eBay "Make an Offer" Changed ?

Bint Box · 19 Nov 2023 at 13:32

Hi,

I just tried to make an offer for an item on eBay and it now requires you to login to PayPal to make the offer.
It looks like you need to allocate PayPal funds in advance before you can submit an offer to the seller?
They say funds will only be taken if the seller accepts your offer.

This is definitely a new thing as I submitted a few offers for other stuff last week and did not have to allocate PayPal funds in advance to send the offer to the seller.
It might be seller driven I suppose where they can choose if this is enabled on their listing?

Teknobry · 19 Nov 2023 at 13:34

Yeah noticed this as well. Maybe to stop people making offers they have no intention of actually paying.

Bint Box · 19 Nov 2023 at 13:41

Teknobry said:
Yeah noticed this as well. Maybe to stop people making offers they have no intention of actually paying.

That could be the reason?
I can only see it reducing the number of offers sellers get for their listings. I think I would need to be fairly keen for a listed itom to jump through this new hoop.

jaybee · 19 Nov 2023 at 13:47

Define "allocate funds". What actually happens? Do you make a sort of pending payment?

alexakasloth · 19 Nov 2023 at 14:02

Should still be able to message the seller directly as well. That explains why i'm recieving more offers via messages.

G J · 19 Nov 2023 at 14:32

Make an offer is near useless on a lot of auctions esp computer related stuff as most people have it set to auto decline on anything below around £10 on their buy it now price.

Perhaps its to stop people fishing with alt accounts with no payment details attached to find out what the lowest non declined accepted offer is.

413x · 19 Nov 2023 at 14:37

G J said:
Make an offer is near useless on a lot of auctions esp computer related stuff as most people have it set to auto decline on anything below around £10 on their buy it now price.

Perhaps its to stop people fishing with alt accounts with no payment details attached to find out what the lowest non declined accepted offer is.

Its because it gets tiring with people putting in ridiculous offers.

G J · 19 Nov 2023 at 14:50

413x said:
Its because it gets tiring with people putting in ridiculous offers.

Then dont respond to them? Also if its set to auto decline any offers below £10 the asking price why bother accepting offers, just set the buy it now price £10 cheeper with no offers.

silverblack · 19 Nov 2023 at 15:06

Noticed this the other day ended up buying a jacket.Paypal check your card it's £0.00.
Next thing i got a dispatch email :cry:

413x · 19 Nov 2023 at 15:23

G J said:
Then dont respond to them? Also if its set to auto decline any offers below £10 the asking price why bother accepting offers, just set the buy it now price £10 cheeper with no offers.

Because it s annoying.
And often you're happy to accept X less than buy it now but not much less, but if someone is happy to pay asking that's there too.

Armageus · 19 Nov 2023 at 15:24

Yep it's annoying as I used to make offers then when they'd be accepted log in via Quidco to make the payment and get cashback.

Bint Box · 19 Nov 2023 at 16:31

jaybee said:
Define "allocate funds". What actually happens? Do you make a sort of pending payment?

I declined to login to PayPal and did not make the offer.
I am assuming that by signing in to PayPal it allows eBay to somehow charge the offer to your account but only take the money if the seller accepts?

iGiDK · 19 Nov 2023 at 18:01

That's how it should be IMO, if you put an offer in you should be prepared to pay that amount if the seller accepts. I'm assuming this new process makes the transaction seamless from the point that the seller accepts.

I've had occasions in the past (as a seller) accepting offers and as soon as you accept the listing is closed to other buyers then you have to wait for the buyer paying (and several times from this point I've had either radio silence or excuses).

So to me, I actually like the sound of this as I have stopped enabling best offer due to so many timewasters

petridish · 19 Nov 2023 at 20:37

alexakasloth said:
Should still be able to message the seller directly as well. That explains why i'm recieving more offers via messages.

Good to know you can do this. Been a few times when I've wanted to make a combined offer across two items from a seller and also combine postage. In the past I've agreed and paid 50/50 on each (if they're comparable values). If the funds are taken up front I can see the potential for seller abuse if you're putting forward a similar kind of offer, that or you miss out on one.

Pawnless Endgame · 19 Nov 2023 at 21:26

The way I see this is that if the buyer's offer has enough funds and the seller accepts it, then the item goes into the basket and auto-checks out. This makes the process faster for both parties.

Brazo · 19 Nov 2023 at 21:30

It’s better for the sellers and no bad thing, stops the buyers messing around.

andy_mk3 · 19 Nov 2023 at 21:39

Strange, I thought eBay were working to move away from Paypal as much as they could, hence all their own payment portal in recent years.

jpaul · 19 Nov 2023 at 21:55

no problem wit the change - hadn't appreciated you can see how many other bids are pending too, as an indication of how much interest and liklihood of winning is(was)

Jono8 · 19 Nov 2023 at 22:02

Better as a seller. Ive had to chase people a number of times to actually pay after accepting their offer....

Lopéz · 20 Nov 2023 at 08:39

Sounds like an improvement. I have accepted many offers on Ebay in the past only for the person making the offer to deny all knowledge/say it was a mistake/say they were sending out many offers to see who accepted etc etc. Complete pain.