The Audacity... 0

[Callaway29]

...of eBay to unilaterally change my listings to allow offers to “help me sell”. This has happened to me a couple of times now and it rubs me the wrong way. I read “help you sell” as “help eBay make more money at your expense”. 

Sure, I could just decline offers but...there’s an intentional strategy to the construction of my listings and I don’t need some alrorithym changing it without my consent.

Like I said, the audacity!

[Junkdrawer]

It’s Audacity Awareness Month

[Bronty]

3 hours ago, Callaway29 said:

...of eBay to unilaterally change my listings to allow offers to “help me sell”. This has happened to me a couple of times now and it rubs me the wrong way. I read “help you sell” as “help eBay make more money at your expense”. 

Sure, I could just decline offers but...there’s an intentional strategy to the construction of my listings and I don’t need some alrorithym changing it without my consent.

Like I said, the audacity!

jeez that's brutal

[Martin Sinescu]

Wait, you're saying they took the liberty of making Best Offers available on listings where you didn't have them enabled?

[Foley]

8 minutes ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Wait, you're saying they took the liberty of making Best Offers available on listings where you didn't have them enabled?

Yeah, I heard about this. There was another thread a couple days ago. I think you have to manually switch the function off after they change it.

[DeadOne]

This has happened to me as well on 3 separate listings.
I also recently sent a best offer to a seller who was dumbfounded as to why their listing had allowed a best offer to be sent.

When I contacted eBay through their concierge program, they were unable to tell me why the listing was changed. From their perspective, it had been like that all along. 

[Callaway29]

Yes, after being notified they made the change, I have to go into my listing to edit back to the original state of not allowing offers. A less sleezy way would be to recommend the change, and have a quick change button or something...not change first, and then notify the seller.

I've noticed both times it happened there have been a lot of watchers on the item in question...so I guess they, in their almighty wisdom, determined a little nudge to the seller is in "everyone's" best interests.

Edited April 9, 2018 by Callaway29

[mattn792]

Now that you mention this, I believe this happened to my ASM 300 listing a couple months ago.  I had just relisted it at a firm BIN price, but I got a best offer almost right away.  I figured I just goofed and accidentally enabled the Best Offer option, but maybe eBay pulled a fast one on me?  More of an annoyance than anything though, I just declined the offer and (re)disabled it.

[boomtown]

They are doing it when you relist an item, the box that pops up when you hit relist has the best offer checked. You have to uncheck it if you don't want best offer.

[miraclemet]

have they suggested you add "CGC IT!" to your listing?

[FN-2199]

20 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

have they suggested you add "CGC IT READY!" to your listing?

 

[Get Marwood & I]

31 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

have they suggested you add "CGC IT!" to your listing?

Does that make you want to kill the seller, or what! 

[Callaway29]

eBay's message below:

"We’ve allowed buyers to make offers on 1 of your items.

Hi

Your item has been listed for more than a week, but views are low compared to other similar listings. The price may be too high. Letting buyers make offers will increase your chance of selling."

[Martin Sinescu]

Brazen on their part, but of course they sugar-coat it with this "we just want to help you be the best you that you can be" dialogue. It won't be much longer before they start accepting offers on your behalf, too.

[Robot Man]

Kind of like the International shipping thing. If you are not careful you get a winning bidder from N Korea or something. I always make sure that box is not checked and opt out of "countries I do not wish to ship to". Haven't had them change it though. They are in biz to make money. I'm sure they could care less if you do or not. I rarely sell on there any more...

[Martin Sinescu]

1 hour ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Does that make you want to kill the seller, or what! 

Or "CGC Worthy?" 'cause, you know, CGC doesn't accept all comics -- they sent some back to me once that just said "Not CGC Worthy."

[Tempus Fugit]

Why wouldn't you take offers?

I look at ebay like doing a show, and of course I am open to offers at shows.

Many people (myself) just don't want to pay asking price. 

I would guess that 1/3 of my ebay books go for an offer, and it's often just a few dollars off.

 

Not telling you people how to run your sales, just sayin'

 

[Get Marwood & I]

4 minutes ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Or "CGC Worthy?" 'cause, you know, CGC doesn't accept all comics -- they sent some back to me once that just said "Not CGC Worthy."

What, like those rubbishy old 'Golden Age' books you mean? I mean, why bother?

[mattn792]

42 minutes ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Or "CGC Worthy?" 'cause, you know, CGC doesn't accept all comics -- they sent some back to me once that just said "Not CGC Worthy."

I've always taken "CGC Ready" to mean that the book is emotionally prepared to go to CGC, i.e. it won't keep getting nervous and urinating uncontrollably as you try to pack it up for shipping to Florida.  I mean there has to be a certain percentage of books out there that simply don't have the nerves to handle such an arduous trip, right? 

[Comicdave]

I haven't had this problem, but the thing i get from eBay a lot is when an item doesn't sell and they suggest a lower price for you.

I see that High Grade comic you had listed for $50 didn't sell. May I suggest relisting for $7.99 as that seems to be the consensus selling point for this item. 

Sure, $7.99 is the selling point for all those good to vg copies that have sold. 

eBay doesn't seem to take into consideration important things like condition, rarity, or variants when dealing with collectibles.