What's the point of the "Make Offer" button if the seller isn't interested in considering offers?

John Wagner

I don't understand why a seller would activate the "Make Offer" button on an item if they are not willing to entertain an offer other than their asking price. One seller and I negotiated a price on an item and it was fun. I made an offer, he countered, and I countered again and the seller accepted.

However, three times since then I have made offers to sellers for an item I wanted to purchase and the sellers were not interested in negotiating a price at all. One simply declined my offer, another simply withdrew my offer, and a third didn't respond at all. The third one I even sent a message asking if he was considering my good faith offer. He didn't even respond to my message. Needless to say, I won't do business with him again.

But my point in posting this here is simply to ask what the point of the "Make Offer" button is if a seller isn't interested in an offer lower than his asking price. It is just takes the fun out of the process. And understand, for me, nothing I buy is high value. If a seller isn't interested in anything but his or her full asking price I think they shouldn't activate the make offer button. OK, end of rant.

Henry Brooks

What may have happened is that during the listing process the seller did not deliberately drag the cursor to the side when navigating page 2 of the listing process. This sometimes results in a "drive by" click of either the "offer" button or the "featured listing" button (which costs you $2.50 if you don't notice).

The "featured listing" button reverts to normal, but the "offer" button does not. I think I listed around 200 items over the course of a week as "make offer" a couple of months ago before i caught the error. It's a relatively easy fix once you notice the error.

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John Wagner

OK, that sounds like a plausible explanation.

But if it's out there for buyers like me to see and then I make an offer I think a seller should at least honor the present buyer that is trying in good faith to negotiate a purchase. Then go through and fix the problems on the rest of their products that he or she doesn't want offers made on.

At the very minimum, I would expect a seller to at least acknowledge the offer and offer an explanation as you've done. To just ignore a buyer is just bad business.

For two products I went ahead and paid the full price because I wanted them. But I probably won't go to their stores again, just because i was ignored. The most recent incident I just withdrew my offer and found a better product for about the same price.

Thanks for your comment.

Henry Brooks

Totally agree it should be honored, just like a pricing error. It only takes selling a $30 stamp for 30 cents (or $3) once to get in the habit of going back over your listings once completed. Only takes a minute and you do catch the occasional error.

Doug Noernberg

As for the one who didn't respond, I can speak from experience that the interface here still leaves much to be desired. As a seller, you don't know if an offer has been made on your items unless you happen to get the email (that hopefully wasn't swept up by spam filters) or happen to stumble upon it by clicking the open offers screen. Its possible the seller simply never even knew! The site needs a notifications log or the nice bouncy red ball or other flag to catch your attention and not rely on the emails as the site does today. Same goes for sales or any other such activity. I can be on the site all day navigating around and doing my thing, unawares that any such activity has even been happening in my store.

John Wagner

Understand. But when I send a private message through the site to the seller I would expect him or her to check their email for notifications. I would also as a seller know I needed to check my spam folder. But aside from that, maybe I'm being naive, but I have noticed since being on here and communicating with various sellers, that there is a little black envelope on a sent email. When someone at the other end opens the message or the email the black envelope goes away. That gave me a clue that at least it had been seen by somebody. But that's OK. Every site needs to be fixed sometime. This one seems to work really well on my end so far. I can assume that perhaps the seller didn't see it, that he didn't get my message. Could also be human error. Any way, I really appreciate your comment. Thanks. Three out of four offers I've made, have been disappointing. The positive one though, makes me keep trying. If someone has a "make offer" button on their item, I'll use it. Hopefully the law of averages will turn up more good experiences than these disappointing ones. The majority of the sellers I've dealt with have been really great. A few have even interacted with me enough to where I feel I know them a little bit. And for me, relationships is part of what stamp collecting is all about.

Carlos Aristy

The site offer feature leaves a lot to be desire. I had complaint about this to no avail. It is cumbersome an a total waste of time, since you have to deal one by one with the offers. I had a buyer from France make over 100 offers and it took for ever... Just not worth it.

John Wagner

OK, I can understand that Carlos.

If as a seller you don't want the hassle of negotiating price, then just set a fixed price and leave it at that. I don't have a problem with that at all. If that's how a seller feels then they just shouldn't activate the "make offer" button. That's really simple!

In the last couple of months I have purchased many items that were fixed price and not negotiable. No problem.

But when a seller activates the "make offer" button I assume he or she is willing to negotiate on the price of that item. If it is a mistaken activation of the "make offer" button like Carol suggested earlier happened to her, then when the first buyer makes an offer on an item the seller is suddenly made aware of the problem. Negotiate with the buyer on that item or whatever items they are making an offer on, and then afterwards go through the rest of your mistaken button activations and deactivate them. Problem solved.

But I think it's just bad business to have a "make offer" button on an item, however it got there, and then ignore a buyer who makes a good faith offer. Even worse, when the buyer sends the seller a private message asking about the item and the offer, and the seller simply does not respond.That just creates hard feelings and distrust. At least with that particular seller. And, it takes some of the fun out of the purchase process.

Ralph_Anavy

QUOTE: He didn't even respond to my message. Needless to say, I won't do business with him again.
-->I agree...common courtesy requires a response.

QUOTE: The point of the "Make Offer" button is if a seller isn't interested in an offer lower than his asking price. If a seller isn't interested in anything but his or her full asking price I think they shouldn't activate the make offer button.

-->Agree as well, and if the offer was say 10%-20% below the asking price, and it is still turned down, one has to wonder about the honest intentions of the seller, if he did not counter it.

I usually try NOT to make offers that are lower than the lower prices listed for the same item by other sellers. Yes, I do check!
My intention is not to bottom fish and squeeze a seller, but to make a fair offer that will win my business and also cut down on the shipping and handling costs. Usually I ask that you match the prices listed by other sellers...which I am sure you don't monitor regularly.
If it is turned it down, it is easy, I shop for the item elsewhere.
There is a negative for the seller who does not respond...I may abandon many of the other items of yours I had in my cart, because I am now checking every single one against that same competitor of yours that is getting my full attention.
And I usually do not complete the purchase until my critical mass is reached. (It is around $20 and also with S/H costs not more than 10% of the costs of item bought). Delaying closing has a ripple effect!

rrr...

John Wagner

Actually Ralph, I do check other seller's prices frequently. I love "shopping" for the best price I can get for an item of the quality I want. It is the same when I buy something in a brick and mortar store. Prices for many items are all over the map when I compare between sellers.

I don't mind a seller not accepting my offer. But I would expect at least a counter offer that the seller would feel is fair. You are right, when an offer is turned down I then decide whether I want the item bad enough to pay full asking price, or I look elsewhere. Two of the times I mentioned at the beginning of this discussion where my offers were declined I purchased the items at full asking price anyway.

I do have many items in my watch list and in my cart. I usually go from watch to cart. But for me, my "critical mass" really is based on whether I feel a stamp is worth the price asked plus the cost of shipping. If I want to add it to my collection and I feel it is worth the price (cost + shipping) I will buy the item. But that's just me.