Would you like the OPTION of "Best Offer" available on eBid?

[booksforsale]

I stll think this is a great idea. I would use it on most of my items. Although we don't have an offer facility yet, I have had ebid buyers message me asking if I would accept, £X rather than the £Z of the Buy Now price.

A little bit of a natter later and we have agreed on £Y - sale done!

I think we can take the concept of Best Offer a step further.

Rather than have Buy Now with Best Offer, we have

• An auction start price.
• Best Offer facility
• Buy Now

within the same listing

The auction start price - suits customers who are prepared to wait and pay the lowest price possible within the realms of the auction scenario

Best offer facility - suits customers who don't want to wait till auction end, but don't want to pay the full Buy Now price

Buy Now - suits customers who don't want to wait and are prepared to pay the full price

This would be set up in such a way that the customer can't make any silly offers purely by the fact that you have set your bottom limit, i.e. the auction start price.

This is a very flexible structure. For the doubters who say adding Best Offer is trying to have this site like ebay, as far as I am aware ebay don't do it this way. For the doubters who say offering such a flexible package reeks of desperation - HELLO -we are hardly brimming with customers in here compared with the 'benchmark'

[marschenegger]

Oh marschenegger if the site doesn't have a variety of sellers then it will not have a variety of buyers.

Just out of curiosity why can't you look at a view point, other then your own, as having merit?

Also marschenegger I believe the forum was designed so members can talk about may things. I see that eBid hasn't stated an order on what and when subjects can be discussed, so I'll put this as delicately as I can. I'll talk about whatever subject I wish at anytime I feel like it. If you don't like that then to bad so sad.

Sounds like the mating call of the moral relativist! LOL. Nothing is absolutely good or absolutely bad, so we should have all choices open to everyone. Only problem here is that if Best Offer is really as good as you say it is, then by having it available, everyone HAS to use it to be able to compete, right? Those sellers who don't use it will get snowed under because buyers will gravitate to the sellers who take offers. So it's not really an OPTION at that point. Some of us are not interested in high-volume bargain-basement sales pressure. We don't want to entertain fickle buyers just to move inventory. We have expectations of the goods we sell. If we price something too high, we can always reduce the price later. There's just no need to put a haggling option on this site. So I put it to you that you're being extremely duplicitous in your zealous pursuit of a haggling option. You're not for CHOICE, you're against it! Go back to the OS where you belong and quit trying to drag this great auction site down with you.

By constantly bringing up this one topic, you're exhausting it, rendering the results of your polls meaningless. Do as Ken said, and give it a rest!

[marschenegger]

I stll think this is a great idea. I would use it on most of my items. Although we don't have an offer facility yet, I have had ebid buyers message me asking if I would accept, £X rather than the £Z of the Buy Now price.

A little bit of a natter later and we have agreed on £Y - sale done!

I think we can take the concept of Best Offer a step further.

Rather than have Buy Now with Best Offer, we have

• An auction start price.
• Best Offer facility
• Buy Now

within the same listing

The auction start price - suits customers who are prepared to wait and pay the lowest price possible within the realms of the auction scenario

Best offer facility - suits customers who don't want to wait till auction end, but don't want to pay the full Buy Now price

Buy Now - suits customers who don't want to wait and are prepared to pay the full price

This would be set up in such a way that the customer can't make any silly offers purely by the fact that you have set your bottom limit, i.e. the auction start price.

This is a very flexible structure. For the doubters who say adding Best Offer is trying to have this site like ebay, as far as I am aware ebay don't do it this way. For the doubters who say offering such a flexible package reeks of desperation - HELLO -we are hardly brimming with customers in here compared with the 'benchmark'

What utter nonsense! This completely violates all the rules of auction theory. The whole point of an auction is to make prices go up, not down. The BIN price is enough of an inducement to get the bidder to stop the auction and circumvent having to compete for the item. If the BIN price is too high, the bidder should bid the price they want to pay. If the start price and BIN price are close, haggling amounts to nothing more than splitting hairs and is pointless for both buyers and sellers. If buyers want an item at that very moment, haggling only slows down the possible transaction. I can't see this option being beneficial to more than a small percentage of an already small buyer base.

[booksforsale]

What utter nonsense! This completely violates all the rules of auction theory. The whole point of an auction is to make prices go up, not down. The BIN price is enough of an inducement to get the bidder to stop the auction and circumvent having to compete for the item. If the BIN price is too high, the bidder should bid the price they want to pay. If the start price and BIN price are close, haggling amounts to nothing more than splitting hairs and is pointless for both buyers and sellers. If buyers want an item at that very moment, haggling only slows down the possible transaction. I can't see this option being beneficial to more than a small percentage of an already small buyer base.

Yes I do get how a listing works, though don't necessarily agree that what you say is how it always works.

Splitting hairs is fine by me if it results in a sale, as vulgar as that might seem to you.

I actually think what you are saying is, to quote you, "utter nonsense", though normally I wouldn't be that impolite. Like many of your other posts, you seem to be telling us that everyone else thinks and operates exactly as you do.

Get with the times. Online selling isn't really about 'auctions', it is about listings.

I list an item

I might choose to offer auction as the sell-method.

I might choose to offer the buyer to choose his buying method as Auction or Buy Now - if he presses the bid now button the listing then becomes an auction - then and only then do the rules of auction theory apply.

As I proposed earlier, I might choose to offer a third option and that is the Make Offer.

It has been heard from the cynical, in this discussion that to want Make Offer, or to use the more disparaging term, 'Haggling' available to its' userbase, is to want ebid to be an ebay clone.

So to let you know my position for future reference - I don't want ebid to be an ebay clone - this will save you putting forward that notion next time you disagree with me.

I proposed sitting the Make Offer, in between the Bid and the Buy options - ebay don't do it that way.

Where the buyer has the choice of Bid and Buy Now and also the third proposed Make Offer, the listing is not an auction until the buyer makes it so by bidding.

You see? Not utter nonsense. A choice of three buying methods for the buyer. One of them being an auction. The other two not.

• An auction. Rules of auction theory apply (Make Offer and Buy Now become unavailable).
  
• Not an auction. Rules of auction theory don't apply.
  
• Not an auction. Rules of auction theory don't apply.

We could all save a lot of time here if those who are seriously against the idea of Buy Now, could come out and just say they are scared of being undercut, rather than put forward convoluted illogical arguments and be offensive on the way.

Look over some of your previous posts on the subject - you speak as if you are the only person who seems to know anything about buying or selling, how to price goods, when to offer a lower price. You are offensive about other peoples stock, and speak as if your stock is somehow holy and others' is tat.

Do you really in your heart of hearts think sellers on here are that out of touch with what they sell and how they sell it that they need you to come here to tell them they are doing it all wrong?

[vq5speed]

Using is using big boy;-)

.

I guess your right, but I never offered it as a seller.
As buyer I have to say I always use it. If the seller is willing to take less why not make an offer. On ebay a seller can set a pre-set amount they will accept. So when you make the offer it automatically accepts it Or they set a amount they will not accept and deny all lower offers. I have had that happen when I make an offer it immediately denies the offer. Really I like this.. this allows me to make other bids without waiting for this seller to accept or deny.

[TiasTreasures]

Am I wrong, or are the people who are deadset against this option selling items that are easy to identify and price? For many of the items we list, such as books, coins, stamps, and banknotes, there is no problem and we wouldn't have any need for the "Make an Offer" option.

It would be useful for other items we have, where there is no easy source of information. They require a lot of research, and even then we sometimes come up empty.

I'm surprised at the lack of empathy. Whenever this is discussed, it has been made clear that it would be an option that no one would be forced to use. I don't understand how anyone would be harmed by having it available as just another selling tool.

[kengillam]

This subject has been thrashed to death many times, I daresay the guys are well aware of those threads and this one, and since it is THEIR choice, have chosen not to implement it, these continuing threads and polls are pointless.

[vq5speed]

This subject has been thrashed to death many times, I daresay the guys are well aware of those threads and this one, and since it is THEIR choice, have chosen not to implement it, these continuing threads and polls are pointless.

If that is true it be great for someone from ebid to come and tell us why they don't want It. It might end members continuing to asked over and over..

[bykimbo]

If that is true it be great for someone from ebid to come and tell us why they don't want It. It might end members continuing to asked over and over..

It might. But I doubt it. Most people launch into discussions clearly believing they're the first person on the planet to have the thought, and take no notice of any suggestion that previous discussion renders the rehash pointless. I don't believe a "Gazza & Mark said so-and-so" would make that much difference. Those with views to air would simply say why they considered the decision wrong, and round we'd all go again.

I don't actually object to such discussions being rehashed occasionally, I must say, since new views can be interesting, other factors can change, and constant reappearance of a subject certainly indicates a consistency of feeling. Not recognising when a particular round of discussion has run it's course is more irritating, I think.

[theweaverboy]

It might. But I doubt it. Most people launch into discussions clearly believing they're the first person on the planet to have the thought, and take no notice of any suggestion that previous discussion renders the rehash pointless. I don't believe a would make that much difference. Those with views to air would simply say why they considered the decision wrong, and round we'd all go again.

I don't actually object to such discussions being rehashed occasionally, I must say, since new views can be interesting, other factors can change, and constant reappearance of a subject certainly indicates a consistency of feeling. Not recognising when a particular round of discussion has run it's course is more irritating, I think.

I'm not the first person to come up with haggling, or wanting the Best Offer option here on eBid. I just the most relentless;-)

Of course "Gazza & Mark said so-and-so" aren't going to speak to one side or the other for the reason that the opposition to there stand would tell them why they are wrong and probably rip into them.

But if popular opinion is for it, or against it, by large numbers they'll just be like, "A lot of people like it, and will lists more with it, and that is better for the site." OR "People hate the option and we do not want to upset our customers, because that would be bad for the site."

As for you marschenegger. You say I'm not for choice, but against it. That is rather funny. If I re-call correctly I had the back of those who like to have a reserve price awhile ago, because I refused to allow this site to limit itself in anyway. My stands hasn’t changed nor will it.

What I'm not for is a limited site. The way you do things on this site is your dogma and you profess that it is the only one true way with as much fever as any zealot. The problem is most zealots are of limited minds. What may be the one true way to some might not be to everyone else.

I just checked the numbers. "For it" are at 61.89% in first, the "Careless" are at 23.81% in second, and in dead last there is "Against it completely" at 14.29%.

Your "Peep with Perseverance",
Steve(AKA:theweaverboy)