When your eBay auction doesn’t end as high as you would like

[Acto-Tuned]

Perhaps this should have been posted in the eBay section of
the forum but I really want to get some replies for this and it seems to be a
better chance of that here.

Sorry but thats not an excuse or allowed and could cause a bad example, imagine people putting their sale ads in here to get more views or replies.

What do you do when (or if) your eBay auction doesn’t end as
high as you would like? I should start by saying that I don’t sell on eBay or
any other auction sites I’m strictly a buyer. And I’ve been wondering for quite
some time what people do when the end price on an auction is considerably lower
then expected or desired.

I know the seller could have set a reserve price if he wanted
to be sure he got what he wanted.  

 

So what happens? Have you ever turned down a buyer because the
end price wasn’t high enough for you?

Have you ever received an email from a seller stating that
he won’t sell you the item for the auction’s end price?

 

I don’t usually bid on large items like cars (RC of course) were
the end price seems to end up ridiculously low and especially if I also get impression
that the seller is aware of the potential value of the item. That is unless the
seller seems to be a “professional†eBay’er. In that case I expect him/her to have
a “you win some/loose some†mentality and let the item go for a low price. The
reason I don’t go for these “bargains†is that I don’t want to waste my time or
energy on an item I don’t expect the seller to not let go of.

Ole

[WILD WILLY]

Good question ! i have had this happen to me thought a car i sold would have gone for more and ended out of pocket (by £40) was'nt after making a profit just wanted to get my money back as i wanted to do a direction change in my collection , basically bit the bullet and sold at the agreed price of the auction end , saying that sold a lunchbox for way over the odds so swings and roundabouts , a lot of it down to how much time you take over advertising your sale goods ! [8-)]

[Bigwheels_inc]

Ive had this happen and you just have to accept it you win some and loose some ive sold loads of parts and rc cars on ebay and sometimes they get good money and sometimes im left way out of pocket £60-£100 down on what its worth or cost me and other times ive bought cars like a traxxas dodge viper nitro with everything rtr for £35 and sold it for £100

you just have to accept it and move on

Pete

[Acto-Tuned]

Maybe I should just start bidding on these items and see
what I end up with. But at the same time I’m a nice guy and I don’t want to feel
like I’m robbing the person I buying from.



Ole

[Wrc action]

It all depends on what someone is prepared to pay for it. I have had items go for virtually nothing and others do amazingly well. Just have to accepted it if you put a low start price and no reserve.

cheers Ryck

[buc605]

Totally agree, if the auction starts low and there is no reserve then the seller should let it go for the end price and be happy, otherwise put a reserve on it. A couple of weeks back I won 12 items off the same seller, all small rc parts and prices were between $1 and $5 and the cost of postage from the USA to New Zealand worked out at $16, but he invoiced me for $50 and openly stated that he wasn't happy with the auction prices and wanted to get some extra money by inflating the postage cost. After a few emails he finally dropped the postage to $25 which I paid.

[T.C~Tamiya]

Here's the eBay terms...

When a seller lists an item on eBay, and a buyer bids for and wins that item, the seller and buyer have entered into a contract. Both members are expected to honour that contract. In accordance with that contract, the seller may not:

1. Fail to deliver an item for which payment was accepted.

2. Significantly misrepresent an item by not meeting the terms and item description outlined in the listing.

3. Refuse to accept payment for an item at the end of a successful sale.

4. Refuse to accept a buyer’s PayPal payment using a credit card if the seller included the PayPal logo in the listing which signifies the seller will accept PayPal payments. Sellers are not permitted to state in their listings that PayPal payments made via credit card will not be accepted

______________________________________

If you put something up for auction with no reserve then you have to be prepared to accept the possibility of the item ending at your starting price or at lower price than you may have hoped, I've had a few items in the past that have ended way less than I'd hoped but I always sent them with good grace.

What I tend to do now though is put a "buy it now" price on most of my listings, costs more to list that way but avoids the nail bitting.

[backtomyroots]

Good topic.  I have listed several complete r/c kits lately and none of them sold for what I truly wanted.  I had to re-list them after lowering the reserve price and eventually dropped that too.  The way I look at it is you will only get what someone is willing to pay.  Of course I also listed one item several months ago that didn't sell at my buy it now price but I did sell it privately for more than what it was listed for [].  So, basically, you win some - you lose some.  As far as postage I use the Canada Post site to estimate and if it's a little bit more than quoted I pay the difference.  If it is drastically more to post than quoted I inform the buyer and give the option to terminate the transaction (only happened once though).

I feel your pain for combined postage, one seller has a ton of txt-1 parts I want but he wants $14 per item to ship [:^)].  I don't think so - I guess I'll go without because that is ridiculous !  I know for a fact most of the items I want would be covered by the initial postage fee in one envelope.........but I digress.

[Tamiya King]

Well, that is what reserve is for. You set a reserve and if it isn't met you don't have to sell. But people tend to go agains the rules on eBay and add a little paragraph in the auction saying if it doesn't reach this amount I don't have to sell, or they will just cancel the auction at last minute. I hate those types, as I either always put a reserve to protect my investment or sell it for what it goes for if no reserve. I once sold a set of 4 watches for $2 and didn't charge enough for shipping and actually paid $2 out of pocket whan all was said and done, but I am honest and lived up to my end of the bargain. Not too many people can say that on eBay! [:$]

Not like the time when I was going to win a Monster Beetle almost Brand New built for $50 USD and the guy canceled the auction on me with 10 minutes left! (If you are out there, you are what makes eBay bad!) He made up some story that his eBay account was hacked, but that was bull! [8o|]

[felixjo]

What you can obviously do is have a friend bid high enough. This way you could try to max out the current bidding or substitute a reserve.

It's probably done more often in countries where the reserve function isn't implemented yet.

[DJTheo]

 But people tend to go agains the rules on eBay and add a little paragraph in the auction saying if it doesn't reach this amount I don't have to sell, or they will just cancel the auction at last minute. I hate those types, as I either always put a reserve to protect my investment or sell it for what it goes for if no reserve.

Actually what they do is illegal as they avoid ebay fees (of reserve) and we should all report those auctions to ebay, if all would involve just a tiny bit more ebay would be a much better place.

I personally also don't see the problem, you have either reserve or start price to save your money. Even if you don't use them, usually auctions starting at $1 make the highest ending prices and if you do a nice, detailed auction with good descriction and pics it will always make relatively good money. I don't think there are many good low ending auctions, just few crazy high ones (which often don't get paid though) as well most often utopic price illusions from the sellers, which think just because they overpaid for something or a similar "crazy" auction went up much higher, their item is worth much more, well it isn't, its only worth what people bid on it. Thats why I also never drawback when selling and most of the times I get good money for my auctions, just few times a bit less then I expected, but nothing dramatic, like everything in life, you can't always win.

Cheers

[jocktheglide]

had it happen to me so many times its insane I just let it go and sell it my loss their gain I would like to make up another handle name to bid against myself LOL like everyone does on the bay, but I dont so I let it be.  I once sold a novak synthesized module for the m8 for only 25 bucks funny thing was past auctions had them at 80  bucks they sell at stores for 110 dollars.  you tell me dude got a great deal I even listed the item the same as the person who sold it for 80.  Yet then again you can make money also like I had a mountaineer awhile back i bought it for 400 shipped not a bad deal I say it just needed to be cleaned up and it was fine I sold that in total for 900 dollars again I just cleaned it up and it sold for that much.  you win some you lose some.....

[technical.burP]

As a seller I do not expect any mercy. If I get a bad price, than this is my fault. If I am a buyer, I show no mercy too. "Pacta sunt servanda"!

 

[technical.burP]

I nearly sued a seller in Germany. After some pressure, he delivered on the last day of his deadline and so I dropped that.

[axemandavva]

As a seller; if an auction finishes I will sell at the price. If I really want to guarantee a fair price for an item I`ll set a reserve.

Very occasionally I`ll pull an auction if there in not enough interest. I think it is fair for sellers to do this now ebay have changed the rules such that auctions cannot be pulled within 24 hours of the finish time.

I have a complete superchamp finishing in a few hours that hasn`t made £70 yet. If it doesn`t go up somebody will get a real bargain! I know some bidders are put off by the £19.50 postage fee for special delivery on this one. This is ebay rules again: I`d happily ship the item (to the uk) standard parcels for less then a tenner if the buyer paid by cheque and trusted me to refund in the unlikely event of a lost or damaged parcel *after* a successful claim from the post office. (My feedback shows I am a trustworthy trader). But if I am to accept paypal I have no protection against chargebacks unless I send the item with a trackable method of postage, and to the best of my knowledge standard parcels does not qualify. I`d be breaking ebay rules if I specified a higher postage cost for paypal users, even though accepting paypal forces me to use a more expensive postage service.

Ebay rules claim to be about protecting the buyers and sellers, but sometimes they really they seem to be about maximising ebays profits and it is the sellers who pay the fees!

Getting back on topic, buyers and sellers are both looking for the best price they can get, so if I won a total steal I wouldn`t be too upset if the seller refused to let it go. I probably would not even neg them if they were polite and honest about it. The best bargains come from carboot sales, where one persons trash is another persons treasure

[Acto-Tuned]

I’m actually watching that auction but I have decided that I’m not (edit: I had apperently missed writing not). going to bid don it (sorry I have decided to not get anymore projects). Hopefully there are some snipers watching your auction.

But that raises another question. Can you tell how many are watching your auctions? And if you can is this something that misleads you and perhaps stops you from pulling an auction.

Ole

[axemandavva]

yes you can tell how many watchers you have, but not who they are. It gives you an indication of potential buyers, but of course the nicer an item the more people who will watch out of interest.

this car was a boot sale find so i`m quids in; but I loathe having to sell it... i`ve been up at 6am every sunday for 3 years looking for a SRB and this is the only I`ve come across. unfotunately a close friend is unwell and i`m having to help her out with rent on top of my own mortgage :/

[Redseven]

I just sold a Monster beetle with servos, msc and receiver last night, was offered £50 plus P&P on first day of auction but decided to let auction run.  It had 38 people watching it at close of auction but only made £36.......gutted[:'(]

Being an honest chap I shall still be sending it off to the winning bidder!!  This was the first time I had not used a reserve price, fed up with Ebay fees (not sure how their charges work but seems to add up pretty quickly!!) so thought I'd try 99p no reserve auction, hoping it would get a bit of auction fever going........never again!!

Redseven

[ClassicTamiya]

As has been mentioned, if the auction ends and it has a bid, you have to sell. It is a contract and as such you can get in trouble. My Paj made just £63 despite the number of people watching and a few interested emails. If you want to get a certain minimum price, put a reserve or start price on it. If you are going to worry about if it doesn't make good money, don't list it.

Just be careful on ebay and study the pics and descriptions well, it never hurts to ask questions either.

[jerrywasaracecardriver]

A while back I won a pair of modded top forces, for a really low price. These were from the UK. The auction listed as "will ship worldwide". When I went to pay, the seller backed out by saying, sorry mate, I dont ship to the US. In reality, his reserve was too low, and he expected bids to go much higher, and was dissappointed when they didnt. So, there will always be sellers who refuse to play by the rules. This is why we have reserve prices set, so as to not be obligated to sell when the price stays low. Check auctions for seller vintagerccars4u. I will probably end up keeping this item because my reserve is set to cover what I paid at a local retail shop for the item. At the same time, I had already won the same thing through ebay for much less. Oh well, its cool to have 2 of everything! But hey, Im taking offers on this, especially from TC members. I just want to spread the love and not lose too much on it.

[Thehuzman]

Although I personaly let my stuff go for whatever the highest bid is, there have been some sneaky shill bids from people bidding on their own stuff from an account set up from a foreign ebay. Person wins auction and then relists without having to pay ebay fees because Seller doesn't ship to that country.

If you can't be bothered to put a reserve on it, the market place will tell you how much its worth. 

[Tamiya King]

I nearly sued a seller in Germany. After some pressure, he delivered on the last day of his deadline and so I dropped that.

I have been there and done that. Before Xmas this year I won a bid on a Limited 12" C3PO doll in a box kit that was very rare, and won it for $16 USD shipped. The guy tried and play it off after I paid him. I didn't want my money back through Pay Pal as I wanted the Doll, it was a gift to my older daughter I was going to give her for Xmas.

In the end, I looked up info on eBAy, Googled and Yahoo'd the badword out of his name. Found out his address and phone number and called and left 50 messages saying I had relatives that lived near him that were going to call local authorities and have him sued for it.

In the end, after 2 months of calling and emailing, he finally got scared enough that he sent it. My daughter was very pleased with the present Santa gave her. her is a pic of it:

[Rabiedmushroom]

Good for you Tamiya King! []

There's no way I'd have the patience to hound a buyer for such a long time for $16. Well done!

(Cool pressie BTW) []

To the original question about pricing - I suppose it makes a huge difference to attitude whether you are selling stuff as a hobby/just to make a few quid for personal gain, or for business purposes.