Offers rather than bids

[TigerLilysbadday]

I'm moving soon so I've put quite a few things on Ebay, mostly sports equipment some big things and some much smaller things e.g. a bike but also a pump etc. I haven't used Ebay for about 10 years and it seems to have changed a lot since then. Several of my big items have no bids yet but I've had lots of offers for them. On the big items I'm getting very low offers within minutes of listing (think hundreds of pounds less than the starting bid) and the longer I hold out the higher the offers get. So far I've just been declining all but the highest offer and I've had higher offers come in before the first one timed out, so it's like bidding but secret. I haven't accepted any offers yet and there are still a few days to go on the listing. I don't understand why people are bidding like this through the offers option though. On the smaller items people are just bidding like normal. It makes no sense to me. Can anyone enlighten me.

I know, offers are annoying, I think there is a way of turning them off.

You can definitely turn off the offers bit.

Thanks. I will look into that.
I assumed there was some kind of tactic going on but I can't figure it out. The offers are now way above the starting bid but there still isn't a bid. I think a bid coming in automatically overrides offers, doesn't it? Are the people who make offers in cahoots with other people who come in and make a low bid at the last minute? What would they gain by doing that though? It all seems so pointless!

You can turn offers off or set an auto reject for any under a specified amount

There are no real tactics other than to try and get an item as cheaply as possible. People are either trying it on that you urgently need the money or are just plain stupid in thinking you will accept a below market value offer straight away.

A seller is realistically only likely to accept a low offer after a number of weeks whereas will expect a higher offer if the item has only recently been listed.

Try not to read too much into peoples offer strategy. Assume most people that you deal with on ebay or marketplace are either dreamers or dimwits and you will not be too far from the mark.

They are just trying to see how low you will go op.