But it's eBay!

[Betweenshades]

Part of my job is selling TV parts online on our website and eBay (they're linked- all I have to do is start a listing on eBay and it shows up on our site. LOVE it!). When you sell items on eBay for a set price, you have the option to let people make an offer on it ("Best Offer," which differs from an actual auction). You can either accept their offer or send them a counter offer. The system works shockingly well.

About once a week I get a schmuck wanting to buy a $100 part for $10 (or something similar). I'll counter with something reasonable with a note saying why and that's that. They either accept the offer or ignore it.

THIS flipping guy emails me back in a huff. He didn't counter my counter, just emailed me. He wanted to know why his insanely lowballed price was declined (even though it wasn't- I offered him a crazy cheap price, but not to where I'd loose money like HIS offer). After I repeated my reasoning, he was like "but it's eBay! You have to sell it at that price!"

*facepalm*

No. No I don't. Thanks for playing. Now to finish my emails. :P

[shankyknitter]

"Dear bargain hunting EW-

Just because it's on e-bay doesn't mean it's an auction. Even if it was they could put a hold on it so it wouldn't sell until it hit a certain price. Offer something reasonable next time.

Sincerely,

Common Sense"

Sorry you needed to put up with that nonsense.

[sld72382]

If a customer places a bid on Ebay and wins the auction with that bid, then the seller has to sell the item to the customer at that price. Sucks to be them for not setting a reserve.*

Best offer is - as you said - totally different. If the customer doesn't like your final price, then sod him!

*One of the notable cases was last year when a dealer in California forgot to set a reserve on a car auction. The guy won with a price that was some $12,000 lower than MSRP (Car was a 2009 Challenger SRT). They initially refused to sell the car until the story was posted all over the internet.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Personally, I think reserves on ebay are asinine. I can just set the opening bid to the lowest price I'll accept and not have to pay an extra fee for the privilege.

Plus it can lose you bidders when they get tired of nibble-bidding and playing "guess the price." Or they could always ask you what your reserve is, and you can reveal it, because you do want to sell the item, don't you? Oh wait, once again you could've accomplished that by having the "reserve" be the opening bid.

From the OP, it sounds like they're listing parts at a fixed price, with the option for bidders to make an offer which may or may not be accepted.

[EricKei]

You'd think think that the system would automatically offer to set a reserve on high-ticket items like a car >_> Then again, it was the seller's responsibility, he probably set the starter bid waaaay too low. Sucks for him, but it's his own fault.

[sld72382]

You'd think think that the system would automatically offer to set a reserve on high-ticket items like a car >_> Then again, it was the seller's responsibility, he probably set the starter bid waaaay too low. Sucks for him, but it's his own fault.

Found a link to the story: http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/22/w...and-then-some/

Basically, dealer lowered the "buy it now" price because it wasn't attracting any takers, when they did that for some reason the reserve price got deleted. Some enterprising soul saw it and decided to pounce with an insanely low bid and won. However, the dealer refused saying it was Ebay's mistake so they shouldn't have to take a big loss. Cue posting all over the internet and mud being slung at dealer. Dealer loses and sells the guy a newer car than what he bid on PLUS two grand for accessories.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The Buy It Now price was $43,425 and the reserve (according to Glenn E Thomas) was $42,995. Then the dealer lowered the Buy It Now price to $43,425 and suddenly, somehow the reserve disappeared.

A.) Must be a typo someplace because it doesn't appear the price changed any.

B.) The reserve price and the buy it now price are $430 apart. Ebay charges a reserve price fee of 1% of the reserve on items over $200.

On a reserve of $42,995, that works out to....$429.95.

Clueless seller is clueless. Why set a reserve when the fee you'll pay is 5 cents short of the difference?

C). I'm going to guess the seller didn't set a reserve price when creating the listing and was trying to claim one later when he had a winning bidder. He deserves credit for making good on the deal.

[candyshopgirl]

we do ebay too.It brings in anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand a month. Well we had this woman bought a brand new peanuts linus from us. Well she got it and said it looked like nothing in the auction. Well she sent it back to us and sure the fuck enough it was even the same linus doll we had sent her. It was all dirty and was full of pin holes,like someone had stabbed it thousands of times.Well we looked up the womans feedback and sure enough others had this happen too. one was a xmas ball. The ball sent out was purple and the one recieved back was green. Ebay sided with the woman. So that was years ago and we are smarter now. So the yeah the guy was a fucking moron. I would block him from bidding on ur auctions every again. We have done it.

[Betweenshades]

I would block him from bidding on ur auctions every again.

Oh, I did that. I heart the blocking feature!

Sorry you needed to put up with that nonsense.

eBay is chalk-full of nonsense. But, it sure makes for some great posts. :P

[EvilEmpryss]

I quit doing the auction bit. All of my sales are fixed-price, though usually with a Best Offer option. It's a little more expensive, but I never worry about losing a $25 book to a $5 bid. For items that I have multiples of, it also means I list it once and it doesn't end until the stuff sells out.

As for the car: The excuse that the reserve price "disappeared" is BS. While the box may, indeed, have gone blank after the price was changed (though I have my doubts), it is the seller's responsibility to make sure the listing is accurate before posting it.

And I agree with the reserve price being a bad idea. Most are set way too high to begin with, and I won't waste my time bidding on something that I might not actually get if the seller decides to be a whiny bitch. If you make that the starting price you might lose bidders, but you'll definitely get what you want for it if it sells.

[Andara Bledin]

Personally, I think reserves on ebay are asinine. I can just set the opening bid to the lowest price I'll accept and not have to pay an extra fee for the privilege.

There is one reason, and one reason only, why you would go with a reserve as opposed to setting your opening bid at the lowest you're willing to accept: When you have good reason to expect a bidding war. This work almost exclusively for upper end current pop culture fads and popular memorabilia items.

My work won't even respond to ridiculous lowball offers. In fact, they set a minimum offer. They won't accept that minimum, but it's enough to open a dialogue.

^-.-^

[lupo pazzesco]

Oooooh, I keep track of our book listings on half.com, and I get those kinds of offers several times a week. We list a new book that retails for $130 online for $90....and we get people sending messages asking if we'd sell it for $45.

Um, no. No. I laugh at you. I send back the message saying that I can't change prices, our corporate HQ sets them. So sorry. Really. This is my sorry face. ---->