Ebay Buy It Now Or Make Offer

Has anyone ever bypassed the "Make offer" on a stamp and actually paid the asking price? Just curious because every time I've purchased something with an option to make an offer I'm compelled to try and save a couple of bucks. I don't low ball anyone and try and be fair. I just purchased a stamp this morning listed at £55 and made an offer of £50, no reply yet but I'll guarantee the seller takes the offer or counters half way between.

If it is a low dollar item, yes. I have.

I have, but only when it was an item that I thought was underpriced. I didn't want to have someone else see it and buy it while I was waiting on a response to the best offer trying to save a few dollars.

I am puzzled, if you purchased the stamp, then all the "make offer" options are moot. Why would he respond when the item was already sold to you at a higher price?

I will pay the "buy it now" price if it meets my criteria for gotta have it now. Yes!

John ---You make the offer before you buy it . Usually the seller has 24 hours to reply . If I get no reply or rejects my offer,then I step up and buy it .

I don't like using the BUY-IT-NOW on my sales ,because that's the hunting ground for ebay Sellers who are looking just to low ball me so they can sell it . Yes got many that were at 50% of my asking price ,that just ticks me off.

It has been awhile since I sold on ebay but, if memory serves, you can set the software to automatically reject offers below a threshold that you have established.

As a buyer, if I see a BIN item that includes the Make Offer option, I assume that the seller is willing to entertain reasonable offers.

Rarely have I had my offers rejected (which, of course, leads me to wonder how low the seller would have been willing to go).

Floortrader, I am very familiar with ebay, having made over 10,000 transactions both as buyer and seller. I was looking for stallzer to clarify his statement ... that he bought the item (then?) made an offer.

It would depend on the auction.
I tend to make offers when it is an option.

Agree if it is under priced or if price is fair and "I got to have it now". Reminds me of an item by a well known dealer with an auction starting price and a BIN price on ebay. Both were fair prices and I really wanted it and doubted I would ever find the item again, in that condition at that price. I snapped it up at the BIN price and have never regretted it. I did not receive any feedback from him (way back when every one left it), but could not have cared less.

The BUY -IT-NOW works well for those experience collector who see something that never or rarely shows up in the market place .

As a person who looked at maybe 100 Part 1 of the Scott {big Blue }International's at many different stamp auctions .You start to see which stamps are missing and that never have that spot filled .

What do you folks think about making offers on auction items that don't have a BIN or Best Offer option? Do you contact the seller and ask for a BIN price?

I have sent offers to sellers that were not offering those options, and had the offer accepted and ignored.

As a seller I rarely use the best offer option as a listing device, but some items with an offer option still sell at full price. More typically there is an offer. As a buyer, using best offer is an invitation to try to get a discount if you are willing to risk the item selling from under you while you negotiate.

I have seen increased numbers of offers come in by message for items where I don't use best offers. I typically don't take them because they are usually lowballs. The ones I really don't understand are the people who try to offer half of a start price on an active auction....the seller has absolutely no incentive to take a discount until after the auction is over.

Best Offer items I generally take as the seller saying, "I will take less than the opening bid amount if I have to." The game is arriving at the amount.

And then, if you look at the list of unsold items, a good case can be made they were priced too high for the item offered and condition of the marketplace.

Cavate emptor.

I still think many of those Lowball BUY-IT-NOW offers are ebay sellers who will add a dollar or two and then add another buck or two to the shipping . Sellers looking for inventory ?