Was I unethical on Ebay???

[TOE]

To be honest, I dislike ebay sellers that do this kind of things. Not you personally, but those ebay sellers that start the bid at $.99 and on the last day the auction is not in the vicinity of the price they are hoping for, so they cancel the auction.

I think the ebay rules suggest that if no one bids on the auction, it is fair to cancel the auction, but if there is a bid on it the seller must let the auction go on.

 

[nash]

To be honest, I dislike ebay sellers that do this kind of things. Not you personally, but those ebay sellers that start the bid at $.99 and on the last day the auction is not in the vicinity of the price they are hoping for, so they cancel the auction.

I think the ebay rules suggest that if no one bids on the auction, it is fair to cancel the auction, but if there is a bid on it the seller must let the auction go on.

Would you let a high ticket item go for a very minimal amount? Put yourself in the seller's shoes.

The only reason you dislike sellers that cancel the auction before the final 12 hours is because YOU don't get something for cheap. IMO that is selfish as you would never sell something for less than what you felt it was worth.

Too many people in this hobby feel entitled to things....they think that they should always get a good deal on something, if not then they are quick to call the seller a scalper or not a true collector.

 

[tylerd]

Would you let a high ticket item go for a very minimal amount? Put yourself in the seller's shoes.

The only reason you dislike sellers that cancel the auction before the final 12 hours is because YOU don't get something for cheap. IMO that is selfish as you would never sell something for less than what you felt it was worth.

Too many people in this hobby feel entitled to things....they think that they should always get a good deal on something, if not then they are quick to call the seller a scalper or not a true collector.

i have sold a few things way below what i wanted to sell them for because there are rules for selling on ebay. i don't agree that any contract can be canceled after agreeing to the terms because it didn't turn out the way you wanted. the world without rules is anarchy.

if the seller wants to guarantee a minimum amount on auction style listings he can start the price higher or put a reserve on the auction. i have basically stopped auction style and now mostly use buy it now only if i have something to sell. if it doesn't sell, you can relist it.

 

[nash]

i have sold a few things way below what i wanted to sell them for because there are rules for selling on ebay. i don't agree that any contract can be canceled after agreeing to the terms because it didn't turn out the way you wanted. the world without rules is anarchy.

if the seller wants to guarantee a minimum amount on auction style listings he can start the price higher or put a reserve on the auction. i have basically stopped auction style and now mostly use buy it now only if i have something to sell. if it doesn't sell, you can relist it.

I disagree with you. There is no contract saying that a seller can not cancel his auction. The only contract imo is once the auction is finalized and over.

Ebay gives you a few options as reasons why you are canceling. One of them being "This item is no longer for sale". This can include a wide array of reasons, and finding a higher price elsewhere would fit that bill. The reason that Ebay does not allow you to cancel your auction if there is less than 12 hours left until the listing ends, is to specifically prevent last second cancellations. IMO canceling the auction before the final 12 hours IS playing by the rules. We all know that last second "sniping" is where bidders usually place their highest bids.

I certainly will not tell you what to do with your stuff. If you want to sell them for less than what youve wanted, then be my guest.

 

[TOE]

Would you let a high ticket item go for a very minimal amount? Put yourself in the seller's shoes.

The only reason you dislike sellers that cancel the auction before the final 12 hours is because YOU don't get something for cheap. IMO that is selfish as you would never sell something for less than what you felt it was worth.

Too many people in this hobby feel entitled to things....they think that they should always get a good deal on something, if not then they are quick to call the seller a scalper or not a true collector.

I am putting myself on the seller's shoe. Why risk putting an auction starting with $.99 in the first place? I think the seller should do a little research first before jumping in selling things for $.99.

There is an option called "set a reserve" amount or "buy it now" option and I recommend using these if the seller is thinking of ending an auction early because he or she is not getting a bit of profit or all his or her money back.

As a seller, you have to take the risk of selling for profit or losing money. That is part of the business. But, this is your business, so you can do what you want with your auction, but I think it was unfair for a seller to end things early and leave those early bidders high and dry, imo.

 

[nash]

I am putting myself on the seller's shoe. Why risk putting an auction starting with $.99 in the first place? I think the seller should do a little research first before jumping in selling things for $.99.

There is an option called "set a reserve" amount or "buy it now" option and I recommend using these if the seller is thinking of ending an auction early because he or she is not getting a bit of profit or all his or her money back.

As a seller, you have to take the risk of selling for profit or losing money. That is part of the business. But, this is your business, so you can do what you want with your auction, but I think it was unfair for a seller to end things early and leave those early bidders high and dry, imo.

As if Ebay doesnt charge up the ass with their endless fees already, sometimes a seller wants to avoid those. The "reserve price" is the most useless and idiotic thing you could place on your auction. The fees incurred from using that stupid feature is dumb. Buy it now is the better option but even then you are incurring extra fees to your auction not to mention if you are going against someone with no reserve or BIN, people are going to bid on theirs to try to score a deal leaving your auction in the cold.

As a seller you shouldnt have to take a risk of losing money, that's absurd and you shouldnt be in business if youre going to bend over and take it up the ass like that.

Why is it unfair to the early bidders? What did they lose besides a potential GOOD DEAL on something so they can brag to their forum buddies on how they scored such a great deal on it? Give me a break

PS: Why am i even trying to make my point to you? It's obvious that you are not an Ebay seller which explains the "entitled" ebay buyer perspective. Trust me, I ONLY place auctions on $.99 starting bid with no reserve when I do my research.

 

[Ragnarohman]

What is fair today in buisness?

As a seller I dont want to loose money, only gain.

As a buyer I dont want to pay more than its worth.

If I were in the sellers shoes I would cancel aswell

If I were in the bidders shoes I wouldn't care really. I would've just started to look for another one...

 

[nash]

What is fair today in buisness?

As a seller I dont want to loose money, only gain.

As a buyer I dont want to pay more than its worth.

If I were in the sellers shoes I would cancel aswell

If I were in the bidders shoes I wouldn't care really. I would've just started to look for another one...

:chew

 

[TOE]

As if Ebay doesnt charge up the ass with their endless fees already, sometimes a seller wants to avoid those. The "reserve price" is the most useless and idioting thing you could place on your auction. The fees incurred from using that stupid feature is dumb. Buy it now is the better option but even then you are incurring extra fees to your auction.

As a seller you shouldnt have to take a risk of losing money, that's absurd and you shouldnt be in business if youre going to bend over and take it up the ass like that.

Why is it unfair to the early bidders? What did they lose besides a potential GOOD DEAL on something so they can brag to their forum buddies on how they scored such a great deal on it? Give me a break

PS: Why am i even trying to make my point to you? It's obvious that you are not an Ebay seller which explains the "entitled" ebay buyer perspective.

I agree that ebay charge to many things and that is upto the seller to pay it or not, hence option.

And I agree that sellers shouldn't have to take a risk or losing money that is why they should do a little research before auctioning an item.

I think it is unfair for early bidders because they bid on an item they wished to obtain only to find out that the auction was ended early because an offer was done. What the seller should have done is set the price at the price he or she wished for the item to go for, such as setting the starting bid at the retail price of the item.

I've sold many things on ebay and made profit all the time.

 

[tylerd]

i never ended a listing early so i went to ebay to see the exact rules. seems, nash is 100% correct when it comes to ending a listing early. you can cancel the auction up to 12 hours before the ended listing for no good reason, but cannot cancel with under 12 hours less. as unethical as it might be, cheers to nash, he knows the rules.



did banny teach you the flipper cancellation method?

 

[TOE]

actually:

https://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/questions/endlist-now.html

When there are 12 hours or less remaining and the item has a winning bid, including a reserve met bid, sellers cannot make any changes to the listing, including:

- Ending the item early. Sellers may cancel bids, but not end the item unless the item is being sold to the high bidder.

- Adding to or changing the item description.

 

[tylerd]

actually:

https://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/questions/endlist-now.html

When there are 12 hours or less remaining and the item has a winning bid, including a reserve met bid, sellers cannot make any changes to the listing, including:

- Ending the item early. Sellers may cancel bids, but not end the item unless the item is being sold to the high bidder.

- Adding to or changing the item description.

yes toe, sorry if i didn't explain it correctly. more than 12 hours left, you can cancel by claiming 'item not available'. 12 hours or under, you can't cancel.

in the case of the poster that started this thread, he should have made the bidder put in high bid before canceling the other bids and ending the auction. that way, ebay gets their final value fee. we all know ebay needs that final value fee. yea right.

 

[lcummins]

According to eBay rules, when you place a bid, you are entering a "contract" to purchase that item if you win. Well, as a buyer, if I am entering a contract to purchase then the seller should also be held to a "contract" to sell IF someone has already bid. I have never canceled an auction that already had bids on it, and think that is against eBay rules and also breaking the contract between buyers and sellers. There are always exceptions to any rule and there may be a legitimate reason to occasionally end an auction, but to end it just because it hasn't reached the value you want is pretty much against the whole idea of putting something up for auction. Go to any true auction house or online auction company and try that! It wouldn't be allowed. And they wouldn't allow you to pull the item from the auction because you found someone willing to pay you more that the value you were looking for. Just because it is eBay, doesn't mean you don't have to play by the rules.

 

[Darth Madden]

If canceling an auction with a bid is against the rules then why do they let you do it? Bidders can cancel bids and thats supposed to be against the rules as well. Its just taking advantage of the loopholes. You just should have said its not available anymore and left it at that.

 

[BadMoon]

Go to any true auction house or online auction company and try that! It wouldn't be allowed.

I don't know. We have a huge home builders show once a year in my area. A local school builds a house every year that they auction off. They started the bidding at $225,000 then went all the way down to $100,000. Someone actually bid $50,000 and they would not honor the bid because they didn't feel it was worth it. However, this was not an online auction.

 

[BadMoon]

It looks like they had a secret reserve on the house though.

https://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2008/03/03/news/news747.txt

 

[Mesa]

I am putting myself on the seller's shoe. Why risk putting an auction starting with $.99 in the first place? I think the seller should do a little research first before jumping in selling things for $.99.

There is an option called "set a reserve" amount or "buy it now" option and I recommend using these if the seller is thinking of ending an auction early because he or she is not getting a bit of profit or all his or her money back.

As a seller, you have to take the risk of selling for profit or losing money. That is part of the business. But, this is your business, so you can do what you want with your auction, but I think it was unfair for a seller to end things early and leave those early bidders high and dry, imo.

It's been my personal experience, that whenever a reserve is placed on auctions, it scares away a lot of bidding. Starting it low generates interests and is usually a better way to get high dollar; that is if the item is in demand. Also, if you start an auction at say $50, multiplied by the 10 or 15 items to be listed, that's significant initial listing fees regardless of whether item sells or not. I knew this in advance, and for the more popular busts, intentionally started at $0.99. Any less popular busts (i.e. Pippin) were intentionally started at a fair dollar amount to avoid getting burned. Trust me, I do my research before selling.

I keep close track of what I pay for these, and when I resell if I'm in the + or -. In my case, it wasn't a matter of cancelling because I didn't think they would sell for much. Shoot, the Eomer and Dwarven Lord that ended on Sautrday each sold for over $100. I just made a bad move in cancelling early to a buyer that presented an acceptable offer. Avoiding Ebay's increasing final value fees also played into my decision to take the offer and keep that money as part of the sale. As it is, I already have a $140 and rising Ebay seller account bill, so I'd prefer to only donate so much to the monopoly that is Ebay.

 

[El Roranous]

I understand both sides of the argument. Personally I try to be as fair as possible. I have not cancelled auctions because the item wasn't getting enough money. I kind of feel the same way as Lonnie in that both the buyer and the seller have a contract at the point of the first bid. However, since I really don't like waiting and playing the game of the auction I just usually list things as a buy it now. I essentially say this is what I want for my item, either pay me or walk away. 99% of the time the items sell and I make a profit.

Ebay doesn't want you to end an item early because they lose money and to this I say screw them. They really have no concern for the bidder- they just want their final value fee. Screw them sellers. I try my hardest not to give the monster that is ebay any of my money by selling here or accepting offers. The ebay bill just keeps adding up and their fees really are ridiculous! Recently I have even moved over to using Google checkout because the fees are less than paypal- which is also owned by the Ebay "Monopoly".

So what I guess I am trying to say is, I try to be very fair to my buyers. In the end I just want them to be treated how I wish to be treated. BUT....if there is a chance to donkey punch ebay and screw them over by avoiding some fees then by all means GO FOR IT because ebay is not treating the sellers the way that they should be treated.


LONG post over.

 

[nash]

I guess i'll never see eye to eye with anyone who is against canceling of your own auction.

Ebay is already one sided, giving the buyer most of the advantage....IMO the way I do things makes me a smart Ebayer. It may not be everyone's preference or everyone may not agree with me, but in my own opinion, im watching out for my own ass first and foremost.

I think "fair" would mean that the buyers should have to pay for the listing fees and final value fees, and Ebay should automatically add those fees onto the ending price. But hey, that's just my opinion.

According to eBay rules, when you place a bid, you are entering a "contract" to purchase that item if you win. Well, as a buyer, if I am entering a contract to purchase then the seller should also be held to a "contract" to sell IF someone has already bid.

Well Lonnie, if Joe Schmoe places a $5 bid and thinks he's going to win my $500 item, he's dead wrong. Imo a $5 "contract" isn't very binding to me.

 

[BadMoon]

I think "fair" would mean that the buyers should have to pay for the listing fees and final value fees, and Ebay should automatically add those fees onto the ending price. But hey, that's just my opinion.

That's an interesting point. Usually when someone buys a car they pay all of the fees up to and including the taxes.