So sick of eBay auctions ending early

[vetteguy]

I remember back when you couldn't end an auction early for anything, which sucked in some ways. If something happened and you absolutely couldn't sell it, you had no choice but to wait it out and then apologize to the winner(s). Then they introduced the option to end it early in cases of the item no longer for sale, it becoming damaged, etc. Fine, but that has opened up nothing but abuse by sellers who back out of their own auctions when they aren't getting as much money as they want. TWICE in the past week I've been the high bidder on a cellular phone auction, but it gets ended early. One time it was because it was "no longer for sale" (read: he didn't put a reserve on it and the high bid wasn't as much as he wanted, which I know is true because it was relisted the next day with a reserve), and the second one was also a no reserve auction, ended early because someone made him a higher offer outside of eBay. I'm sorry, but as bidders they always say how it's a "binding contract" and how if we bid, we have to be prepared to buy. Apparently the same rules don't apply to sellers. "Oh, I'm not getting enough money for this phone because I'm an idiot and didn't put a reserve on it. I think I'll end it early and screw my high bidder out of a deal". So gone are the days of getting good deals because of overlooked auctions-now all the seller has to do is end it, no repercussions to him at all. I am so f'ing sick of it.

 

[LordThing]

I also hate people making the reserve price or starting bid price very close (sometimes within a penny) of the "Buy it now" price. Cripes, if you want to sell an item like a retailer, then do it. Don't waste my time with ebay auctions that really aren't.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: LordThing
I also hate people making the reserve price or starting bid price very close (sometimes within a penny) of the "Buy it now" price. Cripes, if you want to sell an item like a retailer, then do it. Don't waste my time with ebay auctions that really aren't.

Yeah, those are pretty dumb too. If there's something I want on eBay and it has a buy-it-now, I use it. Because I don't want to screw around with the auction BS if it's something I want.

 

[Dedpuhl]

It doesn't bother me. I can understand where they are coming from. I sold a card collection a couple months ago for $500. I paid about $1500. After the auction ended, I had a couple people offering me $1000 to back out of the transaction on ebay and buy from them. I probably should've ended my auction early.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: Dedpuhl
It doesn't bother me. I can understand where they are coming from. I sold a card collection a couple months ago for $500. I paid about $1500. After the auction ended, I had a couple people offering me $1000 to back out of the transaction on ebay and buy from them. I probably should've ended my auction early.

Did you have a reserve? If so, you obviously set it at an amount that you were comfortable with. If not, and you had in mind how much you wanted to get for it, why didn't you put a reserve? It's like if you're buying an item from someone in person, and they quote you a price. You accept it, and then they say "damn I should have asked for more!". You can't do that. If you wanted to get $1000, set your reserve at $1000. Don't be mad when you make a low starting price and then don't get what you wanted.

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: vetteguy

Originally posted by: Dedpuhl
It doesn't bother me. I can understand where they are coming from. I sold a card collection a couple months ago for $500. I paid about $1500. After the auction ended, I had a couple people offering me $1000 to back out of the transaction on ebay and buy from them. I probably should've ended my auction early.

Did you have a reserve? If so, you obviously set it at an amount that you were comfortable with. If not, and you had in mind how much you wanted to get for it, why didn't you put a reserve? It's like if you're buying an item from someone in person, and they quote you a price. You accept it, and then they say "damn I should have asked for more!". You can't do that. If you wanted to get $1000, set your reserve at $1000. Don't be mad when you make a low starting price and then don't get what you wanted.

I didn't pick up any "mad" stuff in his post...nowhere did he state he was upset about the outcome.

 

[vetteguy]

Just found this on eBay's site:

In addition, solicitations to buy or sell items outside of eBay violate eBay rules and are not covered by services that protect members such as feedback, insurance, escrow, and dispute resolution.

So saying you "got an outside offer" shouldn't even be an allowable reason to end the auction, and I think those sellers should be suspended.

 

[Dedpuhl]

Originally posted by: vetteguy

Originally posted by: Dedpuhl
It doesn't bother me. I can understand where they are coming from. I sold a card collection a couple months ago for $500. I paid about $1500. After the auction ended, I had a couple people offering me $1000 to back out of the transaction on ebay and buy from them. I probably should've ended my auction early.

Did you have a reserve? If so, you obviously set it at an amount that you were comfortable with. If not, and you had in mind how much you wanted to get for it, why didn't you put a reserve? It's like if you're buying an item from someone in person, and they quote you a price. You accept it, and then they say "damn I should have asked for more!". You can't do that. If you wanted to get $1000, set your reserve at $1000. Don't be mad when you make a low starting price and then don't get what you wanted.

I looked at similar auctions and they were going for around a $1000. I had listed it before and the reserve was not met ($750). Generally, people are more willing to bid on a non-reserve auction. I took a gamble and paid the price.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: Dedpuhl

Originally posted by: vetteguy

Originally posted by: Dedpuhl
It doesn't bother me. I can understand where they are coming from. I sold a card collection a couple months ago for $500. I paid about $1500. After the auction ended, I had a couple people offering me $1000 to back out of the transaction on ebay and buy from them. I probably should've ended my auction early.

Did you have a reserve? If so, you obviously set it at an amount that you were comfortable with. If not, and you had in mind how much you wanted to get for it, why didn't you put a reserve? It's like if you're buying an item from someone in person, and they quote you a price. You accept it, and then they say "damn I should have asked for more!". You can't do that. If you wanted to get $1000, set your reserve at $1000. Don't be mad when you make a low starting price and then don't get what you wanted.

I looked at similar auctions and they were going for around a $1000. I had listed it before and the reserve was not met ($750). Generally, people are more willing to bid on a non-reserve auction. I took a gamble and paid the price.

At least you didn't end it early though. It's always a gamble when you don't have a reserve, but like I said those sellers who are abusing this should be subject to suspension the same way in which I would be if I was bidding on auctions and then not paying.

 

[Dedpuhl]

Originally posted by: vetteguy
Just found this on eBay's site:

In addition, solicitations to buy or sell items outside of eBay violate eBay rules and are not covered by services that protect members such as feedback, insurance, escrow, and dispute resolution.

So saying you "got an outside offer" shouldn't even be an allowable reason to end the auction, and I think those sellers should be suspended.

Hey, those people emailed me. I told them I wouldn't sell to them. I only got offers after the auction ended. Know the facts before you start rattling off eBay's policy to me...

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: vetteguy

In addition, solicitations to buy or sell items outside of eBay violate eBay rules and are not covered by services that protect members such as feedback, insurance, escrow, and dispute resolution.

So saying you "got an outside offer" shouldn't even be an allowable reason to end the auction, and I think those sellers should be suspended.

That's not saying sellers who do that are violating the rules, they're just opening themselves up to being screwed. Say I list an item, and an ebay user offers me $100 to end the auction early. So I end it, and he sends me paypal. I send the item, then boom, paypal takes the money back cause he used a stolen credit card, and I have no recourse. I can't leave him negative feedback, because it wasn't tied to an auction.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: Dedpuhl

Originally posted by: vetteguy
Just found this on eBay's site:

In addition, solicitations to buy or sell items outside of eBay violate eBay rules and are not covered by services that protect members such as feedback, insurance, escrow, and dispute resolution.

So saying you "got an outside offer" shouldn't even be an allowable reason to end the auction, and I think those sellers should be suspended.

Hey, those people emailed me. I told them I wouldn't sell to them. I only got offers after the auction ended. Know the facts before you start rambling off eBay's policy to me...

Yes, and I said that you did the right thing. I was not rambling their policy to you, I was pointing out that as defense of my original position. I never said that I thought what you did was wrong. I think you misunderstood me.

 

[Dedpuhl]

Originally posted by: vetteguy

Originally posted by: Dedpuhl

Originally posted by: vetteguy
Just found this on eBay's site:

In addition, solicitations to buy or sell items outside of eBay violate eBay rules and are not covered by services that protect members such as feedback, insurance, escrow, and dispute resolution.

So saying you "got an outside offer" shouldn't even be an allowable reason to end the auction, and I think those sellers should be suspended.

Hey, those people emailed me. I told them I wouldn't sell to them. I only got offers after the auction ended. Know the facts before you start rambling off eBay's policy to me...

Yes, and I said that you did the right thing. I was not rambling their policy to you, I was pointing out that as defense of my original position. I never said that I thought what you did was wrong. I think you misunderstood me.

OK.

 

[badluck]

I remember back when you couldn't end an auction early for anything, which sucked in some ways. If something happened and you absolutely couldn't sell it, you had no choice but to wait it out and then apologize to the winner(s). Then they introduced the option to end it early in cases of the item no longer for sale, it becoming damaged, etc. Fine, but that has opened up nothing but abuse by sellers who back out of their own auctions when they aren't getting as much money as they want. TWICE in the past week I've been the high bidder on a cellular phone auction, but it gets ended early. One time it was because it was "no longer for sale" (read: he didn't put a reserve on it and the high bid wasn't as much as he wanted, which I know is true because it was relisted the next day with a reserve), and the second one was also a no reserve auction, ended early because someone made him a higher offer outside of eBay. I'm sorry, but as bidders they always say how it's a "binding contract" and how if we bid, we have to be prepared to buy. Apparently the same rules don't apply to sellers. "Oh, I'm not getting enough money for this phone because I'm an idiot and didn't put a reserve on it. I think I'll end it early and screw my high bidder out of a deal". So gone are the days of getting good deals because of overlooked auctions-now all the seller has to do is end it, no repercussions to him at all. I am so f'ing sick of it.

The idiot is the guy who pays to put a reserve price on an auction when they can just end it early if they want to. You might not like it, but that's too bad....

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: badluck
The idiot is the guy who pays to put a reserve price on an auction when they can just end it early if they want to. You might not like it, but that's too bad....

If their intention is to be able to screw over their bidders, then yes, this is the way to go.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Why do people have high expectations for ebay? its basically a flea market, rife with bullsh!t on every level of human existance...

 

[Dedpuhl]

Originally posted by: yamahaXS
Why do people have high expectations for ebay? its basically a flea market, rife with bullsh!t on every level of human existance...

...and that flea market has made me a lot of money since 97....

 

[optoman]

I love ending my auction early because I usually get offers to sell it outside of ebay and avoid all the fees. Only end up paying the 30 cents for the listing and save between $5-$15 for the final value fees.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: vetteguy
I remember back when you couldn't end an auction early for anything, which sucked in some ways. If something happened and you absolutely couldn't sell it, you had no choice but to wait it out and then apologize to the winner(s). Then they introduced the option to end it early in cases of the item no longer for sale, it becoming damaged, etc. Fine, but that has opened up nothing but abuse by sellers who back out of their own auctions when they aren't getting as much money as they want. TWICE in the past week I've been the high bidder on a cellular phone auction, but it gets ended early. One time it was because it was "no longer for sale" (read: he didn't put a reserve on it and the high bid wasn't as much as he wanted, which I know is true because it was relisted the next day with a reserve), and the second one was also a no reserve auction, ended early because someone made him a higher offer outside of eBay. I'm sorry, but as bidders they always say how it's a "binding contract" and how if we bid, we have to be prepared to buy. Apparently the same rules don't apply to sellers. "Oh, I'm not getting enough money for this phone because I'm an idiot and didn't put a reserve on it. I think I'll end it early and screw my high bidder out of a deal". So gone are the days of getting good deals because of overlooked auctions-now all the seller has to do is end it, no repercussions to him at all. I am so f'ing sick of it.

yeap same here.

i have had 2 auctions end because of the end it early. pissed me off because i would have won something (cant remember what i was bidding on). the bastard ended it with 2 minutes left. grr

 

[edro]

What I hate is when I post a BUy It Now price low (so I can sell it quick), and some fvcktard bids on it for like $1 and it cancells out my Buy It Now so others can't Buy It Now. The draw back to posting your initial price higher is that you gotta pay higher fees ($3-5 on a $300+ item). If you raise the First bid to close to the Buy It Now (which is still low), then you are guarenteed that price. Which is basically a store, not an auction.... then again, eBay isn't really an auction anymore.