Ebay ethical dilemma as seller - What Would You Do?

[D. Bergin]

You have an item listed on Ebay.

Bidder contacts you shortly after the auction lists... fairly aggressively. Multiple messages, e-mails, even phone calls.

Wants you to end the auction early. A relatives B-day is coming up, they collect these items, and the auction extends past that date.

The items in the auction are rare...but not necessarily expensive. You don't doubt the story about the relative.

Bidder throws out an offer, not life changing money, but let's say $150 bucks, for a lot you don't anticipate selling for any more then $50 bucks.

Kicker is, the item just got a bid from a different bidder, and also has several watchers lined up. You can't insert a "Buy It Now" price into the auction, and you can't reduce the number of days the auction lasts, so it doesn't go past the B-day deadline.

What do you do?

I know what I did, but understand if somebody decides something different. No judgements (from me anyways). Just curious.

[Eddiez]

I would have to let the auction run it's course. Doing anything other than that would feel wrong. But that's just me.

[butchie_t]

I had this happen to me on an unrelated sports item about a month ago.

For me this was not a dilemma at all. Someone had placed a bid on the item and I got a message from another eBay person wanting me to pull the item and sell it to them at a price higher than the bid price at the time.

I do not see that as being fair to the first bidder to pull the auction item out from underneath them IMHO. I told the person that sent me the message that the auction would stand as it already had a bid. It ended up going for much more than the message person offered.

That is just not a good practice from my POV.

Regards,

Butch

[timzcardz]

Personally, if there was no bidder I would consider it.

Once there is a bidder, in my mind the game is underway and you don't change the rules in the middle of the game.




On another note, how did you make out with porting your phone number to a new service provider?

A curious mind wants to know.

[Cliff Bowman]

Years ago I listed a 1968 Kahn's Tony Perez on eBay staring at 99 cents and someone bid on it, someone else contacted me asking if I would do a Buy-It-Now for $75, I felt slimy doing it but I ended the listing and relisted it as a Buy-It-Now. A few years after that a seller had a listing of a small lot of 1967 Topps Cardinals with a Ed Spiezio partially missing name, I contacted the seller to see if he would do a Buy-It-Now of $20 on the lot and he did. After I paid the $20 the seller contacted me and said a couple of eBay members sent him not so friendly messages threatening to report him to eBay for ending the listing against their rules. He blamed it on me for taking advantage of him for not knowing about the 1967 Ed Spiezio print error and I felt slimy after that one, but I don't think he actually broke any eBay rules regarding ending a listing and then relisting it.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by timzcardz

On another note, how did you make out with porting your phone number to a new service provider?

A curious mind wants to know.

Terribly. Turns out I cancelled things in the wrong order, and they weren't able to recover it.

[Jim65]

Once a buyer placed a bid, I'd have said "I appreciate the offer but someone placed a bid already."

If I lost money, so be it.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Jim65

Once a buyer placed a bid, I'd have said "I appreciate the offer but someone placed a bid already."

If I lost money, so be it.

I do the same thing. If it has a bid I do not cancel it. I also usually do not cancel a listing anyway. I hate when it happens to me when I want a card so I try too keep that in mind.

It has cost me before when the offer was way higher than the winning bid. It has also worked out for me. Recently I was offered $1200 to end a listing. Without a bid already I would have cancelled the listing and sold it for that offer. Since it had a bid I let it run and it ended at almost twice the offer.

[JollyElm]

Could you contact the bidder and explain the situation to see if he had a problem with you/him canceling his bid to sell it to the relative's-birthday-boy? That would be an undeniably straightforward, non-slimeball approach.

[BobC]

Forget how you may feel personally, what do Ebay rules say about ending any auction early, for whatever reason(s)? I believe when you sign up to use Ebay, especially as a seller, you agree to abide by and follow their rules. I'd start there first in regard to what one may think about ending an auction early to sell to someone else.

Otherwise, I'd say to follow the only truly necessary rule that if everyone followed, the world would be a so much nicer and better place for all......the Golden Rule. If you wouldn't be happy that someone closed an auction on you that you had placed a bid on already, then you probably shouldn't do the same to someone else if you're now in the auction seller position . And if you say okay, but in that case let me also first contact the person who had already bid on my auction item to see if they'd be willing to go even higher than what the person now asking me to end my auction early has now offered, I'd say go back to my first paragraph and see what Ebay rules have to say about something like that, and you technically using Ebay to maybe negotiate a final price not via their normal auction/BIN services. At the end of the day, you should abide by Ebay rules first since you are selling on their platform after all.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

Could you contact the bidder and explain the situation to see if he had a problem with you/him canceling his bid to sell it to the relative's-birthday-boy? That would be an undeniably straightforward, non-slimeball approach.

That would be my thought.

[Mark17]

Last week I listed a lot with a minimum bid of $5.00. I expected it might sell for around $30. An hour later I was offered $200 on it, and it was an easy decision since the guy making the offer was the only guy who'd bid. So I cancelled it, relisted as BIN, and he bought it. I'm sure he spotted something special in the lot, but that's fine; I exceeded my expectations, and the deal went smoothly.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Eddiez

I would have to let the auction run it's course. Doing anything other than that would feel wrong. But that's just me.

That's what I did.

[Cliff Bowman]

I’ve been on the other end several times over the years on eBay. A few years a seller put up a 1970 MLB Joe Pepitone Cubs Pinback that I was going to snipe a bid of $200 on, but I stupidly didn’t put a low opening bid on it and of course someone else contacted the seller and offered a $40 Buy-It-Now and the seller changed the listing and accepted it. I contacted the seller and told them they way undersold the rare pin.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by butchie_t

I had this happen to me on an unrelated sports item about a month ago.

For me this was not a dilemma at all. Someone had placed a bid on the item and I got a message from another eBay person wanting me to pull the item and sell it to them at a price higher than the bid price at the time.

I do not see that as being fair to the first bidder to pull the auction item out from underneath them IMHO. I told the person that sent me the message that the auction would stand as it already had a bid. It ended up going for much more than the message person offered.

That is just not a good practice from my POV.

Regards,

Butch

This is my general stance also.

This is not the first time this has happened either. I've gotten this request dozens, if not hundreds of times over the years.

It's always a polite no, unless the item has no bids, and they've really wowed me with an offer that convinces me to put up a BIN price. I usually never hear from them again, and they rarely factor into the bidding once the auction actually ends.

What really struck me this time was how insistent and almost "desperate" this prospective bidder was. Wouldn't take no for an answer. Multiple ebay messages, found my e-mail, and dug up my phone number and called multiple times before I had a chance to answer one of his calls.

After I told him I wasn't comfortable stopping the auction and canceling bids for him, he seemed to be convinced it was a negotiating ploy from me.

Wanted to know how much trouble I would REALLY get in with Ebay, if I did what he wanted me to do. I told him I likely wouldn't get into any trouble with Ebay, but that wasn't the point.

I kept on getting e-mails from him, even after I started this thread.

He kept on upping the ante, testing where my threshold might be. He didn't believe I wasn't going to do what he wanted. I probably could have soaked him for waaaaaay more then the lot was worth, but that part of the equation isn't as important to me as it is to others...likely to my own detriment. Honestly, I would have sold it for a lot less then he offered, if I put it up with a BIN, or even if another person didn't already place a bid.

Just a weirder then usual interaction.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

Years ago I listed a 1968 Kahn's Tony Perez on eBay staring at 99 cents and someone bid on it, someone else contacted me asking if I would do a Buy-It-Now for $75, I felt slimy doing it but I ended the listing and relisted it as a Buy-It-Now. A few years after that a seller had a listing of a small lot of 1967 Topps Cardinals with a Ed Spiezio partially missing name, I contacted the seller to see if he would do a Buy-It-Now of $20 on the lot and he did. After I paid the $20 the seller contacted me and said a couple of eBay members sent him not so friendly messages threatening to report him to eBay for ending the listing against their rules. He blamed it on me for taking advantage of him for not knowing about the 1967 Ed Spiezio print error and I felt slimy after that one, but I don't think he actually broke any eBay rules regarding ending a listing and then relisting it.

Yeah, I don't think there's anything there technically against Ebay's rules. They have the tools in place to cancel bids and end auctions. Especially if you relist it with a BIN and it sells, and you aren't trying to circumvent Ebay getting their cut of a sale.

It's more of a personal choice, and I don't begrudge anybody that does what they have to do to navigate the hellscape that is Ebay.

[steve B]

I only had a few people ask, and I never did close an auction early.
It's at 50 and you want a bin for 150? Bid 150, and maybe you get it cheaper. Ending early isn't fair to people watching, and more to people who have already bid.

Every one of the things I had offers to end early closed higher than those offers. Usually by 2x or more.

I did have an item that someone missed and asked for a BIN at the min bid amount. Listed it in a totally wrong category so it wouldn't be easily found. Sold to someone else in under 5 minutes. And I didn't have a second one for the guy who asked.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by bnorth

It has cost me before when the offer was way higher than the winning bid. It has also worked out for me. Recently I was offered $1200 to end a listing. Without a bid already I would have cancelled the listing and sold it for that offer. Since it had a bid I let it run and it ended at almost twice the offer.

Yeah, it works both ways.

I've had offers I've turned down, where I know damn well, I'm not going to get that price by the end of the auction. It hurts a little, but it is what it is.

I usually respond to them, "Good luck, you'll probably win it for less then what you just offered me for it".

What's infuriating is when the item DOES go for much less then they offered, and you notice, they didn't even bid on it when it ends.


Also on the flipside, if you've ever put an item up and you get multiple people messaging you to try and end the auction early, you better NOT end that auction early, because it's going to get very interesting by the time the last bid is put in.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

Could you contact the bidder and explain the situation to see if he had a problem with you/him canceling his bid to sell it to the relative's-birthday-boy? That would be an undeniably straightforward, non-slimeball approach.

That's actually not a bad idea, but I don't think it's something I would do.

Definitely a non-slimeball thing to do, but I think it also puts that initial bidder into an awkward position.

If I put myself in that bidders shoes, I might think I'm getting manipulated, or even think to myself "How does anybody know I'm not buying if for somebody's birthday, or haven't been looking for these items for years myself?"

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by BobC

Forget how you may feel personally, what do Ebay rules say about ending any auction early, for whatever reason(s)? I believe when you sign up to use Ebay, especially as a seller, you agree to abide by and follow their rules. I'd start there first in regard to what one may think about ending an auction early to sell to someone else.

Otherwise, I'd say to follow the only truly necessary rule that if everyone followed, the world would be a so much nicer and better place for all......the Golden Rule. If you wouldn't be happy that someone closed an auction on you that you had placed a bid on already, then you probably shouldn't do the same to someone else if you're now in the auction seller position . And if you say okay, but in that case let me also first contact the person who had already bid on my auction item to see if they'd be willing to go even higher than what the person now asking me to end my auction early has now offered, I'd say go back to my first paragraph and see what Ebay rules have to say about something like that, and you technically using Ebay to maybe negotiate a final price not via their normal auction/BIN services. At the end of the day, you should abide by Ebay rules first since you are selling on their platform after all.

I don't think Ebay cares at all, as long as you put the item back up for sale and didn't try to circumvent them getting their cut. They have tools in place for you to do that very thing.

It's more of a personal "Golden Rule" as you state at the beginning of your next paragraph.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Mark17

Last week I listed a lot with a minimum bid of $5.00. I expected it might sell for around $30. An hour later I was offered $200 on it, and it was an easy decision since the guy making the offer was the only guy who'd bid. So I cancelled it, relisted as BIN, and he bought it. I'm sure he spotted something special in the lot, but that's fine; I exceeded my expectations, and the deal went smoothly.

Yeah, I think that's fine. If I had been able to get back to my guy and knew his intentions before somebody else had placed a bid, I would have probably done the same.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

I’ve been on the other end several times over the years on eBay. A few years a seller put up a 1970 MLB Joe Pepitone Cubs Pinback that I was going to snipe a bid of $200 on, but I stupidly didn’t put a low opening bid on it and of course someone else contacted the seller and offered a $40 Buy-It-Now and the seller changed the listing and accepted it. I contacted the seller and told them they way undersold the rare pin.

Yeah, based on posts I've read, I think everyone on this site has been in this position multiple times.

I think most sellers who do this are fairly inexperienced and just glad somebody is offering them more then they expected to get for an item, when in actuality, they are leaving money on the table and don't even know it.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Yeah, it works both ways.

I've had offers I've turned down, where I know damn well, I'm not going to get that price by the end of the auction. It hurts a little, but it is what it is.

I usually respond to them, "Good luck, you'll probably win it for less then what you just offered me for it".

What's infuriating is when the item DOES go for much less then they offered, and you notice, they didn't even bid on it when it ends.


Also on the flipside, if you've ever put an item up and you get multiple people messaging you to try and end the auction early, you better NOT end that auction early, because it's going to get very interesting by the time the last bid is put in.

Have had the bold part happen many many times including fairly recently.

[Smanzari]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

You have an item listed on Ebay.

Bidder contacts you shortly after the auction lists... fairly aggressively. Multiple messages, e-mails, even phone calls.

Wants you to end the auction early. A relatives B-day is coming up, they collect these items, and the auction extends past that date.

The items in the auction are rare...but not necessarily expensive. You don't doubt the story about the relative.

Bidder throws out an offer, not life changing money, but let's say $150 bucks, for a lot you don't anticipate selling for any more then $50 bucks.

Kicker is, the item just got a bid from a different bidder, and also has several watchers lined up. You can't insert a "Buy It Now" price into the auction, and you can't reduce the number of days the auction lasts, so it doesn't go past the B-day deadline.

What do you do?

I know what I did, but understand if somebody decides something different. No judgements (from me anyways). Just curious.

This happens to me A LOT as I do a fair amount of volume on eBay, mostly fixed price but I do get into auctions from time-to-time (~800-1200 cards/week) -- I Ignore the Message and Block the User. In my experience, messages like this typically indicate there are going to be future issues such as favorites including "Tracking Says its Delivered, but I didn't get it" or "This card is damaged" (on a card sold as PR/VG/EX) or the "You sent me the wrong card"(and refuses to tell you what you sent!)

[philliesfan]

I never stop an auction that has a bid. It does not seem right.
End an auction that has several watchers but no bids, sure.
Bob

[Jewish-collector]

Originally Posted by Smanzari

I Ignore the Message and Block the User.

Instead of ignoring the message, always respond back with "Sometimes you just gotta say WTF", then block the user as usual.

[gonefishin]

No brainer - no thought needed - if there is a bid let the auction run it's course. You will never have a feeling of guilt or remorse regardless of what the item sells for.

[earlywynnfan]

I've had offers several times, and if there are other bidders, I let them know that I let my auctions ride. Funny thing is, almost every time the item goes for less than the person offered, but they aren't the ones that win it! I can't ever figure that out.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by earlywynnfan

I've had offers several times, and if there are other bidders, I let them know that I let my auctions ride. Funny thing is, almost every time the item goes for less than the person offered, but they aren't the ones that win it! I can't ever figure that out.

I believe it is them acting childish and not bidding because you wouldn't let them buy it for their offer. I know I am guilty of it sometimes.