Weird Seller Response To A "Best Offer" Item

So, I saw something that seemed interesting, mostly because of the toy stamps in it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/KINDERPOST...t=true&rt=nc

I sent the seller a "best offer" that was more than the minimum starting bid of $9.99.

This was the response:



So then I just placed a bid of $10 for the item, and won it.

Seems pretty weird to turn down an offer that is higher than your minimum, at least to me.

Not a big deal, but the seller ultimately lost 42 cents in additional profit.

Or am I missing something here?

Jim

Your house must be filling up with some serious junk! Reminds me of a friend who assembled a collection of Ronco products.

Very simple, they were expecting to get multiple bids which ultimately did not materialize. Your offer was not significantly higher than their start bid and they preferred to take their chances with the auction format.

I agree with John Becker about what happened.
Glad you got it for the opening bid.

The seller declined the higher offer apparently because of the postage cost "to California."

Jim

Beyond their postage claim, your offer was insultingly low compared to the start price. Your offer should have been at least $12.50 to even get a conversation started about ending it early with an offer.

Relax, John.

This is an ebay auction for a ten dollar item, not high finance.



Jim

I am quite relaxed. You asked of you had missed something, and I responded with an opinion, Don't shoot the messenger because he delivers what you don't want to hear.

I question a lot of these "BEST OFFERS" as other sellers who think they can add a few bucks to a item and resell it .

Understood.

In the future, I will run all of my "best offers" through the "best offer" police first, so as not to potentially insult a seller.

Jim

Please post images of the stamps, when you get them, Jim!

I'm attracted to the older Kinderpost stamps and recently managed to get some Germanias on ebay.

Not unusual for a seller to do this at all, IMO.

Then again, if one has this mindset, they shouldn't be running $0.99 or other arbitrary low minimum starting auctions summer months anyway unless they are a nystamps, pavstamps, etc. with a huge established follower base.

Game theory shows that people will deliberately hurt themselves in order to stick it to someone they do not like or who has offended them. So when making offers, it never hurts to do so in a cheery or respectful manner. Best Offers on ebay are robotic, so you run the risk of offending a seller, when in a face-to-face negotiation you can feel your way through it a little better.