Watchers or Best Offers ?

[carpentercomicbook]

Yes best offer does work. ++++ Instead of putting your low price you put a high price and most of the time it sells for the high price 80% of my best offers they just buy it now but if you have that high price some people want to feel like there getting a deal so they make offer so with that best offer you have room to play.
you guys get what im sayin or no. HEY best offer works simple ok!!!!!!!!!!

[adruml]

Standard response from those that sell two bobs worth of 'Woolworth' items that can have no best offer price because there is hardly any profit in their items already. Why these sellers actually bother to comment on 'best offer' is beyond me.

I use best offer all the time on eBay and it works. I buy at auction, I may pay £70 for an antique that's worth £350 so I can afford to negotiate and buyers enjoy the negotiation or they just buy at the full price cos they are full of B.S. - I'm not complaining.

Perhaps these unbelievers should watch 'Antiques Road Trip' or 'Put your money where your mouth is' on BBC - real dealers buying cheap and negotiating a price, they are constantly asking, "what is your best offer?".

Jees - of course they don't want best offer if the average cost of their items is £2.00 :-) Although I am a paid up member of the free listing club, I can't use eBid in its present form and will wait until they get around to adding a best offer option. I will stick to eBay and my online shops which also have a best offer option.

If it didn't work, why are so many using it on eBay? This failure is why genuine dealers of expensive quality vintage and antique items are not coming over to eBid, if they don't supply like for like, who but the 'Poundland' type stores are going to come across?

Well put, Bravo. If eBid wants major sellers to start jumping over then pay attention to what some are saying. As most have said in this thread about 80% just buy at the Buy it Now price without making an offer but the option is there for them. The Best Offer scenario also creates a sense of urgency in either making the purchase or submitting a best offer. Without the Best Offer option buyers know they can come back to it and buy it at their leisure for the Buy now item option (that does sound funny).
The ability to know how many watchers you have on an given item to me is extremely helpful. If I have 10 watchers on an item, although some may be folks just checking price I can feel reasonably assured it will sell at auction end. If I have 0 watchers after a few days of listing then I realize I need to revise the listing and possibly lower the price. Without knowing if there are any watchers we don't know if it may sell, if we need to revise our listing or even if anybody cares about the item.
I have always thought selling on an auction site was indeed just that...selling. It's extremely nice here on eBid we can auto repost 10 times and not have to lift a finger and I have read in the forums the popularity of this option is fantastic. Personally I would rather sell the item within the 7 or 10 day listing and replace with another listing rather then see the same listing auto repost over and over again. With Best offer as well as knowing if you have watchers would help this tremendously.

[suesjools]

Sellers who are willing to accept best offers on items can always add this info. to the item description.

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[adruml]

Sellers who are willing to accept best offers on items can always add this info. to the item description.

Best wishes for many sales to all,

Not the same. Sense of urgency isn't created only because not a lot of buyers read our descriptions entirely. They look at the title, auction type and pictures.

Buy it Now $800.00 or Best Offer....Hmmm maybe I'll offer $750.00 which will cover the $50.00 shipping cost. Well it's worth a try and if not accepted I can always Buy It Now or Buy Now item for the $800.00. We as sellers can also wait a couple days and see what offers we get in then accept the highest. Too often we don't truly know the market value of an item and it's nice to be able to let the market tell us what an item is worth. Especially for the folks picking up items for $20.00 and it may be worth hundreds. Should they list at $40.00 and be haqppy to double their money or let the market set the price. If you see that item selling for say $400.00 why not put a $425.00 or Best Offer on it. If after 6 days you recieve 5 offers between $300 and $350 you have the option of taking any of the offers or letting the auction run out and relist in hopes of getting your $425 asking price. Currently with this scenario 1) we have no idea if anyone is interested in the item due to not knowing if there are watchers and 2) someone might want to offer $380.00 for the item 3) Someone may be watching just to see if it doesn't sell if you are going to lower the price on the relisting.
The manner in which I have been buying and selling is I list items, sell them, reinvest the profits in more items and keep turning items. Either more items or more expensive items but just to have the same items week after week shouldn't cut it for any of us.
I'm sure there are many sellers out there who list their items at top dollar in hopes to get as much as they can. If where they buy from or how they buy let's say an Estate sale comes up with an opportunity to purchase more items to list they may be more inclined to take less. By knowing they have watchers and Best Offer scenario they can take less then asking. Without it they have to revise their listing but have no idea if anyone was interested in the first place so they have no idea how to revise. Best Offer scenario with watchers will tell that seller everything they need to know to sell the item faster.

[liquidationitems]

this has to be a must,

sometimes I will sell an item for 1k dollars , but often if I want to turn over the product faster I will accept an offer maybe of 850 and up depending on the demand on the product and how fast I want to flip the item.

If you are buying higher priced items there always is a negotiation involved and people often negotiate even if its just a savings on 5 dollars. Some people just like to have the feeling that they won

[Juliebabe25]

I use it on an Australian site and have had a few sales as a result.

The point is that if its there as an option, the seller does not have to use it.

Its just an extra selling tool.

And I'd love to see "Watchers" back.

It would give a bit of inspiration to sellers who use BIN to see some "action" on their selling list.

And bring back bids as well !

[Saturdayat3]

I think it would be a good idea to add it as an option. There are sellers who state it would help them, so why not. After all, we have the reserve price option, which most buyers (me included) have already said we dislike.

[carpentercomicbook]

That's the point I was trying to make there needs to be a best offer. Well said friend I am a major seller. Straight from ebay power seller top rated the whole 9 yards. About more than half of my items are best offer and I add about 10-20.00 to the buy it know price to make room for best offers. But like I said some people don't like to haggle rather just buy it now and be done with, then I actually make an extra 10-20.00 it's sweet sometimes I am amazed. I actually joined last year but the money on ebay rolls in faster. Ebid can be the next big thing but need to update this system a little.

[Darthmatt]

I use it on an Australian site and have had a few sales as a result.
The point is that if its there as an option, the seller does not have to use it.
Its just an extra selling tool.
And I'd love to see "Watchers" back.
It would give a bit of inspiration to sellers who use BIN to see some "action" on their selling list.
And bring back bids as well !

Julie you hit the nail right on the head there

I never undstand why these threads need people arguing each side. If it would be useful, request it. If you wouldn't use it, no need to argue about it as you wouldn't be forced into using it on your own auctions hehe.

[Sciworks]

I wrote last year about this and again today:

> I wrote to you last year and was disappointed with your response
> regarding the inclusion of a 'Best Offer' button. You can easily see
> from browsing, that eBay sellers cannot sell on eBid in the expensive
> antique and vintage categories. When are you going to add the 'Best
> Offer' option and include 'Watchers'? Is there a reason eBid does not
> want sellers of expensive vintage and antique items to be successful
> on eBid? Please read:
> http://www.ebid.net/forums/showthrea...t-Offers/page2

The response (same as last year) is:

Hi Mark,

We are aware that some customers would like the Best Offer facility.
We do not have plans to introduce this in the near future however.

Best Wishes
eBid Support Team
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