When Best Offers Are Silly

mygotta

Just thought I would gripe for a minute.

A seller on eBay is offering a box of Bowman Chrome for $55.99 with a best offer. I offered $45. He counter-offered with $55.

What is the point of a best offer to get a .95 cent discount??? It is almost insulting. I dont think my offer was ridiculous, but I would think he would come back something closer to $50.

:::steps off pedestal::::

conor912

It's his way of telling you to go f yourself. I agree he shouldn't be accepting offers if he's not willing to consider them, but alas.....

grote15

Counter with 44.99..

digicat

He could have declined your offer and raised his BIN price by the amount of the discount you asked for. I actually had a seller do that once.

fiveniner

fiveniner

<< <i>Just thought I would gripe for a minute.

A seller on eBay is offering a box of Bowman Chrome for $55.99 with a best offer. I offered $45. He counter-offered with $55.

What is the point of a best offer to get a .95 cent discount??? It is almost insulting. I dont think my offer was ridiculous, but I would think he would come back something closer to $50.

:::steps off pedestal:::: >>

DCanfield

<< <i>Just thought I would gripe for a minute.

A seller on eBay is offering a box of Bowman Chrome for $55.99 with a best offer. I offered $45. He counter-offered with $55.

What is the point of a best offer to get a .95 cent discount??? It is almost insulting. I dont think my offer was ridiculous, but I would think he would come back something closer to $50.

:::steps off pedestal:::: >>



On the items that I sell with a best offer I usually have about 10% to move, sometimes more and sometimes less. That would have brought me to about $50 for this item, just what you were thinking. Having a best offer for 2% (99 cents) discount is a waste of time and effort. IMO

vintageinvestments

on the contrary.......dont take it personal, it is business. Perhaps after fees he cannot take then $45. As a seller I get stupid offers alot of times at 50%, and I counter at full price. When I get reasonable offers (say 80% or better) then I counter reasonably. It weeds out the "tire kickers". If someone counters at an insulting price....say $1, I block them. Just because someone has a BIN set, doesn't mean they can take huge discounts. I am not saying your offer was not reasonable ( think it was).....just make a better offer and I bet he will come down a bit more.

Jason

BaltimoreYankee

I recently had some success with a Best Offer. Seller had a price of $79 OBO. I offered $65, seller came back with a counter of $68.50, which I accepted.

blee1

I just offered someone a couple dollars cheaper(what it was worth to me) then he was asking, he came back with the same price as listed. Why even have it.....

ShootyBabitt

He might have best offer on there just so it shows up in additional searches. You can search for BIN items that accept best offer.

fiveniner

You have some sellers however that have had items listed fo ages.Example 1975 Topps mini Ex/Mt $875 but would not come down more than $25 when you can purchase nrmt or better for $500 to $600 at the most.I use BIN/BO and have been successful most of the time but do not make a rediculus offer and try at half price of BIN.

zep33

I have a Bryce Harper Auto up for $249.99 BIN/BO

Within 2 hours, got offer of $129.99
I declined without bothering a counter offer

Couple hours later I get message from same guy asking for fair price for the Harper
I respond with $200 delivered.

Then I get the message telling me that at auction, they've been selling for $165 or so and sends me link to one from beginning of November and offers me $155

So I go look at the last 3 sales (which I had done before listing it anyway)
Dec 3 $225
Dec 3 $225
Nov 19 $200

I sent him back a message with those prices and links

Never heard another peep from him LOL

BaltimoreYankee

I also had another one where the BIN was very high and I looked at completed listings for the item. It was about 65% of the BIN. I offered that and explained that I came up with the offer based on completed listings. The seller accepted my offer.

vladguerrero

Some sellers treat BO by listing their items 50-60% higher than what they would take in hope to get an offer somewhere in their so they can maximize profits. Other sellers list so close to the BIN that buyers get frustrated there is no room and they may be selling the item short of its potential profit. In the end sellers have the right to ask what they want for an item and buyers will decide what THEY think is fair and what they will pay for an item. NEITHER side should get upset about the other. However, I do find it most curious when sellers overeact... they are the ones potentially losing a sale because a buyer is using a system there for that purpose. Just counter with what you need on the item even if it is 99.9% of the BIN.

bziddy

First BIN/BO I can remembering putting up...

Listed at $1000. First offer was $125. Second offer was $100.

MinorLeaguer

I usually offer with my true best offer. FYI, you can add a note to your offer as well. I do and say "Hi, This is the best I can do. Please don't counter-offer. Please simply decline if not acceptable to you. Thank you for your time and consideration." Since you offered 80% of his asking, perhaps he may be thinking that wasn't your true best and he doesn't want to right to $50 as maybe you'd re-counter with $47.50. I agree, it's just business and just as you are allowed to offer whatever you want, he should have the right to counter with whatever and he can try to get whatever he feels is fair for his product.

Another way you may get a seller down that is amicable to both sides: If the seller has a good reputation, why not send him a message to take the sale offline and pass some of the ebay fees saved onto you by him sending u a paypal invoice? This way his net isn't so negatively affected as it would've went to ebay anyway. Keep his personal email around as once you form a relationship with a seller, no one says you cant cultivate the relationship. Thus, as you see items on ebay of his that you may like, email him and do the deal completely offline. I have some sellers that give me the whole ebay/paypal fees off plus a little return customer discount. Could be approx. 30% discount and all I have to do is pay via paypal gift. Food for thought to save on your collecting.

KbKards

"A seller on eBay is offering a box of Bowman Chrome for $55.99 with a best offer. I offered $45. He counter-offered with $55."

The percentage he discounts is irrelevant. The only important thing is how the $55 price(shipped or plus shipping) compares to other listings and recent sales. Prices change and the original $55.99 price he had on it could be higher or lower than what they're currently going for. When you make a $45 offer a seller would typically see how that compares to what they're currently selling for. If they're selling at that level then he might take your offer. If they're consistently selling for $55 then he might decline your offer or counter with a nominal discount since the listing had the best offer feature. If they're hot and selling for $60 or more he might just decline your offer and raise his price. Prices change and the seller's doing nothing wrong when he updates his pricing.

jasoneggert

I had a strange experience this week. Seller had a nice new 2012 Prime Cuts relic card of Jackie Robinson. BIN for $49.99 or Best Offer. Now, I think $50 is way too much for this card, so I offered $30. Knowing he would most likely reject and maybe counter. But $30 was about my max, so I would most likely turn down any counter offer.

Seller never responds to my offer and the offer expires. Then the listing ends with no buyer. Seller re-lists the card with the same BIN of $49.99 or Best Offer. I make another offer. This time for $25. Within 10 minutes he takes my offer.

Very strange. But I am not complaining!

-Jason

mygotta

<< <i>I had a strange experience this week. Seller had a nice new 2012 Prime Cuts relic card of Jackie Robinson. BIN for $49.99 or Best Offer. Now, I think $50 is way too much for this card, so I offered $30. Knowing he would most likely reject and maybe counter. But $30 was about my max, so I would most likely turn down any counter offer.

Seller never responds to my offer and the offer expires. Then the listing ends with no buyer. Seller re-lists the card with the same BIN of $49.99 or Best Offer. I make another offer. This time for $25. Within 10 minutes he takes my offer.

Very strange. But I am not complaining!

-Jason >>



I think it was a "shoot-yourself-in-the-foot" incident where he probably should have taken the $30. But because he had to relist, apparently not enough interest at the $50 level. That happened with some Casino Coins my brother was selling. BIN at like $400 and someone offered $308. He countered with $320. Buyer declined. He ended up selling them at $280 as that was the best offer since.

But yes, I have been in the mind of placing my BIN slightly higher to accomodate both shipping (as I offer free on anything domestic) and this way I have wiggle room on most items.

MULLINS5

Check his listings and see if there's something else you may want to add to the ticket, when I sold cards I was pretty strict with the offers unless they wanted more than one item.

Patrick

NickM

I get occasional nasty messages back from sellers of modern cards about how dare I offer $1 (usually + $2 or so shipping) for a card with a high Beckett of $10 or $12. This most often happens with Upper Deck MVP gold script parallels (#/100 from most of the sets). I often respond with a group of links to completed auctions I won of similar cards for that price or cheaper. On quite a few, I was the only bidder, and the next bidding increment was $0.05 more.

There are 2 types of responses I get. Type 1 is some variation of "I can't sell it for that. I paid more for it." Type 2 is a rant about how looking at ebay auctions doesn't tell you the true value of the card. I normally don't bother responding to either.

I am tempted to someday respond to a Type 2 with "Good luck finding a player collector for that guy. Unless you do, I AM THE MARKET." Considering that I'm the only one apparently actively working on several of these sets, it's not bragging. [It may be a sign of OCD, but that's another story.]

BTW, if you're reading this and have Upper Deck MVP Gold Script cards from football ('99, '00, or '02), basketball ('99 or '00), or baseball ('99, '00, or '02), I'm buying at $3 each delivered - any player, as ong as cards are NM or better.

Nick

Maurice

<< <i>I am tempted to someday respond to a Type 2 with "Good luck finding a player collector for that guy. Unless you do, I AM THE MARKET." Considering that I'm the only one apparently actively working on several of these sets, it's not bragging. >>



You may be the only buyer but the seller may be the only seller.

NickM

<< <i>

<< <i>I am tempted to someday respond to a Type 2 with "Good luck finding a player collector for that guy. Unless you do, I AM THE MARKET." Considering that I'm the only one apparently actively working on several of these sets, it's not bragging. >>



You may be the only buyer but the seller may be the only seller. >>



On cards #/100 or #/50, he may be the only seller at the moment, but others will surface. Those print runs don't qualify as truly scarce for modern cards. [There are players I've bought as many as 4 of over the years.] The #/25 ('02 FB and BB) sellers never seem to be the ones sending angry messages.

Nick

zep33

I have /25 McGwire checklist somewhere - thinks it's from 2000 maybe 01

Stone193

This is just my opinion.

If a seller is not willing to accept a 10% discount? Then don't bother with the BO option.

markmac

I know the feeling. I offer $225 on a $275 card and he comes back with $265. Really. I offered $60.00 on a $74.95 bin and the seller has it now for $59.99 bin since it never sold. He can keep it.

jswieton

I recently purchased a card for $45 BO that was listed at $250. I offered him what I felt that card was worth and he excepted my offer. The point I'm trying to make is there are sellers on eBay that excessively inflate their prices with the intent of selling the card for far less than 50% of the BIN price.

ldferg

<< <i>This is just my opinion.

If a seller is not willing to accept a 10% discount? Then don't bother with the BO option. >>



Agree 100%

JMDVM

I saw a 1961 Topps Don Hoak PSA 7 for $8.99 BIN /Best offer. Offered $7 figuring we'd meet at $8----he offered it to me for $8.75! I need the card otherwise I would have refused it, but I did razz him in a message to the seller. Also had a seller completely ignore me for a $5 offer on a $6 signed index card.....I make him an offer 3 or 4 times a year, just to let him no I'm still around......