New Ebay seller trick ?

[markf31]

Originally Posted by T206DK

This seller had a good rep with me as a vintage seller until last night.

Yes you can change the auction setting to private at any time.

Perhaps he had a very valid reason for making the change. You said yourself the seller had a good rep with you prior to this. Maybe a simple message to the seller expressing your concern over his change in auction policy towards the end of the listing and inquiring why they did make the change would put your worries and concerns to rest?

My father runs a model train business with most of his sales occurring on Ebay, moving anywhere from 100-200 items per week. I asked him his thoughts on this issue and his reply to me was that there were times he changed his auctions mid listing as well. He said he most often does it when he’s notified by an auction bidder who had been contacted by a 3rd party, offering for sale the exact same item my father has for auction. This is of course against Ebay policy so my father (along with the valid bidder) reports the 3rd party to Ebay and promptly switches the auction to private to protect all current and future bidders on his auction from being contacted in a similar fashion.

There are reasons for making this change mid-auction, and not all of them nefarious in nature.