How about a "Best-Offer" or a "Haggle" option?

[marschenegger]

...Effectively anybody arguing against it is saying that taking £5 in ten days is fine but taking £5 now is bad, which is clearly nonsense.

If you want £5 now, then make your listing a fixed-price listing, not an auction. You don't seem to understand or appreciate that there are rules that govern the auction format, making them different from fixed-price listings. In the auction format, you are giving other bidders the chance to jump in and place a higher bid than your opening price. The amount of time you give those bidders is up to you, but if you're going to close the auction early and sell to the current high bidder outside of eBid, you're breaking eBid's rules. Don't shoot the messenger, I didn't make the rules.

[bykimbo]

You appear to be confused. On ebid one can have an auction start price *and* a BIN price on the same listing.Nobody's talking about ending auctions early. What is being discussed is, effectively, allowing controlled variation of the BIN price instead of having to do it via Q&A and editing the BIN. Nothing I've discussed is against ebid rules. I don't need to shoot the messenger - it would be terribly harsh to do so, just because he doesn't understand the message.

[marschenegger]

...Perhaps your idea of good habits amongst buyers would be to give you the price you dictate, yes dictate, and how dare they question that. Whilst I understand the seller wants to get as much as possible for an item, the good seller will try to see things from the buyers point of view (any reasonably good negotiator is well aware of empathy).

What is so wrong in your mind concerning sellers having fixed prices? Isn't that the whole point of the fixed-price format? You almost appear to be saying that sellers who don't negotiate with buyers are fascist dictators. We discussed previously the vast differences between the kinds of items you and I sell. I sell stuff that has an after-retail value. You sell stuff that has no real or perceived value to people who are not looking for the specific items you have. If I'm a bad person because I have expectations for my items, so be it. I'm not a boor that I will completely shut off communication with interested buyers who don't buy something from me first. Buyers are welcome to contact me with comments or ideas. But if they think they can tell me how to run my business and I'm following all of eBid's rules and terms, they will soon learn that I stick up for myself. If someone tells me I have to sell my item to them at a given price and I have to ship via a certain method, I'll gladly tell them to go to another seller who puts up with that kind of abuse.

You are quite insulting and offensive about buyers - remember your potential customers may be reading this.
I will gladly accept the last minute buyer who wants a bargain - I will quite happily take any off your hands.

I think it's far more degrading and insulting to have no expectations of a person. I sincerely hope my buyers are reading this. Many buyers in the area of collectables have experience as sellers, and consequently, they make respectable buyers.

Nor do I think most sellers will inflate their prices to offset the perceived loss made through accepting an offer.

You can choose to believe whatever you want, but that doesn't make it true. I have witnessed the process at work on bourse floors at collectables shows, so I know it exists and is happening. Again, though, the difference is that the items in collectables shows have intrinsic value, whereas used books have no value, and hence any offer on a used book is fair game whereas a low offer on a collectable item can almost always be topped by another interested buyer.

I don't believe there are "bad buyer habits". If someone is buying (and paying up) that is good, however they choose to do it.

Wow, you must be oblivious to the horror stories related on these boards. I have heard countless stories of sellers being verbally abused and threatened by buyers for many different reasons. You can choose to believe that the customer is always right and the few with rough edges just need to be remediated with kind words and a positive experience. I have dealt with a few of the incurables and my sense of self-worth is not so low that I feel compelled to take these cons head-on in the games that they play.

There's no point answering the rest of your tripe as you are clearly indoctrinated toward hating sellers. Keep your personal insults to yourself. I have already explained why I choose to do business the way I do and why Best Offer is not a suitable tool for me. I'm not interested in giving away my collectables to anyone with an offer however low. I choose to respect the auction format and why it is unique from the fixed price store format. I choose to respect eBid's rules of conduct. You're obviously an elitist and put yourself on a very high pedestal above the "beans-and-toast" crowd. You criticize doctors and other educated people for thinking they know something, and you act like the very stereotype to which you point. You know so much better than the rest of us, and yet... you're here! Better to be a big fish (or hypocrite) in a small pond than to be lost at sea on that other website? Coincidently (or not), that other site HAS the selling options you want.

[marschenegger]

You appear to be confused. On ebid one can have an auction start price *and* a BIN price on the same listing.Nobody's talking about ending auctions early. What is being discussed is, effectively, allowing controlled variation of the BIN price instead of having to do it via Q&A and editing the BIN. Nothing I've discussed is against ebid rules. I don't need to shoot the messenger - it would be terribly harsh to do so, just because he doesn't understand the message.

I'm not confused. You're assuming that prospective buyers will always negotiate a price that is between the auction start price and the BIN price. What about offers below the auction start price? You can't set the BIN price below the auction start price unless you also lower the auction price too, and at that point, you're not really using the auction format because your start price, which is supposed to be your lowest accepted price, is flexible. Why bother with the auction format if you're going to do that?

[bykimbo]

Why would I accept an offer below my auction start price?

[marschenegger]

Because you want to give buyers what they want and make a sale? I don't know the answer. It's your scenario, not mine.

[bykimbo]

Because you want to give buyers what they want and make a sale? I don't know the answer. It's your scenario, not mine.

At no point have I suggested that I would accept an offer lower than the *auction* start point. There doesn't seem to be much point in trying to argue a view I don't hold and have never expressed. Perhaps whoever did paint that scenario for you would like to take over, it's nowt to do with me.

[marschenegger]

If you invite haggling, you can't invite just a certain kind of haggling in a very certain context. Buyers will always to try to get stuff as cheaply as possible, so why wouldn't they make offers below your start price "in case your item does not sell"?
Given your scenario of allowing haggling and early closings for offers between the start price and BIN price, I don't see why eBid would need to invent a tool for this. Buyers can contact sellers through the eBid contact form. The original topic of this thread was institutionalized haggling or "Best Offer".

[bykimbo]

As I've already said "What is being discussed is, effectively, allowing controlled variation of the BIN price instead of having to do it via Q&A and editing the BIN. "

You think that because this can already be done, we shouldn't have best offer.
I think that because this can already be done, we might as well have best offer.

I'm done.

[marschenegger]

LOL, then I'd say we would agree to disagree, but we probably wouldn't agree on that