American Beautys on ebay

[slidekellyslide]

I sell hundreds of items a month on ebay and I get emails constantly for BIN price or sale off ebay...last week I listed a fairly rare Orange AMX slot car..I immediately got 3 emails to end the auction early..one guy offered me $30..as the week wore on I got a question from a guy asking if the wheel wells had been cut...apparently this was common with Aurora T-jet slot cars...I took a closer look and it did appear that they were cut...I decided to end the auction because it had a lot of bids already and it would be a hassle to contact all the bidders and revise the auction...the guy who offered me $30 emailed me as soon as I ended it and called me every name in the book for ending it early! So apparently it's okay for him to ask me to end it early, but it's not okay for me to end it early...I was a bit confused there...I emailed him back and told him what happened and that I was relisting it with the correct info. Then I blocked him.

The car ended up selling for $71 earlier today...so not only did he try to get me to end it early, but he also lowballed me.

[Jaybird]

I think there are probably two schools to the off-ebay offer. One is that the buyer is trying to get a better deal by saying some BS about why they can't bid on the card and throws a low ball offer. The other is someone that is legitimately willing to pay Over market value for the card probably to prevent someone else from doing the same. In either case, I think it probably makes more sense to just let it go to auction if you are the seller.

I know in some cases, though, that I've had my snipe set for an item well over the price that it sold for at auction. So, if I had made an off-ebay offer for my snipe price, the seller would have made more money.

[spec]

There is a simple rule that I believe applies to this issue, and to most other conundrums (outing auctions and low-balling ignorant sellers, for instance) so frequently debated on this board. I learned it as The Golden Rule, and I believe it is Biblical, but other cultures and/or religions probably embrace this precept as well.
It states: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It does not say: "Do unto others before they do unto you," which seems to be the justification of some for this tactic. To me, a preemptory offer endeavors to deny both the seller and other bidders the opportunity to determine a fair price for an item. One might, indeed, offer more than the item will bring at auction, but overpaying is not likely the intent.
Bob Richardson