Seller etiquette

[marmeemarch1]

Hi,

Can I ask a question, I'm a bit worried, put something for sale on eBay, low starting point as not really sure what it's worth. Had a message from someone who wanted to buy it now. Offered more than I expected but I said I'd think about it as I had about 7 people watching.

I've since had three more offers of people to buy it now, although none specified a price. And someone has bid on it at starting price. I don't really want to keep messaging people to work out how much they could offer to find best offer, surely that's the whole point of using eBay! Also surely it's. It fair on the person who has bid if I take a buy it now price as this wasn't specified!
Is it ok to email them all back and say, I am not accepting buy it now offers? What would you do?

Thanks

It's a while since I sold anything on Ebay, but I think if someone has bid already, then it would be bad form to then change it to a Buy-it-Now for someone else.

Ebay does have helpful forums for Buyers and Sellers, and someone more knowledgeable and helpful there will quickly be able to answer your question. Give me a minute and I'll see if I can get on it (asI 've forgotten how) to guide you.

Okay - if you go into your 'My Ebay' then scroll right down to the bottom of the screen, where it has a line of grey options, choose 'Community', then the next screen will show 'Discussions' on the left-hand side. There are various discussion and guidance forums - two especially for Buyers and Sellers who have questions. The people who answer are regular Ebayers. Hope that helps!

And yes, it would be fine to email all the people who have offered a Buy-it-now and politely say "Thanks for your kind offer, but am happy to let the auction run" or something along those lines. If so many people are that interested, you may find you get more for your item than you envisaged! Sometimes, that's the fun of those auctions. Good luck with it.

Thank you, was feeling a bit overwhelmed!
Not sold anything before

You're very welcome

i agree. i have never missed out by letting the auction run.

I'm a very new seller too, wondering about the etiquette.

I'm selling some brand new still-in-the-box items for about a fifth of what they cost new, and still getting messages asking whether I'd accept less than the starting price. My stock response has been that I think the starting price is reasonable but will rethink if they don't sell and I relist, but from now on I'll be borrowing that line about letting the auction run.

If you've already had a lot of offers, I'd just let it run. You can't add a BIN once there's a bid on it anyway.

Tbh, I find that if you list things as buy it now with option of a best offer, that gets the best selling prices. I tend to put things on at about 10% over what I actually think it's worth (check similar sold items to get a rough idea). I find things sell very quickly this way.

I agree you should just let it run. Multiple offers to buy it now usually mean that those offering want to bag a bargain and it will go for more than most of them are offering. I had this with a one year old oven we were selling and it went for £20 more than the highest offer eventually.