Best Offer is a great way to save money! 

Get a discount quickly!

If the seller is selling used items, they may not mind a 1/2 price discount but, generally if the seller is selling something new and the item is not a closeout, or damaged goods or yard sale items then they are probably not going to appreciate that you want to offer them a dollar for their $10.00 item.  You may want to have consideration of this fact when you make an offer.  If the seller is dealing in new items, they also have to pay for it, ebay, paypal, boxes or other packaging.

In my experience, most sellers will give you 10% off without fail. The best offers are normally given to large orders for many reasons so if you can buy several items from one seller, let them know and you may be able to get both shipping and item discounts! 

With the exception of free shipping items - Shipping discounts are best handled after purchase when the seller knows what your items will be and the weight of all items.  Just make sure to ask any questions before making the offers as the offer is binding if it is accepted!  The best offer is not usually the best way to handle shipping discounts due to the following:

• Sellers do not know what the entire order is from 1 item.

• Seller  may not accept the offer on all your items.

• Items that are set up to ship 1 with a flat rate envelope will probably not result in any shipping savings unless you order 3 because  2 envelopes are the same price as a flat rate box.  So if you offer to buy 2 items from a seller and take 4.80 off for your shipping discount, will probably not succeed unless a double order of what you want will fit in that little envelope!

• Offers that include terms that are too picky, require "perfection", strange requests,  or contain questions that are not answered in the description must be declined as the terms must be met by the seller, so keep your comments to a minimum and ask questions BEFORE you make an offer. 

• It would help if you stated in your terms what colors/ sizes you want if that is an option on your item. This could help with acceptance of your offer - maybe the size or color is a slow seller!  Maybe you are willing to accept a scratch and dent or broken box...let the seller know and maybe they can make your price that way! 

• Generally, any items with terms set up to have the seller pay fees to ebay on top of or for shipping and handling charges will probably be declined.  This would be terms that call for "free shipping".

• Also, normally not acceptable to sellers would be terms that call for excessive shipping costs in order to circumvent fees. Or any other terms that would be against ebay policy.

"FREE" shipping items and Best Offers:

• You should make an offer because shipping discounts cannot be refunded after purchase on these because ebay takes its fees out first.  And if you did get a discount refunded, it would probably be less than it would have been had you made offer and saved the ebay fees.

• You should look for the "free" shipping item in the seller's store.  You may find that it is also listed in the store with the normal asking price and the normal shipping price.  This may work to your advantage because your requested total price may be acceptable on a store item listed without the "free" shipping.  Why? Because all "free" shipping actually costs more in fees to ebay, which of course, means the seller cannot accept a lower amount on it than on a normal priced item and in fact must charge more for the same item.  Ebay gets 12% or more on "free" shipping items in most catagories. Quick example: if shipping costs $10.00, 12% of that is 1.20. If you buy an item at 10.00 plus 10.00 shipping 1.20 goes to ebay. If you buy an item at 20.00 with "free shipping" $2.40 goes to ebay. Thus, with the other item, your seller could put that extra 1.20 in your pocket because of your purchasing a normally priced item and paying the dreaded shipping costs.

Good luck and happy shopping!

Please let me know if you enjoyed this guide or found it helpful!