eBay Sellers Who Indicate Best Offer But Aren't Receptive to One

[Guitar Josh]

So there's this guitar on eBay that has been conservatively relisted 6 times, each time at a $1999.99 price.

FIVE times I have offered $1899 via the Make Offer system. All five times the offer has gone unanswered.

I cannot believe that if you are truly interested in a best offer, and someone offers $100 below a $2k auction you've had to relist over 3 months without a nibble, you wouldn't accept it.

E-mails have also gone unanswered. I've given up on the guitar at this point.

Just saying, if you are going to indicate you are receptive to offers, be willing to pull the trigger when you get one. :bonk

[DGTCrazy]

I have a guy from this forum sending me vulgar PM's because I asked for free shipping on a pedal he had for sale, so I bought someone else's. Consider yourself lucky.

[ACfixer]

On the other hand, I probably wouldn't let $100 stand in the way of a $2,000 guitar I'd been oogling for three months.

[Scott Whigham]

How strange. That's so weird.

I've done the whole Make Offer thing, both as buyer and seller, and here's what I'd want if I was the seller:

If I'm going to sell for less than BIN price, I want to take the transaction off of ebay/PayPal so that I don't incur their fees.

Maybe send him a message sending him your phone number and asking him to call you. Work it out.

[coldfingaz]

I have a guy from this forum sending me vulgar PM's because I asked for free shipping on a pedal he had for sale, so I bought someone else's. Consider yourself lucky.


I'm typically not into ratting anyone out, but this jackass should be reported to the mods with copies of the PM's. People like this are a big part of why the Emporium's gone downhill. It would nice to see some of them weeded out.

And, Josh... do you really expect better on Ebay?

[Guitar Josh]

On the other hand, I probably wouldn't let $100 stand in the way of a $2,000 guitar I'd been oogling for three months.

In some ways, it's not.

It's overpriced at $2k. Objectively. $1800 is where I really think the value lies, but I'm willing to go to $1900 to make the deal.

Honestly, at this point, I think I am dealing on principle since the seller is acting like such a major dillbag.

Good idea on the outside eBay idea, I try not to do that too much since you lose that extra layer of protection eBay brings when used with PP.

And no, I don't expect better on eBay, unfortunately. That place is becoming a big wasteland of nonsense.

[mjtripper]

I used to worry about the extra 100 or even 200 on a guitar I REALLY wanted but was hard to find and let the first couple I found go because of it and regretted it each and every time. Finally another one came up and I just forked over the extra cash - I paid WAY too much for it but after a couple months I forgot all about paying too much and it's my number one guitar.

[hank]

I have a guy from this forum sending me vulgar PM's because I asked for free shipping on a pedal he had for sale, so I bought someone else's. Consider yourself lucky.

Report this to a Moderator.

[coreybox]

If I'm going to sell for less than BIN price, I want to take the transaction off of ebay/PayPal so that I don't incur their fees.

Maybe send him a message sending him your phone number and asking him to call you. Work it out.

1) You aren't suppose to do this. That said, I've done this several times, both as a buyer and seller.

2) Ebay/Paypal seems to be cracking down on this. A couple months ago there was an item on eBay offered at a decent BIN price. I contacted the buyer, asking for a lower price + dealing outside of eBay so he could save the eBay fees (and pass the savings on to me). He accepted, canceled the auction, and I paid for the item via Paypal.

Later that night paypal called me up and asked if I purchased such and such item, to which I said yes I did. I thought they were doing some sort of fraud protection, making sure my account was not hijacked. What they did instead was cancel the transaction and send a message to the seller saying he was not allowed to sell eBay good outside of eBay.

[PhishinPole]

I have a similar situation brewing. I bid on a pedal last week, won the auction at $55 below the BIN but did not meet the reserve. The seller relisted with the same BIN, I bid my max and I'm currently sitting at the same price the first auction ended at but the reserve hasn't been met again. I have a feeling the seller has the reserve = to the BIN. What's the point? Hopefully I get a second chance offer when this ends, but somehow I doubt that's going to happen.

I don't think he understands that used once still means used.

[gsh1968]

By letting your offers go the full 48 hrs, he gets that much time where another potential buyer may purchase at the BIN price rather than risk losing it by putting in an offer. Basic selling strategy - make the item look as desirable as possible.

Also, iirc, every offer that you receive bumps your listing up the "Best Match" search results. Therefore even if he has no intention of selling below the BIN price, he is maximising the visibility of his product.

I would say he simply knows the way ebay works and is using it to his advantage.