Need a little E-Bay help

[burntboy]

I'll try to make this brief in hope that someone can offer some constructive advice/opinion. Although I've used e-bay to buy Comics, Mags, Books and Toys over the years my selling experience has been extremely limited (never sold a comic, for example).

 

So you have a book (just as an example) up with a stating price of $49. Someone has placed a bid in that amount. 3 days later after no more activity, you get contacted via e-bay from a prospective buyer who offers you $299. You would be happy with that amount (as it's double what you hoped for), and your now beginning to wonder if the auction will even approach your original wish.

 

Is there an ethical issue in selling to the new contact?? (I would guess this goes on all the time but that doesn't make it right).

 

Is there even any way to do so??

 

I've contacted sellers with an offer to bundle a few of their auctions together and they listed them together with an agreed upon buy-it-now price, but I'm pretty sure there were no bids on the books already and they were permitted to pull and relist.

 

Does the existing single bid require that one must live with the ultimate auction results??

 

Thanks for any insight...Harry

[slym2none]

You can cancel all bids and then cancel the auction, but if you do that too much, eBay will give you a warning (at least that is how it used to be.)

 

 

 

-slym

[joecgcmaniac]

You can cancel all bids and then cancel the auction, but if you do that too much, eBay will give you a warning (at least that is how it used to be.)

 

 

 

-slym

 

E-bay now charges you if you cancel an auction with bids.

[slym2none]

I should have known...

 

*facepalm*

 

 

 

-slym

[comicstock]

I think eBay lets you cancel 1 auction (per year?) with a bid on it without any penalty. After that, they will charge a penalty.

[Junkdrawer]

I never end an auction early. You want to have some policy about how you will make decisions in business. Avoid the should I or shouldn't I guessing game. Move along now

 

[Awax]

Why can't this guy just bid on your book.. Sounds fishy?

[faster friends]

Why can't this guy just bid on your book.. Sounds fishy?

 

+1

 

You don't want to do off eBay transactions either. If eBay suspects they will place you in bad standing.

[Topnotchman]

I get them every week, the answer is no.

[brendanb438]

If the potential buyer will pay you right away before ending the auction then go for it. Once payment is received cancel auction as item no longer available.

 

You won't get tagged by eBay in a negative manner for ending this 1 auction.

[PokerKid]

You can do it. When you pull your auction, the guy with the $299 offer will then a) drag it out until you give up, b) just immediately ignore you or c) make a lesser offer and back out.

 

Why people love to jerk around people with auctions, I don't know, but it seems to be a very popular pastime.

 

[burntboy]

Thanks to everyone who shared some info/opinion.

 

It's not a comic and it isn't mine - doing a favor for a relative (no it's not my cousin with the Spidey's either). I'm guessing the chick figures the auction MAY go higher than her offer and is hoping to land the item at a price she feels she can afford.

 

Thanks again...

[youfoundjake]

Can the auction be modified to add a BIN?

 

[slym2none]

Can the auction be modified to add a BIN?

 

Again, I know eBay rules that are 3 years old... but it used to be that once bids were placed, you cannot change the format of the auction.

 

 

 

-slym

[skypinkblu]

Thanks to everyone who shared some info/opinion.

 

It's not a comic and it isn't mine - doing a favor for a relative (no it's not my cousin with the Spidey's either). I'm guessing the chick figures the auction MAY go higher than her offer and is hoping to land the item at a price she feels she can afford.

 

Thanks again...

 

I don't end auctions with bids, you are just going to upset someone , for instance, the people who did bid.

 

. I WILL tell you, that I once sold a Salt Shaker I thought was worth about $10 for $780 (I got offers, but let it go to the end) and I once sold a Vase for my GF that she wanted to sell at a garage sale for $5, we got $2,000...again, I got offers, but I let them ride..

 

.

[Tempus Fugit]

I agree with Junkdrawer and Skypinkblu, people want sellers to end auctions early because they know it it going to go for bigger money.

 

I have been selling on ebay for 15 years and my advice is that you should trust the auction process.

[ARWilson-migration]

I should have known...

 

*facepalm*

 

 

 

-slym

 

Why the facepalm? I think that's a great rule, I didn't know about it until now. Finally Ebay does something that makes sense.

[mrmyst]

Anyone selling something has his/her right to do whatever they want, right?

[ARWilson-migration]

Anyone selling something has his/her right to do whatever they want, right?

 

Sure, they can do whatever they want, but they deserve to be penalized for it, because 99% of the time it's pulled because of the seller's greed (too cheap to set a reserve, not enough bids in the first 6 days, etc). Or for the exact reason stated by the OP.

 

Also, another great rule Ebay has is that the seller can't end the auction in the last 12 hours. So the answer to your question according to Ebay is "not in the last 12 hours, no".

[skypinkblu]

Anyone selling something has his/her right to do whatever they want, right?

 

 

Don't you think the bidders have the right to certain expectations? I know I stopped bidding on the person's other books, whenever someone pulled something like that, it was just wasting my time otherwise.

 

I'm not saying stuff doesn't happen, and there aren't reasons why someone would want to pull an auction. If you find you made an error in the listing, or you find out the item is not what you thought it was, etc, etc. but as a general rule of thumb, you kind of make the choice when you enter the auction process.