Question
Groundbreaking Tool Allows Buyers to 'Make an Offer' on eBay
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
September 28, 2004
A company called Yldfire.com has introduced a new way to buy an item
on eBay called "Make An Offer," adding to eBay's current auction and
fixed-price formats.
Sellers using the tool advertise in their eBay listings that buyers
can "make an offer" on the item. If and when an acceptable offer has
been tendered, Make An Offer immediately converts the "Buy it Now"
amount in a listing to the accepted amount tendered or immediately
generates a Buy It Now listing in the sellers eBay store for regular
inventory items. Should the buyer fail to purchase the item within 3
minutes, the original auction reverts back to its original form or the
new store auctions is removed.
Sellers using Make An Offer can set an acceptable price in advance, or
create an automated process where acceptable pricing thresholds can be
determined by data from Internet sources, known buyer trends, and ROI
expectations.
Sellers can block buyers who are just looking for the lowest price, or
they can manipulate the acceptable price depending on the buyer's
behavior.
Yldfire.com was founded by Yury Bogomolsky and John Hoffe and is an
eBay certified developer.
http://www.yldfire.com
Answer
Why not just enter a buy it now price you find acceptable or a fixed price listing? This seems like a stupid idea.
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I take it this only applies to store / fixed price listings? (I don't have an eBay store-just my auctions and my website)
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I wondered how long it would take eBay to copy the concept of the iOffer.com site...
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I think I'll pass. I don't like haggling. Especially if it's going to cost me about $30 a month.
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I don't quite understand the point. I get a handful of emails every day from people wanting a "better price" when my products are already wholesale. Why would I want to encourage and reward that? Or am I just not getting it?
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I don't like it either. I think there's already a lot of confusing info for bidders - this may send sell through rates and final prices even lower - and there's the potential for a bidder to try "I didn't realize placing an offer obligated me to buy the item".
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What if buyers caught on to it? Allowing us to raise our prices, and allow the make an offer software work to our advantage?
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Empires,
Your idea interests me. Can you provide an example? I'm not sure I'm quite following you, but if there's a way to make this new (ahem) innovation work for me I'd like to know how.
Thanks.
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I'd be interested in your theory as well