bugler1998
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posted on March 6, 2002 08:13:54 PM new
On more than one occasion folks on this board have suggested I violated the ebay rules by selling to a 2nd place bidder. Well, as I mentioned before, you are wrong.
A relatively new feature on ebay is the Personal Offer. It allows the seller to offer either duplicate items or items where the winner backed out, to unsuccessful bidders. Ebay does not charge a listing fee, but they do collect their fvf. They also provide the ebay buyer protection program (whatever that is).
Even though some folks probably do this the same way, illegally, I feel better by doing it legally, and also find buyers probably have more confidence in you, as you are following the rules.
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wrightsracing
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posted on March 6, 2002 08:21:53 PM new
How do you go about offering the personal offer to the 2nd highest bidder??? I have done so, but would like to start, how do you do it??? Thank you for your help.
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bugler1998
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posted on March 6, 2002 08:28:48 PM new
To make a personal offer, go to a closed auction of yours. Right next to the link where it says to "relist your item", there will be a blue link to "make a personal offer". Just click on that and follow the instructions.
In effect, the personal offer becomes a 3 day auction, with the only recipient being the person who receives the offer. Nobody else sees it. Obviously, one would only use it in the situation where the price is higher than normal and you believe you have a "live one" who is ready to buy.
Also, it only works where there were multiple bidders on the item.
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RichieRich
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posted on March 6, 2002 08:59:41 PM new
I have used it 3 times and have made 2 sales.
Like bugler1998 said
I only use it when I have an act item and I think the price is TOPS!
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colseng
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posted on March 6, 2002 09:02:37 PM new
Thank you for this thread. I just sent out a "personal offer" for the first time - all as a result of reading this tonight. Wish me well; I appreciate the sharing and helping provided by everyone here!
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dejapooh
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posted on March 6, 2002 11:06:22 PM new
I have used it 15 times, with 2 or 3 sales. But with the list price being $0, and only paying the Value fee, it is worth it.
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kolonel22
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posted on March 7, 2002 04:22:24 AM new
I have tried eBay's “Make Personal Offer” to the under bidders numerous times. It’s a great concept but all-in-all it has not been very successful because the response has been very poor. I really don’t understand this because the person I sent the offer to may have got out bid by pennies or only a few dollars so at one point they wanted the item but then when the “Make Personal Offer” option opportunity has been given to them they rarely respond, go figure.
One good thing about “Make Personal Offer” you can select to make the offer to the second highest bidder or several bidders lower you just check the one you want to send the offer to. The catch is you can only make one “Make Personal Offer” you can’t go down the list.
When I originally noticed response to “Make Personal Offer” was not that great I started sending the offer to some of the other lower bidders I have had more success with that but nothing to write home about.
Health & Happiness
"The Colonel"
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Coonr
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posted on March 7, 2002 05:07:26 AM new
One other little bit on Personal offers,
Once you make an offer, you top bidder can no longer complete 'Checkout'.
Others can see it, if they do a 'Seller Search' they just cannot buy it.
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BananaSpider
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posted on March 7, 2002 08:39:05 AM new
I have a question about Personal Offer.
Is there a certain time frame in place when the offer automatically expires?
Can you send a personal message along stating "offer good until XX/XX", when this item will be listed on eBay by userid?
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RichieRich
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posted on March 7, 2002 09:10:11 AM new
When you use Personal offer you have the choice to make it a 3, 5, 7 day option. I use 3 days Except on Friday when I use 5 days. Since some people use the work computer.
NO personal messages.
I wish you could pick the price and offer it to someone at the high bid and not what that bidders high bid was. It does not seem fair to the high bidder if you ask me. If they want it the will pay the extra 50 cents or $1.00.
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MrsSantaClaus
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posted on March 7, 2002 11:40:11 AM new
Is there a way you can make a personal offer on an item that was sold BEFORE personal offer came out?
Thanks!
BECKY
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selbee
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posted on March 7, 2002 12:22:03 PM new
[ edited by selbee on Mar 7, 2002 12:58 PM ]
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selbee
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posted on March 7, 2002 12:22:03 PM new
I have used the personal offer feature 6 times and picked up 5 sales, one for $150! It helps to send my own email through eBay's message system explaining that I have a duplicate of the item they lost and that I am giving them the opportunity to buy it outright rather then bid for it in another auction. This can't really be considered spam because eBay has sanctioned a business relationship with the bidder. It seems to help to personalize the offer and assure them the duplicate item is in the same condition, etc.
Some answers to questions and some corrections to some of the above.
Personal offers may be made on ANY item that closed in the last 60 days. If you go to your old listings on eBay you will find the personal offer link now inserted.
Personal offers CANNOT be found by a conventional search They will show up in a see seller's auctions search however.
The buy it now button can be pushed by ANY user who finds their way to the page. If someone stumbles on the item they can buy it.
Checkout DOES work with completed personal offers.
I think it's great. Kind of makes you want to go out and look for some items that sold well. My $150 item was a magazine that sold for $160. I went to eBay and picked up 2 copies of the magazine for about $3 each and sold them to the 3rd and 4th place bidder for $150 and $80. Not a bad margin (gross profit of $390 from a $9 investment) and the whole thing from bidding on the duplicate items to getting the funds in my paypal account took 10 days! Good luck!!!
[ edited by selbee on Mar 7, 2002 01:09 PM ]
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selbee
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posted on March 7, 2002 01:04:06 PM new
Something else I forgot:
You CAN go down the list of all the bidders. On my magazine I started with the number 2 bidder and he didn't nibble. I then put out an offer to bidder 3 who bought immediately and on to 4 who took a couple of days to decide. If I found any more copies of this magazine I'll go down the line to the 4 bidders left untill I get to the guy who bid less then I paid for it.
By the way. The $150 bidder said that he would never have purchased the item if it wasn't backed up by eBay.
Amazingly eBay has done a very good thing. I will gladly pay the FVF if they help me to sell more.
[ edited by selbee on Mar 7, 2002 01:07 PM ]
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mrssantaclaus
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posted on March 8, 2002 07:52:47 AM new
I have an item that I sold in December - there were two bidders. It sold for $60 in a bidding war.
I just found a second one of the same item - can I offer that to the back bidder by using eBay's personal offer?
I know the auction can't be found in eBay's system ... but it is still on my Auctionwatch Closed auction list.
That auction ran BEFORE eBay rolled out the Make a Personal Offer program.
Thanks!
BECKY
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selbee
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posted on March 8, 2002 08:03:06 AM new
No,
Because the item closed more than 60 days ago you can't use the personal offer. You can find your item on eBay (by using the item number) but it won't allow you to complete the personal offer because it will know the item is over 60 days old.
You could always tempt fate and directly contact the other bidder through eBay's contact system but I have found that bidders really don't want to reconsider an auction that happened so long ago.
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