question about selling on ebay

[gabemcg]

I just recieved this message/question:


Q: Was going to buy your lot, but i see there is a bid there. The buy it now is still available?? Is that right?


Fair question, right???

The person asking that question, however, has a positive rating of 322!

FOR BOTH SELLING AND BUYING! I don't see how you can complete 322 transactions on ebay, and not know how Buy it now works.

This is strange, and I'm worried about getting my hopes up

thoughts??

 

[gabemcg]

anybody?

 

[Zysoclaplem]

Where was this person from?

 

[MrBond]

If you do this, two things:

1) You'll probably make whoever the current high bidder is mad. Remedy this by telling the person to bid on it, then you'll end the auction.

2) You'll be without any seller protection from eBay this way.

Number 2 is important. A lot of scam artists operate this way, they offer to buy out an auction before it's complete. They send you stolen paypal funds, or a fake money order and you ship out the goods. By the time you've shipped, you find out the money isn't there and you're out 100 DVDs.

Another popular scam is done the same way, only they'll send you a money order for say $1000. You cash it, keep your selling price plus a little more ("for your time") and wire them the balance. When the bank finds out the money order is bad, they'll come after you and you'll be out the money.

If it was an item under $50 I'd say sell to the guy asking you about it. With something over $525, you run the risk of being scammed.

Edit: Since you're new to ebay, I'll say this now. Never ship to another country. Canada is usually safe, but it's a hassel because of customs. Never, ever, ever ship anywhere else unless you know the buyer personally (as in, met them in real life). Ship over seas and I'd say you run a 90% chance of being scammed

edited slightly because I didn't realize this was against the eBay TOS

 

[His Lord Uberdude]

It's illegal to sell the item outside of ebay during the auction. Sorry, but tell this guy to buzz off, or get reported.

 

[Garet Jax]

Wait for the auction to end. If no one has bought it, then you can sell it for whatever you like to this guy (this is within the rules).

If you don't want to wait for the auction to end, you can end it early (stating a reason like - no longer for sale) and then sell it to him. Having said that, it is very much against the rules. The only way it might not be is to create another auction with an agreed on Buy It Now price that only this guy who contacted you has access to.

Just him contacting you in enough to get him banned from ebay. Ebay frowns on this because it screws them out of their FVF even though you got your advantage and the buyer got his advantage (you found each other) through ebay.

 

[meltdown75]

If your auction completes and no one else is buying, you could always just sell that individual the collection for whatever amount you agree on, taking ebay out of the equation. I do believe that your item is supposed to be listed for the amount of time you chose at the start of the auction, unless someone uses Buy It Now.

 

[gabemcg]

Thanks folks, I thought this sounded fishy, (especially since he posted his phone #) I sent him a reply that I could not end the auction earl, but that $525 had a good chance of wining the auction if he decided to bid. This auction seems to be bringing out some strange questions... someone earlier asked me if I would be willing to trade $225 worth of the lot for a website design/hosting. I dismissed this as obvious spam, rediculous...

 

[spanky]

i have seen auctions where in the decription, the seller says he reserves the right to end the auction early. also, if u go to cancel the auction, u have several "excuses".. so i think in a way, ebay is prepared for situations like this. i sort of think it is against the rules, but i doubt ebay will follow up on u about this... that is... unless someone reports u. and even so, i still doubt ebay would really care. if u r willing take his offer, then more power to u.

 

[revnja]

Tell him to bid $525 on the auction. If he gets outbid, too bad for him.

 

[royaldank]

Tell him you'll take $525...if that's the winning bid.

 

[Ramma2]

Originally posted by: MrBond
Ship over seas and I'd say you run a 90% chance of being scammed

I've sold on ebay for comming up on 5 years now. Well over 200 auctions, and I've always made shipping internationally an option. I've shipped to several countries all over the world, and have not gotten scammed once.

Stick with your auction. If they want to pay that much, then tell them to bid on it. Who knows, the auction could go for much more.

The only time someone will email you and offer you cash to end it early is to scam you, or because they're way undercutting what it could go for and they know it.

Keep it for sale, tell them no.

 

[crystal]

Tell him to bid on your action. Since it might be less than $525 by time it ends, he might save quite a bit of money.

 

[gabemcg]

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