Has Anyone Seen "Best Offer" On Ebay Auctions?

Don, your dog-grooming shop analogy was Spot-on! I happen to own a dog grooming (and daycare) shop since 2005. We recently consolidated our mortgage for a better interest rate, and the bank approved us but had a couple questions first; the primary one was why did we only show an increase in sales three out of the last four years? It didn't seem to matter that our overall profit increased steadily each year, so I explained it as best I could; here's a snippet from my letter to the bank in response:



Real-life business experience is something you can't learn even in the most prestigious schools!

ebay's overall profitability is more important to them (as it should be) than maximizing sales above all else! Business-101

Hi Clark,
Your original question was a strategic question, not an operational question. You asked about the objective, the objective is to appease the investors/shareholders. I see nothing dumb about their strategic direction but more importantly neither do their shareholders, investors, and Wall Street. In my business experience, I often had to wear a BOD strategic hat at times and an operational hat at other times. These two perspectives are quite different and can sometimes seem in conflict.
Don

PS we got the lower-rate bank loan. And have lowered our dog-biting incidents to nearly zero. Sometimes one just has to know when to turn away business, and for some dog owners (or auction listers) the reasons for businesses' decisions aren't always the most obvious!

For what it's worth I like the "make offer" option in conjunction with ebay's "Buy It Now" or BIN option. The many times I've been successful as a bidder was often at around 70 to 80% of the BIN price. Sometimes my initial offer was immediately accepted, sometimes (maybe 50% I'm guessing) I accepted a slightly higher counter-offer from the seller. Win-Win as it seems if the seller opts to include "make offer" they are obviously more negotiable. It's just confusing when there are already bids on the item.....I always thought, though, that only BIN items had the Make Offer option. Seems to make more sense, but what do I know!?!

I feel your pain Jim.

Groomers choice...
1. Sheepdogs owners who bring the dog in once a year ("whether it needs it or not" LOL), takes 8 hours to try to wash and comb out, and then the owner gets mad when you charge them $100.00
2. A little foo-foo owner who is happy to bring the dog in every week for a groom and pay $35

Kind of a no-brainer but some folks do not understand it takes years to build the 'right' kind of clientele. But when you tell the sheepdog owner that you no longer want to do their dog, they get upset but it no longer fits your business direction.
Don

Edit: In the interest of full transparency, my wife owned a local pet shop for many years which include grooming. We also owned a pet wholesale operation with a 20,000 sq ft warehouse.

This is my wife in front of her pet shop years ago, she is the one in blue!!

Don,

I'm hoping you realize it's quite apparent your wife is the one in blue....rofl

--Jim

Is it possible as a buyer now to use best offer in a way that is not amicable to the seller?

Yes. That is why I turned it off. Maybe, after I understand how potential buyers would react, I would turn it on, but with settings appropriate for auctions instead of fixed price. I suspect that Best Offer may not be a viable option for sellers who start auctions at 99 cents.

I've only used "best offer" on higher-priced items (usually $50 or more) and then usually with sellers I've dealt with before.

So having a a better track record as a buyer and being a prompt payer helps.

Agreed Jim, it's much easier when you have an established relationship with a seller.

After another long discussion with ebay, I was informed that ebay may add Best Offer to auctions if their software believes that the starting bid is too high. The ebay rep stated that this feature was designed to improve sales. I guess no one thought about what would happen if the offer was above the minimum bid and then someone bid the minimum before the offer could be reviewed.

Borrowing a quotation from politics - the most terrifying words to an ebay seller are "I'm from ebay and I'm here to help."

I was revising an auction item and was offered the Best Offer option. I presumed the idea was for bidders to make me a Best Offer above my starting price and avoid taking a chance losing the auction. I start my auctions at $2.59 and I never even considered someone would offer me less than that.

Ken,

Let me clarify. The ebay Best Offer feature allows offers below and above the starting bid. Normally, I would reject offers below the start bid unless the initial bid was intentionally set to an amount more than I would accept. Unfortunately, if someone makes an offer above the initial bid, it will disappear if rejected, the time expires or if someone places a bid. In the latter case, the bid, lower than the pending offer becomes the selling prince unless someone submits a higher bid. Is the potential buyer who made an offer is notified when a bid snuffs out the offer? Probably not.

Did you see the best offer feature when revising in SixBit or was it on the ebay web site? I don't use the ebay web site for creating or revising listings, so I don't know when Best Offer in auctions first appeared on the site.

Clark

My last ebay listing experience was a long process as ebay was adding "mark an offer" to my auction relisting.

Have never used it with that string of listings.