Is eBay Trying to Kill Auctions with Make Offer?

by: lindysthings

@ toolguy

You can ''OPT'' out by starting your auction at a lower price!

That is not presenting an ''option''.  That is forcing a certain behavior, i.e.the starting price, which should be able to be decided upon by the seller. Not forced to accomodate Ebay.

by: lindysthings

@cctreasure

I sell collectible, hard-to-find, vintage and antique things. Speed of the auction purchase for my buyers is not important.  The auction should be available for the time I specify and sell to the highest bidder.  Period. A buyer bids with his wallet. He lets his money speak for himself in what he is willing to spend on an item, relevant to the other bids. Ebay inserting themselves without my permission into my auctions is not something that is needed nor welcome. It is not in the best interest of the seller for Ebay to insert a buy it now in auctions.

As for the buyer...if they are in a hurry to get their item, they should not bid on auctions. Most of our buyers have been searching for what we have for sale for a while and are just delighted to even find a listing for it. So they could care less about Ebay's "get-it-in-a hurry" attitude on everything per their copying Amazon. One-of-a-kind and hard-to-find items are a different kind of sell.

by: toolguy

@lindysthings

eBay's sandbox, eBay's rules

You either play by the rules or don't play. . . .

If they think your price is too high they'll add MAKE AN OFFER, it's NOT your choice!

by: toolguy

@feelingfroggy

"In the real world. Who uses auctions anyways. Kind of useless as most don't ever get a bid and those that do are mostly the chinese type junk that starts at 10 cents."

I have a whole list of sellers I follow that do nothing but auctions.

Like my favorite: https://www.ebay.com/sch/bidadoo_business/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=10&_rdc
=1

by: spooky

How about a completely different take on this: Over the past few years eBay has become extremely cluttered with overpriced antiques and collectibles that keep getting listed over and over. Sellers looking for that one in a million shot an item might sell simply because it costs little to nothing to keep listing it. I am on eBay's side on this one.

by: Rexford

Whatever says "There is no other place to go if your locked out of Amazon."

That is absolutely not true.  Build up a presence on as many as you can. You may not sell as many items as you did during the glory days of eBay, but you will sell enough to make up for what you are not selling on eBay.  I have made it work, but every time I mention where I sell I get blasted by the naysayers so I am finished with providing that information.

by: Toledo Maude

Years ago when I still listed auctions, one of highest selling auctions sold from a BIN offer.  Sweet!

But that was an exception.  Tiring of 90 plus % of my auctions not selling and when fixed price listings came along at 30 cents a month, I dropped auctions.  And incidentally, that is when I started to make a profit off of eBay.

I sell rare and hard to find collectibles that some would be candidates for auction listings, but my heart just not into it to have most auctions end with a single or no bids.   I love when the few who do leave low ball offers will mix it up with offers and counter offers.  The few...

Regarding problems with paying and combining shipping charges for multiple purchases, I think in the last five (maybe eight) years, I have had a few multiple orders that I could counted on the fingers of one hand.  And now with eBay orders coming in at breakneck speed of one every five to ten days,  I must admit that I have a lot of time on my hands.  

To all eBay sellers that do regularly sell multiple orders to a single buyer, and also those sellers whose eBay business is a REAL money making self supporting business, God Bless!  

by: toolguy

I've had 6 multiple orders in the last 31 days.

Normally it's higher then that. . .

by: Don Wagner

Yes, eBay deeply regrets their "Collectibles at Auction" heritage and would like to kill it off completely, then announce that they did so because they "listened to us".

They want to be the new Amazon.

I've done auction listings of historical collectibles on eBay since 1998, and they have been trying for years to make me go away. eBay has truly been a harsh taskmaster.

I honestly hope that WALMART & AMAZON COMPLETELY KICKS THEIR ASS.

by: toolguy

@Don

Amazon & Walmart DON'T want USED items.

I'll stick with EBAY

by: bitbybit

Remember bidding wars? Since Donahoe way back set out to destroy auctions and manipulate the marketplace with his disruptive non-innovation, bidding wars are becoming as rare as dodo birds. Ebay is continuing this new scheme since any sense of urgency has been dissipated by their self-inflicted destruction. Really what does eBay have to offer anymore? They have taken the fun and excitement completely out not only of auctions but as the go to site as well. Ebay has manipulated not only the most loyal sellers away but the buyers too. Flooding the site with junk and not showing buyers what they Really, Really Want.

Sure, it may not hurt to add a Make Offer to an auction but at this point in time it is moot besides just plain stupid. Also eBay does not know how to compare apples to apples in suggesting prices. It is more like apples to donut holes. Buyers don't want to shop on a site that reeks of desperation and has become the Debbie Downer of ecommerce. In order to attract buyers, a shopping site needs to be easy and simple to use, from start to finish, period. Oh, one more, a postive experience without raising flags of concern, for example, by stating Guaranteed Delivery and Guaranteed Returns. Why would there be a need for this in the first place?

Sorry, got a bit on a tangent there. Just a little more than my 2 cents.

by: lindysthings

I agree, bit by bit!  Ebay would have no idea on how to price my vintage car parts! lol  And sometimes months go by before another of what I have is listed, so there likely would not be anything to compare it with.

@ tool:  "If they think your price is too high they'll add MAKE AN OFFER, it's NOT your choice!"    Well said. That was exactly my point. No option.

by: toolguy

@lindysthings

eBay has years of data and unless your part has never sold on eBay they have the price it sold for.

I wish eBay would sell that data to sellers who want to use it.

The last 90 days just isn't enough. . .

by: songe-d-automne

Ugh. I almost exclusively use auctions since I sell antiques and vintage. In that market, a lot of things are unique or uncommon and the bid could go anywhere. Forcing people to have a set price can have some consequences in that market.

Not wanting to get burned, sellers will start their stuff off at high prices and the more timid buyers may not want to make an offer, therefore leaving money on the table for both ebay and the seller. Eliminating auctions is a terrible idea. I hope this is not where they are going with this.

by: dander

Can they leave things alone. I use auctions for items I either want to clear out, or normally don't sell. to me its advertising. If ecrater would get their shit together, I would market my site there.

by: mushroomcathy

Got the following in my inbox from EBAY——You may have noticed that a Best Offer option was recently added to some of your auction listings created between October 8 and 10. This feature was added to your listings in error. We apologize for the error. We are working to remove the Best Offer feature from your active listings and plan to do so by end of day, Friday, October 13.

In the meantime, if you wish to avoid receiving offers on affected listings, you can revise your active listings to auto-decline all best offers below your starting price. This will ensure that you will not receive any Best Offer requests for this listing period. However, if your item automatically relists, the Best Offer option will appear on the relisted item. You can revise a listing's auto-decline amount by going to Manage Offer settings on the listing's item page.

by: bitbybit

@mushroom
''You may have noticed that a Best Offer option was recently added to some of your auction listings...''
Is this word for word?
Seems eBay looks at auctions and fixed priced items as one and the same. The Best Offer is on fixed priced items and this new Make Offer is showing in auctions.
Does anyone currently employed at eBay even know how auctions works? Buyers are confused enough when navigating through all of the constant changing twists and turns being thrown at them. Serious auction bidders seeing this out-of-place Make Offer will probably react with something like ''What the h*ll?!''

It really is a wonder that any sales are made on eBay. Give a person too many choices along with multiple steps towards finalization leads to frustration and indecisiveness where the end results in no decisions being made.

by: Rexford

Toolguy says "Amazon & Walmart DON'T want USED items"

Stop spreading inaccurate information. There are plenty of categories on Amazon that welcome used items.   Maybe they just don't want your used tools, or maybe they don't make it easy for you to list them.

And yes, you'll stick with eBay until the bitter end, while the eBay Titanic sinks like a rock into the ecommerce abyss.  I sure hope that you have one of those used aircraft flotation devices on hand because you are going to need it.

by: choochoo

Let us imagine sitting at an auction at Sotheby’s
and the Hope Diamond comes up for auction.

Diamond dealers, Billionaires and a gallery filled with some of the wealthiest people in the world are there to bid on the Hope Diamond.

The first bid opens at $25million.

Then, under the direction of the new CEO at Sotheby’s,
a former eBay executive, announces there will be a
Buy It Now for the diamond.

At this point, jaws drop and 90% of the bidders leave
because they came for the auction, but it’s turned into
a retail sale.  

You can get breast implants, fix your nose, get hair
transplants, have liposuction but you can’t fix stupid.

by: blueribbon1844

@toolguy they have all the data and info, you can buy it on terapeak.

The problem is even with all that data, they still suggest the wrong "sold for" price for many items.