I’m a new seller, and I’ve twice now had people ask if I’d accept a certain amount in a message, without making an offer. I’m accepting offers on both items, so I’m wondering why they don’t just make an offer instead of asking me in a message? Is this normal?
Huh, didn’t think of that. Thanks!
I’ve never gotten scammer vibes from these people. It just feels like a lowballing loser tactic to try to get your lowest price out of you so they can then offer 30% less than that.
Do you have a minimum offer limit? I get messages from people that want to offer below the minimum. Or they used up all their offers and want to figure out a good price before sending an offer to get rejected again.
Yes I did for the first one, and their offer was right at the minimum. I replied, “Yes, I am accepting offers on this.”
I didn’t have a limit for the second one.
Maybe they just don't know how to use ebay? 🤣
THIS.
I message the seller if I want to buy multiple items and want to know what offer is reasonable. As they can save by combining shipping.
Scammers frequently target new sellers.
Those buyers could be scammers.
Scammers will try to get you to take the sale off of eBay, or get your personal information so they can send you a fake payment email, hoping you are too new and naive to verify that you have actually been paid. They'll message you about making an offer, then want to go to text or email to "discuss" the offer. What they want to do is get your email address or phone number to send you a fake payment message.
No legitimate buyer will give up their eBay buyer protection by paying off site. Your "buyer" wants your email or phone number so they can send you a very real looking, but very fake payment email. They are hoping you are too inexperienced to verify the payment. There will be NO PAYMENT, only a fake email saying you've been paid and you must ship immediately so the payment can be released. This is a lie. This person wants you to ship your item without being paid. They want to steal your stuff.
All contact should always be through eBay messages. Do NOT, under any circumstances, give your phone number or email address to a buyer. Do not send a Paypal invoice, either. Your email address can be found on the invoice. Do not click any link sent from a buyer claiming to have payment issues. There is no legitimate link for buyers to fix a payment issue.
Here are some red flags to watch out for.
Buyer asks for your email address, Paypal address
Buyer sends you a phone number to text/call him/her
Buyer asks you to buy gift cards to go with the order
Buyer asks you to send the item to a different address after paying
Buyer wants you to send the item overnight/express and will pay you a lot extra to do this
Buyers says that they cannot pay through the eBay website and sends you a link to click on so that the payment will go through
Buyer offers more for your item than the price you have it listed for
If ANY of the above happen, do not contact the buyer or respond to any messages from them. Block them here: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/BuyerBlock This will prevent them from buying from you.
If they actually purchased, won an auction, or you accepted an offer, after four full days do an unpaid item cancellation. You can do that here: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/cancelling-transaction?id=4136 Once you do that you can relist.
I think you only get 3 offers. Maybe they don’t want to waste one. Also an offer is binding if the seller accepts it, they might not want to commit.
It might be a starting point to haggle.
Just keep in mind any price you agree upon will have taxes added to it.
If they want to use PayPal pay in 4, you would have to change the price of the item to whatever their offer is for them to buy it. A buyer cannot use “pay in 4” when making an offer, if you have it set up for automatic payment.
Ive had some folks do it to also ask some questions about the item while negotiating a price over message
Just tell them to make an offer. You can set a minimum amount on offers
It might be they’ve seen several of the same item and trying to find the best price rather than offering on all the items and risking more than one accepting. If they did that, they may end up with more than one that they were committed to purchase.
I ignore them, they know how to offer.
Today I listed an expensive designer bag for about 1/3 the price of retail. Within minutes I got an email "Best offer buy now"
No - I'm not bidding against myself. If they want to make an offer then do so & I'll consider it.
They may be trying to trick you into contacting them off eBay(don’t). As a new seller I wouldn’t even entertain offers.