Ending auctions early for buy it nows.

[larryh]

I may be in the minority here but as a seller and buyer on ebay I find it rather irritating when a seller allows an item that people are biding on or watching to be sold outright to someone who talks them into taking a price for it as a buy it now.. To me the idea of an auction is to allow for the highest bidder and people bidding should be able to trust that is what is going to happen. I never stop an auction of an item if someone wants to know if I will take a price for it.. I don't think its fair to the people who are also interested and it may be a mistake on my part as well.

It wasn't a phonograph but I had a set of very small old chimney supports for an oil lamp.. I almost didn't even run them the were so insignificant looking. The morning after I put them up I had 20 watchers and an offer to sell them for 40.00.. I kept thinking that maybe I should take the money an run as to me they probably were never going to get that as an auction item. But I resisted. It ended up that they brought 340.00... what they were for I never knew but someone obviously did.

My guess is someone here probably got the dark oak edison off ebay but I still don't like the way it ended.


Larry

[Zeppy]

Personally, I'm not a fan of that either. What gets me most it's usually people who know what the item is, and think they can get it for a steal. I've had many an item purchased out from under me that way. I've asked sellers a few times if they would entertain an buy it now...but part of it was the gut feeling that I knew someone else was going to try to buy it out from under me (perhaps a bit of rationalization there). It seems the folks that do succum to the offers tend to put right in the description that they don't know anything about the item, and it was in rough shape (I had a scarce Vic cabitnet that was "barn fresh" snatched out from under me for a fraction of what I was willing to bid).

The few times I've sold on ebay, I've had people make insanely low offers to buy it now. It was just genuinely insulting to try to scam me with a ridiculously low offer, and act like they're doing me a favor.

Guess it's just part of the game. There was a time when sniping was considered bad form. Not it seems to be standard practice.

[larryh]

Actually it turns out that the purchaser must have backed out as the machine is listed again an this time with a buy it now. It says it needs structural repairs but none are shown. I wrote him an he says it warped in places and the veneer is coming loose but none of that is actually shown.. Its not my favorite look in oak but the price is right if someone wants to buy it now.. At least that way everyone has the same chance.

Larry

[Duchesne]

I may be in the minority here but as a seller and buyer on ebay I find it rather irritating when a seller allows an item that people are biding on or watching to be sold outright to someone who talks them into taking a price for it as a buy it now.. To me the idea of an auction is to allow for the highest bidder and people bidding should be able to trust that is what is going to happen. I never stop an auction of an item if someone wants to know if I will take a price for it.. I don't think its fair to the people who are also interested and it may be a mistake on my part as well.

It wasn't a phonograph but I had a set of very small old chimney supports for an oil lamp.. I almost didn't even run them the were so insignificant looking. The morning after I put them up I had 20 watchers and an offer to sell them for 40.00.. I kept thinking that maybe I should take the money an run as to me they probably were never going to get that as an auction item. But I resisted. It ended up that they brought 340.00... what they were for I never knew but someone obviously did.

My guess is someone here probably got the dark oak edison off ebay but I still don't like the way it ended.


Larry

I don't mind "buy it now options" provided it's before any bids in the bid option field have been placed.
What I find more irritating are the "reserve not met" - Sorry, but I don't read minds.

[larryh]

There is no problem for me either with a straight forward buy it now.. But this didn't have anything but an auction listing still it showed it had been ended and when you clicked it it showed it had sold for a buy it now.. Which meant someone made an offer an the seller stopped the auction which at that point had at least 15 bids. I think in reality that is against ebay policy to stop an auction with bids unless its for a good reason.. He put that the description was wrong, but then sold it anyway.

Larry

[phonojim]

The problem is that he can use wrong description as his reason for ending the auction and no one can prove it. However, if a seller does this very often, I think Ebay should take action, such as a warning that he will be suspended if he does it again. However, Ebay makes its money off sellers, not buyers.

[Brad]

I ran into something similar this week on a bicycle component which gave me pause. The seller had 2 identical items with the auctions ending about 2 days apart. I entered my max bid on the first one, and got outbid by $1 in the last few seconds. Oh well I said, I'll just up my max and bid on the other in hopes of winning.

The first action had ended at about 10PM and at 6AM the next morning I had a "second chance" offer in the email from ebay to buy it at my original max price. I thought about it and was a little put out thinking that maybe this seller had a shill bidder in place just to get the max bid someone enters. I was going to take my chances on the next auction, then thought, well, I was willing to pay my max bid and I really need the part, so I will take the offer and after I receive the item I'll send a note to ebay to check this guy out. So I bought it and headed off to work.

That night I went to the other listing to remove my bid and I see that the seller had ended that auction early. So the seller apparently behaved as Larry mentioned above, but made the decision on his own.

While I tend to agree with Larry's sediments, I guess it is not always the buyer that initiates the behavior, at least not directly.

With ebay as a buyer, I treat it as the luck of the draw. If you are bidding, enter your max bid and let it ride. If you loose it, you loose it, for whatever reason, you lost it. As a seller, you are in control of who you sell to and for how much, that is just plain business. It doesn't remove the frustration, but you are on a world wide stage and the cards will not always fall your way.

[Raphael]

I've been buying and selling on eBay for about 15 years, and think I've seen every trick/scam/shill gimmick possible. One thing for sure: eBay doesn't give a damn if the buyer or seller get screwed. Commission, please, pay the commission and don't expect anything from them except a monthly invoice.
A few years back, I bought a Hexaphone on eBay, knowing full well it was a scam. To begin with, the pictures were stolen from the website of a friend of mine. Secondly, the seller was only charging $50 for delivery from CA to FL. And, lo and behold, when it came time to pay, his PayPal account was "temporarily" out of service, would I please wire the money to his "accountant" in Canada? I called eBay, reported every nuance of the scam, including providing proof that the seller could not possibly own the item, and they told me they could do nothing until I actually lost the money (about $10k). Thanks, eBay!
The reason I mention all this is to bring into perspective what eBay's functionality has become to many sellers such as myself: an advertising platform and launch pad to divert buyers to their own websites. In the process, for any particular item that may be listed on eBay, I may be dealing with several potential direct buyers while at the same time dealing with eBay offers (I rarely use the auction format any more). If I am using an auction format, prospective bidders are advised that the auction may be canceled at any time prior to bids being placed, but once a bid is entered, the auction runs to conclusion. Thus, snipe bidders may lose out in the end.
All that being said, eBay is cheap advertising for sellers and a good storehouse of information for buyers.

[larryh]

I know what you mean. I have sold a lot of things on ebay and generally have found collectors to be honest. Once in a while I think I have been had so to speak. Once I sent a record that was so well packed there is no way it could have ended up broken, but the buyer said he received it busted. I gave him his refund, but I think it wasn't true. Since I have seen some comments about the buyer on these sites saying they are trouble..

I sold a razor that I really knew little about but the description was as good as possible from my observations. I had a guy that at the last minute wanted to know what the model number was. I couldn't get to it in the time left as it was packed and so he said he would take a chance on it. He won and I shipped it. .As soon as he got it he decided It was "Not as Described" which meant that ebay impounded the money he paid and basically said he had to get his money back. I would have done that anyway but I didn't like the fact that then ebay wrote to say that I needed to improve my descriptions or they might take action against my account. There was nothing like what he claimed it looked like but I didn't bother to try to complain about it.. He then had the nerve to write and ask me to sell him the case which of course always makes them worth more. He probably simply wanted to see if it was the one he wanted and used the Not as described as a way to facilitate getting a refund. I think one probably just has to expect that kind of behavior. I was in retail all my life and have seen about every scam someone could play to get money back on products, so one has to roll with the punches because as in a store ebays policy is pretty much that the buyer is always right.

As another side note, I did this week get an album I had wanted for some time. It was described as being in very good condition. When I opened it and removed the records from the sleeves two of them had large areas that looked like someone took a nail and scribbled in the shellac. No way I could play them.. When I mentioned it to the seller she basically accused me of damaging or switching the records saying they were fine when they left her place. She was wrong , but what to do. I found that I could at least use one of the good record to help compete a set I was in need of, so I left it go at that. I did not leave feed back. I have yet to leave negative feedback for any seller..

[Larry Hawes]

This has really nothing to do with the topic but it has been some time since I have participated in the Forum. Happened to receive a note from another collecter wanting to chat about this listing thinking the larryh was me Larry Hawes. Who would think there are two LarryH in the same Forum. One easy remedy is to change my Forum name so from now on it will just be my last name Hawes. Sorry for any confusion.