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 Replies: 22 / Views: 6,652 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3098 Posts |
I'm sure that anyone who sells on ebay has received ridiculously low offers. Whenever it happens I scratch my head wondering what's up. I have a very nice Uncirculated Indian Head cent up with a $52.00 BIN and I accept offers. I had one person offer $5.00 for the coin, which I declined. He/she then came back at $6.00 and I declined again. The potential buyer than came back at $6.01. Guess what I did. I'm not sure if this person was trying to tick me off and provoke a response or comment from me (which I did not do), get me to counter with a low price (which I didn't do) or if he/she really thought they had a shot at the coin. Normally, if the offer is 50% or more of my BIN price, I will respond with a counter-offer, but in this case I just declined without comment. Your thoughts on why people make such offers? Paul Bulgerin
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New Member
United States
46 Posts |
There are a lot of uneducated people with access to ebay, and it is free to play! Who knows what their motivation was, but it does come with the territory. Thankfully most encounters I have had dealing with people on ebay have been good ones. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1191 Posts |
Probably hoped you wouldn't notice and click accept. Ps.  on some of your wbc listings. Edited by Hello There
12/18/2015 7:00 pm
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Rest in Peace
United States
18456 Posts |
For he/she to go from $6 to $6.01 they were just playing around. I guess it could happen to anyone.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7375 Posts |
Yeah, that's ridiculous. That's why I set my "automatic decline" threshold on the listing page.
Edited by edweather
12/18/2015 7:46 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1911 Posts |
The only thing is sometimes people can make errors setting their auto accept and if that auto accept is low ($1 instead of $100 for ex.) They get a great coin or at least something due to the sellers mistake. That's all I can think of anyways.
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
Sounds like they were just playing around. I had one young buyer (not in coins but in pulp magazines) who constantly bid 10% of my BIN price. We were finally able to exchange emails without ebay and in his case it was all he had to spend. He just thought it was worth giving the low bids a shot. I ended up sending him a nice Weird Tales pulp for free just to keep his interest up. In my own case I know there have been many times when I see a coin I really would love, but the prices are just stupid high. The seller may not think so, but if the seller were to take the time to investigate past sales of a particular coin they would see that the actual selling price was consistently 30-40% less than what they have it listed for via BIN or BO. I'll sometimes make an offer on such a coin in the range I'm happy with, even if it is a significant difference in price, just to test the waters. Usually I only get lucky on such honest offers about 1 in 20 times, but I still try. The good news is that on occasion I get a coin I love for a price I love. The buyers are not the only ones who can be "uneducated" on the price/value, even including some of the bigger sellers. |
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Valued Member
United States
70 Posts |
It's quite simple, when I receive an ridiculous offer I either decline or not respond.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7375 Posts |
Actually a really low offer isn't such a bad thing. Just let it sit there, and don't respond. Now you have an "offer pending" for a couple of days, and it makes your coin look desirable to other potential buyers.
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Valued Member
United States
337 Posts |
I let them play all tehy want with the computer. I set a least offer to accept, and automatic rejection of lower offers. ebay's computer can reject as many offers as they want to try. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1285 Posts |
From the perspective as a buyer:
IF I need/want the item I'll normally make a reasonable(to me) offer. I have had counteroffers that are only $5-$10 less than the original BIN, I usually pass when that happens. On the other hand I've had several who were willing to work with me on a price. I even try to negotiate the shipping at times.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7390 Posts |
What ed said  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
898 Posts |
Natchez is correct. The only time I have lowballed is on a lot where the person is asking far too much over market value, but I am interested in the items. Just not at that price. I wouldn't offer like the person you encountered though.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3098 Posts |
I have a Roman bronze listed for $215 (which I think is a fair price).
Last week I had someone offer me $10 for it. Along with offer came the message, "This is a test."
Not sure what that means, but I took one poster's advice and am just letting the offer sit out there unanswered.
Paul Bulgerin
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
Sellers are all over the place on what kinds of offers they will sell at. I deal with a number of guys who I know from experience absolutely will not sell at less than 10% off even through they use the "Make Offer" option. On the other hand, I know of a large currency dealer who starts very high and is generally comfortable with a bid of 65-70%, and sometimes even 60%.
Otherwise, low "nuisance" bids just go with the territory.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1192 Posts |
With me it totally depends on the item. I tend to price high end of bin and willing to negotiate it like 75%. I did send someone a offer for a ridiculous low price but the item was a unmarked copy of a key date Mexican coin. I did it mostly to tell him I disapproved ;).
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Replies: 22 / Views: 6,652 |
Posted 12/18/2015 6:54 pm
