posted on September 25, 2000 04:18:00 PM
Is there a rule against someone asking a seller to end their auction early and complete the transaction privately?
This has happened in the category I collect in. A rare (only have seen one like it in the last year) item was taken off eBay 3 hours after the auction started, because the seller was asked to end the auction early. The item was not seen by 99.5% (at least - it was 5 am PST) of the other bidders. I know that the auction would have gone much higher than what the seller was probably offered. I have tried to find out who the person was, but don't know if the seller will supply the info.
This is frustrating. Who knows what other great items have been snapped up by this person at far below what they were worth and depriving the rest of us from the pleasure of bidding. What can I do about it?
posted on September 25, 2000 04:24:40 PM
Is there a rule against it? No. What can you do about it? Not a dang thing...the item belongs to the seller and he can sell it to whoever he wishes, whenever he wishes
posted on September 25, 2000 05:08:56 PM
As a seller, I am glad you posted this topic. A month or so ago I was asked to end and auction that was at $10- buyer offered me $80. Being not positively sure what the rule was on this, I declined. Buyer turned around and offered $180- again I declined to sell. Item ended up at $240 - WAY WAY more than I thought it would go for. The buyer wanting me to end early tried in vain to snipe...Go figure!
posted on September 25, 2000 05:17:29 PMEvery time someone has made me an offer to end an auction early, the item sold for more than the offer. I always decline. (had one just this morning!)
posted on September 25, 2000 05:58:03 PM
When you see something you really want, go ahead and put a bid in. You can always increase it (or snipe) later.
This doesn't mean that the seller can't end the auction early - they can still cancel your bid and *then* end it - but eBay frowns on sellers cancelling bids for no good reason.
posted on September 25, 2000 09:53:26 PM
Or, the person just wants it quickly. Or very VERY badly.
I asked someone to end a Yahoo auction early and she declined (too early on) but later on she ended it early anyway with me as high bidder. I asked because it was a time sensitive thing (needed it for an event) AND because it was for my son, a hard to find character costume that several "costume collector's" were bidding on as well. I would have gladly paid what they would pay, for personal reasons.. the look of sheer JOY on my son's face when he saw this item was priceless. Wish I had it scanned, I'd share it with y'all. The seller actually told me later that she would rather know it was going to thrill an 8 year old boy, for less money, than to an adult 'collector' any day.
Anyway, the final bid amount wasn't the issue, but time was a factor.
posted on September 25, 2000 10:29:03 PM
I would agree with the general sentiment here... I have usually found an item goes for more than any offer. The only case where an offer would be beneficial would be if a seller was looking to unload an item quickly. As a policy, I never end an auction once it has started. I think a seller could lose faith in other bidders if they continually did this, besides, it is often troublesome and time-consuming to cancel everyone else's bid and impossible to leave feedback (for both buyer and seller). However, there is nothing wrong with ending an auction early, it is the seller's item.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill
posted on September 25, 2000 11:01:53 PM
I am a sniper, through & through. I probably wouldn't have bid on it at that time anyway, although by the time I got to that item in my search, it had ended already.
I can hardly bring myself to bid on an auction early. Anyone else have that problem?
posted on September 26, 2000 07:28:00 AM
While I've sold over two thousand items on ebay I've bought only five or six. A few weeks ago I found a copy of a book my husband would need to buy for a grad school class, ten day auction. Offered him three times his starting bid to end the auction and ship right away to arrive before the class started. Got a very nasty email in reply. Nine days later with NO bids in hand the seller sends a curt email "I've decided to reconsider your offer of $30.00 for the book." Told them I'd already found a nice copy on Bibliofind for $15 and it had arrived that morning. I thanked them profusely for refusing my offer as it had saved me $15.00.
The book closed with no bids and has been relisted twice with the same result.
