Ebay question

[maggiew]

I am trying to eBay my way to Disney.

I had one auction end without a bid. Afterwards, someone emailed me and asked if its still for sale. HOw would you proceed. It is only a $2.99 fleece vest, so I am not too worried about getting ripped off, but I am not sure what to do.

Maggie

 

[AlexTina]

It's all up to you. It is against Ebay's rules for you to sell outside of Ebay and I have heard that they have people do this just to see if you will sell it outside of Ebay, if they do work for Ebay and they report you you will be suspended, however, if you don't care weather or not you get suspended then go ahead. I myself make my living off of Ebay and so I would just offer to relist the item as a buy it now so that they could buy it right away, and besides if you relist it and it sells Ebay will refund your listing fee so you won't be out any money for relisting. JMHO.

Tina

 

[horsegirl]

I would definitely relist it to sell it. If you are ebaying your way to Disney, my guess is you aren't done yet! So do a buyit now for them. You can relist it and they can get their item. I am on my second week of ebay and am selling stuff and having fun. All the money will go towards our trip in feb! Good luck!

 

[strasfamily]

OK, maybe I'm wrong here, but my thought is that the listing has run its course. You have already paid the required fees to E-Bay, and it didn't sell. Your contract with E-Bay on that item is done. It would be different if you ended the listing early and then sold it to someone who e-mailed you.

Another way to look at it would be if it didn't sell on E-Bay, then you sold it at a garage sale - you would'nt have to pay E-Bay any fee from the garage sale - there isn't any contract with you and E-Bay saying that you couldn't sell it at a garage sale.

Like I said, I may be wrong, just looking at it a different way.

 

[cseca]

The only bad thing I see is you are at higher risk having transaction done outside of ebay. You can't leave any neg feedback if your buyer doesn't pay or give you bad check.
But since it's only a $3 item, I don't know if that's a big deal.

 

[maggiew]

OK. Thanks. I think I will relist it as a Buy it now. So, if it sells, I won't be charged a new listing fee? I will be charged a final values fee though, right? So basically, if I relist and she buys it, it won't cost me any more money than if she had bid before the first auction ended???

I just don't want to incur any more fees because it is such a low value item. but $2.99 is more for Disney than I had before!!

Maggie

 

[DMRick]

OK, maybe I'm wrong here, but my thought is that the listing has run its course. You have already paid the required fees to E-Bay, and it didn't sell. Your contract with E-Bay on that item is done. It would be different if you ended the listing early and then sold it to someone who e-mailed you..

This is correct, you have no further obigation to eBay. If you do decide you'd rather sell through eBay you can relist it, and you will get the listing fee back, if it's a second try. But then you pay ending fees. I have no problem selling direct using paypal. Personally I wouldn't list it as a bin, in case someone else wants to bid. I don't think with all the fees (if she pays via PP), a $3 item is worth putting up, unless you expect it to go higher..so I would sell off ebay, if I was set on only getting $3 for it.

 

[disneychrista]

I see nothing wrong with selling direct after the listing has ended. I have sold a few things this way, in a few cases the person offered more then the opening bid (even though it ended w/o any bids).

What is against eBay rules is to offer to sell someone something intead of listing it. But I see nothing about someone offering to buy something after a listing has ended.

 

[kilee]

It's all a matter of personal preference. However, I would just relist it w/ the relisting option (you won't pay the listing fee again). Then I'd email the interested party w/ the new auction number. I can't tell you how many times I have a clothing item not sell the first round, then go for 10 times the original asking price on a first time relist.

 

[my3kids]

It would be against eBay's rules....if you sold it at a yard sale, people are seeing it for themselves. If they viewed it on eBay then contacted the seller with information obtained through the eBay system then it would violate the rules.

 

[DMRick]

It would be against eBay's rules....if you sold it at a yard sale, people are seeing it for themselves. If they viewed it on eBay then contacted the seller with information obtained through the eBay system then it would violate the rules.

This is partially right. While you are not permitted to use eBay's "message from eBay" to solicite sales, to avoid eBay fees, you can email someone after the fact. I have people use the message from eBay to ask if the item is still available. I then use their email to let them know it is. Using private email to set up a sale of something no longer available on eBay, may get you a note from eBay letting you know it may not be safe, if the person then reports it, but will not get your suspended. eBay has no control over the item once it's off of eBay, even though they would like you to think that. eBay wants to make money and if they try to control what you do with an item once it's no longer listed, they would lose sellers. eBay can say they prohibit this all they want, but they know they don't own the item. The only thing they can really do, is let you know outside bids are not elegible for eBay's protection.
I have an about me page, and most people go through that to contact me..that's the direct way, without using eBay's mail.