posted on April 26, 2002 09:22:52 AM new
I thought I once heard that you could end an auction early and still sell it to someone and it be legally done at eBay? Is this true? and How?
I have an item up for sale and the person wants it for a Mother's day gift and is willing to pay the price, if I end the auction early. I want to do it for them, but I'm not sure how. This person is the only bidder at this point.
posted on April 26, 2002 09:55:10 AM new
What I've always done is tell them in advance I'm going to cancel their bid, and once that is done I can change anything in the listing. So I go in and change it to BIN of whatever price was agreed upon. I email them and say okay, it's ready for you ~ grab it quick because if someone else comes along and bids I can't do anything! I've ended a couple of transactions like that, and it's worked out perfectly. But you can really only do it if the high bidder is the only bidder, and they are the one who wants to buy it. Hope that helps! Sherah
posted on April 26, 2002 10:26:32 AM new
I do it the way Rachelsmom does it but three times someone else took items at the new BIN price... The ones who requested the BIN got really upset, but luckily they can't leave feedback. (like it is our fault they took too long...sigh)
posted on April 26, 2002 01:50:07 PM new
Maybe you could set a specific time to cancel their bid and post the BIN, letting them jump in as soon as you'd revised the auction. Also, be very clear about the risk of someone else swooping in, especially since many people seem to look for BIN auctions and bid on those exclusively.
Also, you should explain that if someone else bids between the time of your email and the time of their "appointment," you are stuck letting the auction run its course.
You should also realize you're doing this person a favor by ending the listing early, and don't let them push you into doing something that's inconvenient to you, like staying up late or getting up early to suit their schedule....good luck!
[ edited by msincognito on Apr 26, 2002 01:53 PM ]
posted on April 26, 2002 01:58:37 PM new
You can limit an auction to a list of pre-approved bidders. Only people on the list will be able to bid on your auction. So, start your auction with a BIN and put only the one bidder on your pre-approved list. That way no one else will be able to bid on it.
posted on April 26, 2002 04:06:03 PM new
Do what quickdraw says. Since they are the only bidder, close the auction early. Do not cancel the bid. If you agreed on a different price, then go with that. Then you both can leave positive feedback and use all of the protection tools of ebay. Go to services. Then buying & selling. Scroll down and you will see the end an auction early link. Follow it and complete the sale.
Good luck
posted on April 26, 2002 05:24:39 PM new
If you end it early and do not have the bidder bid it up to the agreed amount isn't it fee avoidance? You are not paying fees on the entire amount and I think that is against the rules. I'd never take that chance myself..You never know who you are dealing with..
posted on April 26, 2002 05:38:11 PM new
A bidder can't raise his bid higher to the pre-agreed amount. It's impossible, therefore, it is not fee avoidance. It is a great idea though for ebay to have a bargaining price a buyer could enter and the seller could agree to.
posted on April 26, 2002 10:44:28 PM newA bidder can't raise his bid higher to the pre-agreed amount. It's impossible, therefore, it is not fee avoidance.
Actually, it is fee avoidance. This is from the safeharbor page.
Fee avoidance - Circumventing eBay fees. Examples:
Ending a listing early to sell the item at a higher price to the winning bidder
If you want to sell the item to the current high bidder at the current high bid, then you can just end your auction early. But, if you want to sell it at a higher price, starting a new auction with a BIN price or starting the new auction at the agreed upon price are the only 'legal' ways. At least that I can think of.
posted on April 27, 2002 07:58:06 AM new
I figured ebay would naturally call that fee avoidance. They're going to tilt it in their favor always to get more money from you. If you relist, they get another fee, plus more in commission.
Ebay forcing you to relist an item at a higher price so they get more commission plus an extra fee is unethical. The fact is the current auction is the one that garnered a buyer, and it is only the current auction that should garner ebay a fee and commission for helping you obtain that buyer.
posted on April 27, 2002 12:04:51 PM new
Ebay deserves a commission on the higher price? What did they do to finalize the transaction at the higher price? Nothing. That was agreed upon through negotiation off the site. Ebay did not partake in that negotiation.
posted on April 27, 2002 12:49:51 PM new
I think Ebay would see it as fee avoidance. They don't care that you made the deal, they just want ALL the fees they can get.
posted on April 27, 2002 03:41:25 PM newEbay deserves a commission on the higher price? What did they do to finalize the transaction at the higher price? Nothing. That was agreed upon through negotiation off the site. Ebay did not partake in that negotiation.
Ebay gets a commission on the higher price because that's what you agreed to when you signed up. You used Ebay to make the sale, so Ebay gets its commission. Without Ebay you wouldn't have made the sale. It doesn't matter how much effort Ebay put into the sale. They get a percentage of the sale price.
Of course, it's in the best interest of both parties to make the transaction official.
For example, let's say you have an auction where the high bid is at $20 and he offers you $100 to stop it early.
If you stop it without cancelling the bids and it ends with the high bid at $20, the winner could hold you to it instead of the agreed upon $100 price. You couldn't go to Ebay and complain about it because you broke the rules. If you don't sell at the official $20 price, the buyer could report you to Ebay for fee avoidance. Of course, he would get it trouble, too, but it's easy for a buyer to start a new account with a clean slate.
If you do cancel all bids then there is no official winner and , if it's important to you, you can't neg him if he deadbeats.
If the buyer does send the $100 and the seller doesn't send the merchandise then the buyer is screwed. He can't try to collect through Ebay's insurance program because the official sale was $20 if it was ended early without canceling the bids and there was no official sale if the bids were cancelled.
Of course, when deciding whether or not to break the rules, it all boils down to whether the potential rewards are greater than the potential risks. Personally, I'd just give Ebay the extra couple of bucks in commission to keep the deal official.
posted on April 27, 2002 05:01:21 PM new
"Ebay gets a commission on the higher price because that's what you agreed to when you signed up. You used Ebay to make the sale, so Ebay gets its commission. Without Ebay you wouldn't have made the sale. It doesn't matter how much effort Ebay put into the sale. They get a percentage of the sale price."
The listing fee is what I pay to get noticed to get the sale. The commission is what I pay to ebay so they get more buyers to drive up the price. Ebay did not partake in the effort to drive this price up. That means in all fairness, all they should get is the commission on the start price. It does matter how much effort they put into the sale, that is what a commission is based on.
After the higher price is agreed on, ebay decides, yea we want part of that deal, so relist so we can partake in the final price commission. That's B.S. The deal is already completed.
posted on April 27, 2002 10:38:07 PM newIt does matter how much effort they put into the sale, that is what a commission is based on.
No it isn't. The commission is based on the sale price, it doesn't matter how much effort Ebay put into it.
For example:
Auction #1: Has a $1000 BIN . Within the first hour of the auction, the first person that looks at it buys it at the BIN price.
Auction #2: Has no BIN, it runs for 10 days, 200 people view the page, 20 bids are placed and it sells for $200.
If, as you say, the commission is based on effort then Ebay would make a much larger commission on auction #2 because they put much more effort into it, but, as I said, commission is based on the sale price and Ebay would get a larger commission on auction #1 which they put very little effort into.
If Ebay was to charge a commission based on effort, they would get a larger commission for longer descriptions because they'd take up more storage. They'd get more for longer auctions (besides the 10-day surcharge). They'd charge for each page view and each bid. If you changed your description, they'd charge you for that. I'm sure they could come up with plenty of other things to charge for. But, that would be too difficult so the commission is based on the sale price.
posted on April 28, 2002 12:23:47 AM new
"No it isn't. The commission is based on the sale price, it doesn't matter how much effort Ebay put into it."
Of course the commission is based on the sale price, it is not going to be based on the moon cycle!
Your example's are full of flaws. A BIN that ends at $1000 in one hour means that ebay helped you close a $1000 sale, and helped you close it faster. An auction with 20 bids that ends at $200 means ebay helped you close a $200 sale. Effort on ebay's part is measured in averages overall, not comparing one item to another.
What you are severerely off track about is, you claim ebay will get every item sold at the highest price in a range. That is false thinking. Ebay is about getting a higher average overall for it's sellers, compared to Yahoo or any other sites.
Try comparing apples to apples next time.
But the main point is, ebay's system closed those sales. A deal done off the site is not closed by ebay.
posted on April 28, 2002 07:56:35 AM new
That's what the listing fee is paid for, for finding buyers. The commission is for closing the sale. Ebay did not have a hand in the sale. Their equipment was not used.
How is it theft of service if the service was never used. Theft of service is if ebay closed the sale and you did not pay them. The emails were done between the two parties on their own computers, on their own time, and done direct; the negotiation was done between the two parties without the aid of ebay. The listing fee was paid. There's no theft of service.
posted on April 28, 2002 09:16:22 AM new
Thanks everyone for all these opinions and suggestions. I truly appreciate it. This is a very interesting thread/post.
I, personally, was not looking to leave eBay out of the sale, but only looking for a legal way to 1) get the price myself that is nice and has been offered to me; 2) help the buyer who wants the item by Mother's Day; and 3) to do both without breaking any eBay rules and without even leaving eBay out of it.
