People Messaging me with offers

[newbryford]

5 minutes ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

I don't understand what's happened to Best Offer these days.

 

I always thought Best Offer was for a buyer to offer something close to, but not quite at the starting price.  Like a car or a house - people tend to haggle for money off the starting price.

 

But it seems these days, sellers expect offers higher than the buy it now price or starting price.

 

If  a BIN price is offered, why would anyone offer higher?

 

Best offer above the starting bid may sometimes induce the seller to end the auction early.

I have only once done that - as the best offer was higher than I expected it to sell for!

 

(It's quite rare I use best offer, but ebay has a way of turning it on without noticing...… - so sellers beware)

 

 

 

 

[Crosland]

2 hours ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

I always thought Best Offer was for a buyer to offer something close to, but not quite at the starting price.  Like a car or a house - people tend to haggle for money off the starting price.

 

But it seems these days, sellers expect offers higher than the starting price.

 

It's always worked for me as an auction seller, but I start auctions at low prices. If I get a decent offer I might take it, otherwise I take the risk and let the auction run its course.

 

It also quite common in your example of house sales with "offers over" the asking price.

 

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

I don't understand what's happened to Best Offer these days.

 

I always thought Best Offer was for a buyer to offer something close to, but not quite at the starting price.  Like a car or a house - people tend to haggle for money off the starting price.

 

But it seems these days, sellers expect offers higher than the starting price.

 

Exactly if someone wants something badly they offer more. I had an item not sell for 2 weeks at £15, had two £10 offers, then had an offer for £25 which I was more than happy to accept

[Hal Nail]

4 hours ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

But it seems these days, sellers expect offers higher than the starting price.

Are you assuming the starting price is close to what the person hopes to get? The best way to get a good final price is to start an auction at £1 or much lower than you hope to get (Ebay even advises this).

 

If you start at roughly what you think it will end up at, buyers will see lower priced ones elsewhere, think there are bargains to be had so not bid on yours. You are unlikely to get much more than starting price.

 

If you expect something popular to fetch, say, 50 quid you might start an auction at £20 to get things going and if plenty are interested bidding kicks off and you might end up getting 60.

 

In that case a seller would only accept an offer close to what they hope to get and much higher than starting price.

 

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Hal Nail
Spelling

[hayfield]

I think those in the auction trade call it a come and get me price, has its risks unless you install a reserve price

 

Another thing auctioneers say is quality sells.

 

I would rather put it on at the minimum price I am happy with even if it takes two or three weeks to sell

[MrWolf]

I sold a couple of new old stock car body parts recently. The starting bid was £95. Within an hour I got an offer of £75. I checked out the profile of the person making the offer, clearly a dealer with a score of over 28000. I ignored it and later that day the same person offered £85. I was certain that all he was going to do was put the parts straight back on eBay. He put a bid on the next day as I had ignored the second cheeky offer.

The bidding continued and he dropped out at £150, the auction kept going and the parts finally made £245 plus £21 carriage (I didn't add anything for packing materials or my time) The parts I sold ceased to be manufactured by the OEM in 1957 and were never offered by an aftermarket manufacturer.

If you have something that you and everyone else in the know appreciates is rocking horse manure, my advice is to start the auction at the minimum price you will accept and sit tight!

[newbryford]

I always find it strange that an item I'm watching doesn't sell at the starting price - i.e. no bids. (I haven't bid because I think the price is too high.)

 

Three things might then happen:

Re-listed at the original start price - it doesn't sell.

Re-listed at a lower start price - then I may bid - but only ever up to what I am happy to pay for it - then it ends up selling higher than the original (high) starting price

And the weird one: It is re-listed at a higher start price and then bids up to sell even higher……….

 

[Hal Nail]

The common thread here as both a buyer and a seller is that it helps to know the items market value! It does take a bit of nerve to turn down an offer if you really want to sell something but if you know the true value you can say no without worrying you wont get another.

 

Watch a few others, or see what else is listed. You will get outliers and particularly buy it now listed for silly money but it doesn't take long to spot what things are actually selling for.

 

 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Hal Nail

[hayfield]

7 hours ago, newbryford said:

I always find it strange that an item I'm watching doesn't sell at the starting price - i.e. no bids. (I haven't bid because I think the price is too high.)

 

Three things might then happen:

Re-listed at the original start price - it doesn't sell.

Re-listed at a lower start price - then I may bid - but only ever up to what I am happy to pay for it - then it ends up selling higher than the original (high) starting price

And the weird one: It is re-listed at a higher start price and then bids up to sell even higher……….

 

 

Happens all the time, just because an item does not sell first, second or third time for what you believe is a fair price may not mean its not worth it, just the right buyer has not been found

[cessna152towser]

On 19/03/2020 at 20:06, hayfield said:

Happens all the time, just because an item does not sell first, second or third time for what you believe is a fair price may not mean its not worth it, just the right buyer has not been found

Yes indeed.  I missed the deadline by a few minutes for bidding the start price on an item which was three times listed and unsold.   It had already been re-listed so I got my bid in quick and actually bid slightly above the start price "just in case" someone else might bid.  Within minutes another bidder entered the contest, at just below my maximum.  Nobody else bid and I ended up the proud owner a week or so later, having paid a few pounds more than I could have had the item earlier from one of the unsold auctions.