posted on December 10, 2000 06:45:39 PM
I had an auction close today with no bids. A few hours later, I got an email from a buyer who is "offering" to buy my item at the listed opening bid. Do I tell him I am relisting, he'll have to bid? or can I actually sell it to him?. Chances are it won't get more than one bid, even if I relist it and it does sell. Opinions?
posted on December 10, 2000 06:53:22 PM
You can sell it to him or not, as you choose. You are not required or obligated to attempt to re-sell it through eBay if you don't want to. The auction ended with no bidders, and the item belongs to you, not eBay.
posted on December 16, 2000 01:55:50 AM
Of course it all depends on several things. It is all in the strategy.
Do you think you can get better price for it if you relist? Sometimes a item can go without any bids and any hits due to the timing of people looking for that particular item or similar. Timing is sometimes the key to great bidding wars!
There are other options to consider as well.
However if you think you won't get much more than your opening bid then sell. I have had nothing but great transaction with all of my off-ebay sells but am aware that there are risks!
Sometimes the buyer is someone who happens to come across a closed auction and is wanting a great buy! They may turn around and sell it at 100% profit for an example. Is this a bottom-feeder?
posted on December 16, 2000 06:05:41 AM
I had an auction close without any bidders, and then I got an email that said they forgot to bid on it and was wondering if I was going to relist the item.
I said not right now, but after the holidays I would, but he could buy it for xx.xx (split the difference between the opening bid and the buy it now price). He insisted I relist the item before he would buy it. I did figuring I really wouldn't be out any more than if he had bid on it in the first place.. I'm not sure why he insisted on me relisting it - it was an inexpensive item (under $25, so Fraud Protection would not have helped him if I had turned out to be a scammer). Perhaps he thought it was against the rules to buy the item directly.
posted on December 16, 2000 07:02:01 AM
First of all, if this is the first relist, I'd definitely relist it. I've had items that didn't do diddly on the first listing that sold as well or better than I'd expected on relist. Second, I'm not an advocate of "off Ebay" deals on either side of the transaction. For your own protection, at least relist the item at the agreed upon price and then end it after this person bids. That way you have a valid transaction on record with Ebay. Third, in strictest terms this is against Ebay rules--check the policies on "fee avoidance". The only way anyone would find out would be if the buyer turned you in, and that's not very likely.
always pickersangel everywhere
[ edited by pickersangel on Dec 16, 2000 07:04 AM ]
posted on December 16, 2000 07:22:00 AM
Usually I would sell it outside eBay. But I had one experience which makes me think twice about that.
I had an item which I listed at $7.99 opening bid, no reserve. No bids. I was going to wait a couple of weeks before relisting and got an email saying they forgot to bid, was I relisting? I tried to send an email offering to sell it to them for $15, but there was a problem with my email and it wouldn't go through.
So I relisted and when my email was working I emailed the person and gave a link to the relisted item. The dern thing went for $26! And all because my email f*cked up!
posted on December 16, 2000 08:38:21 AM
I'd relist. I've had a number of items that didn't receive any bids and, when I relisted them, brought considerably more than I'd expected. You never know who's "out there" on any given week...Good luck!
posted on December 16, 2000 09:43:55 AMThird, in strictest terms this is against Ebay rules--check the policies on "fee avoidance".
If the above is true (and I don't believe it is), then what you're saying is that once you list an item for sale through eBay, even if it doesn't sell, you can never sell it anywhere else but through eBay.
I had an auction close today with no bids. A few hours later, my neighbor offered to buy my item.
I had an auction close today with no bids. I put it out on display in my shop and a few days later, somebody bought it.
Are you saying that selling the item to your neighbor or your customer in these situations is against eBay's rules? If so, why? If not, why are they any different than selling to someone who contacted you by email?
posted on December 16, 2000 09:57:40 AM
Another delegate from Ohio here. The first time I sold an item that hadn't met reserve a couple years ago, it dawned on me that ebay might want its cut, and emailed billing.
They wrote back to thank me for my honesty, but said they weren't interested because their system wasn't set up for that. IOW, it was more hassle than it was worth.
OTOH, if one consistently lists auctions with high reserves for the specific intent of avoiding FVFs, I'm sure their opinion would be quite different.
posted on December 16, 2000 10:27:27 AM
Here is what I did in a similar situation that worked very well for both parties. I relisted using the buy it now. I put the price for buy it now I would like to get. The buyer was pleased with this situation and used the buy it now. Everyone was happy.
