What's with "Place Bid or Best offer"?

[meggy]

Have you seen this? I've been seeing more and more of them in the past couple months.

From what I've read Ebay changes an action to include a best offer if they think your starting price is too high. Not sure how how they choose which auctions to apply that standard. Kind of weird.

 

[swechsler]

I've never tried that, but I assumed it was to allow a potential buyer to make an offer higher than the starting price, hoping that the seller would accept it and end the auction for you.

 

[Lazarus Long]

It has nothing to do with eBay changing anything. It is simply an option you can choose when creating your listing. It must be a fairly new option for auction listings though! I like it. Virtually all of my listings are buy it now or best offer, with the addition of best offer to auction listings, it effectively doubles the amount of BIN listings for me every month!

 

[bobsvinyl]

I sell on eBay. You are given the option of adding best offer. You list the amount you want and a buyer can offer to buy it for a lower price. You can accept the offer, refuse it or make a counter offer if you thinks it's too low. You can also set amounts that you will not go lower than and the buyer is automatically notified that the offer is not acceptable.


I rarely use the feature because it seems to attract bidders who want a 50% or higher cut in the price. I've never heard of eBay adding Best Offer because they think the selling price is too high.

 

[swechsler]

I sell on eBay. You are given the option of adding best offer. You list the amount you want and a buyer can offer to buy it for a lower price. You can accept the offer, refuse it or make a counter offer if you thinks it's too low. You can also set amounts that you will not go lower than and the buyer is automatically notified that the offer is not acceptable.

That scenario has been around for years. This particular discussion is regarding accepting a best offer with an auction rather than a BIN listing.

 

[meggy]

I've never tried that, but I assumed it was to allow a potential buyer to make an offer higher than the starting price, hoping that the seller would accept it and end the auction for you.

I guess that would make sense.

It has nothing to do with eBay changing anything. It is simply an option you can choose when creating your listing. It must be a fairly new option for auction listings though! I like it. Virtually all of my listings are buy it now or best offer, with the addition of best offer to auction listings, it effectively doubles the amount of BIN listings for me every month!

Huh. I'm sure you're right (I got it was eBay changing your ad from Googling).

I sell on eBay. You are given the option of adding best offer. You list the amount you want and a buyer can offer to buy it for a lower price. You can accept the offer, refuse it or make a counter offer if you thinks it's too low. You can also set amounts that you will not go lower than and the buyer is automatically notified that the offer is not acceptable.

I rarely use the feature because it seems to attract bidders who want a 50% or higher cut in the price. I've never heard of eBay adding Best Offer because they think the selling price is too high.

Isn't that BIN or BO?

Thanks guys. Seems like it would be a good feature if the seller can accept any bid they want. I'll bet it backfires a lot though, and people throw out lowball bids.

 

[bobsvinyl]

That scenario has been around for years. This particular discussion is regarding accepting a best offer with an auction rather than a BIN listing.

That's what I was talking about. I never use BIN, but I can use Best Offer on my auctions if I want.

 

[Lazarus Long]

I guess that would make sense.



Huh. I'm sure you're right (I got it was eBay changing your ad from Googling).



Isn't that BIN or BO?

Thanks guys. Seems like it would be a good feature if the seller can accept any bid they want. I'll bet it backfires a lot though, and people throw out lowball bids.

You can set it up to automatically decline offers below X amount. Lets say you have an item priced at $50 and the lowest you will accept is $37. Set it to decline everything below $36..

 

[Lazarus Long]

That's what I was talking about. I never use BIN, but I can use Best Offer on my auctions if I want.

It really depends on what you're selling, but a lot of buyers dont want to mess with auctions. They just want to buy it now and be done with it. About 80% of my sales are accepted best offers. 18% are sold for asking price with no offer submitted. 2% are auction sales. There are some low ballers out there, but thats all part of the game.

 

[sixthday]

Yes. This a new feature since last two months. It is a great feature. I did have few buyer send me offers before bidding ends and I accepted.

 

[Montycat]

It's probably because they think ANY price for a Christopher Cross album is too high...




...runs for cover...

 

[meggy]

I didn't want to put up the actual one I was looking at for fear of someone snagging it. No, really...

 

[pskaudio]

It's probably because they think ANY price for a Christopher Cross album is too high...




...runs for cover...

Runs for cover? You better Ride Like The Wind because there's No Time For Talk unless you want to be Caught Between Moon And New York City!

 

[pskaudio]

I didn't want to put up the actual one I was looking at for fear of someone snagging it. No, really...

If you're talking about the new LP of Another Page, too late!

 

[Montycat]

Runs for cover? You better Ride Like The Wind because there's No Time For Talk unless you want to be Caught Between Moon And New York City!

Ohoh. Nasty earworm alert.

 

[meggy]

If you're talking about the new LP of Another Page, too late!

Nope. But glad you got it. Tell you in 5 days.

 

[DublinTrader]

I use best offer but it's different from a fixed price listing to an auction listing. For a fixed price listing I will accept a lower offer depending on how long the listing has been up but for an auction listing I've already started low so I'm looking for a price over the opener as an incentive for me to close the auction early, if not I'm better off letting the auction go to it's conclusion. I recently auctioned a straight razor with an opening bid of $29.95 one buyer offered $10 which I declined he then offered $15, then $20 then $25 all of which I declined. The reason was between each offer I was getting more watchers. I ended up with 12 watchers and the auction ended it sold for $72. Everyone may not use it this way but that's how I use it. Before this when I would auction items I would occasion receive a message offering me more than the opening bid to end it early and that is the main reason I use it like I do.

 

[blhagstrom]

I’m 99.99% BIN.

So the best offer on auction was new to me.

I just did an auction for something I think may get bidding. I start at a value equal to a BIN anyway.

I set a BIN price higher and did best offer. I just want it sold somehow.

The eBay system freaked. I guess you can do everything.

 

[meggy]

I ... I ended up with 12 watchers and the auction ended it sold for $72. Everyone may not use it this way but that's how I use it..

Just curious, could you how many bidders there were?

 

[blhagstrom]

Just curious, could you how many bidders there were?

After the end, there used to be a bid history that you could look at and see the action.

Maybe even during the auction. It’s been a while since i did a lot of auctions.