more unethical users of ebay

[thfcbasil]

Rare Spurs Japan X1 away tour programme 70/1 about to bid with 30 seconds to go. No bids and price of £24.99 just about to put £49 down and hoping for a bargain. Seller ends listing andewc123 if anyone wants to know. Not what I would call ethical. I have sold items getting less than I had hoped for but equally had higher bids than expected, this is the risk we take. I have messaged him and told him what I think!!! Politely unfortunately.

[manchesterunitedman1]

thfcbasil wrote:

Rare Spurs Japan X1 away tour programme 70/1 about to bid with 30 seconds to go. No bids and price of £24.99 just about to put £49 down and hoping for a bargain. Seller ends listing andewc123 if anyone wants to know. Not what I would call ethical. I have sold items getting less than I had hoped for but equally had higher bids than expected, this is the risk we take. I have messaged him and told him what I think!!! Politely unfortunately.

I was under the impression that a seller cannot remove their item in the last 12 hours of an auction, well that is how it was, WASN'T IT?-so when did it change?.

[thfcbasil]

Hi, They can providing there is no bid. The reason he gave was "an error in the listing" when it should have said " i want more than this for it".

[thfcbasil]

Hi, They can providing there is no bid. The reason he gave was "an error in the listing" when it should have said " i want more than this for it".

[seand]

in fairness you were by your own admission 'hoping to get a bargain' by bidding at the last moment to avoid other bidders and hopefully give the seller less than YOU thought it was worth! I guess you were playing the game but he was pulling a fast one, he might disagree!

[thfcbasil]

The seller has the option to put a reserve price or a higher starting bid and opted to do neither. The vast majority of bids on ebay happen in the last minute. There may well have been a number of other people doing exactly as i did. The fact the bidding was ended is without doubt unethical. He should have had a reserve price or a starting bid higher than the one he had or taken the risk as to what the item sells for. It is exactly the same when a seller claims it has been lost in the post when in fact they have decided the final price was not to their liking. Would he have returned half the amount if it had sold for double what he expected? NO.

[seand]

Agreed thfcbasil, I think my post may have come across as unduly harsh on you, apols if it did. Certainly pulling it was unethical, immoral and taking the piss. Bidding a bit earlier would have closed off that avenue though, its a chance you take when you're trying to nab a bargain!

[thfcbasil]

No apology needed and you are right had I bid a minute earlier he would not have been able to pull the plug on it. Being old and cynical just maybe it would have got lost in the post only to miraculously turn up on ebay a few months later!!!!

[Dorking]

99% of my bids of ebay are done by auctionsniper with 5 seconds to go. I've seen auctions where there have been numerous bids in the last 30 seconds. Its his loss, as who knows what it might have ended at if he had let it run its course

[thfcbasil]

I agree, I was only going to bid £49 but I suspect it would have gone for £100 plus. He did reckon on his description that it would fetch well into three figures. He obviously got cold feet.

[Wullie]

a bit odd taking it off with less than a minute to go. I wonder how many people he had watching the item. To be fair, has it had no bids, then he is perfectly within his rights to remove it.
What annoys me is a Second division Championship media I was bidding on last week , 99p start. After a couple of days the highest bid was about £500 when it was pulled.
A few days later it reappeared. I put in another bid. A day later it was pulled.
Timewasters. I can't understand why the hell they didn't just put in a auction house.

[Poolec]

Sometimes it's worth putting in the minimum bid just to stop it being pulled then sniping it with a few seconds to go. An initial bid will often encourage others to bid early too and push the price up but at least it keeps it in the auction (I think!).
It's a game between buyer and seller. But sellers should not use ebay unless they price it for "Buy it now" or are prepared to take the risk on no interest if they want no listing fee. Otherwise they are just timewasters as has been said.
On a slight alternative to this a few times I have questioned why a seller appears to have managed to list another exactly the same programme (i.e. same photo and description) straight after a previous version sold to an apparently unconnected buyer for just over my bid - yeah right. Same principle, they should either "Buy it now" at a fair price or take the risk.
At the end of the day fair play will never happen throughout so we might as well all play the game as best we can !

[Kickoff3pm]

Having recently listed some items on ebay after a 3 year gap I think I totally understand the reasons behind the seller doing that.

As far as I'm concerned auctions are a gamble enough. I might concider doing it if a valuable item looked like it would go for pennies. People who use programs like snipe don't realise the stress they give to sellers and they don't understand it's the current price that put off other buyers.

So waiting to snipe often goes against you if you are looking for the cheapest price.

Mind you I think ebay should not use proxy bidding at all or give sellers the option not to have it.
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[Kickoff3pm]

Funny enough this is now annoying me too. Shortly after replying I checked ebay for some computer stuff I bid one yesterday.

The item was listed with starting £100. I always check the seller history so yesterday had noticed they has already sold the same item to 1***1 for £100 last week.

I assumed it was more of the same item so bid upto £115 but failed to win it.

This morning it's re-listed again and within moments of that a bid from 1***1 has been placed.

Crazy, FV on £100 it must have cost him over £20 already unless he fakes a cancel with ebay to refund his fees. Mind you if I go to a shop and buy the item he's failing to sell it would cost about £300-£400
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[slightfold]

I can understand the frustration when buyers 'pull' their items just before the auction closes. Surely this must be a rare event? Sellers should set realistic reserves, or if they don't have the bottle to use auction then use 'buy it now.'
Everyone wants to pay as little as possible so I can't see why Kickoff3pm reckons people who use snipe cause stress to sellers. Again,the above comments apply. In any auction the biggest bid at the end wins, so what is the difference if the time span is concentrated for the bidding? I have a son who makes his living from auctions. He generally either waits till everyone has finished bidding and comes in as a fresh bidder at the end ( if the price is'right') or fronts it and just keeps bidding until he has driven off the opposition. Mind you it does not work on everything he bids for.there are always those with deeper pockets or the 'must haves.'
The problem is that Ebay has made dealers out of everyone and there is an inevitability that we will eventually find a seller who is a waste of space

[martino]

Perhaps I am missing something but I cannot see the point of waiting until the last few seconds to bid on E Bay. If I want a programme and I am willing to pay £20 then I will stick in £20 as my maximum when I first see it.

If someone bids £21 then they value that item more than I do.

There is more psychology with bidding at live auctions when a late bid can win the lot.

[Wullie]

martino wrote:

Perhaps I am missing something but I cannot see the point of waiting until the last few seconds to bid on E Bay. If I want a programme and I am willing to pay £20 then I will stick in £20 as my maximum when I first see it. If someone bids £21 then they value that item more than I do. There is more psychology with bidding at live auctions when a late bid can win the lot.

This is not always a good idea. I was after a Chelsea item that all ready attracted a bid. There is no way I can compete with these Chelsea boys, if I bid £1000 for a piece of crap they would bid £1010 immediately after, so the only option is this wait till the last few seconds and try and sneak it. Sometimes it can work. A big bid at the last second often leaves the other bidder no time to react.

[slightfold]

I don't use sniping every time, usually for the more expensive items!. Perhaps some believe that sniping is unethical? It is because the auction is time limited that your late bid can win the day, though if other bidders are also doing the same, then the highest wins. I have to admit that I have occasionally been drawn into bidding wars, just another few pounds, and another few. At least by setting your maximum, there's always the chance that you might win, especially if the bid price is below yours near to the end.It's not unlike cards where you don't show your hand until you are ready, it is just another arrow in the bidding bow.

[manchesterunitedman1]

martino wrote:

Perhaps I am missing something but I cannot see the point of waiting until the last few seconds to bid on E Bay. If I want a programme and I am willing to pay £20 then I will stick in £20 as my maximum when I first see it. If someone bids £21 then they value that item more than I do. There is more psychology with bidding at live auctions when a late bid can win the lot.

All i can say is if you want to pay £20 and are willing to do so-if you keep your powder dry and snipe it/live bid with a few seconds to go you have a better chance of buying it for 20 quid or less than showing your hand a week earlier surely?. I find it incredulous that some experienced buyers with 1000's of good feedbacks openly become involved in playing tennis with ANYONE who turns up during the auction and when you look at the bidding if they would have kept it calm and quiet to the last moment they may not have won it but the price would have been kept down, many experienced ebay buyers act like novices which as i said earlier i find incredible.
This is a view opposite to yours but you certainly stand more chances of winning that by being bypassed a week earlier by leaving it to end. I would say and i think the statistics will show that the vast majority of wins come from bids in the last 10 seconds-so what is the difference? you bid 7 days ago and were blown out so there is nothing to lose and perhaps something to gain?. Each one to their own i guess-just a few of my thoughts on the subject.

[Wullie]

I never understand the unethical view. If your team scores a winning goal with the last kick of the game, is this unethical ?
I myself have been blown out of the water at the last on a few occasions by Leslie. Good luck to him.