Reminder/Warning to those who sell on ebay

[disneysteve]

If you sell on ebay, there is an option when you create your listing to accept offers. The default has it checked. You need to manually uncheck it if you do not want to accept offers.

I always uncheck it because accepting offers makes absolutely no sense to me. If I'm willing to accept an offer of $20 for an item, why would I start the bidding at $25? I always start the bidding at the lowest amount I'm willing to sell the item for.

The reminder/warning is that if your item doesn't sell the first time, when it gets automatically relisted it will again default to accepting offers. You need to go in to each auction that has been relisted and edit that setting. It's a pain in the butt. I think if an auction gets relisted, it should get done with the exact same terms you started with but ebay has decided to make your selling terms for you.

[greenskeeper]

I allow offers because I build "free shipping" into the price. If someone fairly close wants the item for less and I can still cover the shipping then I'll sell it for the best offer. I also allow clown bids down to $1....because if I get a clown bid then I automatically block that buyer.

[creditcardfree]

I just let eBay relist my items. I relist it again manually if needed. Good reminder though, thanks!

[disneysteve]

I just let eBay relist my items.

I let them relist my items too. I then go in and revise the listing to turn off offers.

[QuarterMillionMan]

It depends for me. In general I allow offers if let's say the price of an item is maybe $50 of more. If I'm selling something for $20 I don't allow offers.

Not to derail this thread but I didn't want to start a new thread and create more clutter so to speak so I'll ask some questions here;
1) When eBay recommends to "promote" an item that you are selling do you allow "promote?" I just allowed promote on a $29 item I'm selling. Promote takes 4.7% commission which is $1.37 so I figured why not. My item has sold yet but I just promoted it 2 days ago so it remains to be seen if promote helps or not.
2) When eBay recommends dropping a price by a certain amount do you allow it? A few times I dropped by eBay's recommendation but I don't recall much success.

[creditcardfree]

It depends for me. In general I allow offers if let's say the price of an item is maybe $50 of more. If I'm selling something for $20 I don't allow offers.

Not to derail this thread but I didn't want to start a new thread and create more clutter so to speak so I'll ask some questions here;
1) When eBay recommends to "promote" an item that you are selling do you allow "promote?" I just allowed promote on a $29 item I'm selling. Promote takes 4.7% commission which is $1.37 so I figured why not. My item has sold yet but I just promoted it 2 days ago so it remains to be seen if promote helps or not.
2) When eBay recommends dropping a price by a certain amount do you allow it? A few times I dropped by eBay's recommendation but I don't recall much success.

Sometimes I promote, particularly when there quite a few of the same items. I think it has worked out for me a few times to get the sale. Only occasionally will I drop price, usually after the item has been list for a few weeks. I'm not going to keep dropping to the point of making nothing!

[disneysteve]

Not to derail this thread but I didn't want to start a new thread and create more clutter so to speak so I'll ask some questions here;
1) When eBay recommends to "promote" an item that you are selling do you allow "promote?" I just allowed promote on a $29 item I'm selling. Promote takes 4.7% commission which is $1.37 so I figured why not. My item has sold yet but I just promoted it 2 days ago so it remains to be seen if promote helps or not.
2) When eBay recommends dropping a price by a certain amount do you allow it? A few times I dropped by eBay's recommendation but I don't recall much success.

I can't speak to #1 as I'm not familiar with that option.

As for #2, no, I don't let ebay decide how much my item should be. That is 100% up to me. That's also why I don't like them defaulting to "accept offers". If I don't want to negotiate, that's my decision. They shouldn't automatically offer that option on my auctions.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Promoted listings explained here, https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center...-listings.html

When eBay recommends "send offer," does anyone send offer. I think offers are sent to "watchers." I don't "send offers" because I feel like it is sort of like trying to force feed someone who doesn't want to eat yet.

[disneysteve]

Promoted listings explained here, https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center...-listings.html

When eBay recommends "send offer," does anyone send offer. I think offers are sent to "watchers." I don't "send offers" because I feel like it is sort of like trying to force feed someone who doesn't want to eat yet.

That link doesn’t actually list the fees for promoted items. But no, the 10% they already take plus PayPal’s fee is quite enough. No thanks.

No I don’t send offers. If somebody wants something they can buy it.

[QuarterMillionMan]

How much does Promoted Listings cost? A Promoted Listings fee is charged based on the ad rate selected by the seller.
Ad rate is the percentage of an item’s final sale price (excluding shipping and taxes), and is only charged when a buyer clicks on the promoted listing and purchases the promoted item within 30 days of that click. The fee is based on the ad rate that was in effect when the promoted listing was first clicked.
The Promoted Listings fee is additional to other eBay listing and selling fees. All fees appear on your monthly eBay invoice


My promoted listing calculated at 4.7%, which was trending at that time, whatever that means. All rates must be in that same ballpark.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Global shipping is also automatically applied and has to be removed. Curious if anyone uses it. I always remove it because I have no idea how much shipping will entail globally.

[disneysteve]

Global shipping is also automatically applied and has to be removed. Curious if anyone uses it. I always remove it because I have no idea how much shipping will entail globally.

I have shipped to nearly every developed country in the world. However I stopped offering international shipping. I can’t be bothered at this point. I want to print postage at home and have the mail carrier at work take the packages. I don’t want to have to fill out customs forms and go to the post office.

[msomnipotent]

I accept offers on certain things. I sold vintage colognes for my in-laws and Tonka toys for my husband. I know nothing about colognes since I'm allergic to them, and very little about Tonka toys. The people that made offers pointed out that I was mistaken about the date, or a toy was missing a piece that I didn't notice, or just wanted to pay $5 less than my listing. You can counter-offer or just say no, which I did a few times. I just don't bother with global shipping.

[disneysteve]

I accept offers on certain things. I sold vintage colognes for my in-laws and Tonka toys for my husband. I know nothing about colognes since I'm allergic to them, and very little about Tonka toys.

That makes sense. If you're selling things that you don't know anything about then you may not know how much to charge so you set a price and then take what you can get. I can see doing it in that setting.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I just sold a promoted item for $150 + $35 shipping. Prior to promoting the item I had 5 watchers. After promotion I had 7 watchers (2 additional watchers). I suspected that the promotion helped to sell the item. Promotion rate was 5% so an extra $7.50 for promotion I find it was worth it.