Buy It Now or Best Offer

A quick sale rather than waiting for the auction to finish?
 
As title i would think, you buy it at his price or try and barter a better price, as before if some one wants it they will pay the asking price.
 
I put in a cheeky bid for a loco recently for a best offer. It was accepted almost immediately and I brought it for 20% less than the asking price. It was what I thought it was worth, and the seller must have wanted to shift it quickly.

On another occasion, I put in a low bid for some track, a price which I considered to be fair, but this was refused. He suggested a price between what he wanted and for what I was prepared to pay. I stuck with my low offer (there were several pieces of track but only one particular piece which I wanted) but he refused. Fair one!

He didn't sell the track for some time, but he did get his asking price eventually....
 
I'm with Gizzy, putter a reasonably but cheeky offer, sometimes it works, but often they will come back with a counter offer, with luck the lower your starting offer the better the counter offer - but this is not a science, and different sellers have different expectations, their BIN price maybe exactly what they want, or just just an over priced risk trying to catch a fool!!
 
And just to prove a point, I just bid on another LGB item with my bestest offer, it was accepted, and I've saved 25% on what was asked for.

You've just got to be savvy about what you are buying. It helps that I've been doing G scale for a number of years Sarah, so I know what is a good deal, and what is a rip-off....
 
Yep, I usually try a best offer unless the BIN is too good to miss anyway (someone else might nab it!). The same as Drew Pritchard on Salvage Hunters - always got to try and get a deal!
 
Ebay are adding this without the sellers consent. Ebay have realy messed things up this time. Latest dodge is to relist something & then charge you for doing it. My wife has pulled a lot of what she is selling as we are pestered with rediculous offers.
 
What I don't understand is those items that have a starting price (NOT a 'buy it now' one) and STILL have a Best Offer option. This is a fairly recent innovation(!?!?). Are we supposed to offer less or more?
 
ebay mike said:
What I don't understand is those items that have a starting price (NOT a 'buy it now' one) and STILL have a Best Offer option. This is a fairly recent innovation(!?!?). Are we supposed to offer less or more?
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In that case, once someone makes the first bid, the "make offer" option goes away, then it becomes just a regular auction.
you can only make an offer if there are zero bids.
As for how much to offer? You could probably ask more or less than the starting bid. basically just ignore the starting bid completely and offer what you would be willing to pay, and what you think the seller might accept.

Scot
 
about the best offers above is said enough.

before you make yet another thread for that, let me include here something else: seller's reputation.

buy it now in combination with seller's reputation is about the safest option ebay offers.

a seller, who has thousands of sells, plus a 99% or higher reputation is very likely a professional and honest seller.
so you will not get super cheap "steals" from them, but you can count on getting offers, that are more or less just/realistic.
(for me the preferred manner of buying on ebay)

it protects us from our own greed (just one bid more...)
 
dutchelm said:
Ebay are adding this without the sellers consent. Ebay have realy messed things up this time. Latest dodge is to relist something & then charge you for doing it. My wife has pulled a lot of what she is selling as we are pestered with rediculous offers.
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Not quite true, I have just sold a number of items on ebay (not rail related) and when you list you need to ensure the BIN is not "ticked", so its up to you to check your listing before publish, what isn't clear is though it may be free listings, you pay extra for BIN.
 
JimmyB said:
Not quite true, I have just sold a number of items on ebay (not rail related) and when you list you need to ensure the BIN is not "ticked", so its up to you to check your listing before publish, what isn't clear is though it may be free listings, you pay extra for BIN.
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Things have changed this week. We are constantly getting emails from EBay saying we are now allowing offers. We will charge you if you don't allow them.
 
JimmyB said:
As you say things have changed, I'll need to be careful next time I sell.
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Yes Jimmy, A new format for selling. Ebay put offers on without telling you. It's difficult to find the opt out as it is hidden. If you opt out of offers they threaten you with a 35p charge. My wife has removed a lot & it is going to the charity shop.
 
Well, I guess you can always decline any offer that is made - though of course doing so all eats up time, which is valuable.....

From a buyer's perspective, it may not be a bad thing - if you see something you really want, put in a sensible offer and the seller is happy to accept it, then it's all good - much better in many ways than having to wait for the auction end and then having some ****er snipe it out from under you.....
If the seller rejects your offer, it's then up to you how badly you want it!

Jon.
 
dutchelm said:
Yes Jimmy, A new format for selling. Ebay put offers on without telling you. It's difficult to find the opt out as it is hidden. If you opt out of offers they threaten you with a 35p charge. My wife has removed a lot & it is going to the charity shop.
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Just another to add to my reasons for not using ebay to sell stuff any more, very sad really as it was a great vehicle for moving stuff on. I do however have no problem with buying on occasion though not for a long time now. However law of diminishing returns, if people get fed up with ebay selling fafing like me there will be nothing to buy!
 
Is this offer option so bad? I believe you set a lower limit to offers you will consider, anything below that gets an auto response from eBay. I can't believe you'd be inundated with offers. I guess eBay just want to close the deal more quickly so they can take their commission, but there's nothing forcing you to accept any offer AFAIK.
 
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