Heatsink Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Hi, I'm a newbie to Ebay and being lazy at the moment thought it would be quicker to tap into your experience rather than trawl through the Ebay help (where I can never find the answers to my questions!) Someone has posted this rather dodgy question on the sale page for my item: Q: Hi, I have an urgent question. Would you consider selling this to me directly without waiting for the auction to end? (you can easily mention that you had advertised it elsewhere and reserve the right to withdraw the item). If I was to give you an offer (at least double at what you started, or name your price you'd be willing to leave the auction), then would you consider? Payment would be instant. please let me know, thanks The intial price was £10 and the item is worth upto 10x that so his/her first offer is hardly attractive! This question appears publically on the sale page I believe, along with my response. Surely even if I did want to pull a fast one (not my style), it's going to be obvious if the question appears? Secondly this is surely unethical to behave in such a way. I'd rather play by the rules than try and pull a fast one since I'm confident the item will reach a good price. Thanks in advance, Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bionic Balls Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 maybe he wants it quickly...i know the feeling :mellow: how long is left to go? it really is up to you... adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the666ers Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 It is indeed frowned upon on ebay. Once you put an item as an auction it enters a contract or something which requires it to run it's course until the end, and sell to the highest final bidder. It's up to you what you do, although I'd try and remove the question from the sale page as it's likely he could get banned off ebay which is a bit harsh. In all it is frowned upon but is known to always happen. It's really down to you to decide if it's worth selling at what he is willing to offer (i.e if that is more than you expect the auction to finish on). However there's always the argument that if someone is so eager to offer you that much, then it's probably going to fetch that either way, it also maybe worth that much to someone else which in the end could result in a high winning bid. Up to you Steve :mellow: James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartridge Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Secondly this is surely unethical to behave in such a way. I'd rather play by the rules than try and pull a fast one since I'm confident the item will reach a good price. ← I would go with your feelings here Steve. Its also unfair to others who may be watching the auction (thats my 'standard reply' for these types of things) :mellow: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Let him bet it out, he might pay more if he's that desperate for it. :mellow: Also it's unethical, for everyone else bidding / watching and ebay. :S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 I'm suprised none of you have mentioned that the guy is most probably trying to scam you. Transactions that occur outside of eBay are completely unprotected by eBay's insurance if something goes wrong (Although I've heard it's pretty pants anyway). So he'll probably try and entice you with a high price and then maybe get you to send the item before the money clears, or pay through Western Union or something. Just ignore him, and save yourself the moral dilemma to boot :mellow: EDIT: When you answer questions, you have the opportunity to say whether you want it to be displayed after the item description, or not at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biketrialler Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Say yes... if he does a paypal payment for the full amount straight into your paypal account - and as soon as it goes in THEN you end the auction early. If you think what he is paying is more than you will get in the auction anyway then go for it... just make sure it goes through paypal and you have the money solidly and its all good :turned: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heatsink Posted May 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Thanks for all your advice :turned: I decided to send him a private message turning his offer down saying I wanted to carry out the sale within Ebay and that there was no reason why he couldn't win the auction. I think in the past I've received some money via paypal only to have it taken back out for being dodgy - Rather strange! I never did hear back from the person who sent me the money so I suspect they were upto no good. I wonder if you need to allow a period of time for the money to be verified before jumping into action ? Anyway, I've got 20 watchers for the item and it's slowly creeping up in bids even if the reserve hasn't been hit yet, so it's all looking good for a nice legit sale :) Steve messageSay yes... if he does a paypal payment for the full amount straight into your paypal account - and as soon as it goes in THEN you end the auction early. If you think what he is paying is more than you will get in the auction anyway then go for it... just make sure it goes through paypal and you have the money solidly and its all good :S ← Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biketrialler Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Ah thats good then - obviously if theres a lot of interest in the item with watchers then youre likely to get a good sale! Not being funny but with that paypal thing before, did you accept the money? As I remember when someone bought something from me on here, they sent paypal and I had to click to actually take it into my account, maybe it was something to do with that. On a slightly related note, maybe... does anyone else find that deals seem loads sketchier if the person emails and its all written in "yer mate !111 txt speak" ? I get nervy when its like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Nichols Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 One thing that is fairly important to bear in mind is that usually in a situation like this the buyer knows something you don't! An example being my driving instructor who wanted to sell a car on EBAY. He put it up and received an offer of £500 if he closed the auction early. He rejected and 7 days later the car sold for around £3, 000! Now obviously I can't comment on the item you're selling, but you will probably find it'll be worth more than what you sell it to him for! Let the item run through, especially if this is the first item you have sold... Get used to how EBAY works the accepted way before you push the limits of what's acceptable (Y) Hope this helps a wee bit :deej: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Nah, when I was selling my phone (Worth ~£200), I got loads of emails from people who were saying they would pay £300 if I would end the auction early and accept money by Western Union. At the end of the day, there is no real legitimate reason why people can't bid in the proper way. If they want you to do something else, they are probably up to no good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heatsink Posted May 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 A friend of mine is really into Ebay and he has already lost control of himself on there to the thrill of the bidding process. Plus he's already got caught out by some well known scams including one where he sent a mobile phone to someone in Africa before the money was sent so that "It would arrive in time for his son's birthday". Of course, the error of being duped into sending goods before payment is obvious, but what about some of the tricks where money appears to have been paid (I've heard about this being into bank accounts) only to then not be approved after the goods have been sent. Is this situation only possible if you accept on one of the more unusual money transfer methods (e.g. so that you can receive money from your prospective Nigerian buyer/scammer) or can this occur via UK cheques, postal orders and money sent to Paypal accounts? Maybe these problems are uniquely associated with payment methods from outside the UK? One thing that's annoying about all this ebay marlarky is that I find myself logging in every 5mins to see if anyone has bid higher! It's like torture when the price remains static all day! Anyway, I'm learning alot about ebaying at the moment. Isn't it amazing how bad most of the adverts are? They either over bombard you with the hard sell, or tell you nothing. I've put a much better advert in than an identical item (if I may say so myself!) which is finishing 1 day before mine and it's paying off. My item has now reached its reserve and is currently £30 higher than the rival. I know that there's still time to go and this may be the final highest bid, but because they wrote such a rubbish advert, it's not been hard to make mine stand out as the better one to go for! As further proof of how I've been learning about ebay, here's a comparison of the bid value progress for my item against an identical one that has recently completed. The anecdotal trend for a 7 day auction from the few items I've looked at is an inital fast rise from the stupidly low starting value over the first couple of days, a plateau at a steady price for a few days, and then frenzied interest again near the closure of the auction. Hopefully by finishing on a Saturday evening the people following the auction will be around to get involved in a crazy bidding war which takes my item to pretty much the price I paid for it new! Realistically my goal is to reach £190 if I can, (May be a long shot - I bought it new for £250 8 months ago) The reserve was £130 that has just been attained late last night. ^ Am I the only one that is this anal about ebay?! :"> Thanks for all your input! Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munkee Posted May 18, 2005 Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 From the looks of your e-bay anal graph (Y) your gonna do better probably by £40 since the people who didnt win the other bid will roll over to yours, realising the type of prices they are going to have to pay, with a better description of the product to fuel them too. Your only just over half way..and only £20 behind.. easy win Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted May 18, 2005 Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 The anecdotal trend for a 7 day auction from the few items I've looked at is an inital fast rise from the stupidly low starting value over the first couple of days, a plateau at a steady price for a few days, and then frenzied interest again near the closure of the auction. Hopefully by finishing on a Saturday evening the people following the auction will be around to get involved in a crazy bidding war which takes my item to pretty much the price I paid for it new! ← Depends what it is. The phone I sold was on a 5-day auction and no-one even looked at it until the last day. There's so many phones ending each minute, that's there's no point looking for earlier auctions. Anyway, after 4 days (still no bids), eBay took my phone auction down because they are a bunch of tools and interpreted "not a link" in my title as "search manipulation. Anyway, I just put it up again on a 24 hour auction and got the expected amount. However, I also just sold my guitar FX, which is a lot rarer, so I put that on for a 10 day auction. The bids and number of people watchin went up very slowly, but steadily over the whole 10days really. T But yeah, it definitely helps to write a good description and have the auction end on a saturday, or at least an evening (Y) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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