Why I keep eBay’s Best Offer option manual for my vintage and unique items

By Cliff Aliperti
I’d held off writing this over the weekend in anticipation of the big eBay changes this morning, but since my first impression of the changes are that they’re harmless I figured I’d return to the topic I’d originally wanted to cover. eBay’s Best Offer and its use on vintage and/or unique items.

Best Offer is probably my favorite eBay feature, though I’ve still found myself questioning the way I use it sometimes. The main thing I’ve asked myself, and often others out loud, is should I automate the process to save time:

Add Best Offer to your listings and turn shoppers into buyers
Add auto-decline / auto-accept – Save time with auto-decline and auto-accept. This feature will automatically turn down offers that are below your minimum price or accept offers are within your preferred price range. You’ll still need to manually reply to offers outside of these limits. Remember, you can adjust these settings at any time.

I’ve finally decided my answer to that question is no, which conveniently leaves me without a listing to edit, but at the same time is, I believe, the correct answer.

If you’ve been involved in the world of antiques and collectibles before coming to eBay, or other online venues, you’ll find that Best Offer brings a bit of old real world practice to your ecommerce presence. I can recall many a Sunday where a buyer would stroll past my table at a baseball card show with an offer well below my marked price, to which I’d respond with a number close enough to retail to cause him to walk away without a word. But perhaps I’d see this customer two or three more times throughout the day, the dance continuing with the numbers coming closer to one another until finally, with the clock creeping in on closing time, we’d close the deal.

On eBay, of course, this can be strung out over several days, and in the end the seller has to realize that there is less of a chance of your potential customer returning to the online dance simply because it is so much easier to walk away–so if you’re going to counter the original offer with hopes of actually turning the sale you’re going to want to make it a strong counter. But that strategy is another story, one I’ve actually told before, this time around I’d like to get down to the much more basic topic of, why offer Best Offer, and why it’s good for sellers such as myself to monitor the process manually.

1) Best Offer can make a slow day turn strong – if your buyer wheels and deals you and you accept their offer, chances are they’re going to be happy about it, feel common ground with you or at least feel you’re reasonable, and so more offers may come rolling in after that initial acceptance.

Hint: If you happen to be online when the initial offer comes in, don’t answer it immediately. What stands as an unreasonable offer on a single item might look pretty good if the buyer intends to make a dozen similar offers. Shooting them down before you see a potential second offer come in is very likely going to kill the second offer (and beyond) before it even happens. I’d wait ten minutes or so just to make sure nothing else is coming in.

2) Best Offer can turn dead stock. I don’t know about you, but the nature of my niches means that some items sit, sometimes for months, some for years. I’ve pulled out items to list that I used to have on my table at those card shows I’d mentioned earlier … which I haven’t done since 1993. This past week alone I’ve sold multiple similar items to customers which had been in stock each of four months, one year, and 3 years or more. There’s a curve of sorts to my pricing–you might get an item cheap from me right after I list it, but if I have to list it again I tend to get stubborn. After a couple of more months however I’m willing to deal, and the more time that goes by the more I’m willing to deal.

Always remember, the true value of any item is only as much as someone is willing to pay. My vintage widget might start at $10, be relisted at $15, be happily sold for $10 a couple of months after, perhaps $8 a couple months beyond that, or maybe even just $5 if it sits around long enough. You want it? Best Offer is your chance to tell me what you think it’s worth.

Which is why in the end I’ve decided the wheeling and dealing fluctuates too much per item on any given day to set my low price in stone. Now if I have 1,000 brand new identical widgets I’m selling for $10, I may very well need to set that minimum at $7 and never accept a penny under it in order to profit. Vintage and uniques don’t typically work that way. They key part of any transaction remains in your original purchase of the stock, however the nature of vintage and unique goods is that the seller has to rely quite a bit more on instinct because they are the sole judge of value at the time of purchase just as their unique customer becomes that sole judge of value at the time of resale.

Keep your options open with Best Offer.

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