"Make Offer" on eBay minor rant....

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Geezerhood

Geezerhood

Member
Aug 16, 2022
1,007
1
662
Southern, Utah, USA
Most of the the time when I have submitted an offer on a listing with the "Make offer" option showing, the seller has made a counter offer that is usually less than 1% off their asking price, sometimes only 50 cents less! At least once their counter offer was even MORE than their asking price. What is up with that? If they aren't going to accept a lower offer, why do they bother with the Make Offer thing to begin with, wasting my time and theirs?
 
  • Like
Reactions: DOOMRIDER, c_m_shooter, Impact701 and 1 other person
Geezerhood said:
Most of the the time when I have submitted an offer on a listing with the "Make offer" option showing, the seller has made a counter offer that is usually less than 1% off their asking price, sometimes only 50 cents less! At least once their counter offer was even MORE than their asking price. What is up with that? If they aren't going to accept a lower offer, why do they bother with the Make Offer thing to begin with, wasting my time and theirs?
Click to expand...
Well that is more BS created by Ebay. When you make an offer Ebay now ( but not in all cases ) will put that item in "your cart". Just last week I made an offer on a Air Compressor and the Seller made a counter offer that was only a couple of dollars below his Listed Price. I went to another web site and purchased the air compressor. When I checked my email in box, there was an email from Ebay stating that I needed to pay for that item. I called Ebay and talked to a female from somewhere overseas ( think of a lot of sand ) and she told me that she / Ebay could NOT remove the item from my cart and that I would have to wait 4-days and it would "drop out" automatically. I then sent an email to the Seller and told him that I DID NOT ACCEPT his counter offer and get it out of my cart. He replied with the same answer as from Ebay. Just a bunch of crooks playing the same game.

ThomasT
 
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: MEC17670, mercado, 450BM and 1 other person
Upvote 0
Ricochet said:
It's a good way to field their customer base.
Click to expand...
That makes sense. I have received a new offer from some sellers that was lower than my original offer, over a month after the seller rejected it.

elh0102 said:
Makes no sense. Unless the seller is responding to a bottom fisher who is only making a low ball offer. That can be offensive, and may encourage the higher counter.
Click to expand...

I generally don't offer below 10% off the asking price on items under $100 and most of the time my offers are rejected.


ThomasT said:
Well that is more BS created by Ebay. When you make an offer Ebay now ( but not in all cases ) will put that item in "your cart". Just last week I made an offer on a Air Compressor and the Seller made a counter offer that was only a couple of dollars below his Listed Price. I went to another web site and purchased the air compressor. When I checked my email in box, there was an email from Ebay stating that I needed to pay for that item. I called Ebay and talked to a female from somewhere overseas ( think of a lot of sand ) and she told me that she / Ebay could NOT remove the item from my cart and that I would have to wait 4-days and it would "drop out" automatically. I then sent an email to the Seller and told him that I DID NOT ACCEPT his counter offer and get it out of my cart. He replied with the same answer as from Ebay. Just a bunch of crooks playing the same game.

ThomasT
Click to expand...

I will have to remember that game and decline counter offers quickly to keep that from happening.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AirNGasman
Upvote 0
Just a follow up, I found the original email from Ebay and here it is. Please note that I did delete seller's information for security reasons.

ThomasT
Ebay crap.jpg
 
Upvote 0
So I’ve been on eBay for the better part of 20 years.
Before the best offer option.
I like it.
Used to be you have to message to immediately buy an item. This opened the door to immediate purchasing item on bids.

I use it for casual low balling. Most times ppl come back with counteroffers. If they aren’t srs about making the sale….I move on. Play the whole field.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Clear Fork
Upvote 0
Too much complaining here and too many about nothing,got nothing to do with air guns.
What I am saying is this,Why? Things happen all the time we do not agree with,why post it on a AIR GUN FORUM?
and it is getting worse every day,shut up and shoot and if you have a problem with your air gun related stuff then post it......
Now you got me doing it,LOL Fuseburger, frivolous,I am Facetious and never Fastidious...uh the good ol'F words,forgetabout it.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Haha
  • Wow
Reactions: shambozzie, Smitty911, Firewalker and 2 others
Upvote 0
I was looking to purchase an accessory for my truck and the seller had the Make Offer button. The cost of the item was $99.99. I made an offer of $90.00 and got no response and the offer expired. I made a second offer of $93.00, and again received no response and the offer expired. I then reached out to the seller through eBay and asked if they actually accepted offers. They responded by telling me to call them at their store. I did and without any negotiations, they sold me the part for $89.00, free shipping and didn't charge the tax eBay would have collected! So, you may want to just reach out to the seller, you never know what might happed! I suspect the better deal was because they didn't have to pay eBay a cut!
 
  • Like
Reactions: DOOMRIDER, 450BM, ThomasT and 1 other person
Upvote 0
I've used the make offer option a few times in the past weeks. It's not a bad deal if it works, if not no harm done.
If you don't like the counter offer then just decline it and it goes away.
I've also reached out to sellers on bid only items I really wanted and asked what $ number they were trying to get. If it worked for me they added a buy now and I straight out purchased.

Really nothing worth complaining about in a thread, but good for people to know what options are out there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OldSpook
Upvote 0
Gerry52 said:
That "Make offer" thing is an Ebay thing not the seller's thing, as said before. Seems like the standard "form" for an Ebay ad. @ThomasT, don't let the "Pay now" thing freak you out. It's all automated B.S. Ignore it & it goes away. Boy, what a digitally cluttered world we live in!
Click to expand...
Of course it is…if you sell stuff you choose to enable the option. Obviously it can be automated. But that’s the sellers option. Usually only done by large eBay stores or sellers. As they can’t hire ppl to interact to offers all day.

If it’s an individual seller, it’s highly likely you’re interacting directly with the seller. And he will accept the offer, or counteroffer. Very similar to the classifies forums here on AGN. Expect it’s a much cleaner approach max
 
Upvote 0
I sold a few air guns on ebay one was an Airforce Texan .50 cal before I knew that .25 cal is the largest cal allowed to be sold on ebay. It sold before they caught wind of it but they definitely let me know the rules when they did. I don't understand why .25 is the limit but their rules.
The next time I sold a .25 cal it took over 30 days to get my $$ so I no longer sell on eBay. Plus they charge too much.
 
Upvote 0
JOERM said:
I sold a few air guns on ebay one was an Airforce Texan .50 cal before I knew that .25 cal is the largest cal allowed to be sold on ebay. It sold before they caught wind of it but they definitely let me know the rules when they did. I don't understand why .25 is the limit but their rules.
The next time I sold a .25 cal it took over 30 days to get my $$ so I no longer sell on eBay. Plus they charge too much.
Click to expand...

I used to sell rare stamps on eBay back when the listings cost 25 cents each and I think the fee was 2 or 3 percent. I made quite a bit of money each month. Some stamps were bid up into the thousands of dollars. The fees kept going up and the rules ever longer and more complicated. Today I think it is about 15% for a scope. It was also OK to sell guns on there. At any given time there were tens of thousands of guns listed. The SELLER was in total control, as it should be in my view. You dictated your terms and the buyer had to comply. Today, I would never sell anything on there that I wouldn't mind losing. I grew to detest it as a seller. With their free returns, trying to keep up with Amazon, as I buyer I have never been ripped off under the current eBay system, which is not the case with the eBay of years ago. I lost hundreds of dollars to dishonest sellers and eBay would do nothing for me.
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: Mycapt65 and ThomasT
Upvote 0
Flea bay is a last resort for me. I have to be willing to pay their fees plus income tax on the complete sale amount. They report the full amount your sale including shipping to the IRS and by law you have to pay taxes on it. Doesn't matter if you sold it at a loss. I have some fishing stuff I have to sell before I move inland. I'm reluctantly selling it on ebay because something is better than adding it to the dumpster that will inevitably don my driveway.

BTW. The IRS is hiring (and arming) 87k new agents that have to agree to use deadly force. All I'll say is watch where you send your votes. Don't stick your head in the sand and think this won't affect you. It will.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jlowe
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu