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So I just discovered yesterday that buyers can make only a limited number of offers for an item (5 I think). I’m not sure if this is a problem or not. For one item, someone made five bids in one dollar increments and they were all under the amount that is automatically rejected. Now they can only buy it at my asking price, even though I would take a little less. And even if I decide I’m willing to sell an item for an amount that was previously automatically rejected, sometimes I can no longer see the names of the people making offers (eBay has some features that come and go apparently), so I can’t contact them to let them know. The only thing I can do is revise the listing, lower the asking price, and hope they check back and see it and buy it for the new price. Thoughts? Does anyone have tips or strategies on how to set the amount you automatically reject? Or do you set it to zero?
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I do not set a minimum partly because my minimum changes over time.
You might be able to make an offer through messages if the buyer sent you one.
If they were making $1 bid increments, they probably want to pay less than your minimum and won’t be interested in your new lower price, but that is my guess.
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I agree with Sharyn, I think the buyers who do that are fishing to see if there is a very low automatic accept price and probably aren’t interested in a reasonable counteroffer. Even then $1 increments don’t make much sense unless its a very low priced item to start with. To me, this kind of activity indicates a potential problem buyer. If you look at the feedback they have left for sellers there is a good chance you will see lots of negatives left.
I don’t set minimum automatic reject because I want to at least see the offer and make a reasonable counter or just decline if it is a crazy number.
The buyer can only make 3 offers.
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The buyer can only make 3 offers.
The depends on the category on ebay. Most categories are now 5 offers.
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I had someone send a series of $1 increments the other day, except I didn’t have it set to automatically decline. They probably would have used up all 5 of their offers had I not blocked them after they ignored each of my counter offers and continued working their way up from $10 instead (less than half of the asking price.)
A few days later they messaged me and complained that they could no longer send offers or purchase the item. I said I would take them off my block list if they paid full price. They agreed.
But this is an edge case, much like yours. You could have given your buyer 1000 offers and they probably would have started entering $10.01, $10.02, etc etc. They want a better deal than you’re willing to give. Regardless, I recommend not setting a minimum amount for offers because it’s possible to turn a low-ball offer into a decent offer with a bit of haggling. I know some people here get freaked out when they get a $50 offer on a $100 item, but that’s when I know someone wants to play ball, and maybe I can get them at $75.
One time I sent an offer for $20 on a $35 item. It was rejected instantly. To me, this says that the seller has no idea what they’re doing and shouldn’t have offers enabled for that item. When I get an automatic rejection I lose interest in sending further offers – I’m not on eBay to play a guessing game.
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It depends on the item. I generally do not set limits on my items as the value for my long tail stuff is highly subjective.
If I have an item where the value has been pretty well set in the market I will set a minimum.
Another time I’ll set a minimum is if I get one of these incremental buyers wasting my time. If a bidder does the dollar bump after I counter offer, I’ll go into the item and set a minimum and then decline their counter. Poof, I won’t see their incremental bids anymore.
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As people have said above, we dont fool with buyers who try to low ball us. Trust us, they wont be good buyers and often are the ones most likely to return an item.
If you’ve done the research, be strong in your price. Offers are great because it lets us decide if we want to move an item quickly or not.
I believe you’re still new to eBay and growing your store. I encourage you to really put your energy into listing listing listing. Your energy can really be sapped by people who actually will probably never buy.
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Thanks for all the feedback. I am working on growing my listings. I do struggle a little over setting prices and I often go back to revise listings multiple times in various ways by changing the asking price, the minimum offer, whether or not I will even take offers etc. Hopefully, I’ll do less second guessing as I get more experience.
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