it takes only a few seconds to reject a lowball offer, so I don't bother with auto-reject. I figure if my assumptions about value are wrong, autoreject is throwing away some information. (Or maybe I'd still be notified about the auto-rejected offers -- I don't know.) I don't think I've ever gotten more than a half-dozen or so offers for a single listing, and I list very sporadically, so it's never become an issue for me. I did enjoy the person who offered $74 for $50 FV of 40% Kennedy halves, listed at $255, at a point when melt was close to 5x FV. She included a note saying "I sell these for $1 each." I rejected her offer with a note thanking her for it, and adding that I'd buy all she was willing to sell me at $1 each. Never heard anything back on that.
@-jeffB reminds me of another tip: Don't think you'll be successful in offers by telling the seller that you sell these at $x or can buy them at $x all day...if that is the case then go find them at that price or sell them to me at that price.
I prefer to use 40% to leave some room, but on many items (like gold, where even 25% may be under melt) 25% or even less is ideal.
Another interesting factoid is that ebay recently increased the best offer option from 3 to 5 chances. Has anyone noticed a difference yet?
As other have pointed out, you can set it to automatically decline offers below a price you set. I usually set mine to decline a little less than what I paid for an item. That way, if they are at least in the ball park, I can negotiate with them.
