Does eBay’s Make Me An Offer Work?
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As an eBay Trainer one of the questions we are often asked is “Does eBay’s Make Me An Offer Work ?” And the answer I give is yes, why would it not work ?
To show you what I mean let’s look at eBay’s Make Me An Offer in a different light. Let us see it as a reverse auction. Yes a reverse auction.
You list your item as normal and sell it with a Buy It Now Price, and also there is a box under the Buy It Now that says “Make Me An Offer” you will need to click this box. Now there are a few other boxes that that you can tick that allow things to be more automated. I do not suggest using these as I like to interact with my buyers.
The automatic way lets you say yes or no to a buyer depending on the amount they offer. And you had the system set up to reject everything under £270. (Each time you do a listing you have to set up the make me an offer – it just takes seconds) But let’s say you were selling an item for £300 and your buyer, sent you an offer of £269.99 . On automatic the system would say No Thanks, but on manual you will see the offer and as it is only a penny you can say yes.
A tip I always tell people when selling with Make Me An Offer make the price for your item at the high end of what it is worth. This gives you some bartering position if they come in with a lower price. When this happens go in with higher price. Now they might ignore that price or they could buy, or they might make another offer.
If they make an offer that is higher than the first one this will give you some clue as to what they are willing to pay. And normally you can meet in middle on a price.
Another way you can use Make Me An Offer is where you are selling a new product range and you put an item up with Make Me An Offer, and keep track of all the offers you get. If the prices are all very low, and even with your counter offers they do not go up, this will tell you the price the market is willing to pay.
In closing eBay’s Make Me An Offer, works, is free to use, so why not go and give it a try.
Andrew Milburn, eBay Trainer and Consultant based in Lichfield Staffordshire.
