eBay escapades. The low ball offer

When dealing with Ebay (and their more useful but ever so naughty and inefficient and often downright annoying big sister, Paypal) it helps to keep in mind that we all need a certain level of aggravation in life to keep us on our toes and functioning in this crazy world.

A few intelligent and very useful points of advice in this thread on how to deal with pesky bottom-feed offers, notably when no offers are wanted(and this very clearly stated) in the first place.

Let us not forget that such annoyances are why the galactic gods in the universe in their wisdom, gave us a delete button on our computer keyboards.
 
taemo said:
Funny enough, yesterday I had a lens listed on ebay for 1250$ OBO.
Someone lowballed me to 1100, I countered 1200, then he offered 1150 and I responded back 1180 but again he still offered 1150.
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Is your name Ebenezer? :D



A lowball offer would generally be something like 50% of the asking price. If they offered $650, that'd be a lowball offer. Your "lowball" offer was generous, if not exceedingly polite. :)
 
I have a few things to sell but I'm not sure there are any viable alternatives to Ebay other than getting genuinely lowballed at dealers.

I do find the whole thing increasingly bizarre. In the last few months I've bought some expensive things and had no feedback, returned three lenses/cameras for hopelessly misleading descriptions, one of which vendors (all 100% positive feedback) didn't even refund me leaving Ebay to step in. Yet this morning I find that dealer and another of the three have given me exceptional feedback. Weird.
 
Sometimes selling stuff is a pain. Sometimes/often buyers are a pain. However, no other service brings buyers for stuff like old cameras and lenses together with sellers. Put that old camera out on a table on the front lawn during a yard sale, see how many people even look at it and see if you do find a buyer what you get for it -- enjoy that cup of coffee. (If you're lucky.)
 
I, in fact, contacted a seller once. His item (forget what it was) had a ridiculous BIN price way over market value. I showed him the average sale price and politely asked if he looked at the prices of the item he had up for bid. I made him a reasonable offer base on average sales price. I got a curt response. His item didn't sell. And I'm sure it's gaining value in the back of a drawer somewhere.
 
I often will bring up recently ended auctions and give the final prices (my offers are usually the exact same amount as the closed auction when I do this). Some people go "oh ok" and accept, or make a reasonable counter offer.
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This is what I did when I made an offer on a Patagonia windbreaker that I wanted to buy for the Camino Frances I was planning to walk. The seller was asking more than what the item had sold for in the past on Ebay.

I made the seller an offer She countered with another offer. I then countered with another offer, pointing out the range that other Patagonia windbreakers had sold for. I also stated that I wanted to buy it for walking on the Camino Frances in Spain. She then agreed to sell it to me for my offer price. I think that stating why I wanted to buy it, as well as pointing out the range that the item had sold for in the past, convinced her to sell it to me for my offer price.
 
can't fault someone for trying... auctions sites are "safe" places for people to behave in a way they wouldn't in face-to-face transaction.:eek:


having said that, it's all gme nd should be treaated as such; unless it's a business for you - then you have to have a thick skin and negotiation skills.:bang:
 
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