Action 1 5.0 R on ebay looks real

[G.A.tor]

my feeling is if I had a solid buyer of the book that I know from these boards (yes, he might have seen the book on ebay, but he originally saw it from the link in these boards, which to me, means ebay was not the sole source of contact!), and ending the auction saved me $7,000 in fees, and ebay allows me, the seller to end the auction, then sure sounds like a reasonable course of action to follow

 

Perhaps you are correct?

 

Can you imagine how a discussion on this board would have went if the high bid on the action 1 was your $200,000 bid with 5 minutes to go and the auction was suddenly canceled and you never had a shot at the book?

 

I can see it now:

 

"When asked why the auction was canceled Metropolis said that a friend approached them in the last 5 minutes and would pay more than the current bid".

 

Yep, can you imagine how much publicity they would receive?

 

again, apples to oranges... the high bidder was contacted first, didn't respond favorably as a valid bidder, had suspect history, etc, etc...

 

this is not a case where a "real" or legitimate bidder was the high bidder at $86K.... so, again, not applicable

[DocGo]

When bidding gets to a certain monetary level, does eBay do anything different in regards to letting certain users bid?

[G.A.tor]

and, before folks ask me why I am answering "for ben", it is because I am more articulate than he is j/k, ben has employed me as his spokesperson

 

truth of the matter ben and I discussed this book on 4-5 occasions, and I advised him on what I would do, etc...

 

we talked about if the high bidder was a legit bidder, to let the auction run... but the high bidder wasn't legit, so the best course of action, was the one he took... IMO

[G.A.tor]

When bidding gets to a certain monetary level, does eBay do anything different in regards to letting certain users bid?

not that I am aware of

[G.A.tor]

my feeling is if I had a solid buyer of the book that I know from these boards (yes, he might have seen the book on ebay, but he originally saw it from the link in these boards, which to me, means ebay was not the sole source of contact!), and ending the auction saved me $7,000 in fees, and ebay allows me, the seller to end the auction, then sure sounds like a reasonable course of action to follow

 

Perhaps you are correct?

 

Can you imagine how a discussion on this board would have went if the high bid on the action 1 was your $200,000 bid with 5 minutes to go and the auction was suddenly canceled and you never had a shot at the book?

 

I can see it now:

 

"When asked why the auction was canceled Metropolis said that a friend approached them in the last 5 minutes and would pay more than the current bid".

 

Yep, can you imagine how much publicity they would receive?

 

but jay, you make a valid point... by ending the auction early, ben did risk losing out on a bidder that might have been waiting to the end to snipe etc...however, given that the highest "real" bidder was a boardie, and given the price ben and the boardied agreed on, it was a calculated risk relative to "potential" but unknown return that could have been realized (does that make sense?)

[sfcityduck]

Here's some facts to aid this discussion.

 

(1) The eBay User Agreement states:

 

Offers to buy or sell listed items outside of the eBay site are not permitted. Offers of this nature are a potential fraud risk for both buyers and sellers and circumvent eBay's fees. If you receive any spam (unsolicited commercial messages) through email or Skype that includes offers to buy or sell outside eBay, please report this using the appropriate link in the "Additional Information" section below.

 

Some examples of offers outside of the eBay site include:

 

* Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay system to offer to sell any listed item outside of eBay

 

* Canceling a listing to sell to a buyer who became aware of the item through eBay

 

* Ending a listing early to sell the item at a higher price to the winning bidder

 

* Offering to sell an item to a bidder in a Reserve Not Met listing without going through Second Chance Offer

 

* Offering to sell duplicate or additional merchandise to under-bidders without going through Second Chance Offer

 

* Sending unsolicited (without prior permission) commercial email offers to bidders for the same or similar products that they have bid on in the past

 

It is acceptable for sellers to end a listing early in order to sell an item at the current bid price to the high bidder. Bidders are permitted to contact sellers with requests to end a listing early and sell at the current bid price; however, sellers are under no obligation to honor the request.

 

Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

 

* Listing cancellation

 

* Limits on account privileges

 

* Account suspension

 

* Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings

 

* Loss of PowerSeller status

 

(2) The eBay fees for a $90K transaction avoided by ending the transaction early would have been "final value fees" of $1,371.31.* [* 8.75% of the initial $25.00 ($2.19), plus 3.50% of the initial $25.01 - $1,000.00 ($34.12), plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value over $1,000.00 ($1,335.00).]

 

 

[G.A.tor]

Here's some facts to aid this discussion.

 

(1) The eBay User Agreement states:

 

Offers to buy or sell listed items outside of the eBay site are not permitted. Offers of this nature are a potential fraud risk for both buyers and sellers and circumvent eBay's fees. If you receive any spam (unsolicited commercial messages) through email or Skype that includes offers to buy or sell outside eBay, please report this using the appropriate link in the "Additional Information" section below.

 

Some examples of offers outside of the eBay site include:

 

* Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay system to offer to sell any listed item outside of eBay

 

* Canceling a listing to sell to a buyer who became aware of the item through eBay

 

* Ending a listing early to sell the item at a higher price to the winning bidder

 

* Offering to sell an item to a bidder in a Reserve Not Met listing without going through Second Chance Offer

 

* Offering to sell duplicate or additional merchandise to under-bidders without going through Second Chance Offer

 

* Sending unsolicited (without prior permission) commercial email offers to bidders for the same or similar products that they have bid on in the past

 

It is acceptable for sellers to end a listing early in order to sell an item at the current bid price to the high bidder. Bidders are permitted to contact sellers with requests to end a listing early and sell at the current bid price; however, sellers are under no obligation to honor the request.

 

Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

 

* Listing cancellation

 

* Limits on account privileges

 

* Account suspension

 

* Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings

 

* Loss of PowerSeller status

 

(2) The eBay fees for a $90K transaction avoided by ending the transaction early would have been "final value fees" of $1,371.31.* [* 8.75% of the initial $25.00 ($2.19), plus 3.50% of the initial $25.01 - $1,000.00 ($34.12), plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value over $1,000.00 ($1,335.00).]

 

great fee analysis... quite a bit diff (though I know ben was taking into account 3% paypal potential fees too)...

 

in any event (responding to the 2 bold violations above), the contact was made via the boards, so no violation, and ben didn't sell at a higher price, so again, no violation (thumbs u

[jkrk]

my feeling is if I had a solid buyer of the book that I know from these boards (yes, he might have seen the book on ebay, but he originally saw it from the link in these boards, which to me, means ebay was not the sole source of contact!), and ending the auction saved me $7,000 in fees, and ebay allows me, the seller to end the auction, then sure sounds like a reasonable course of action to follow

 

Perhaps you are correct?

 

Can you imagine how a discussion on this board would have went if the high bid on the action 1 was your $200,000 bid with 5 minutes to go and the auction was suddenly canceled and you never had a shot at the book?

 

I can see it now:

 

"When asked why the auction was canceled Metropolis said that a friend approached them in the last 5 minutes and would pay more than the current bid".

 

Yep, can you imagine how much publicity they would receive?

 

again, apples to oranges... the high bidder was contacted first, didn't respond favorably as a valid bidder, had suspect history, etc, etc...

 

this is not a case where a "real" or legitimate bidder was the high bidder at $86K.... so, again, not applicable

 

According to the history of canceled bids from E-Bay

 

There were two bidders bidding $86,500 and above. So are you saying both were contacted and both were not legitimate?:

 

Why not contact all the bidders and give them a shot?

 

Is this thread a manual on how to beat E-Bay out of $7,000?

[jkrk]

my feeling is if I had a solid buyer of the book that I know from these boards (yes, he might have seen the book on ebay, but he originally saw it from the link in these boards, which to me, means ebay was not the sole source of contact!), and ending the auction saved me $7,000 in fees, and ebay allows me, the seller to end the auction, then sure sounds like a reasonable course of action to follow

 

Perhaps you are correct?

 

Can you imagine how a discussion on this board would have went if the high bid on the action 1 was your $200,000 bid with 5 minutes to go and the auction was suddenly canceled and you never had a shot at the book?

 

I can see it now:

 

"When asked why the auction was canceled Metropolis said that a friend approached them in the last 5 minutes and would pay more than the current bid".

 

Yep, can you imagine how much publicity they would receive?

 

but jay, you make a valid point... by ending the auction early, ben did risk losing out on a bidder that might have been waiting to the end to snipe etc...however, given that the highest "real" bidder was a boardie, and given the price ben and the boardied agreed on, it was a calculated risk relative to "potential" but unknown return that could have been realized (does that make sense?)

 

He should have never listed the book as a no reserve auction where it was assumed that the highest bidder would win the book.

[G.A.tor]

my feeling is if I had a solid buyer of the book that I know from these boards (yes, he might have seen the book on ebay, but he originally saw it from the link in these boards, which to me, means ebay was not the sole source of contact!), and ending the auction saved me $7,000 in fees, and ebay allows me, the seller to end the auction, then sure sounds like a reasonable course of action to follow

 

Perhaps you are correct?

 

Can you imagine how a discussion on this board would have went if the high bid on the action 1 was your $200,000 bid with 5 minutes to go and the auction was suddenly canceled and you never had a shot at the book?

 

I can see it now:

 

"When asked why the auction was canceled Metropolis said that a friend approached them in the last 5 minutes and would pay more than the current bid".

 

Yep, can you imagine how much publicity they would receive?

 

again, apples to oranges... the high bidder was contacted first, didn't respond favorably as a valid bidder, had suspect history, etc, etc...

 

this is not a case where a "real" or legitimate bidder was the high bidder at $86K.... so, again, not applicable

 

According to the history of canceled bids from E-Bay

 

There were two bidders bidding $86,500 and above. So are you saying both were contacted and both were not legitimate?:

 

Why not contact all the bidders and give them a shot?

 

Is this thread a manual on how to beat E-Bay out of $7,000?

one bidder was the "bad" one, the other bidder was the boardie that bought it (thumbs u

[G.A.tor]

my feeling is if I had a solid buyer of the book that I know from these boards (yes, he might have seen the book on ebay, but he originally saw it from the link in these boards, which to me, means ebay was not the sole source of contact!), and ending the auction saved me $7,000 in fees, and ebay allows me, the seller to end the auction, then sure sounds like a reasonable course of action to follow

 

Perhaps you are correct?

 

Can you imagine how a discussion on this board would have went if the high bid on the action 1 was your $200,000 bid with 5 minutes to go and the auction was suddenly canceled and you never had a shot at the book?

 

I can see it now:

 

"When asked why the auction was canceled Metropolis said that a friend approached them in the last 5 minutes and would pay more than the current bid".

 

Yep, can you imagine how much publicity they would receive?

 

but jay, you make a valid point... by ending the auction early, ben did risk losing out on a bidder that might have been waiting to the end to snipe etc...however, given that the highest "real" bidder was a boardie, and given the price ben and the boardied agreed on, it was a calculated risk relative to "potential" but unknown return that could have been realized (does that make sense?)

 

He should have never listed the book as a no reserve auction where it was assumed that the highest bidder would win the book.

but he did, so can't change that...

[nearmint]

my feeling is if I had a solid buyer of the book that I know from these boards (yes, he might have seen the book on ebay, but he originally saw it from the link in these boards, which to me, means ebay was not the sole source of contact!), and ending the auction saved me $7,000 in fees, and ebay allows me, the seller to end the auction, then sure sounds like a reasonable course of action to follow

 

Perhaps you are correct?

 

Can you imagine how a discussion on this board would have went if the high bid on the action 1 was your $200,000 bid with 5 minutes to go and the auction was suddenly canceled and you never had a shot at the book?

 

I can see it now:

 

"When asked why the auction was canceled Metropolis said that a friend approached them in the last 5 minutes and would pay more than the current bid".

 

Yep, can you imagine how much publicity they would receive?

 

again, apples to oranges... the high bidder was contacted first, didn't respond favorably as a valid bidder, had suspect history, etc, etc...

 

this is not a case where a "real" or legitimate bidder was the high bidder at $86K.... so, again, not applicable

 

According to the history of canceled bids from E-Bay

 

There were two bidders bidding $86,500 and above. So are you saying both were contacted and both were not legitimate?:

 

Why not contact all the bidders and give them a shot?

 

Is this thread a manual on how to beat E-Bay out of $7,000?

one bidder was the "bad" one, the other bidder was the boardie that bought it (thumbs u

 

I suspect that if that had been clear from the start, Ben wouldn't be getting such a hard time about this. He worked a deal with the highest legitimate bidder.

[G.A.tor]

my feeling is if I had a solid buyer of the book that I know from these boards (yes, he might have seen the book on ebay, but he originally saw it from the link in these boards, which to me, means ebay was not the sole source of contact!), and ending the auction saved me $7,000 in fees, and ebay allows me, the seller to end the auction, then sure sounds like a reasonable course of action to follow

 

Perhaps you are correct?

 

Can you imagine how a discussion on this board would have went if the high bid on the action 1 was your $200,000 bid with 5 minutes to go and the auction was suddenly canceled and you never had a shot at the book?

 

I can see it now:

 

"When asked why the auction was canceled Metropolis said that a friend approached them in the last 5 minutes and would pay more than the current bid".

 

Yep, can you imagine how much publicity they would receive?

 

again, apples to oranges... the high bidder was contacted first, didn't respond favorably as a valid bidder, had suspect history, etc, etc...

 

this is not a case where a "real" or legitimate bidder was the high bidder at $86K.... so, again, not applicable

 

According to the history of canceled bids from E-Bay

 

There were two bidders bidding $86,500 and above. So are you saying both were contacted and both were not legitimate?:

 

Why not contact all the bidders and give them a shot?

 

Is this thread a manual on how to beat E-Bay out of $7,000?

one bidder was the "bad" one, the other bidder was the boardie that bought it (thumbs u

 

I suspect that if that had been clear from the start, Ben wouldn't be getting such a hard time about this. He worked a deal with the highest legitimate bidder.

funny, that is exactly what I just told ben (he is out taking a drive with his family, which is why I am answering for him!) ...but, hopefully folks will see he isn't a bad guy, just has an interesting and dry sense of humor (that comes across great live, but not so great on the internet! )

[jkrk]

my feeling is if I had a solid buyer of the book that I know from these boards (yes, he might have seen the book on ebay, but he originally saw it from the link in these boards, which to me, means ebay was not the sole source of contact!), and ending the auction saved me $7,000 in fees, and ebay allows me, the seller to end the auction, then sure sounds like a reasonable course of action to follow

 

Perhaps you are correct?

 

Can you imagine how a discussion on this board would have went if the high bid on the action 1 was your $200,000 bid with 5 minutes to go and the auction was suddenly canceled and you never had a shot at the book?

 

I can see it now:

 

"When asked why the auction was canceled Metropolis said that a friend approached them in the last 5 minutes and would pay more than the current bid".

 

Yep, can you imagine how much publicity they would receive?

 

but jay, you make a valid point... by ending the auction early, ben did risk losing out on a bidder that might have been waiting to the end to snipe etc...however, given that the highest "real" bidder was a boardie, and given the price ben and the boardied agreed on, it was a calculated risk relative to "potential" but unknown return that could have been realized (does that make sense?)

 

He should have never listed the book as a no reserve auction where it was assumed that the highest bidder would win the book.

but he did, so can't change that...

 

I thought this thread started to take off when the destroyer started to attack the posters for criticizing what he did. Had he plead guilty and left it alone there would be nothing more to say. If you believe he did nothing wrong then...... we have gone the full circle.

[The Black Hand ®]

Ending the auction early was not cool. I agree. My dancing laughing figure was in reply to another member gloating over the end of my auction he had stated he hoped failed. I can understand everyones negativity on the matter but put in a situation where a foreign purchaser offers an obscene amount of cash only if it ends during the phone call...I'd bet alot of our right wing, morality police, holier than thou members who feel the need to add their opinion no matter if they should mind their own would have done the same. Everyone complaining would certainly give away ten thousand to keep their moral values concerning funny books.

 

Watching the auction, I became concerned about the higher bidder and whether he was a thrill bidder or a spoiler. So I don't blame you for doing what you did. Also, like another member has stated, sellers are really getting hosed by eBay and by buyer blackmail through the feedback process. I think things need to even out again.

[Transplant]

I'm not going to go into what I would do in this situation, as I'm not sure. But I would offer this query. If the boardie/purchaser was the highest "legit" bidder, then why not let the auction run it's course? If the fraudulent bidder wins, he won't pay, Ben can file a NPB and get his fees back, sell to the boardie and Ebay gets its money.

 

If Ben is really convinced that the thrill bidder is that, why not block him or cancel his bids? Then the boardie is free to bid without someone running the price up and Ebay gets its fees.

[sfcityduck]

My opinion:

 

eBay may view Ben's decision to cancel the auction and sell outside of eBay as a ploy to avoid fees -- which would be a violation of the eBay User Agreement. So by cancelling the auction, Ben risks his ability to use eBay and other consequences. A result that I'm not at all sure is worthwhile just to avoid $1,371 or so in fees if you are a frequent eBay user. [i don't count PayPal fees because sellers are not required to accept PayPal. If Ben didn't want to pay credit card or PayPal fees, all he had to do was fashion his listing accordingly.]

 

The wiser course of action would probably have been to let the auction run, and ascertain if the high bidder at the end of the day was legit or not. If so, then he's sold the book and the fees aren't that high. If not, then Ben is not on the hook for any eBay fees, and he's free to relist or sell to whoever he wants.

 

Having said that, aside from eBay, the only person who has any right to complain about an auction cancellation is the high bidder at the time the auction was ended. No one else has any argument that they were adversely effected at all.

 

[G.A.tor]

I'm not going to go into what I would do in this situation, as I'm not sure. But I would offer this query. If the boardie/purchaser was the highest "legit" bidder, then why not let the auction run it's course? If the fraudulent bidder wins, he won't pay, Ben can file a NPB and get his fees back, sell to the boardie and Ebay gets its money.

 

If Ben is really convinced that the thrill bidder is that, why not block him or cancel his bids? Then the boardie is free to bid without someone running the price up and Ebay gets its fees.

ben's thoughts are that since the boardie did approach him/see the book for sale via the boards, that why pay ebay the fees when ebay didn't create the sale for him ...and, ben wanted to "seal" the deal now, not later (waiting for NPB to filed, time, etc)... he sold the book because he was/is in need of the funds...so, time also played into the decision

[G.A.tor]

My opinion:

 

eBay may view Ben's decision to cancel the auction and sell outside of eBay as a ploy to avoid fees -- which would be a violation of the eBay User Agreement. So by cancelling the auction, Ben risks his ability to use eBay and other consequences. A result that I'm not at all sure is worthwhile just to avoid $1,371 or so in fees if you are a frequent eBay user. [i don't count PayPal fees because sellers are not required to accept PayPal. If Ben didn't want to pay credit card or PayPal fees, all he had to do was fashion his listing accordingly.]

 

The wiser course of action would probably have been to let the auction run, and ascertain if the high bidder at the end of the day was legit or not. If so, then he's sold the book and the fees aren't that high. If not, then Ben is not on the hook for any eBay fees, and he's free to relist or sell to whoever he wants.

 

Having said that, aside from eBay, the only person who has any right to complain about an auction cancellation is the high bidder at the time the auction was ended. No one else has any argument that they were adversely effected at all.

another thing ben reminded me of is that he needed the money sooner than later, and waiting to wade through potential ebay fraud bidders, etc, would cause more delays for him, and he needed/needs the funds now (thumbs u

[G.A.tor]

and with that, my service is complete