Just last week I decided to try eBay's 'Best Offer' deal and allow buyers to submit their top price for some of my information products.

All went well until Mr. Big Time Loser arrived at my door. There was a 'Best Offer' in my eBay box this morning, for my product 'How to Make a Killing from Repossessed Properties', normal price 12.99.

Our friend's best offer: 1.05!

Quickly declined I was about to remove the BEST BUY buttons when I took a swig of coffee instead, calmed down a little, and decide to check if other people had suffered similar insults on eBay and to test people's patience and see just how low people will go to make a sale.

I began searching other people I know selling information products with 'Best Offer' promotions. I know three quite well so I checked them out first.

Do it by using the 'Advanced Search' technique, top right of eBay's pages, then clicking on 'Seller', next page keying in members' eBay IDs and ticking 'Completed Auctions', where you get a perfect insight not only into how many products those people sold over the past month or so, but also what 'Best Offers' they accepted and which they declined.

This is what I learned and please take notice of these factors in your eBay business or risk losing money from now to forever.

* Just one of my seller friends deducts more than 1 off usual prices, sometimes that person accepts less than half the normal price. Not a good idea, even if you really are skint, I'll tell you why later.

* The other two decline all offers of more than 1 off their products.

* The really bad news is, when you search sellers' past auctions you can see exactly how low they will go on price, and you can even work out which days they are more likely to accept those low prices. That's great news for buyers who are familiar with this advanced search technique who can use this information to get fabulous discounts on all manner of Best Offer items on eBay.

* The big problem is, because anyone can see just how low you will go for your products makes you a push-over for greedy bargain hunters, and prey for big sellers to grab your stock to resell on eBay - at closer to the real market value!

The most likely end results is, if you accept more than fifty per cent off your normal price today, tomorrow someone will expect sixty per cent off, next day seventy percent, and so it goes - until finally you'll barely be covering your costs! Face it, you're not running a charity, so don't treat your business as one.