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Ending Auctions Early?

Started by MisterFF4-migration,

18 posts in this topic

MisterFF4-migration

MisterFF4-migration

Posted
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How many of you illustrious people here end auctions early to sell your books to someone who e-mails you with an offer? I recently had a couple of offers ( which I seriously considered based on the amount ) but ultimately declined and let the auctions continue. The bottom line is this...... the thought of ending auctions early and canceling bids made me feel a little dirty so I couldn't do it. BTW...... my books did not do as well as I had hoped and I would have done better to have sold them to one of those side bids............. which got me thinking. How many of you end your items early if the price is right?

 

John

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supapimp

supapimp

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i ended a auction early about 1 1/2 months ago, i had a fantasy quarterly 1 CGC NM- 9.2 with a starting bid of $60. within 1 day i received an offer for a $100 on the book if i ended the auction early. so i did, since nobody bid on the book anyways.

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comicinvestor-migration

comicinvestor-migration

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If there are no current bids, I don't see any problem with selling on the side, if the price is right. It's especially true this time of the year, as many want to get Xmas presents in ASAP and sometimes the only way to do this is to make your own BIN.

 

If there are active bids on an item, and you end it, that's kind of a gray area that wouldn't sit too well if I was the bidder.

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greggy

greggy

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I have never done it but I have only been offered once. I declined because I advised some regular bidders about the book and knew that they always sniped. I can understand Supa's point if there are no bidders but I feel that it is unfair if there are current bidders especially if there are no reserve issues! laugh.gif

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lighthouse

lighthouse

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A few years back I ended a dozen auctions early, all for the same guy. I made a lot of money off his buy-out bid, but lost even more from irritated bidders who were still involved in my other auctions. For every bidder that emails you to complain you better believe there are many more who just put you on a blacklist and never bid with you again.

 

Since that point, if there is a bid in the auction by anyone other than the person making the offer I won't do it. You have no way of knowing if the guy who made a $1 bid did so to keep the auction on his list so he could bid $500 later.

 

Like supa though, an auction that has been up a while with no bids, I would still consider it.

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MisterFF4-migration

MisterFF4-migration

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I agree..... My auctions were 3 days into a 5 day auction and each book had multiple bids. I totally agree that there is no question of whether or not to end an auction when there are no bidders..... but some of these books were currently being won by people that I have sold to in the past and I didn't want to burn those bidders.......... At least.....this was my thinking at the time.

 

John

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MisterFF4-migration

MisterFF4-migration

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I'm sure that you guys are going to love this....... the same guy that I said no to ending my auctions early came in and sniped 80% of them anyway.......FOR LESS THAN HE WAS OFFERING......AARRRGGGG!!!!!!

 

That guy really makes me mad. It's not like I am some newbie either....... I just thought that I would share this little experience with you guys.

 

John

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comicinvestor-migration

comicinvestor-migration

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Why does that guy make you mad? You said no to his offer, yet he still swallowed his pride and bid anyway. You should be happy, as it's money either way.

 

I think it's asking quite a lot for a red-blooded male to be told no to a buy offer, then come back willingly and bid just as high. The BIN offers are usually higher just for the confidence in getting all the books at once.

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Joanna

Joanna

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I've done it once and will never do it again. I had some action figures up and got an offer for double the minimum. There were no bids on them, and the guy had just won another item at minimum, so I figured he wanted to have them all shipped together in time for Christmas. I agreed. After packaging up this huge lot of stuff (really difficult packing using a lot of supplies, making my own boxes, etc.) he told me he no longer wanted to pay double. When I protested that he'd already approved the deal, he said he didn't want any of the action figures. I took the boxes apart, repackaged just the original ebay sale and sent him a new price. He decided not to pay at all.

 

If I ever meet him, I would like to wound him in a very sensitive spot. By accident.

 

-- Joanna

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MisterFF4-migration

MisterFF4-migration

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CI,

 

Your right..... It 's the situation that still burns my butt. The guy paid instantly with paypal and left positive feedback..... I will chalk it up to a learning experience. It still leaves me with the thought of "what would I do if in the same situation again?" and I still feel that It is wrong morally to end them with bids that are current.

 

John

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Joanna

Joanna

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Anytime you get an offer like that, always make the buyer state his/her intentions by bidding initially on the lot, then (and only then) close it down. It's not foolproof, but it does help weed out the lamers and save you some time in the long run.

 

Well, CI, in this case, he'd just won an auction the old-fashioned way, so I knew he was willing to bid. And I sent him an email confirming prices and giving a subtotal (without shipping) as insurance, and he confirmed that, as well. It was just when it came time to pay that he started backing out bit by bit. I think he was simply a creep. It really had the feel of someone messing with me for sport. The way he did it was cleverly evil, as each step made me do a lot of work only to have that work undone and more work done, then that's undone and more work, etc. There are people in this world who get their jollies from making strangers miserable (example, anyone who writes a computer virus), and I think I found one, that's all.

 

In the end, I just filed the forms, gave him a neg, and put it all up for auction again. I sold the action figures (for minimum) and the original item (got double with a BIN). So it's over, and I learned a very valuable lesson.

 

I will not end an auction early. Period. If they want it, they can bid, and whatever happens, happens. However, if it's a good offer, and there are no bids, I'll just slap a BIN on it and tell them to use that. The auction isn't ended early by me, and we're both protected by ebay (at least I could've negged him 3 times, filed 3 NPB forms, etc. Has more oomph than 1).

 

-- Joanna

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