? Does "MAKE AN OFFER" help sales?

[RiverHill]

"MAKE AN OFFER", has been on eBid for a while, has it helped in sales? or is it a problem with offers? When I list an item, it is in auction (start on first bid) and with a BIN price. Why would buyer want to have MAKE AN OFFER on the item? When I view a listing and see a MAO on the item, why would I BIN the item, seller may take my offer? If seller takes my offer, (which will be lower than on listing), the question I now have, would he take less? Does MAO, mean that the seller has over priced his item to begin with? Seems to me it is a lot of work, answering offers, if item is priced right to begin with. Have you made any profitalbe sales with MAO?

[kreativebargains]

I have some of my items on MAO and have sold them both with an offer and with a BIN. I have rejected offers, one of £5 for an item with a reasonable BIN of over £20. I personally use them where I have a large amount of stock that I do not mind shifting at a low profit just to keep cashflow or where I have had stock for a while that I would not mind seeing the back of.

[sidthelamp]

"MAKE AN OFFER", has been on eBid for a while, has it helped in sales? or is it a problem with offers? When I list an item, it is in auction (start on first bid) and with a BIN price. Why would buyer want to have MAKE AN OFFER on the item? When I view a listing and see a MAO on the item, why would I BIN the item, seller may take my offer? If seller takes my offer, (which will be lower than on listing), the question I now have, would he take less? Does MAO, mean that the seller has over priced his item to begin with? Seems to me it is a lot of work, answering offers, if item is priced right to begin with. Have you made any profitalbe sales with MAO?

i have one listing with MAO no offers have been recived i campained against this feature some years ago.

however ebid reported a increase in sales with MAO i wont be using it but others do have the choice

[hurryb4itsgone]

Can't imagine using MAO if listing an item in auciton format. Thought is was a tool for fixed price listings, when you had some "wiggle" room.

[youmeus]

MAO can only be used with fixed price items. When you click MAO when listing it automatically removes the bidding option.

I have it on a few of my items but have only had one offer and it was very low and I declined it.

[CarnoustieCats]

Whenever I see MAO I think the item must be overpriced if the seller can afford to reduce the price a bit... just my feeling...

[deanosaur1972]

I can sort of understand that some sellers can make it work for them.....

However, for many reasons, I would rather spend a week cutting off my ankle with a butter knife than use it on any of my listings.

[burgyeb]

It can work; I have used it effectively in buying. I usually use it on BIN; as if it had a bid I would usually use the bid option. Do not mind waiting on a good deal. This is not for everyone. I never accept ridiculous offers anyway. Have been very pleased at some of the MAO deals I won. A seller should never accept a deal that leaves them at a loss. Each seller's circumstances vary. Some seller's have incredible buying power; so even if it looks as if they took a loss, that may not be the case at all. Only a seller will know for sure if the offer makes sense for them.

P.S. If a seller has the ability to acquire their inventory at enviable cost; and is willing to extend to their buyers the opportunity to acquire goods at great prices; they would have very little competition. Especially if the items were highly sort after collectibles, high tech electronics, etc.

[hurryb4itsgone]

Whenever I see MAO I think the item must be overpriced if the seller can afford to reduce the price a bit... just my feeling...

But it sometimes does seem to entice buyers to buy more than one item ...

[kedo]

It works fine. It's the only thing that generates any sort of urgency if you don't have enough traffic for an auction (i.e. the thought that someone else, real or imaginary, may come along and make an offer). I don't use auctions, only BIN's, and MAO is a great enhancement as far as I'm concerned.

I haven't added it to many of my listings so far but did sell an item yesterday with MAO for £50 (advertised at £60 or so). I might not have dropped that much ordinarily but as I was bidding on something else, and needed the money, it came along just at the right time.

Oh, and yes, it was very profitable.