I Used to Hate Negotiation
For the first two years of reselling, I priced everything firm. No offers, no negotiation, take it or leave it. My reasoning was simple: I'd done my research, priced items fairly, and I didn't want to deal with lowballers offering $10 on a $75 item.
Then my inventory started piling up. I had items sitting for 60, 90, even 120 days. Good items, priced reasonably, just not moving. A friend who'd been reselling longer than me said something that stuck: "A fair price that nobody offers to pay is just a number on a screen."
So I tested it. I enabled "Make an Offer" on 50 items that had been sitting for 30+ days. Within two weeks, 14 of them sold. The average accepted offer was 82% of my asking price — meaning I gave up about 18% on price but moved $840 worth of stale inventory that was just sitting in my garage collecting dust.
That was three years ago. I've used offers on my listings ever since, and my overall sell-through rate went from about 35% to nearly 50%.
The Psychology of "Make an Offer"
When a buyer sees a fixed price of $65, their internal calculation is binary: is this worth $65 to me, yes or no? If it's not an immediate yes, they move on. There are a million other listings to look at.
When a buyer sees $65 with a "Make an Offer" option, the calculation changes. Now they're thinking: what IS this worth to me? Maybe $50? Maybe $55? They engage with the item mentally. They start imagining owning it. And once they type in an offer amount and hit send, they're emotionally invested in the outcome.
That mental shift from passive browsing to active negotiation is powerful. A buyer who sends an offer is far more likely to complete a purchase than a buyer who's just looking at fixed-price listings.
The Anchoring Effect
Your listed price serves as an anchor. When someone sees $65 and the option to make an offer, most people don't offer $20. They offer something in the range of $45-58 — anchored by your asking price. This is basic negotiation psychology, and it works in your favor as the seller.
I've tracked my received offers over the past year. The average first offer is 72% of asking price. After a counter-offer from me, the average final agreed price is 83% of asking. That 83% is the number that matters — it's what you should be pricing around.
How to Price for Offers Without Losing Money
This is the part most people get wrong. If you're going to accept offers, you need to build that into your pricing from the start.
Here's my formula. Say I want to net $50 on an item after all fees:
- Target net: $50
- Platform fees (estimate 15%): need to gross about $59
- Expected negotiation (accept at ~83% of asking): list at $71
- Rounded listing price: $72 or $75
I list at $75, expect to accept an offer around $62-65, pay about $9-10 in fees, and net $52-55. That's at or above my target.
The key is knowing your floor — the absolute minimum you'll accept. For every item I list, I have a number in my head (or literally written on a sticky note on my desk) below which I won't go. This keeps me from making emotional decisions when a reasonable offer comes in.
Setting Up Offer Boundaries
Most platforms that support offers let you set auto-accept and auto-decline thresholds. Use them. Here's how I set mine:
- Auto-accept: anything at or above 90% of asking price. If I list at $75 and someone offers $68 or more, it auto-accepts. These buyers were willing to pay close to full price — take the money.
- Auto-decline: anything below 50% of asking price. If someone offers $30 on a $75 item, that's not a serious negotiation, it's a lowball. Auto-decline saves me the mental energy of seeing these.
- Manual review: anything between 50-89% of asking. This is where real negotiation happens and where I make counter-offers.
On my APMTSales storefront, I can set minimum offer thresholds per item. This means buyers see the "Make an Offer" button but their offer has to meet my floor to even come through. It filters out the nonsense while still encouraging real negotiation. Fewer lowball notifications means less frustration, which means I stay open to negotiation long-term.
The Counter-Offer: Your Most Powerful Tool
When someone offers $45 on a $75 item, don't just decline it. Counter at $65. Here's why:
A declined offer ends the conversation. The buyer moves on. A counter-offer keeps the conversation alive and communicates two things: you're willing to negotiate, and you know your item's value. Most buyers who receive a counter-offer will either accept it or come back with something close.
My counter-offer strategy is simple:
- Offer at 50-65% of asking: I counter at 85-90% of asking. I'm signaling that their offer was too low but I'm open to a deal closer to my price.
- Offer at 65-80% of asking: I counter at 82-88% of asking. We're in the zone, I just want a little more.
- Offer at 80-89% of asking: I accept. Life's too short to haggle over $3.
I rarely go more than two rounds of counters. If we haven't agreed after two rounds, the buyer and I are probably too far apart. I'll send a final "best price" and leave it.
When NOT to Allow Offers
Offers aren't right for every listing. I keep firm pricing on:
- Items priced under $20 — the negotiation isn't worth the time. If someone wants to haggle over a $15 item, we're talking about saving $2-3. Just price it right and keep it firm.
- Hot items that will sell quickly — if I know something will sell within a few days at full price (based on comparable sold listings), I don't need to invite offers. Fresh, desirable inventory sells itself.
- Items with razor-thin margins — if I paid $40 for something listed at $55, my margin after fees is already slim. I can't afford to give up another 15-20% through negotiation.
- Recently listed items — I usually list at firm price for the first 7-14 days, then enable offers if the item hasn't sold. This captures full-price buyers early and uses offers as a strategy for aging inventory.
Dealing With Lowballers Without Losing Your Mind
Lowball offers are going to happen. Someone will offer you $15 on a $120 vintage lamp and include a message that says "this is all I can afford right now." It's annoying, but don't let it sour you on the entire concept.
My approach:
- Auto-decline thresholds handle the worst lowballs so I never see them
- For borderline lowballs (50-60% range), I send a polite counter with no commentary. Just the number. No "this item is worth more" or "I can't go that low." Just "$95." Professional, brief, leaves the door open.
- Block repeat lowballers — if someone consistently sends insulting offers across multiple listings, block them. Your time and mental energy are worth more.
I also reframe how I think about lowball offers. That person offering $15 on my $120 lamp? They probably won't buy it. But the fact that they're engaging with my listing tells me the listing is getting visibility. And sometimes a lowball offer on an item reminds me to look at whether my pricing is actually competitive.
The Data: How Offers Affect My Business
I track everything, so here are my actual numbers for the past 12 months:
- Total items listed with offers enabled: 847
- Total offers received: 1,203
- Offers auto-declined (below threshold): 287 (24%)
- Offers auto-accepted (above threshold): 156 (13%)
- Offers manually reviewed: 760 (63%)
- Manual reviews that resulted in a sale: 412 (54% conversion)
- Average final sale price as % of asking: 83%
- Items sold through offers vs. items sold at full price: about 40% through offers, 60% at full price
That 40% of sales through offers represents revenue I probably wouldn't have captured with firm pricing only. Those buyers likely would have gone elsewhere or waited for the price to drop. Instead, they engaged, we negotiated, and both sides walked away satisfied.
Offers on Different Platforms
eBay
eBay's "Best Offer" feature is mature and well-used. Buyers expect it. I enable it on about 70% of my eBay listings. The auto-accept and auto-decline features work well. One tip: eBay shows how many offers have been declined on a listing, which can signal to future buyers that the seller isn't flexible. Keep your auto-decline threshold reasonable so you're not racking up declined offers.
Etsy
Etsy introduced "Make an Offer" more recently and it's less commonly used by sellers. This means enabling it makes your listing stand out — buyers aren't used to seeing it on Etsy and it can grab attention. The feature is more basic than eBay's (no auto-accept/decline), so you'll be reviewing offers manually.
Your Own Storefront
On my APMTSales storefront, offers work through a contact form or direct messaging. I like this because it opens a real conversation. A buyer might message "Would you take $80 for this?" and I can reply with context: "I can do $90 — it's a rare pattern and I've only seen two others sell in the past year." That personal interaction often seals the deal in a way that automated offer/counter-offer systems don't.
Local Sales (Facebook Marketplace, Nextdoor)
Negotiation is the default on local platforms. Everyone expects to negotiate. Price accordingly — I typically list 15-20% above my target on local platforms because negotiation is guaranteed. The key difference is that local negotiations happen in real-time via messaging, so respond quickly. A buyer who sends an offer and doesn't hear back for 6 hours has already moved on to another listing.
Making Offers Part of Your Routine
Here's my workflow for managing offers without it taking over my day:
- Morning (5 minutes): Check overnight offers. Accept or counter-offer anything reasonable. Decline anything below threshold if auto-decline didn't catch it.
- Afternoon (5 minutes): Check for responses to my counter-offers. Accept or make one final counter.
- Weekly (15 minutes): Review items that have been listed 14+ days with no offers. Consider lowering the price or enabling offers if they were firm-priced initially.
Total time: about 1.5 hours per week. For the additional revenue it generates, that's some of the highest-value time I spend on my business.
Bottom Line
Letting buyers negotiate feels like you're giving up control, but it's actually the opposite. You control the floor price, the auto-accept threshold, and the counter-offer strategy. The buyer just gets the feeling of participation and the satisfaction of getting a deal. Meanwhile, you move more inventory, spend less time with stale listings, and keep your overall revenue strong. Price with negotiation built in, set your boundaries, and let the offers come in. Your sell-through rate will thank you.