Pricing Strategy
Best Offer is one of eBay's most underused margin-protection tools — but only if your thresholds are set with real numbers behind them. Most sellers either ignore it entirely or accept whatever comes in. The correct approach: treat your auto-decline floor as a hard negotiation wall built from cost, eBay fees, and your minimum margin, then let auto-accept capture buyers willing to pay near list. This guide shows you the exact math, explains how Best Offer interacts with automated repricing, and tells you when it beats simply lowering your list price.
Before touching any Best Offer settings, calculate your floor using three inputs: item cost, eBay fees, and your minimum acceptable margin. eBay charges roughly 13.6% final value fee on the total transaction (item + shipping + tax) plus a $0.30–$0.40 per-order fee depending on your store plan. Example: you paid $18 for an item, ship for $6, and want at least 15% net margin. Gross needed = ($18 + $6) / (1 - 0.15) ≈ $28.24. Subtract eBay's fee: $28.24 / (1 - 0.136) = $32.69 list equivalent. Any offer below $28.24 net destroys your floor. Set your auto-decline threshold at or above that figure. Never eyeball it — one miscalculated threshold across 200 listings erases weeks of profit.
eBay gives you two threshold levers. Auto-decline rejects any offer below the number you set — no counter, no notification, no time wasted. Auto-accept automatically accepts any offer at or above a second, higher number without you lifting a finger. A practical setup: list at $38, auto-decline below $30 (your floor from the math above), auto-accept at $35 (captures motivated buyers fast, still 16%+ margin). The band between $30 and $35 lands in your manual review queue. Keep that band narrow — wide bands mean more manual negotiations and more opportunities to accidentally accept a bad deal under time pressure. If you have 500+ listings, manual review bands become unmanageable; at that point, tighten the band or skip manual review entirely.
Here is where most sellers get confused: when Undercut reprices your listing down to beat a competitor, does your Best Offer threshold move with it? On eBay, Best Offer thresholds are fixed dollar amounts set at listing time — they do not float with price changes automatically. This creates a real risk: if Undercut drops your list price from $38 to $31 to beat a competitor, and your auto-decline is still set at $30, a buyer can offer $30.50 and get auto-accepted at effectively zero margin. The fix is to define your price floor in Undercut itself. When you set a per-listing hard floor — say $32 — Undercut will never reprice below it, keeping your auto-decline threshold safely inside the repricing range. Floor-first design is the reason Undercut was built this way: the floor is not an afterthought, it is the starting point.
Dropping your list price is permanent and visible to every buyer and competitor. Enabling Best Offer is neither. Use Best Offer instead of a price cut when: (1) you have a slow-moving item and want to test price sensitivity without publicly marking it down; (2) your category attracts negotiation-minded buyers (collectibles, vintage, parts); (3) you want to move inventory quickly without triggering a competitor repricer war. Lower your list price when: your item is priced above all competitors and you are getting no traffic at all, or your category buyers rarely use Best Offer (most commodity new-in-box electronics buyers just click Buy It Now). A combined approach — competitive list price via repricing plus a tight Best Offer band — captures both buyer types without sacrificing margin on either path.
Manually reviewing and updating Best Offer thresholds across hundreds of listings is not realistic. Undercut's floor-first repricing handles the hardest part: your per-listing cost + fees + margin floor is stored in the system and used as the repricing hard stop. This means your auto-decline threshold and your repricing floor are anchored to the same number — they cannot diverge. Free plan covers 25 listings with hourly repricing checks. Starter ($29/mo) handles 100 listings. Pro ($79/mo) scales to 1,000 listings with AI tuning and 15-minute check intervals — relevant if your Best Offer volume is high enough that 15-minute response windows matter. All accounts start with a 14-day Starter trial, no credit card required. If you have fewer than 25 listings, the Free plan is permanent — not a trial.
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What percentage should I set for my Best Offer auto-decline threshold?
Do not use a percentage — use a dollar floor derived from your actual cost, eBay's 13.6% final value fee, and your minimum margin. Example: $18 cost + $6 shipping with 15% margin floor means your minimum acceptable net is about $28.24. Convert that to a pre-fee list-equivalent and set your auto-decline there. A flat percentage ignores shipping costs and per-order fees, which are fixed regardless of price and hurt disproportionately on lower-priced items.
Does changing my list price in Undercut affect my existing Best Offer thresholds?
eBay Best Offer thresholds are stored as fixed dollar values on the listing and do not automatically adjust when your list price changes. If Undercut reprices your item down significantly, a previously safe auto-decline threshold could end up near or below your actual cost floor. The solution: set your Undercut price floor at or above your auto-decline threshold so the repricer never drops into dangerous territory.
Should I enable Best Offer on every listing?
No. Best Offer adds friction for Buy It Now buyers in commodity categories where no one negotiates. Enable it where your category data shows buyers actually use it: collectibles, vintage items, auto parts, refurbished electronics, and slower-moving unique items. For fast-moving new-in-box commodity products, a competitive list price from repricing is cleaner. eBay's Seller Hub shows Best Offer activity rates by category — check before enabling broadly.
Can I use Best Offer and Undercut's automated repricing at the same time?
Yes, and this is the recommended setup. Set your Undercut per-listing floor equal to or slightly above your Best Offer auto-decline threshold. Undercut keeps your list price competitive, while Best Offer captures buyers who prefer to negotiate. The two levers address different buyer behaviors simultaneously. Just make sure your floor in Undercut is set before you enable repricing — Undercut will never go below the floor you define, protecting both your margin and your offer thresholds.
What happens if I set my auto-decline too high and miss sales?
Your auto-decline floor should equal your actual minimum profitable price — not higher. If it is too high, you will auto-decline offers that would have been profitable, and buyers move on rather than countering. Review declined offers monthly in eBay's Best Offer reports. If you are declining offers within 5–8% of your floor, consider whether your floor math is correct or whether your cost assumptions need updating.
Related: How to Set an eBay Price Floor · Repricing Without Losing Margin · eBay Seller Fees Explained · eBay Pricing Strategy Guide