What is Best Offer?

Best offer is an option on eBay that allows buyers and sellers the chance to negotiate on Fixed Price and Store Inventory Format listings. Best offer originated a couple of years ago on eBay, but it's a concept that has been around for thousands of years in many marketplaces and cultures.

Think about vehicle sales for a minute.  How many times have you seen O.B.O. (or Best Offer) after a price tag?  Odds are at least a few times, and now you can use the same concept on eBay (in most categories), as a buyer and/or seller.  The best part about Best Offer is that it is a free service for buyers and sellers to use.

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For Buyers

Buyers can think of Best Offer as a way to negotiate the price on a Fixed Price listing.  This opens up all sorts of opportunities for buyers that don't want to bid on an auction only to play the waiting game and potentially get sniped at the very end of the auction listing.

All you have to do is look for the Best Offer icon under the Buy It Now icon on eBay search results pages and on individual listings.  To submit an offer on an item, just follow these steps:

-Click on the 'Make Offer' button on an eBay Item page
-Enter Your Offer Price
-Click Add Additional Terms if you  want to send the seller a message with the offer
-Click on the 'Review Offer >' button
-Follow the steps on the next page to submit your offer

Sellers have 48 hours to review and respond to a buyer's offer before the offer expires.  They can either accept, decline, or ignore a buyer's offer.  If they accept the offer, the transaction is binding, just like when a buyer uses the Buy It Now button, or places a winning bid on an Auction style listing.

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For Sellers

Sellers can think of Best Offer as a way to entice buyers into communicating and/or bargaining for their item.  It is just one strategy that can help bring exposure to your Buy It Now listings by getting the buyers more involved in the purchasing process.

Sellers can access the Best Offer feature during the listing process for Fixed Price and Store Inventory Format listings.  The option appears as a checkbox just below the Buy It Now price text box on the new Sell Your Item form.  There is also an option to Auto Decline offers that are less than an amount specified by the seller.  This is a good way to eliminate low ball offers and to minimize the time you spend reviewing and replying to offers.

How will you know when you receive offers and what to do once you receive a Best Offer?

The easiest way to track offers is from My eBay > Selling view (My eBay > Active in Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro).  You may need to add the '# of Offers' column to your page view, which you can do by clicking on the Customize Display link in the upper right corner of the page.  For further instructions on how to do this in My eBay, go here, and for Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro, go here.

When you have an offer, you will see how many in the '# of offers' column, which you can click on the number to view the offers.  You can also review offers by going to the item page and clicking on the  'Go to the Deal Sheet' link.  The active listing page will also tell you how many offers you have, and the Deal Sheet is where you can review, counter offer, accept or decline.  There is also an option on the Deal Sheet that allows you to bulk decline offers, change your auto decline setting and view the offer history.
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Links Section

This guide by no means covers everything to do with Best Offer, it is meant as a starter guide.

If you are looking for further information on Best Offer, you can contact eBay Customer Service or review some of the links below.

http://pages.ebay.com/bestoffer/

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/best-offer.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/best-offer.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/listing-best-offer.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/maximum-best-offers.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/managing-best-offers.html

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While I'm an eBay, Inc. employee, the views and content of this guide are my own and not necessarily those of eBay, Inc.