posted on March 2, 2006 08:28:12 PM
Had someone make on offer on one of my items. It was low-ball but fairly close, so I decided to reject his offer and on the reject page told him the price I would accept if he would make a better one, and hit the submit button.
Not too familiar with the fixed-price listing I decided to then read up a little on the subject here and found this (my bolding) :
Potential buyers may submit only one Best Offer for an item, so you may receive offers close to your Fixed Price.
I couldn't believe this to be true so I asked at live help and they confirmed it. One offer. And if you reject it, the potential buyer/sale is entirely out of the picture.
Why would ebay do this? Only thing I can think of is that ebay is hoping that sellers will eventually cave in and accept any silly offer that comes their way, so that ebay can amass ever more in fees.
Why not allow some leeway so that an improved offer could be made, and potentially accepted? Ebay would still collect their fvf, it would just be a bigger amount if the item goes for a higher price.
posted on March 2, 2006 08:52:01 PM
That's not the end of it Mike. One more aspect to this "offer" part. I still don't understand it fully so am not sure if I should be upset about it or not.
I'll try to explain it as I understand this wacky part. It has to do with the offerer's ability to insert a price for shipping of their own choosing without regards to what your listing calls for (if any).
So if the prospect makes an offer, which then (separately as a line item?) shows up on the "see offer" page, and you then accept this offer, you are bound to the shipping figure which you have just accepted and cannot charge any additional fees for shipping.
If this is true, it truly sucks as well. That's all I need, a low-ball offer on not just the item, but also one on shipping too!
posted on March 2, 2006 09:56:59 PM
sthoemke - But the buyer would have to know first that they only have one chance.
I still think it's a dumb policy and why in the heck would you change the shipping price. Shipping fee's are shipping fee's. Just because someone buys something cheaper then your original price does not mean it got lighter and is therefore cheaper to ship.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. - Albert Einstein
posted on March 3, 2006 08:45:40 AM
Just a thought...
Could it be that this is an attempt by eBay to curb excessive shipping fees, that are not funds eBay can collect on? Higher offers and lower shipping fees would be extra pennies in eBay coffers.
posted on March 3, 2006 09:30:09 PM
I don't think we'll ever know why ebay has done this,or almost any other "improvement". All I know is that there's a large pool of bottomfeeders out there that I'm betting will be having a ball with this new "feature". In a way, to me, it's just another feature that could further promote the race to the bottom, in terms of realized selling prices.
That being said, I'm willing to wait for awhile and see how things do unfold. Happy thoughts...happy thoughts.
posted on March 3, 2006 09:58:41 PM
I just Lowballed a seller today too......interesting to see what happens.....You Could NOT bid ,,,ONLY make an Offer!!!!! I wanted to BID!
posted on March 3, 2006 10:06:46 PM
The best part about a "best offer" auction is it cuts down on the correspondence via email between buyer and seller. If you accept the offer, you only have to type one word in your reply, which is "okay". If it's a real lowball offer and you reject it, you only have to type two words in your reply.
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. - Albert Einstein
