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Hey everyone! Do you counter initial buyer offers or do you just accept?
I have attractive prices comparatively on my items so that they have a good chance of selling. Often, when I get an offer, i will take a look to see other prices and it seems if i counter with something more reasonable, I get no response.
Maybe I should just set an automatic reject at a certain amount to avoid the aggravation.
Do you find that if you counter, the sale is just lost?
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Every single item is different.
Lately I’ve been accepting any reasonable offer, especially on clothes and shoes. I’m swimming in unlisted inventory so anything going out the door is a good thing.
I do not put a minimum offer on most items, but I typically do put them on items that are priced high or that I know have a high sell through rate.
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As more time goes by, I find the Ryanne & Jay method, “list high with best-offer,” works best.
In December, my “list and hold store” will be two years old. There are items I listed in 2018 that still sell for full price. If you have space and can wait – everything eventually sells. If I get a low ball offer on something dating back to 2018, I am more inclined to accept than I am for an item I just listed last week.
If an item is easy to ship, I counter with the listing price, less the estimated cost of shipping. For those who like to feel like they “got a deal,” the estimated shipping discount is usually just enough to make the sale. Those who want to feel like they got “something for almost nothing” will never be satisfied.
If the item is something you want to get rid of and it’s been clogging your inventory for years, by all means, accept. If not, counter. If you lose the sale, you at least have gained an important piece of data about the item. If you have a unique widget listed for $99.00 and 5 people offer $20.00, it is probably overpriced.
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This is our answer.
Yesterday, I took a half-price offer on a pair of boots because we’ve had them several years. But even the half-price offer was a strong price than many similar boots.
We usually always counter offers if we’re not desperate. 1 in 10 counter offers are accepted.
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As someone who does thrifting and retail arbitrage, I will take the offer usually on the thrifted item if it’s not below half of my listed price. I usually have only have 1 of each item and my margins are usually pretty good, even at a 60 percent offer. If I counter, I just try to nudge them up a few dollars.
With my new in the package retail arbitrage stuff, I counter, and I counter high. I want to make pretty close to my asking price to get my money out and a healthy profit on stuff I have usually aged or traveled across the country for. I also usually have multiples of the item. I am not a big fan of poisoning the well where I drink, so I do not take half price offers on retail arbitrage stuff usually, unless they’re buying a bunch of birthday party supplies from me, or it’s an item that I priced really really high because I have the only one.
I have turned off auto reject, and if you send me a 20 dollar offer on a 60 dollar item, I just counter 55. About one in twenty times someone will come way up and I’ll sell my item.
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As an eBay buyer, I actually hate when sellers have “make offer”, but seem to only want to take off a couple bucks. Why even use “make offer”?
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As a buyer, I look at “Make Offer” as a built in discount, especially if I want the item anyways. I generally offer 75% to 80% of the full price and it’s usually accepted.
I recently offered $30 on a $40 pair of very specific shoes I wanted and they accepted. They weren’t worth $40 to me, due to the additional $15 for shipping, but at $30 it was a good value.
As a seller, I know the counter offer will usually go nowhere. I use it, when the offer is low, but almost there. Maybe I have a book listed at $45 and they offer $20. I may counter with $25. If they want the book, they’ll jump on it.
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<div class=”bbp-reply-content”>As an eBay buyer, I actually hate when sellers have “make offer”, but seem to only want to take off a couple bucks. Why even use “make offer”?
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</div><div>Some people only want that couple bucks off. A lot of these items are 15 dollar trains with free shiping, so 12 dollars is 20% off. That’s a pretty good deal percentage wise for a new in the package item. 20 percent off of an item is a good deal.
There are a lot of items I do not put best offer on, because I do not want to take any lower. People send me best offers via messages though, so it’s not like it really stops anything.
I use best offer a lot of those types of items that I have 20+ of each sku, and if you want to do a Disney Princess birthday party for 20 people and you want to buy 4 tablecovers, 2 center piece sets, 2 packages of decorations, 1 scene setter, all of which I have free shipping on because it’s first class mail, then I can cut you a 25-30 percent discount just from shipping cost.
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I don’t set an automatic reject price because I feel like it is an opportunity to open a dialog and perhaps the buyer will be reasonable.
If I get something reasonable I will accept if it is within 5-10 percent, otherwise, I might check the age of the listing and maybe look at the buyer’s feedback left for sellers before deciding. I seem to have good luck countering with a note asking if we can split the difference, using that calculated amount.
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I too decline an offer less than 50 % of the listed price. Not sure how I came up with that but it works. I also don’t like to get into haggling over pennies on low price items. Some people seem to like to do that. I also notice when I write on a counter offer “last offer” people still counter it. In other words, they don’t read the notes.
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If I counter a buyer’s offer, 95% of the time I never hear from them again. The key for me is to just accept that that’s how things are, and not to get aggravated about it (easier said than done of course!). It has taught me to think hard about countering and asking myself how much do I really want to keep holding on to this item. When storage space is limited, sometimes it’s just good to let things move on out and make room for new things that might do better. I accept plenty of 50% offers and don’t use auto-reject because I usually price high.
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My rule of thumb (not always observed) is: deny offers that are less than 50%, counter for offers that are above 50%. Or accept. I don’t know, I’m guessing I accept about as many as I counter. Like others, I consider a range of factors: How long have I had it? How much room is it taking up? What are similar items listed for now? Would I like a quick cash infusion? and, of course, sad to admit, sometimes: what kind of mood am I in? LOL
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