Bought plenty but never sold on there before, I’ve got a couple of items up at the moment, nothing of high value, maybe £60 quid tops for each.

I’ve now had 2 messages asking for a buy it now price for 1 or both items. My questions are, are these messages to be trusted? And if the number they offer is reasonable, is there any reason not to take their offer up?

My instinct is to say “make me an offer” but I don’t know enough about eBay selling to know if this is sensible/allowed.

Pretty standard. Happens on every auction. Usually means they are trying to get it cheap. Best just to let it run. It is against ebay rules, but hardly crime of the century.

You can add a buy-it-now to your auction if you want to keep it all legit. I tend not to take up offers at all, mostly my auctions are fairly low value (£20-£50) and I find the offerers tend to bid anyway, and if I make a BIN they rarely take it. But ymmv.

it gets more complicated if you’re tempted to take it off ebay. I just don’t go there, it’s too often a waste of time

They will always want it cheap, or they will make you a good offer upfront. Even then its a bit dodgy.

But with Ebayys fees now I don’t sell on it so much.

Good point that- the absolute most important thing with ebay is to keep track of what it’s costing you. The costs are so distributed, I think it’s designed to make it easy to lose track. I absolutely guarantee I’ve bought things on ebay that the seller’s lost money on between fees and postage though.

I’ve sold around 150-200 items on eBay and on each occasion that I’ve been offered a buy it now price the item sold for more at the end of the auction.

Don’t even bother replying to them – they’re just trying to get it on the cheap.

These days I nearly always sell outside of ebay if the offer is fair and the buyer seems genuine. Do not assume some one is serious until they pay the money into bank or paypal account :0) Many many people will ask for a Buy it Now but only a tiny percentage are serious buyers

I don’t mind if the buyer get’s a good or fair deal if it saves ebay fees and potential time wasters (there are many :0)

I’ve never had someone follow up with the cash after asking for a buy it now. Time wasters. Besides watching the last few minutes of your auction is usually exciting.