Thoughts on BIN with Best Offer.

[Baltimore]

Hey everyone,
So the other day I was cruising ebay looking for things to flip when I found a seller with some interesting hats. I collect hats, and his were BIN with best offer, so I found 6 or 7 that I was interested in and sent him a message with an offer. It was on the low end, but I mentioned in my message that I was very open to counteroffers. I've noticed that people who are selling a lot of hats are usually very willing to drop the price dramatically if a big purchase is involved. A while later I received a message back from the guy saying No, that my offer was too low and that he wanted closer to the asking price. I wasn't about to drop $100+ on some hats, so I picked 2 that I particularly liked and sent another offer for the two that was about $7 under the total asking price. A little more than I wanted to pay, but I figured what the heck. I get a message back pretty quickly from the guy saying No again, and here's the odd part: he said that he wanted everything to sell for it's asking price, and that he would only accept offers of $1 under his posted price.

Does this seem odd to anyone else? As a seller I occasionally use best offers, and I am prepared to receive offers that are 50% of my price and I usually counter with around 75%, or even less if the person is offering to buy more than one item. I usually factor it into my asking price. This guy's Best Offers were a bit of a tease, if he will only accept an offer of $25 on a $25.99 item, what's the point? why not just mark it at $25 BIN, especially if he made a point of telling me he wanted the hats to sell at his original prices? He was definitely one of those "I don't care if you buy it or not, it'll sell at my price eventually" kind of guys, but considering that he had 1200 active listings and only 80 sales in the past 3 months, I don't think his plan was working out exactly as he had planned.

So what do you guys think? Is this a policy that you guys understand, or do you think it doesn't make sense? What do you think the best use of the best offer option is? I'd love to start a discussion, hear some thoughts?

 

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[Isayhello2u]

nope does not make sense. but then again sellers often do not make sense. one seller had an antique (circa 1910) item i wanted mixed in with a lot of circa 1980s items that i did not want.
I made a fair offer for just the one. but was turned down as they did not want to rephotograph, relist the others. later they did relist just the one by itself for less than i offered but by then i had found one elsewhere. on the other hand i once offered a low bid and was expecting a counter offer but was accepted.

 

[Iron Patch]

Makes no sense, just wastes his own time, and kills sales because people are a lot less likely to click the BIN when there's the option to make an offer. If this guy was running a business for me he would be fired in the first 10 minutes.

 

[cyberdan]

I use MAKE OFFER more than half the time and I expect people to ask for about 20-25% less so I build it into the price.

There have been time I wanted something and made an offer and I just get a "NO" and thats it. I always expect a counter offer. If someone asks for offers he should make a counter offer.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

I think the guy is a complete moron.

 

[Lafitte Deux]

I know! Maybe he thinks that "best offer" means that someone will offer him more than he's asking.

 

[hunts with son]

Would that be "highest offer"?

 

[tamaco]

Ummm...that just sounds like buy it now or don't buy it now. Oh well, I don't pretend to understand people

 

[vwayne1]

I try to look at all angles. I would be curious to know the total money he brought in on the 80 sales in three months. Maybe this method does work for him. Just a thought.

 

[Baltimore]

I try to look at all angles. I would be curious to know the total money he brought in on the 80 sales in three months. Maybe this method does work for him. Just a thought.

All ( I didn't look at all of them, but the majority) of his items are between 14.99 and 29.99. I don't think he's a bad seller, I think he just overvalues his items and doesn't really get the whole best offer thing, which has probably turned off a lot of buyers, myself included. I mentioned it more to open a discussion about how other people on here use buy it now.

 

[jerseyben]

IMO, if sellers use the "make an offer" feature, you better be prepared to accept AT LEAST 10% less than your BIN price. I recently sold something using this method and I think I ended up accepting an offer that was 15% lower than my BIN price. I was still happy and I'm sure the buyer was too.

I have encountered the OP's scenario before. I have made an offer and it quickly became clear that no matter what I offered, they were not accepting anything less than their BIN.

On the flip side, I recently offered $40 on an $80 BIN item and it was immediately accepted. So, win some lose some, I guess.

 

[vwayne1]

All ( I didn't look at all of them, but the majority) of his items are between 14.99 and 29.99. I don't think he's a bad seller, I think he just overvalues his items and doesn't really get the whole best offer thing, which has probably turned off a lot of buyers, myself included. I mentioned it more to open a discussion about how other people on here use buy it now.

. Sounds like he has mad about 1600 in three months, about 525 a month. Nice little side business. Seems like it may be working for him. Btw I overvalue my items too. It's actually my business plan. And it works. I have talked about it before. Perception of value. You value it higher, and your customer sees it as more valuable.

 

[vwayne1]

Oh sorry as far as buy it now, I use it sometimes. But only after I raise my price by 15-25%. This also works.

 

[deserdog]

Here is how I do my BIN with best offer. I look at it like a regular auction, with the BIN just like a buy it now, and will take an offer that the item would start at at a normal auction. Usually when someone makes an offer, I will counter offer with a price about half way between the lowest that I will accept and my BIN price.

 

[gunsil]

Myself and a few friends when buying just filter out BINs. In the collectible area I buy in most of the BIN folks haven't got a clue as to how much less their item usually sells for, or they are just fishing for suckers. If you do a BIN with best offer you may as well put it on auction in my opinion. When I sell I have a good idea of my item's worth, and either use a reserve or just start the bidding at the number I need. Auctions, I believe, often get people more excited, and sometimes the realized price is way better than I expected if two or three people go head to head over it.

 

[Baltimore]

. Sounds like he has mad about 1600 in three months, about 525 a month. Nice little side business. Seems like it may be working for him. Btw I overvalue my items too. It's actually my business plan. And it works. I have talked about it before. Perception of value. You value it higher, and your customer sees it as more valuable.

That makes sense, $500 a month is certainly nothing to scoff at. I guess my point was that he put in the time to make 1200+ listings, and less than 10 percent of them have sold in the last 3 months, which makes his hourly earnings pretty low. I think overvaluing is not really a problem, I know I do it sometimes, I just think if he loosened up his policy a bit he could be making a lot more money for the amount of time he is spending making all of those listings.