The eBay "best offer" SC.

[bigjimaz]

Backstory/info:

I have 2 selling ID's on eBay. One I use for cheap crap, but I will list better stuff on it when I feel a high feedback number may help it sell better. My other seller ID I use for high ticket items only ($200.+) but it has a much lower feedback number, though all are positive.

EBay started allowing best offers on fixed item listings a good while ago. The basic process is the seller lists the item (usually high priced) with a fixed price. There is no auction bidding. The bidder either buys it at the listed price or makes an offer. The seller then evaluates the offer and either lets it expire without action, declines, makes a counter offer or accepts. There is no contract (or sale) unless the seller accepts the offer, ending the listing.

I listed an item on the high-ticket ID with a fixed price, best offer. Almost immediately I got a rediculously low offer (100.00 for an item which will sell for at least 1,000.00) I decided to not respond and let the offer expire, choosing not to dignify the rediculous offer with a reply. Here is the fun that ensued:

All responses were through email and happened over a 3 day period. I will condense as much as possible to keep this from turning into a novel. Lets begin 3 days after she made the offer. Keep in mind that the item in question weighs 800 pounds and I have it listed for local pickup only.

SC: I bought your item 3 days ago. when are you going to send me an invoice so I can pay and have it shipped?

ME: (Being the good seller ) I'm sorry. I see that you made an offer on the item. I let it expire without a response because the offer you made was lower than I want. The listing is still running and has not been purchased. Please feel free to make another, higher offer if you want.

SC: (next day) I BOUGHT it. Please send me an invoice including the shipping cost to zip code XXXXX. How can you say I didn't buy it?

ME: Once again, I'm sorry but you did not buy it. You made an offer. I did not respond to the offer you made and it expired. If you want it, please go back to the listing (I provided her with a link to the still-running listing) and hit the button that says "Buy it Now." Even if you do actually buy it, there is no shipping. It weighs 800 pounds and you have to come pick it up. I may be able to set up freight shipping but this will most likely cost in excess of 1,000.00. This is why I listed it as local pickup.

SC: (later the same day) How do I know you didn't just relist it because you didn't like the price I bought it for? I bid on it. I won it. You WILL send me an invoice and you WILL ship it for the price you have on it. If you do not, I will report you to eBay for seller non-performance. I expect the invoice before the night is over.

ME: (Next morning and no longer the nice seller) The listing that you made AN OFFER on is still running. I have not revised it in any way. Feel free to report me to eBay. They will see that the listing started the day you made the offer and that you did not buy it. The OFFER you made was rediculous. It's worth 10 times your offer. The listing says LOCAL PICKUP ONLY So there is nothing about a shipping cost anywhere. I even put the information in the shipping section of the listing. I have no idea why you think that making an offer is anything like buying it. I see that you sell similar items as this and I applaud you for trying to get something cheap that you can profit from. I assure you that the first profit made on this item will be made by me. I have added you to my blocked bidder list so even if you did try to buy it now, you couldn't. Any further emails from you will be blocked and unanswered. Good day.

There were actually 6 emails from this PITA. Most were repetitive and increasingly threatening. The last one came after I told her I will not communicate with her in which she told me that she will have herself removed from my blocked list.

What gets me the most is that she is not new. She has a higher feedback number than I do, although I've been a member longer, but only by 6 months.

Honestly, are people so dense that they feel the need to argue even when they have been informed that they are wrong? Oh, nevermind. I forgot where I was for a second.

[slick]

Wow, that is just plain.....wow. I wonder if she was a geniune tard that thought she "won" your item for $100, or if she thought she was smart and tried to intimidate you into agreeing to sell it to her at $100.

I listed my Rolex on eBay. I had a buy it now for $4200, and a best offer option also.

I got a bunch of reasonable offers (like $3800 shipped), and then, out of the blue, from a member of 5 years with 100% feedback (101 transactions), a lame ass offer of $700.

I replied back to him that the offer is insulting and to not bother again unless its reasonable. He apologized and gave me a new offer.....................................$900!

What in the world? Why are people so dumb?

[solemnwarning]

Wow, that is just plain.....wow. I wonder if she was a geniune tard that thought she "won" your item for $100, or if she thought she was smart and tried to intimidate you into agreeing to sell it to her at $100.

I listed my Rolex on eBay. I had a buy it now for $4200, and a best offer option also.

I got a bunch of reasonable offers (like $3800 shipped), and then, out of the blue, from a member of 5 years with 100% feedback (101 transactions), a lame ass offer of $700.

I replied back to him that the offer is insulting and to not bother again unless its reasonable. He apologized and gave me a new offer.....................................$900!

What in the world? Why are people so dumb?

Well, they must be dumb to spend so much on a watch! :P *ducks*

[Bloodsoul]

Television.. and videogames.. and movies and music and children's books and every other lame ass excuse people can think of to explain bad parenting, causing children to grow up to be dumb people, and their children to become dumb people, etc, etc, ad nausuem with a side of Peptobismol.

[slick]

You can't duck and hide from me!!! Just kidding

I think its a matter of being on the internet, in a non face to face environment, that people think its okay to be dumb.

[Andara Bledin]

Ah, the eBay idiots.

As background, a large portion of my job actually involves paying for, having shipped, and checking in the 100+ items each month that my boss buys through eBay. Beyond that, I've been a member for nearly a decade and am an off and on regular on one of the most highly trafficed and arguably most widely knowledgeable of their help forums.

I have, quite often, had to educate sellers about what they did wrong, and I will give them links to the eBay Help pages that detail what they did wrong, and they will still argue with me about how they never did anything wrong and I'm just stupid.

I'm currently looking forward to when we get the three items in next week that was a Dutch auction by a seller who thinks it's ok to sell three different items of different values by Dutch auction as opposed to three identical items. According to the listing, we should receive a total of 9 pieces, but I just know that's not what we'll be getting. If it had been up to me, the bid would never have been made.

Other fun discussions have included informing sellers that if they accept PayPal, they must accept credit card payments. And, back before they made that a requirement for eBay sellers, there were those who would use the PayPal Credit Card logo who didn't have an account that could accept credit card funded payments. Then there's those who want to put a surcharge on credit card or PayPal payments (against eBay, PayPal, the credit card issuer policies, and some states' laws).

And the ever-popular "you didn't pay for insurance, so I'm not responsible" fallacy. If you sell on eBay, be aware that insurance is for your protection, not the buyer's. If you can't afford to reimburse someone for an item, make insurance mandatory. It's not only a rule, but in the US, it's the law.

In this case, there is an option where you can make Best Offers below a certain value auto-decline. We are selling a quantity of rather large high-ticket items and we regularly get offers of stupidly low amounts. We got tired of having them listed as open or having to decline them, so we set the auto-decline and never have to worry about ever interacting with those cheapskates.

^-.-^

[bigjimaz]

I go to the boards myself, mostly Listings, Bidding, T&S, SC and P/UA.

The reason I didn't select the auto decline is that I've found that if I allow all offers to post, people see that there is interest and the things tended to sell better than when I auto-declined offers. Plus it is fun, every once in a while. At least it gives me something to post about here.

[CancelMyService]

I used to sell things on eBay, in fact during one lean time bewteen jobs I managed to live for 6 months solely on revenue from eBay sales.

Now, other than buying a random doodad now and then I never go near that place. I was nearly driven to madness by retards who look for every reason to return/not pay for something after they win. I had one guy flip out because my item was EXACTLY HOW I DESCRIBED IT. I don't know to this day what the hell he was so upset about, but all I know is that it's been a few years now and I haven't heard anything from all the action he was threatening to take. I like to imagine he went to a law office and demanded someone take his case, and then him being laughed out the door when he reveals what it is for.

[Eggmont]

Interblag

Despite the stupidity of it these are the kind of things you get when you combine cheapskates, the ablility to hide behind hundreds of miles of cables and the anonanimity of the internet.

[Broomjockey]

Despite the stupidity of it these are the kind of things you get when you combine cheapskates, the ablility to hide behind hundreds of miles of cables and the anonanimity of the internet.

This bears a direct relation to the conversation at hand.

[Andara Bledin]

I go to the boards myself, mostly Listings, Bidding, T&S, SC and P/UA.

The Biddies are pretty good, too. The Feedies (the Feedback Forum regulars) tend to have high traffic and a lot of really good, solid, informational posts to get some serious info out of. And Feedback on eBay being what it is, the Feedies know a lot of things about pretty much every single aspect of buying and selling on eBay.

I love eBay. As long as you take the time to get to know what you need to do to protect yourself, you can get some great deals. Oh, and always, always pay via PayPal backed by a credit card. On the selling side, it's much less protected.

My company loves eBay, too. We recently bought an item for $0.99, had it shipped to us for about $700, then sold it for nearly $30,000.

^-.-^

[Jadedcarguy]

The last item I tried to sell on ebay was my motorcycle. This bike is not cheap, and I had it priced accordingly. I got a message from a prospective "bidder"(asshole, actually) who wanted me to end the auction early and sell it to him for $10,000. This is less than half of what it was worth. I told him to piss up a rope and he sent about 4 or 5 more emails that got more and more threatening until I told him to stop or he was getting reported for a TOS violation.

WTF? Why would someone think this is acceptable?

[DGoddessChardonnay]

The last item I tried to sell on ebay was my motorcycle. This bike is not cheap, and I had it priced accordingly. I got a message from a prospective "bidder"(asshole, actually) who wanted me to end the auction early and sell it to him for $10,000. This is less than half of what it was worth. I told him to piss up a rope and he sent about 4 or 5 more emails that got more and more threatening until I told him to stop or he was getting reported for a TOS violation.

WTF? Why would someone think this is acceptable?

And because some folks can't see past their noses, they can't understand why they end up with not only a negative feedback, but also lose their accounts.

Myself, I strive to keep a good account . . . I dont' sell on eBay, but I've sure bought quite a few items over the years. Haven't bought anything lately (not since last fall when I went online to purchase something for Mama Crow b/c she didn't have an account.)

A reserve price is the minimum price a seller will take - I should think that's pretty self-explanatory.

I did participate in an auction a few years back on a pair of 1980's Bose speakers - I really wanted those for the office as I was purchasing some other audio equipment at the time and needed speakers to complete everything.

The auction ended with the reserve still not being met, so I sent an email inquiring as to what the reserve was.

Turned out, it was about $50 more than what I could afford at the time. Did I whine, scream and pitch a fit? Nope, I just simply thanked the seller for the info and wished him well and finding a home for them and less than a month later, found another pair of speakers (these were Fisher, to match the equipment I'd bought) for a bit less.

It's not the potential buyer's place to ask or demand that the reserve be lowered for them - if the seller won't take less than X amount for an item, then that's their call.

[Moonlight]

God bless all of you who don't go nuts through trading on eBay! >_< I've been on and off it over the past few years, mainly selling things I don't need (normally happens when I'm moving house) and buying stuff I do. Before my last move, I listed a load of books that I didn't need any more. One was a brand new, never read copy of an occult book that I'd brought for around £6. It went to over £30 so you can imagine my shock as I'd only want a couple of £'s for it. Anyway it was non-paying eejit. I sent numerous e-mails, none of which got answered (what a surprise!). I waited for the allotted time, told eBay and got my fees back. Re-listed it and it still went for over £20. o_0

My brother occasionally deals with old VW parts on eBay and boy, does he get some real idiots. I've seen him raging at his monitor when someone offers him less than he listed it for.

[mrtauntaun]

Ah, I love a good idiot Ebayer story. If you have more, please share!!!