I'm so darn mad!

[David]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

Many eBay bidders get mad when a seller ends an auction early to sell to someone.

[worldchamps]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

soxbat

I do like your approach, like with anything though, that could backfire. If you are dealing with someone who is shill bidding, driving up their own price, you have encouraged them to maybe tack on more.

In a perfect world, there would be no ending early, no shill bidders, no snipers, and people would bid early and not the last second....but it is not a perfect world

I do think from now on if it is a high end, maybe once in a lifetime deal, I will email the seller to at least email me if someone makes a offer to end early so I can have a chance to match or beat.

I am still pissed about the Hagen jersey... I hope it sells for over $10,000. Not pissed at the buyer (if you are on here), just pissed at the seller. I would love to know what the jersey was sold for.

Bill

[bigtruck260]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

Well...

Interesting argument. There is a local guy in STL who has several brick and mortar stores in the area...and he does a good amount of business on eBay. I have bid on two of his items in the past year that have gone until the last 24 hours...and then the darn auction is ended early.

One item in particular was a Ray Lankford 2004 road jersey. I am a Ray fan, and that being his last year in the bigs...it was kind of an important item to me. I had a bid of $125...and NO OTHER BIDS FOR 7 DAYS. I was ready to spend $400 on it. I can only imagine that he had the jersey displayed in his store with a higher price tag...and someone bought it - he has not re-listed it.

Is this an ethical violation? If I bid, I am entering into an agreement. If he sells the item to someone else, I think I have a right to be a little upset. When I emailed him about it, he never responded. I can't even look at him when he sets his booth up at local shows. For seven days, I had my heart set on that jersey.

BTW, if someone here has it, contact me.

[richpick]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

A comment about ebay. I have bought and sold many items on ebay and overall am very happy. Many items have sold way below what I thought they would but on the flip side many have finished much higher than expected. I have also been contacted by buyers to end auctions early but I have yet to have a fair offer so I have never done the practice. In this world where everyone is trying to make a buck I can see where buyers would contact sellers early and try to pick up the item at a lower price (lets be honest if you have to have the item you will just wait and make sure you are the high bidder). I in the past was lambasted by forum members because I picked up a game used jersey at a flea market and the seller did not know what he had so I tried and talk the price down from $10 to $5 and the hell I took that I cheated the seller and so on. We all enjoy collecting game used items but for me the hunt to find items is half the fun and if you can get them at a great price then more power to the knowledgeable. Does anyone watch Antiques Roadshow they do not criticize the people who bring things in that they bought cheap and are worth thousands. Back to my point I do not blame anyone in trying to get a jump on the competition (thats all of us). I do think steroids is cheating though!

Richard

[bigtruck260]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

Ebay is totally against what they call "circumvention of fees". I got a nasty gram once because my auction said that I would take offers...but my item was at a fixed price (with no best offer function). They are against you if you are able to get yourself a few extra duckets on your own...but they can allow people to sell thousands of fake sigs, bats, paintings, cards - and everything else. A little double standard there.

If you complain about circumvention of fees (the basic topic in this thread)...eBay acts immediately. if you complain about fake autographs, you get zip...

[otismalibu]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

If 10 people email a seller about buying a listed item directly, how many of those 10 are offering substantially less money than they think it will go for?

I'll say 9.

And that might be low.

[Vintagedeputy]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

My feelings are that when an item is listed for sale on ebay, its like an ad in the classifieds of the local paper. Sure, ebay wants you to finish the auction so that they realize all their fees. When I approach a seller and ask what they are looking for on an item, they have the opportunity to say "I wont end the auction early".

If they give me a price, I either accept what they are asking, with maybe some slight negotiation, or else I say thank you very much and move on. This particular seller stated to me that his best possible prcie would be $150, and that he just put it up on ebay to see if there was any interest. Obviously for a week, there was no interest in his $175 starting bid, so he offered it to me for the $150 value quoted by someone at a show.

What happened here is that he made a verbal agreement to sell the item, yet decided either by choice or by accident when a bid actually came in, to let the auction run its course. We had a gentleman's agreement which he could have lived up to at any point. When he saw that he would be leaving $205 on the table, he went for the money.

As for Ebay's "circumvention" rules, I personally could care less. Ebay made a listing fee off the seller, my once a month attempt to purchase something isnt going to break their budget, nor do I consider them to be the auction police. If a seller has an item and we agree on a price, then ebay is nothing more than the daily classifieds of my local newspaper or a garage sale.

[otismalibu]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

Obviously for a week, there was no interest in his $175 starting bid, so he offered it to me for the $150 value quoted by someone at a show.

Anyone who's been on eBay, knows that seasoned bidders snipe at the end. It's not like only one person bid. There obviously WAS interest in his $175 starting bid.

I'm not saying he should make a deal and break it, but this is exactly the type of auction you never want to end early. If he was sitting at $9.99 with a day left, I could see him getting nervous. But he set his opening high enough to get what he thought it should fetch, so let it run. The worst that could happen was that he could have sold it to you for $150. Best case scenario...he gets multiple bidders.

It's the sports memorabilia market - there are no rules.

[Vintagedeputy]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

I understand what you are saying. I think actually that his high starting bid scared some folks away. I figured that by the last day there would be a bid. Since there wasnt one, I took the chance and emailed him.

[otismalibu]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

I understand what you are saying. I think actually that his high starting bid scared some folks away.

Yeah, that seems to happen with high opening bids.

Ebay is hard to figure sometimes. I watched an item end with no bids and was almost going to email the guy and make him an offer. Then I saw it re-listed for a little less. I kept an eye on it and it ended higher than the original auction. Go figure.

I like when sellers allow the submitted questions to be seen by everyone that views the auction. Sometimes that can be entertaining, seeing everyone's approach.

[Vintagedeputy]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

I've done well so far with emailing the seller on ebay auctions. I snagged a game used Posada bat that I photo matched and a nice 2003 Mark Grace gamer from his last season, cheap.

I guess it's hit or miss. I like my odds.

Jim

[NYRangers]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

I'm glad he backed out of the deal with you. I have had to resort to contacting the sellers of every item that I am interested in and ask them not to sell off-line so I will have a fair chance at an item I like. I look forward to the day that someone posts on here and says that they sent payment for an off-line deal and got nothing in return and they have no recourse through ebay.

[Vintagedeputy]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

I'm glad he backed out of the deal with you. I have had to resort to contacting the sellers of every item that I am interested in and ask them not to sell off-line so I will have a fair chance at an item I like. I look forward to the day that someone posts on here and says that they sent payment for an off-line deal and got nothing in return and they have no recourse through ebay.

Well, that's a very callous thing to say.

You have more than a "fair chance" at every item. Why dont you email the seller and make them an offer like every one else instead of begging them not to sell it off line. If you emailed me and begged me not to sell something offline because you wanted to bid, I'd tell you to pony up an offer like someone who was interested in getting the item.

[5kRunner]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

I don't see anything wrong with emailing the seller and asking him to end it early. I did it recently and it backfired on the seller. I offered, the seller declined, I was the only bidder.

The seller has all the power, all they have to do is decline to sell it early.

[TNTtoys]

Re: I'm so darn mad!

I don't see anything wrong with emailing the seller and asking him to end it early. I did it recently and it backfired on the seller. I offered, the seller declined, I was the only bidder.

The seller has all the power, all they have to do is decline to sell it early.

I do this once in a while when I want the item bad enough and do not want to get into a bidding war at the end. Usually it works... and I try to offer at least fair market value for everything, so nobody is losing. I usually offer more.

Ironically, the last 2 times I made an offer and it was refused, I won the items for far less than my offer. Granted my offers were "more than fair" but I suppose that they brought out the greed in the seller (if he were offering x, maybe I can get x+$100 if I let it ride)...