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How to Handle Lowball Offers on Depop (Without Losing Margin)

July 20, 2026 · 3 min read

Depop's "Make an Offer" feature brings in real buyers — and a steady stream of offers that are well below what an item is actually worth. Responding well starts with knowing a number before the offer even shows up, not reacting to it in the moment.

Know your floor before an offer arrives

The biggest mistake sellers make is deciding whether an offer is acceptable by gut feel in the moment, rather than against a real floor price set in advance. Your floor should cover sourcing cost, Depop's selling fee, and shipping you're absorbing — not just "more than I paid." An offer that clears your listing price minus a reasonable discount can still be a loss once fees and cost are actually subtracted. See how to price Depop items for profit for how that floor gets set in the first place.

Countering instead of accepting or declining outright

A flat decline on every lowball offer loses buyers who would've paid closer to your actual price with a nudge. Countering 5–10% above your floor — not back at your original asking price — usually closes more sales than an all-or-nothing response, since it signals you're willing to move without giving away the full discount they asked for.

When to just decline

Some offers aren't worth countering at all: anything that lands meaningfully below your actual cost basis, or an offer on a genuinely rare or high-demand piece that's likely to sell at full price anyway. Countering a lowball on a piece with real scarcity value just anchors the buyer to a lower number than the item is actually going to get.

Offers and slow-moving stock

The calculus changes on items that have sat for weeks with views and likes but no sale — see how to price Depop items for profit on when a price drop or relist makes more sense than waiting on offers. On genuinely stale inventory, an offer close to your floor is often a better outcome than holding out for full price on something that isn't moving anyway.

Making the floor a real number, not a guess

None of this works if the floor price is a rough guess instead of an actual number tied to what the item cost you. DepopAutomation.com's profit tracker logs sourcing cost against every listing, so the floor for any offer — fees and cost included — is a number you can check instantly instead of estimating while a buyer is waiting on a reply. It runs alongside the AI listing tool and bulk lister, keeping accurate cost data attached to every item at the volume a growing shop actually sells at.

Conclusion

A lowball offer is only a problem if you don't already know the number below which it stops being worth accepting. Set a real floor from sourcing cost and fees, counter close to it rather than at full price, and decline outright only when an offer falls under what the item actually cost you.

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