Ending Ebay listings early

[steve B]

Chris- It's not the ABs , although that was a rough one having asked a couple favors from friends to try for more than one. That also came right after winning an item at an excellent price that became " sold on friday and we were too busy to take the auction down".

I do think it's wrong in general.

And Jim - That's why I don't do it. I couldn't say I'd never do it, but doing something I thought was fundamentally wrong would have a price I'd have to pay privately.

I don't think I'd list a $50 card at .99 there's just so much that could go wrong. I've had to revise turbo lister listings, it's certainly worth what we pay for it.

Steve B

[Joe Hunter]

I believe it is okay to end an auction early and accept an offer IF there are no bids on the item. I have ended auctions early on a few occasions, but never when there are active bids. I've also had the situation where someone emails me and offers me a considerable amount over the winning bid because they missed the auction. Of course, I would never comply with a request like that, but I'm sure it has happened.

[t206hound]

I consider eBay auctions to be no different than any other auction house listings. I wouldn't ask to have an item end early as a bidder, nor would I end an item early as a seller.

I've had several auctions "disappear" on eBay and at this point only search for items ending in the next 24 hours to avoid disappointment.

[Nashvol]

Thanks to all for each one's generous input. I am relatively new to Net54 and posted the topic as a way of finding others who were also frustrated. I have always felt that an auction should run its full course; otherwise it is not an auction, but a way of taking liberties with the system. Thanks again.

[pgellis]

I had to revive this thread. There was a sports memorabilia piece that was listed on eBay last night. I was the first to bid on it and then this morning "POOF", it was gone.

I was thinking about making an offer on it, but I said it has only been on eBay for about an hour, so I thought to myself, I'll bid on it and the seller will know that at least one other bidder has interest once he starts to get offers to sell off-line. Then this morning, it's gone.

I don't think eBay should allow a seller to end an item early if there is a bid already placed on it.

Also, for the seller, isn't an auction the absolute best measure for market value? You can't argue that ending an auction early, with bids already placed, will maximize your take.

This really irritates me.

[t206hound]

Originally Posted by pgellis

I had to revive this thread. There was a sports memorabilia piece that was listed on eBay last night. I was the first to bid on it and then this morning "POOF", it was gone.

I was thinking about making an offer on it, but I said it has only been on eBay for about an hour, so I thought to myself, I'll bid on it and the seller will know that at least one other bidder has interest once he starts to get offers to sell off-line. Then this morning, it's gone.

I don't think eBay should allow a seller to end an item early if there is a bid already placed on it.

Also, for the seller, isn't an auction the absolute best measure for market value? You can't argue that ending an auction early, with bids already placed, will maximize your take.

This really irritates me.

+1

If the item is listed as an AUCTION and it has a bid, I agree that it shouldn't be allowed to be ended early. The caveat is that things could be legitimately lost or damaged, but that has to be VERY infrequent.

[Exhibitman]

I now always ask the seller to end early on something I really want. I make sure to mention that I am interested in the item and hope that if the seller doesn't want to end now but later changes his mind he will let me know. Worst they can do is say no.

This thread also points out the usefulness of placeholder bids to signal the seller that there is interest in the item. If I really want something and I don't ask for an early ending I make sure to open it with a bid and set a snipe for the end of the auction because when I am selling a card on Ebay and I have no bidders on the item I don't think twice about accepting an offer. If there are bids already and I want to take the offer, to paraphrase Bugs Bunny I'm likely to do it but I'll probably hate myself in the morning.