What would you do - eBay

What would be your course of action in the following case?

There is a coin on eBay for $70 or best offer. I make a $60 offer and it is declined (no counter). I test the water again and make a $65 offer and this is also declined (no counter).

Would you just buy it for the $70. Would you move on? Would you blast the seller for poor use of the best offer feature (no, I won't-at least not directly )?

I know the answer also depends on how much you really want the coin, but what say you all if placed in such a scenario?

 

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Just move on or offer the person 69.99 lol..

 

I mean if you want it just buy it. You could try 68 or 69, but who really cares about a dollar or two. It's dumb when sellers do that but some do do that and accept nothing but list.

 

Make an offer of $55. When he declines, make an offer of $50. You don't really need the coin, but apparently, he needs the extra dollars.

 

I think he has no intention of selling the coin for less than $70. He’s using the best offer to generate interest. I have had sellers do that a few times to me. When they did, I passed on the coin, and also was tempted to tell them where to put it.

 

There's a time element, too, though. If I put up a BIN/BO and someone offers me 90% of my asking price immediately, I might not accept the offer, because I might expect that someone else will come along and make a better one. Halfway through the listing? Two days away from the end? I'll be a lot more willing to listen.

 

This was on the last day. It ended and was relisted at the same price (with best offer again).

 

What the OP is describing is an "auto-reject" feature that Ebay offers. You can set a minimum threshold, and if the offer is less than that then Ebay automatically rejects if for you. The OP is trying to make a good-faith offer, but the seller clearly isn't interested (they might be willing to take a dollar or two off, but no more).

I find that setting the auto-reject threshold too high is off-putting. You say you're willing to accept offers, but you really aren't? Then why "accept offers?"

As for your particular situation... depends on the coin. Are you willing to pay $70 but were hoping for less? Or is your max $60? If you think the coin is worth $70 to you, then I wouldn't worry about the seller's poor selling practices and I'd just pay it. But if $70 is truly more than you really want to spend... I'd pass.

Your other alternative is to send the seller a message and see if they might be willing to compromise.

 

I'm a very infrequent seller and have sometimes listed an item with the buy it now feature attached and had not intended it to be there. That might be the case here. If it's a fair price, I would just go ahead and make the purchase. I would give the seller the benefit of the doubt.

 

Quite often eBay puts the Best Offer option on your listings without you asking for it. They just unilaterally change your listings after a while (with a ludicrously low minimum offer price) and email you to tell you:

Your listings can now accept offers to attract more buyers

Your chances of selling have just gone up

Buyers can now make offers on your listings.

Listings that accept offers from buyers have a higher chance of selling because they provide more opportunities to attract buyers and make a deal. If you haven’t already, be sure to download our app, so you don’t let any offers pass by. Every offer is an opportunity.

If you don’t want to receive offers, go to Manage offer settings to update your preferences.

If you have a lot of listings, I can imagine you wouldn't be bothered to turn them all back to no offers, but you then have to reject any offers. If your item expires, it will re-list automatically too.

 

To be fair they may never have been willing to accept offers. eBay has been known to add best offer options to listings that sellers are unaware were put on them unless they're checking them

 

It wasn't an auto-reject. It took several hours for each rejection to come through (I've had auto-rejects before too, so I know that wasn't it).

As far as the coin, I'm mixed. $70 is ok but I was hoping to pay less. It's something fairly obscure so there isn't much pricing info. Although there are a few others on the market, those are priced $15-$20 higher and there have not been any sales recently. Considering my mixed status, I'm leaning towards passing for now and maybe coming back if there is an eBay bucks promo.

 

If you're willing to pay 65 just do 70. You wanted it enough to make two offers that are basically the price it's at now and you won't miss that 5 bucks but you very well could regret not getting that

 

It is a seller with a sizable inventory (not an infrequent seller). After having the offer rejected, I went to look at their sold items and saw some had sold via best offer. The two I checked sold for $1 less than asking price so it seems to be what @physics-fan3.14 suggested (a seller who is only willing to take $1-$2 off the ask).

 

That is an option and I could just pay the $70. However, this is one of those cases where I start debating it more. I thought $60 was fair. There was no counter so I decided, lets inch up to halfway between my price and his. Had the seller accepted the $65, I pay and all is settled. Now that he rejected it, I start thinking do I really need it? Did the seller do me a favor by rejecting the offer?

 

I think it comes down to how you feel about the price, and the coin. If you feel you’ve overpaid, you won’t be happy with the coin. If you like the coin sufficiently, then offer a dollar less.

 

To be honest it sounds more like with a difference that small it's more do you want to give the seller that money, which is understandable and human nature to sort of want to show them for being stubborn. Realistically though if you liked it at 65 79 should be fine too, just think of it as the gas you save not driving to get it from a store

 

Part of the situation is that it's an international seller. So I would be saving a lot of gas.

To me that doesn't change the dynamics of the offer process but makes me think more about it. The fact that it might take a month or more to get here factors into the decision (even though that has nothing to do with the seller or the price).

 

Well then you'd really be showing him when it disappears in transit and have to get a refund lol

 

Yep...it could get interesting if that happened.