If eBay listing has Make Offer option, what amount, of price, should offer? Or is it rude to make a lower offer? Since sometimes I see things sitting for a long time, that I'm interested in, but think is overpriced by far. So if make low offer (relative to asking price), is it consider rude or bad? A few times I made offer, but never got any response from it, so IDK.

If eBay listing has Make Offer option, what amount, of price, should offer? Or is it rude to make a lower offer? Since sometimes I see things sitting for a long time, that I'm interested in, but think is overpriced by far. So if make low offer (relative to asking price), is it consider rude or bad? A few times I made offer, but never got any response from it, so IDK.

The problem lately with eBay's offer option is that eBay automatically adds the make offer option to the listing if the item hasn't had much interest from potential buyers. Happens all the time to my listings. If the item hasn't had many views or interest for like a week or so, eBay adds the make offer option automatically without asking the seller. It gets annoying because most of my items I have priced at how much I want for it and I don't want to get less for it. However, lately I have been adding the offer option myself to most of my listings in an effort to try and sell some stuff quicker before I leave to go to school.

If you're going to make an offer just keep in mind the shipping cost if the item has free shipping. I've had some buyers in the past make me ridiculous offers that are less than what my shipping cost alone will be. For example, I was selling some sprinklers from my collection and I was asking something like $20 or $30 with free shipping. Shipping cost me like $10 on that item. I had a buyer offer me $5. I declined his offer and replied with a offer closer to my asking price and I told them in a message attachment that shipping was going to cost me at least $10 just to send it to them. They then replied back going up $1 to a new offer of $6. I guess they didn't get it that shipping was going to be at least $10.

I didn't know about that, with eBay automatically putting best offer. So maybe I made an offer, when seller didn't want offers. But I usually do try to make the offer at least to cover shipping plus what I think item is worth.

If you're going to make an offer just keep in mind the shipping cost if the item has free shipping. I've had some buyers in the past make me ridiculous offers that are less than what my shipping cost alone will be. For example, I was selling some sprinklers from my collection and I was asking something like $20 or $30 with free shipping. Shipping cost me like $10 on that item. I had a buyer offer me $5. I declined his offer and replied with a offer closer to my asking price and I told them in a message attachment that shipping was going to cost me at least $10 just to send it to them. They then replied back going up $1 to a new offer of $6. I guess they didn't get it that shipping was going to be at least $10.

My feeling on this is that if an item costs $10 to ship then have the shipping cost added to it, instead of offering free shipping.

I tend to look at the "view all revisions" if there are any in the item description And depending on how long they've had the item and how many they've sold (if they have more than one) I'll then use that info to determine my offer. If the seller has had something listed for a long time and sold only a few or none  I'll offer a low amount . Otherwise I'll typically start with an offer that's 75-80% of the asking price and negotiate from there . You can also look at the purchase history on the item and see what if any other offers were made and whether or not they were accepted . In the end it all comes down to how much does the seller want to get rid of the item !

 I recently made an offer on a ballast that the seller had listed for 5 yrs , I offered him 1/2 what he was asking and he accepted within seconds ! Again , it all depend on how much they want the item out of their life .

And to HPSM250R2's point about shipping costs ,   if the seller makes a counter offer , don't get cheap and insult the guy with another offer only slightly higher than your original cause you'll just piss them off .

 In the end ,of the item is in your opinion that overpriced and the seller won't come down to where you want to be then just move on .

One thing I noticed lately is when I make an offer, with some listings, when I type in an amount, it say to increase my offer to a certain amount. Because it says the seller will be more likely to consider my offer if it's close to that amount.

However, other listings don't do this, it doesn't say anything.

I wonder why this is or if seller has an amount put in they're willing to accept. I understand that some sellers have an amount they can set it to accept automatically if it's over that amount or reject offer below it.

When I consider making a bid, I always take into consideration the shipping price.

Often times, the seller has unrealistic expectations of value on something they likely couldn't care less about. They just see a bunch of jacked-up asking prices online, MAYBE a one time sale that was an anomaly, and then they park it on eBay hoping it'll sell. So, I don't mind if they get offended, I actually think 95% of the time no one will get offended, although I think I have offended one or two sellers over the years. Don't care.

Often I'll see something, say a box of Christmas lights for $20+$15 for shipping. Come on, who's gonna pay $35 for a box of Christmas lights? Because they may be collectible to me, I would consider $20 shipped....which to most people is still $19.50 too much for old, non-LED lights. Now I have to decide if I want to offer the seller $5! I generally will include a note with the low ball offer. It works about 50% of the time. Some people literally don't care and will let it go for that, I think a pre-explanation note included with the offer can help.

I have also seen the instant offer rejection! Asking price was $20, I offered $10, automatically rejected instantly. I have even played with those auto-rejects, one guy had his offer setting reject my $19.99 offer, only $0.01 less than his BIN price. I decided to not buy from him over that $0.01 difference because I don't appreciate that, don't be a snob with your listing.

I have also seen the "you should consider offering more, seller will be more likely to accept" but I sent the low offer anyway and it was eventually accepted.

Also, when considering "make offer" on multiple quantity, be sure to consider price of shipping. I had one seller charging say $5 for a pack of bulbs, $6 shipping. He had 8 packs. I checked his shipping calculator for combined shipping, so when I entered "8" it said $48 for shipping! I'm talking a little pack of Christmas bulbs, wouldn't cost more than $7 to ship them all.
I contacted him, said "I'd like to make an offer, do you offer combined shipping"? He was like "yes". So, I asked him to fix his shipping calculator, BECAUSE if you make an offer, say "$30 for all 8 shipped for $7", the eBay system will NOT recognize your shipping offer, only recognizes your unit offer (you have to enter $3.75 x 8 qty) and if the seller accepts then your are responsible to pay the shipping that was in effect on their listing at time of offer, which in my example would have been $48! I have had 2 recent attempted deals fail due to this exact situation, one seller was even honest with me about it, he said that was his way of making even more money then stopped responding to me.

The shipping can get you. Sometimes it says combines shipping but as takemorepills said, it doesn't always work the way it is supposed to. When you bid, if the seller has a minimum price he would consider, your bid would automatically come back rejected. Other shippers just wait and see what the high offer is and you might be surprised sometimes like the 50 Precision photo controls that I bought for 20.00 NIB.

I don't really set a minimum bid on my listings that have best offer turned on when I am the one turning on the offer option. EBay has it set up though so when you create a listing, the best offer option automatically is turned on with a minimum offer amount pre-set. I usually just leave the minimum amount that they have pre-set for me alone though.

I purchased 3 cases of DTL photocontrols a few years ago and paid 25 cents per control if I remember correctly. 150 photocontrols for like $50.

I have made offerers on items before, sometimes a seller will accept it, sometimes they'll send back a counter-offer. I figure it doesn't hurt to try.


On my own listings I turn off the offers option.

I've made offers for items before too, usually around 20-25% off the buy it now price. Usually a seller will accept it or at least send back a counter offer. Shipping price is the major killer for me so I take that into account and any eBay import charges if I'm forced to use the eBay Global Shipping Program for that item. An aside, I personally preferred when sellers would ship direct via USPS as shipping would be cheaper and import charges would either be none or minimal. I guess the GSP kinda makes sense for sending items overseas but I find for shipments to Canada it just adds an extra layer of hassle.

Anyway if an item is clearly overpriced and I'm on the fence about getting it I might send a more aggressive offer especially if the item has been sitting on eBay for a while.

The few things I sold on eBay I kept the offer button on but I don't think anyone ever used it.