posted on November 15, 2004 09:11:19 PM new
I started an auction at $9.99 with a Buy It Now of $75.00. Of course someone bid the $9.99 and killed the BIN. Yesterday someone emailed me and wanted to use BIN which of course no longer exists.
So I have the following question. Is it OK for the person who wants me to end the auction and sell it for $75.00 have a friend bid $74.00, then bid $75.00 at which point I stop the auction and sell it to the current high bidder? I see no problem with this but wonder if Ebay frowns on this practice. I personally don't like to stop an auction in progress as I often don't bid on items until the last minute and am kind of irritated when auctions disappear from the board. On the other hand I think one of the reasons given for stopping an auction is to sell it to the current high bidder.
Does anyone have anthing definitive to say on the subject either negative or positive? Thanks for your input.
posted on November 15, 2004 09:26:09 PM new
It depends on whose friend is going to bid $74.00. If it's YOUR friend, it's shill bidding and can get you booted from Ebay. If it's HIS friend, it's not only o.k., but it's a good strategy to get an item at the price he's willing to pay. Of course, after you get the $$, and he gets the item, you'll all be friends.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on November 15, 2004 09:38:25 PM new
The idea is for him to have his friend bid it to $74.00. It isn't something I want to make a habit of but I am curious about the ethics of the practice.
posted on November 15, 2004 09:43:44 PM new
Why get his friend to bid? Just have him bid $75. And why stop the auction? You may have a bidder out there willing to pay more than $75.
posted on November 15, 2004 09:57:01 PM new
I see nothing wrong, ethically. The only time it's wrong for him to have his friend bid would be if they were working a bid shielding scam, which isn't the case since he notified you of the plan and requested you to end the auction as soon as he bid $75.00. Technically, you could cancel the $9.99 bid, end the auction early, and relist it as a pre-approved bidder only $75.00 BIN auction with him as the only authorized bidder and the results would be exactly the same. The only fly in the ointment would be if your present $9.99 bidder has a proxy bid of an unknown amount over $75.00, in which case, you still win.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on November 15, 2004 10:17:49 PM new
If I have him bid $75.00 and it goes to $76.00 and the person who bids $75.00 decided not to go higher then it seems to me I might actually have unwittingly started or become part of a shill bidding scheme. At this point the idea is not to get as much as possible for the item but to sell it for $75.00 which is a perfectly acceptable price to me.
Roadsmith, I wrote the above paragraph before you entered your last post, then went and checked closed auctions and ongoing auctions. Closed auctions were $93.00 and $23.00, both items were almost new and the $23.00 was in the box which mine isn't. Go figure(actually the $23.00 one's seller had a feedback rating of 0 so maybe that explains it). Mine now sits at $46.00 with five days left and a competing one sits at $39.00 with a day and a half left. I can't figure that out either.
I've never cancelled a bid as I wouldn't want my bid cancelled for no good reason, though I guess more money could be considered a good reason. I think this is one I'm going to have to sleep on.
posted on November 16, 2004 04:04:35 AM new
getalife
Your scenerio sounds familiar. I had two identical items up. One was bid sky high while the other wasn't. It was puzzeling. However, they soon ended at about the same price. The other seller may have bidders who are going to snipe the product as I did. Another reason is maybe yours is described better in the title and description and therefore is easier to find. Maybe you seem like a more trust worthy person. Or, it's the thrill of the fight. Could be anything.
As to variations in closing prices. . . I bought a necklace set not too long ago. I paid $7.50 for it on eBay and just re-sold it for $102. Right place, right time. Sometimes it's as simple as that.
Sparkz is right. If it's your friend DON'T do it. Besides, even if he bids the $74, it isn't going to raise the final amount to that unless others bid on it as well to get it to the $74. That will just go down as the highest amount he is willing to pay. That won't work.
As for canceling the bids, I guess that's up to you. I personally wouldn't feel good about that. A good lesson learned, IMO. If you want $75 for it, don't start it at $9.99 with a BIN of $75. If I can get it for $9.99 or even $49.99, I'm not going to BIN $75. It will take a lot of bidders to get it there.
Cheryl
Girls say "Yes" to boys who say "No". Say "No" to war. - from a 1960's antiwar poster
posted on November 16, 2004 09:21:18 AM newSparkz is right. If it's your friend DON'T do it. Besides, even if he bids the $74, it isn't going to raise the final amount to that unless others bid on it as well to get it to the $74. That will just go down as the highest amount he is willing to pay. That won't work.
That will work, the friend bids $74.00, the actual amt showing will be $1.00 higher than the previous bid. The other bidder enters $75.00, and becomes the high bidder at $75.00.
posted on November 16, 2004 10:28:49 AM new
It's a shame he didn't see it before you got a bid. I'm not so sure I wouldn't just let it ride if I were you. I think you may feel better about it in the long run. He can still bid and may win it for less or it could go higher to another bid. If it's at $46.00 now - most likely it's going up some more.
If you stop it and relist - there is no assurance that he will really bid and you could lose all the bidders you cancel out and end up with $23.00.
I guess this is why they call it an auction???
posted on November 16, 2004 04:14:49 PM new
Money talks. Have him pay for it up front and if the payment gets there before the auciton end, cancel the bids and sell it to the guy. Otherwise, keep the auction going.
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Alive in 2005
posted on November 16, 2004 05:14:20 PM newgetalife,
From experience if you kill the $9.99 lowball bid then the $75.00 Buy It Now is again available. Contact the interested buyer and arrange with them the time when the Buy It Now will be available (so no one else bids before they do)
posted on November 16, 2004 08:38:49 PM new
I have decided to let the auction run it's course. I know that if I intended to bid on something I would be irritated if the auction closed before I had a chance to snipe it. And face it, it is an auction. I know that when auctiona are started low with a relatively high BIN there is a good chance someone will come along and bid the cheap bid just because they can. And sometimes that works out for the best.
For example: Once I had a BIN on a piece of Bose equipment at $165. Three previous identical items had sold from $125 to $175. Two very astute bidders bid on it and another like piece and bid mine up to $325 and the other piece to $335. The funny thing was that the other seller stole my description. I was positive it was a bid shielding scam but I got paid and I assume the other seller was paid also.
[ edited by getalife on Nov 16, 2004 08:40 PM ]
posted on November 21, 2004 08:51:06 PM new
To update anyone who is interested, the item sold for $92.00 to the same person who wanted to use BIN for $75.00. In the last 30 minutes it moved from $71.00 to $92.00.
posted on November 22, 2004 11:09:42 PM new
Getalife, seems to me that, most of the time, if someone wants you to stop an auction for a BIN, they already know you have it priced too low.
Ps, congrats on the sale!
[ edited by ltray on Nov 22, 2004 11:10 PM ]
posted on November 23, 2004 04:28:56 PM new
No Itray, it wasn't priced too low. I thought it was fair towards the high side of what I expected. After the auction I lined up all closed auctions of this type and mine sold for the highest price out of 39 listed sales.
I think it was the photos. The item was a chrome kitchen appliance and one of the photos showed an extremely mirrorlike finish. I'm a big believer in large well taken photos and I think often that sells an object. I also think it helps to have things like well packed and better than described or as described in your feedback. A little luck never hurts either.
