posted on November 20, 2000 08:50:23 PM
I just ran across a potential problem that was posted on another board concerning the BUY It Now feature. Apparently, you can change the Buy It Now price after the auction has started by using the edit button for your auction listing which is really not a good thing. The poster DID confirm this with eBay and was told they were aware of it and planned to correct the problem. In the meantime, anyone who buys an item using the BIN should be sure to make a copy of the auction for their records even though I don't think the price can change after a bid is placed.
The auction in question had already been officially listed and was in the data base. This poster had seen the auction with the BUY IT NOW price, was interested in bidding on it at the BIN price and emailed the seller to ask a question about the item. When she went back to view the listing the BIN price had been increased. There wasn't a bid on the auction yet but I still don't think it's a good idea to be able to change that price once the auction has started.
We can't change the opening bid price or the reserve when we edit our auction description once the auction is officially listed because that wouldn't be fair to anyone who had already viewed the auction. It could also lead to some dishonest behavior on the seller's part. For the same reason, I don't think the seller should be able to revise the BIN price once the auction has been officially listed. It seems obvious to me that the conversation the above poster had with the seller caused the latter to increase the BIN price.
posted on November 20, 2000 10:45:34 PM
The last one.
I just dug this up for you.
Posted by [email protected] on Nov-20-00 at 16:30:46 PST Thanks for presenting that
scenario. Sellers are actually able to revise their price now, so we'll need to inform our Support team about this. To your
point, we'll probably need to change the feature to NOT ALLOW sellers from raising the BIN price. - Ha
posted on November 21, 2000 04:14:58 AM
Gee, I thought that the ability to change BIN was neat. I'm planning to lower them mid auction if there is no action.
posted on November 21, 2000 06:07:59 AM
I did lower the BIN price on one auction. I thought the ability to lower it was neat, i think should prevent the seller from raising it during the course of the auctions.
actually I was surprised that ebay gave us the ability to modify the BIN price at all during the course of the auction. So it was a mistake, an ooops that we can modify it? LOL!
posted on November 21, 2000 07:30:05 AM
I suspect the plan was to allow a seller to "add BIN" to an auction if it didn't have any bids. They probably didn't think (so what else is new) about the fact that would allow sellers to revise their BIN amounts.
I really don't see why a seller shouldn't be allowed to move the BIN up, down or sideways? "Not fair to those who have viewed the auction"? Are we auctioning by the Marquis of Queensbury rules now? Some would say it isn't "fair" to have an auction end early, to have a description revised, to have TOS revised, to have a ended BIN auction still in the database...
posted on November 21, 2000 08:29:20 AM
Thanks for the pink's post reddeer. I'm personally glad they're going to change the format so the BIN price can't be changed. Also, I'm glad it was number three since I think we both know the poster and I don't think he/she "stinks".
I guess it's not a really BIG deal to be able to change the BIN price other than the fact that it might tick off some of your bidders like it did to the poster I spoke of earlier. I know I wouldn't be pleased if I bookmarked an auction that had a certain BIN price and returned to it a few hours later to find the BIN had been raised. It just doesn't seem very professional to me. I think it would be great to have the ability to ONLY lower it but that ability may be too cumbersome for eBay to initiate.
There have been times when I wanted to change my reserve price right after I listed my auction but was unable to do so. I can understand the reason for this and my thinking is that the BIN and the reserve function in a similar way. I will admit that I'm not adamant about it but I'm just trying to foresee any possible problems that might arise with the ability to change the BIN.
Can anyone think of any other than ticking off the bidders?
