I've been on both sides of this, and frankly I think it's all fair game. The seller should have complete freedom to end the auction early if he chooses. There is a reason why sellers do this, and that is that the offline offer is higher than the starting price (or current price) of the auction, and the seller believes that the price is fair or better than fair. I had this happen to me recently where a buyer messaged me with an offer that was at least 10X the current auction price of the card. The seller wanted the card badly, and didn't want to wait around on the chance that he might get outbid. I frankly thought this offer was at least twice what the card was likely to end at, so I obviously agreed to the deal, and ended the auction early.
I hadn't known that it's ethical to provide offers to sellers if there are no bids and it's gentleman's code to not do so if there are no bids. A few months ago, I lost out on a Heading Home Babe Ruth card b/c the seller made an off ebay deal while the auction was going on. The auction had a high starting price, so basically I was only willing to go the starting price + one increment. Therefore, I put a snipe on the card, but I wasn't willing to put an early bid on the card b/c I didn't want to "show my hand" to other bidders. Again, I learned my lesson here, but I don't fault the seller or the buyer who made the deal. I learned that if I really want a card, I better make it known to the seller to not sell the card off-bay w/o at least consulting me and allow me to counter. This is only if I really, really want the card, b/c you never know if the seller would make a phantom buyer to get you to increase your offer.
Ebay is already doing things to try to prevent off-ebay deals, so be careful what you wish for. As part of the Fall seller rules, you're not supposed to put your email address or other web address in your ebay listing. I wouldn't be surprised if in the future, ebay says that messages on ebay are ebay property and that they reserve the right to scan the messages, and if they detect off-ebay negotiations going on, they can remove Top Rated Seller listing or suspend your account. Obviously, there would be an outcry if this happens, but this is ebay we're talking about. They're trying to make money, and they're doing all kinds of things to make more.
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