Someone just contacted me to sell my eBay item directly to them

[timmac]

Meh. The OP can always relist for free.

It's true that one can always relist, but my point is more that, for an item that has a relatively high level of general interest, you're pretty likely to sell relatively close to whatever the ebay-value is; if nobody bids higher than, say, 315, it's unlikely you'd be getting bids at 385, and vice versa. Where OP has been trying to sell this for some time already, the utility of fretting over the relatively small difference seems minor compared to the much larger financial impact of selling vs not selling at all.

If we were talking about a collectible or similar niche interest with a much smaller pool of potential buyers, and perhaps where the item holds some sentimental value as well, I'd fully agree that it's better to not risk it and just relist. But we're talking about an iPhone, an item that has plenty of buyers waiting.. it'll sell for whatever value it's worth one way or the other.

 

[robinb]

It's true that one can always relist, but my point is more that, for an item that has a relatively high level of general interest, you're pretty likely to sell relatively close to whatever the ebay-value is; if nobody bids higher than, say, 315, it's unlikely you'd be getting bids at 385, and vice versa. Where OP has been trying to sell this for some time already, the utility of fretting over the relatively small difference seems minor compared to the much larger financial impact of selling vs not selling at all.

If we were talking about a collectible or similar niche interest with a much smaller pool of potential buyers, and perhaps where the item holds some sentimental value as well, I'd fully agree that it's better to not risk it and just relist. But we're talking about an iPhone, an item that has plenty of buyers waiting.. it'll sell for whatever value it's worth one way or the other.

I disagree. While you're right that items don't often sell over the "eBay value" as people set their max bid to that amount, items will often sell under that value. Since there are so many buyers a "good deal" like $315 may squeak through and the OP will be out of $$. If she wants to sell to the buyer asking for a special price then she can change from an auction format to a BIN format with the $450 BIN. There is no reason for her to even keep it as an auction.

 

[timmac]

I disagree. While you're right that items don't often sell over the "eBay value" as people set their max bid to that amount, items will often sell under that value. Since there are so many buyers a "good deal" like $315 may squeak through and the OP will be out of $$. If she wants to sell to the buyer asking for a special price then she can change from an auction format to a BIN format with the $450 BIN. There is no reason for her to even keep it as an auction.

Very true... that would solve the problem pretty easily I suppose.