have I made an ebay faux pas?

[ilovecherries]

So - on my account (assume its the same for everyone) unless you allow the offers option, then the listing isn't free. I have always assumed on a fixed price sale, your expectation is that the offer will be less than the asking price, but on an auction sale, you would expect the offer to be greater than the start price, as they are asking you to end the auction early, and the start price is already, in ebay's own words, the lowest you will accept. So at 9.30 this morning I listed a Boden dress, on auction. 10 mins later, I get a message asking me what's the offer price going to be. I replied that looking at what the same item had sold for recently, I'd hoped it would go for 15 over the asking price, but I was keen to clear the house, so I would accept a offer £10 over, and i could post today. I've just had a really nasty email, quite abusive, calling me names but also saying I'm in breach of ebay and they will report me, and the offer has to be less than the start price. Is that true - any other time I've had offers on an auction they've been above the start price, and quite often I've been able to negotiate upwards with the buyer. Do I need to start paying not to have offers to avoid this happening? I know I could simply raise the start price, but I don't want to put people off either.

No- you are right.

It used to be that the best offer was only on fixed price listings. The way it worked was that the offer was lower than the fixed price buy it now.

But now you can put offers on an auction listing - where the assumption is that you will receive a high offer than the starting price (but I have offered lower on an item and it was accepted)

Make sure you block them and refuse to sell to them

It is them rather than you that should be reported to ebay if they are sending abusive emails.

The offer doesn’t have to be less than theasking price but obviously sometimes people will offer less and you can choose to accept it. It’s definitely not a rule thought.

My husband has an eBay shop, sells hundreds of items a week. Abuse from people who wanted a better deal than you are offering is surprisingly common. He finds it funny now and unless it was particularly vile doesn't even bother blocking them. The best one recently wanted an item at less than a third of listed price, when told no he threw a mega strop and told DH in multiple messages that he was an idiot who didn't know how to run a business and would soon be broke as nobody would pay the vastly overpriced amounts DH was asking. Only less polite than that. When the auction ended guess who was the highest bidder?

You did nothing wrong. They can I suppose report you but eBay would either laugh at them or ignore them or both. In your shoes I would block them so they can't end up buying the dress, just in case they end up being vindictive.

I recently bought something £10 lower than the asking price by using the make an offer option and I got a fabulous deal.
Don't ask you don't get but you are right op.

First off, the person is a complete arse! There absolutely no reason to get abusive if any offer, high or low, is rebuffed. Report them.
With regards to what offer is reasonable, there are no rules. Try your hand is my motto. Sometimes they accept low 🤷🏽‍♂️
It annoys me when people give the offers option on buy it nows, but then when you put a realistic offer of only a couple of pounds short, or start off a bit lower but then subsequent offers get to within £2 and they still refuse it! I mean, what's the point! It's just a waste of both our times.

The buyer was wrong to email you, and wrong in what they are saying. The offer can be higher or lower than the auction/fixed price stated. It's entirely up to you on what you are willing to accept.
I've had offers lower than auction which I've accepted as generated not much interest, but I've also had offers higher than auction which I have accepted.
It annoys me as I accept offers, but get silly offers way less than auction starting price. Then when I counter offer them the auction start price, they decline. I think it's because some buyers see it as chance to grab a cheaper deal. I've tried starting the auction higher than I would like to, then when I get an offer it's secretly what I wanted in the first place.
The ball swings both ways with offers.

Thanks everyone. I’ve blocked them as I don’t want them to buy it then tie me up in a dispute. I can swear like a trooper in real life, but a stream of abuse in a message did upset me for some reason.

You need to report them too. They was bang out of order. Good job it's the minority who act like this tho.