Be careful with eBay Best Offers (rant)

[zoomer]

Something flakey happened with the Aero AN-J-4 that recently sold at Best Offer.

I made a lowball offer initially.
The seller made me a counter-offer via eBay Messages (ie: not a formal counter thru the auction system).
I got back to him in time (I thought) to accept.
What do I find? He sold it to someone else...and get this: for less money!

Says now he "had other offers working" and "didn't receive [my] offer."
Well - eBay Auctions got my original (too low), eBay Messages got my second (ok'ing his counter-offer less than 24hrs later), so where the heck did this go wrong?

(FWIW: I have 350 positive and zero negative feedbacks.)

Just to remind everyone what they already know...
when you do informal negotiations like this, anything can happen.
Including not getting your item because the guy didn't feel like reading his mail or whatever kind of friggn flake-out might occur.
Thanks a million, Space Ranger. I missed a helluva bargain and you missed making an extra $15.

Oh well. I already have a perfectly fine AN-J-4. Except it's suede.

 

[John Lever]

I think many people are confused with the best offers thing, particularly those when the item is in English and when this is not their first language. I have had many questions like ' what do I offer ?', 'what do you mean by make an offer ? '

 

[ausreenactor]

You have three offers to make to a seller for an item. They can be accepted, declined or the seller can make a counter offer. With a counter offer the option is YOURS to accept or decline. Any other bidder can make an offer at any time. I sold my third car to an under bidder because I was going to have less hassles with a guy in the same state. The seller could have any number of motivators for accepting that offer over yours, better feedback, trading history or first offer he read? Who knows... Next time up the offer and give yourself a fighting chance.

Couchy

 

[zoomer]

And the best part for the seller: by doing it via Messages and not the auction system, he has ultimate discretion and probably doesn't pay eBay's sale fee either!

 

[ausreenactor]

Now I am confused? It did not sell on eBay? How did you know it sold for less? Using the message function will always allow a dodgy seller the opportunity to move his item offline. If you had of hit the BIN or if the seller had auto accept on and your offer was high enough the item would be yours. Name and shame! Who was it...we can let him know via the same eBay messages how his methods have attracted attention..

Couchy