Ever wonder why people do it? Low offers

[annemann-2009]

Before anyone jumps in, yes I know you can set a starting off best offer 🥱

I'm just curious as to why people do the following. What's their mindset?

"Oh. I've been after that for months. How much? £60? Hmmm... Seems about right, a bit under what it's sold for elsewhere.

But. Look! Best offer! 

Excellent!

They'll love this. I'll send them an offer of...ooooo... £12. They'll lap that up. I'm a genius. Can't wait for it to arrive. 

[padanpcparts]

I had a guy do this, I messaged back 'Haha, April fool was last week!'. Customer actually came back and said 'Yeah that's fair I guess'. If you don't ask you don't get. It is at least a signal of interest. 

[4_bathrooms]

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@annemann-2009 wrote:

Before anyone jumps in, yes I know you can set a starting off best offer 🥱

I'm just curious as to why people do the following. What's their mindset?

"Oh. I've been after that for months. How much? £60? Hmmm... Seems about right, a bit under what it's sold for elsewhere.

But. Look! Best offer! 

Excellent!

They'll love this. I'll send them an offer of...ooooo... £12. They'll lap that up. I'm a genius. Can't wait for it to arrive. 

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Personally, I hate sending offers as a buyer. When a seller has "Best offer" available I obviously have no idea what the minimum amount they're willing to accept is. The temptation is to send an insultingly low offer in order to receive a counter-offer that will reveal where the seller's line is actually drawn. Usually a buyer is only able to send three offers so it makes sense to make the initial offer deliberately low.

The worst feeling is sending an initial "Best offer" that is immediately accepted. When that happens you know you could have got the item cheaper but by then it's too late. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I used to get this all the time and quite honestly, I found it extremely frustrating.

You got the occasional one, where they put in an offer for something like a 70% discount, counter it with a reasonable one and get the sale.  But the vast majority where a low ball offer, followed by a reasonable counter, to never be heard of again.

I just got completely fed up of it, so I put in a minimum, which is just over 10% discount.

I still get the odd email with people offering silly money, which ends up in a block if they persevere, which a lot do unfortunately.

I have never understood why people do this though.  I mean, would you go into a shop and offer them a stupid price AND expect them to say ok?  What's the difference, whether it's online, or in a shop?

So that just makes me think that the vast majority are chancers, who are hoping that you hit accept by mistake!

[4_bathrooms]

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@therenewalworkshopltd wrote:

I have never understood why people do this though.  I mean, would you go into a shop and offer them a stupid price AND expect them to say ok?  What's the difference, whether it's online, or in a shop?

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Usually when you arrive at a shop counter they tell you the price and you can take it or leave it; i.e. the cashier doesn't invite you to make a "best offer".

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Ah, but that's not actually true.

There have been programmes about this.  You can make an offer in a shop if you want to.  Obviously your not going to get very far in the bigger stores, but you can indeed, when it comes to the smaller shops.  Think of places like an antique shop, do you take the first price there?

They don't have to invite an offer to make one.

But I have done this myself in shops and got a better price.

[magpiecorner1]

Why do you think that?  Its amazing how often folk offer at or very near the amount I would like - or, if it's been hanging around a while, or with a grand margin, what I would be willing to take.

And my price will go lower if you offer on a fair number of items, or if I'm having a good selling day, or merely in a good fettle.

And I often kite fly, and that's when offers can become most interesting!  I've even been known to raise prices if they are taking a while to sell, or even if just the fancy takes me.

Best offers are, I think, great for rarer items.  Certainly that's when eBay becomes fun!

[annemann-2009]

I find it strange when people have a best offer on, but it's 5% off. Just make it 5% less. When I send a best offer to something I want, I tend to go 15% but always add a message saying hope it doesn't offend etc. opens up a dialogue sometimes.

[twofourdeltasurplus]

I think some do it hoping you are desperate for a sale, others hoping you will come back with a counter offer, I now totally ignore low *bleep*. Will you take £10 ? no will take £15, so they then ask £11, you get the picture. few have ended up on my list over it, as gut says they will be a problem

Had some very insulting low ball offers at a show I did last month, so low and insulting I didnt counter them, just told them to eff off out of my pitch and dont come back.

Both things sold very quickly afterwards for just below my happy price

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Why strange?  People love a bargain and if that 5% is built into the price already, they get an extra 5% off the price just for asking.  That and the fact that you also get those people who don't ask, so you get the extra profit, for no extra work.

And I know that there is a balance there, but as long as your not taking the Mick, it won't make much difference to sales overall.  Unless of course, your item is VERY price sensitive.

[annemann-2009]

Well, they'd only get an extra 5% off if you decide you want to offer it. In which case, just list at the original price with a best offer that works out at 10% off. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

The percentage was arbitrary and just an example.

The argument however stands, people like to get a bit extra off when buying.

Along with the fact that as long as it's built in, you get sales that give you a better margin when people don't make an offer.  So why on earth would I want to discount and never get that?  I certainly wouldn't sell any more, as every item is unique.

[twofourdeltasurplus]

Well one item was asking £600 or there abouts, idiot waved £200 under my nose saying thats all its worth, a £900 item all day long but priced to shift quickly and let someone grab a bargain ( it did go by the end of the day ). Same with another item, cant buy it anymore unless in law enforcement etc, offered £25 when asking price was £120.

Chancers everywhere, and they know they are wasting their time, but still try it.

Flip side, I did some discounts and some buyers looked at me like I was mad.

[5216elisabeth]

It doesn't always mean you could have got it cheaper.  Sometimes a buyer will send me a best offer for the lowest price I have already decided I will sell for.  They've just accurately guessed how low I might be willing to go.  Maybe that means I could move them up a bit but if I had already decided I would accept that then why risk losing the sale.  

[4_bathrooms]

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@therenewalworkshopltd wrote:

Ah, but that's not actually true.

There have been programmes about this.  You can make an offer in a shop if you want to.  Obviously your not going to get very far in the bigger stores, but you can indeed, when it comes to the smaller shops.  Think of places like an antique shop, do you take the first price there?

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Whilst I understand that some physical retail outlets will invite or expect offers the vast majority do not. We have a physical counter and every product is sold via a POS system; the counter staff are unable to change any prices. This is now a typical setup for even small retail businesses that sell new, off-the-shelf products. I realise an antique shop doesn't fall under that category but to the best of my knowledge I have never been inside one. 

Anyway; here is my experience of eBay's "Best offer" as a (private) buyer:

Last year I was looking to buy a laptop for a relative. They didn't want a new laptop; they just wanted something half-decent for browsing the internet, using Facebook and making video calls with. Initially I was going to set the "Business seller" filter to look for a refurbished model but I decided to see what was on offer from private sellers as eBay's item specific filters for laptops are actually pretty good.

Refurbished laptops from business sellers that matched the specification I entered were in the £250 - £300 range whilst I found two private sellers with near-identical laptops (same laptop, specification, similar age, similar condition). One was ~£180 BIN (no offers) the other was ~£220 with best offer accepted. I offered £150 for the latter as a deliberate low-ball offer; the seller counter-offered with £215. I then offered £180 - the same price the other seller had their laptop listed for - along with a message providing the item number of the other listing and explaining I had simply offered the same amount as I could purchase the other near-identical laptop for (this would have been my final offer). This offer was declined; I believe the seller also blocked me so I just purchased the other seller's laptop for £180. I never bothered checking the other seller's listing after that to see if they sold it or not so I'll never know whether they ever got what they wanted for it.

Seeing "Best offer" always leads me to believe the price shown has been deliberately inflated. The trouble is I have no idea what the seller is actually willing to accept as I lack psychic abilities. If I'm interested in an item that has "Best offer" enabled I will initially make a low-ball offer that isn't meant to be insulting; it is just slightly less than I'd ideally like to pay. I'm aware that what I'd ideally like to pay and what the seller is willing to accept are unlikely to be the same figure but a counter-offer at least tells me where the seller has set the bar. If that bar turns out to be much closer to the original BIN price than what I'm ideally looking to pay I've learned to just immediately walk away.

I've always thought - where eBay is concerned - there must be an unwritten etiquette around "Best offer"; many of the replies to this thread have reinforced that belief. The seller will set their BIN at something between 5% to 15% more than they're actually willing to accept and experienced "Best offer" buyers know they need to make their offer in the region of 85% to 95% of the BIN price. The seller gets what they want, the buyer believes they've bagged a bargain and anyone offering anything less than around 85% of the BIN price is obviously a timewaster. Yes, there will be chancers making silly offers because "that's all it's worth, mate" but I think many low-ball offers are just an interested buyer trying to find where the bar has been set by the seller.  

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I'm not going to argue over it.  But, shops don't generally expect offers, but everyone forgets, that you can still offer to buy something at a price you feel comfortable with.  For some reason whilst it's understood to be expected in certain establishments (car dealerships and so on), it's no longer expected in shops.

There really is no reason why you can't do this even now.  🙂

 but I think many low-ball offers are just an interested buyer trying to find where the bar has been set by the seller.  

This sentence I have to completely disagree with though.

In my experience, the vast majority of those who send in the really low offers, are just chancers.
It's a rare occurrence, where they are willing to bargain reasonably.

[messier44000]

My record was a £10 offer for a £399 buy it now price.

Once I moped my drink off the floor, I declined 

[vinylscot]

I would say as many as a third of the offers I receive are ridiculously low, Like £10 for a £25 item.

If the potential buyer is using this as an opening gambit, or a way to start a conversation, it backfires. They go straight onto my blocked buyers list. If I'm in a good mood, I may even decline their offer, but usually I just leave them to time out.

With my buyer's hat on, I would rarely ask for a discount of 20% or more unless there was a specific reason, which I would tell the seller about. For example, I may have noticed an error in the listing, or I may be buying or offering on other items from the same seller. Occasionally, I'll email a seller if I reckon they've just priced something badly wrong - I don't do that often, as I don't like receiving such emails, but it does give results sometimes.

[vintagechinashop]

What I find most annoying is those who make an offer that you accept and then just don’t pay. This isn’t unique to eBay over on vinted it’s the same story

[annemann-2009]

Unless there's good reason, eBay should ban them or take payment and remove ability to return the item.