Ebay Help Please

[maryisme]

Hello,
I'm relatively new to selling on Ebay and am wondering what you experts would do in this situation. I placed an item up for auction which still has 6 days left on it. Someone contacted me and wants me to end the auction early. They offered me a set price to do so. Regardless of whether the amount offered is fair or not what would you do? I'm inclined to let the auction run its course but am not sure what to say to this person. Also, is this allowed on ebay?

Thanks so much! I've learned so much from you guys.

Mary

 

[mad4themouse]

Ending an auction early to sell outside of eBay is against their terms of service. Doing so cheats eBay out of any final value fees that they would have been entitled to had the auction run its course. If you get caught doing it, you can be suspended from eBay.

I would tell the potential buyer that it is against eBay's rules and that they are more than welcome to bid on your item but you will not end the auction early. Chances are that they know the true value of the item that you're selling and would like to get it for a lower price before it gets bid up.

 

[JKanownik]

If you are happy with the price you have been offered you can either revise the buy it now price to match the price being offered, or you can cancel and relist it with the buy it now being offered. Be forewarned that going outside of Ebay is not only against the rules, but it also removes many of the protections set up by Ebay and makes selling much riskier.

DW and I had someone email us last week trying to end an auction early and sell outside of Ebay. We just emailed them the Ebay page that stated that it was against the rules and laid out some options for them that were within Ebays rules (we ended up paying for half of the shipping costs that we had quoted).

As mad4themouse stated the person may be trying to rip you off, so make sure you are comfortable with the price the are offering before you accept.

-DH

 

[CarolynNC]

Just wanted to tell you my experience. I had an auction running and someone offered me ~ $80 for the item. I told them I thought it was against the rules and I'd just let the auction run it's course. My item ended up selling well over $300. I'm glad I let it continue.

Carolyn

 

[maryisme]

Thanks so much for all the helpful replies. I had a feeling it was going against ebay's rules but I'm at work and didn't have a chance to look it up. You guys are alot faster!! Thank you.

Tonight I will go through the rules and regs and let her know I won't be ending early.

Thanks again.

Mary

 

[frannn]

I believe the seller can choose to "sell the item to the current highest bidder". I sometimes ask sellers to do this because sometimes I just want to buy something outright. I may need it quickly, etc. If I ask the seller to do this, I let them set the price. Some sellers say no, and then I just bid, no hard feelings whatsoever. There are reasons acceptible to ebay where a seller can end their auctions early. I have had sellers add buy-it-now to their auction for me as well. I usually do this on clothes, so the seller usually has an idea what the item will go for.

 

[mtblujeans]

Originally posted by frannn
I believe the seller can choose to "sell the item to the current highest bidder". I sometimes ask sellers to do this because sometimes I just want to buy something outright. I may need it quickly, etc. If I ask the seller to do this, I let them set the price. Some sellers say no, and then I just bid, no hard feelings whatsoever. There are reasons acceptible to ebay where a seller can end their auctions early. I have had sellers add buy-it-now to their auction for me as well. I usually do this on clothes, so the seller usually has an idea what the item will go for.

This is a good idea. A suggestion I will keep in the back of my mind for future reference. THANKS!

 

[DMRick]

If you get caught doing it, you can be suspended from eBay.

I've never heard of anyone getting suspended for this..is this listed in the ebay tos? eBay will have gotten the listing fees, btw, and I really haven't run across someone being NARU's for this infraction.

You can choose to sell it at any point..and once of your choices would be to sell to the highest bidder..and ebay gets their fees.

That said, I wouldn't end an auction. That person is free to bid the amount they are offering you, and if it's what it goes for, that's what you get. You always take a chance it won't go as high as he offered, but I assume you listed if for what you needed.wanted for the item..so you still won't lose.

 

[mad4themouse]

Originally posted by DMRick
I've never heard of anyone getting suspended for this..is this listed in the ebay tos? eBay will have gotten the listing fees, btw, and I really haven't run across someone being NARU's for this infraction.

You can choose to sell it at any point..and once of your choices would be to sell to the highest bidder..and ebay gets their fees.

If you choose to end an auction early and sell to the highest bidder, then that is within eBay's rules. If you choose to end an auction and sell the item outside of eBay, you have violated their TOS. In that case eBay doesn't get their final value fee. Someone would have to report the offender to eBay and eBay would have to investigate the allegations but being NARU'd is a penalty for the practice.

http://webhelp.ebay.com/cgi-bin/eHNC/showdoc-ebay.tcl?docid=624&queryid=14031423&querystring=fee_avoidance