You will see on the listing that the item has no “Buy It Now’ price. This means it is not available to ‘Buy It Now’ so please don’t email me to ask me what the ‘Buy It Now’ price is.

Similarly I have listed the item as for ‘Local Pickup’ only so no, I will not package up the large, heavy and unwieldily item and organise a courier for you nor I am I prepared to wait in all day for said courier to collect it from me.

Seems fair.

What are you selling?

What are you selling?

Item one – A twin pushchair travel system with seats and carry cots
Item two – a Group 0 car seat and very heavy EasyFix Isofix base

Phew, I thought you were trying to sell Richard Wilson for a moment there. You’d have had trouble getting him to stay in the box.

You’d have had trouble getting him to stay in the box

you sure? I was led to believe he already had one foot in the grave…

In fairness, if a seller puts an item up for auction, but also with a buy it now price, once someone bids, the buy it now option disappears. So, the seller may still be willing to do the buy it now, even tho there’s been a bid. People coming late into the auction might be wondering if there was a buy it now at the start.

When I’ve been selling, I usually start at 99p, but have a buy it now at top price for those people who can’t wait it out 7 days.

Also, when some people ask for a buy it now, especially on more expensive items, I suspect it as being code for cancelling the item and doing a deal offline. ie seller saves massive ebay final fee, buyer gets a better price.

When I’ve been selling, I usually start at 99p, but have a buy it now at top price for those people who can’t wait it out 7 days.

Also, when some people ask for a buy it now, especially on more expensive items, I suspect it as being code for cancelling the item and doing a deal offline.
Fair points but I started the items at 99p and they are only at 99p-ish still anyway so anyone with sense would know there was no Buy It Now price on them.

TBH, I can’t do with the hassle of Ebay so just stick them up and try to sell in the easiest way possible, no faffing with Best Offers, BIN, Reserves etc.

TBH it sounds like you are just limiting your options to sell, next you’ll be complaining that it got a crap price. You really seem to have no clue about how ebay will shaft you and how you can do well out of this.

1) People making offers are your friend and make the whole thing less painless.
a) you can do a deal off ebay so you do not fall foul of assholes who decide to return “no working, or broken” items later. (Non ebay paypal transactions are only covered for non delivery, so no “not as described” shenanigans.) So your money is safer.
b) No worries about if the winning bidder is a child and will not ever pay. You send them your paypal details and they pay, then you end the auction stating that the item is no longer available. If they don’t pay you leave the auction running and sell normally. No loss, but more opportunity to make money.
c) If they want to do buy it now it means they are hot to trot and likely to pay more.
d) People really like to just go shopping and not wait and see if they win or not so you will capture more buyers..
e) If you take it off ebay then thats one less commission you have to pay.
f) You get your money faster.

What are your arguments for not taking offers?

2) Couriers make life easy.
a) My hermes and everyone else collect from my work, I package it up and leave it by my secretaries desk, she likes chocolates and compliments, everyone is happy.
b) My local parcel force office is open between 7:30 am -7:30 pm, as are many others so i can drop parcels off direct after printing and pasting the labels at home. No bother.
c) I often put the delivery responsibility on the buyer, as you have stated, but I at least try to be helpful that way they are more likely to pay more. Goodwill goes a long way.
d) If you are prepared to wait at home to meet a buyer than how much more difficult are the options detailed above?

If you don’t want ebay hassle then don’t use ebay. There are plenty of charities will take your goods for free! Or gumtree will let you advertise it with clarity on the price etc!

Alternatively they buyer is just asking two very common questions:

(1) Can we come to a deal on this so I don’t wait 7 days and then discover I can’t afford it. Personally if I am auctioning stuff it is because I want the best price so the answer is almost always no; however I did once get an offer like that which was too good to refuse.

(2) Are you unwilling/unable to ship this or just couldn’t find the option on ebay to say “its bloody big so if you want it work out how to get it home – at your expense”. (Basically that boils down to do you want the best price by accessing the whole market, or a possibly lower price from a narrower section of the market).

If these are big issues clarify the points in your ad text, then you can just ignore anyone stupid enough to not read the ad properly.

wouldn’t it be more useful posting this on your auction, or are you being plagued by stw’ers? 🙂

You will see on the listing that the item has no “Buy It Now’ price. This means it is not available to ‘Buy It Now’ so please don’t email me to ask me what the ‘Buy It Now’ price is.

I’ve not asked and then missed out on something I really needed because someone else asked and the seller agreed to a deal, now I always ask. Don’t like it? Tough poo poo!

You could just do a gentleman’s agreement and then take whatever cash turns up at the door first (yes, toys19, I’m looking at you 😛 )

Darcy. I only ever agree to sell when I have got the money in my account. Money talks and bulltwaddle walks.

Cut’n’paste your post into the Ebay listing.

It won’t help, but you might feel a bit better 🙂

😉

schrickvr6 has a good point, occasionally I’ve been the gentleman and played by the rules, only to have the item gone before the end of the auction. You can be sure that someone else has been doing a back door deal with the seller in the meantime.

The thing is, in the past I have said I would alter a listing and do BIN etc then the ‘buyer’ doesn’t buy it anyway.

If I didn’t need the space I wouldn’t sell them.

What is your buy it now price for the car seat?

The thing is, in the past I have said I would alter a listing and do BIN etc then the ‘buyer’ doesn’t buy it anyway.

Ahh the secret is to not do BIN, agree a price, but leave the item running until you receive PP payment, then end the auction.

Lots of good reasons for folk asking for a buy it now price.
As for couriers, I listed a tag along bike as collect only, but if someone really wanted it then I would be happy to wrap it up if they paid for the courier. No harm in asking, at least they are interested in your item.

I’ve seen the auction, why don’t you answer the question once and publish the response?

You’ve got to admit there’re some good points that’ve been made here Mastiles.

Making an offer and taking it off ebay is a win-win situation in a lot of cases, I certainly welcome offers and you can always ignore them.

You’ve got to admit there’re some good points that’ve been made here Mastiles.

Making an offer and taking it off ebay is a win-win situation in a lot of cases, I certainly welcome offers and you can always ignore them.
Aye, perhaps there is.

But I am not happy about going off Ebay – I put it on there and fully accept that I will get whatever the final auction price is – I really can’t be faffed with trying to do a deal outside of the normal procedure.

But yes – I am going to put notes on the auctions to state the BIN/delivery stance I have.

Well it’s actually less “faff” to deal outside of ebay… Are you not just being a bit obtuse? You a northerner? 😆

Go on…tell us how much you want, there must be a BIN price in your head 🙂

Well it’s actually less “faff” to deal outside of ebay.

Well now the auctions are running, perhaps not. I just want to let them run their course. Besides I get a buzz every time my phone beeps with another bid being made – Ebay Crack.

Go on…tell us how much you want, there must be a BIN price in your head

£200 for the pushchair (some go for £100, others £250 – mad), £75 for the car seat.

For me it’s just my shop window to attract the offers, then I always try to deal outside ebay, over half my activity ends in off ebay stuff.

cancelling the item and doing a deal offline. ie seller saves massive ebay final fee, buyer gets a better price

Maybe but I’ve not had anyone suggest that myself.

c) If they want to do buy it now it means they are hot to trot and likely to pay more.

You would have thought so but actually the only reason people ever seem to post is because they DONT want to pay what the current eBay value is.

They get one of two replies from me –

– make me an offer I can’t refuse and I’ll end the auction early
or, if i’ve done some research on an item before listing and I know what I’m hoping to get for it.
– the last one of these went for/average price over the last week was £X so I’m looking for that as a minimum.

Not once have I had a response that’s resulted in a sale. Timewasters the lot of them. I’m starting to just ignore them.

Simons nicolai-UK, I think you need some fishing lessons.

They make dumb offer, you counter gently but firmly, keep it gradual, some bite some don’t, I regularly get more than I expected and I do the past sale hunt to gauge my price too.

I recently sold a van on ebay. there were 50ish watchers. I was reciving 2-3 emails a day asking how much i’d be willing to let it go for. I named my price and got no response. the auction ended and the van reached a couple of hundred more than I was expecting

Well one of the people who mailed me (when I asked them what they wanted to pay) said they would pay £300 for the pushchair!

So I said, lets do it – PayPal me the money and I will pull the listing pronto – hell, I will even box it up for you if you want to organise a courier (they are 200 miles away and said they would drive up to collect it!)

Of course I haven’t heard back…

Well a big thanks to Toys and all the rest that want to do a deal off Ebay. No wonder they keep putting the fees up with all you people effectively defrauding them.

I’m with you M-F:

‘There is no buy it now. This is an auction. I will not meet you on a dark night in some Pub car park. I don’t care if you have the cash and can collect it tonight. Any questions about ‘buy it’ now will be ignored. I will not end the auction early because you want to do a deal for some pathetic amount of cash. So deck off!’

good call Marko

Marko +1

toys19

They make dumb offer, you counter gently but firmly, keep it gradual, some bite some don’t, I regularly get more than I expected and I do the past sale hunt to gauge my price too.

It’s an auction. If I’d wanted a fixed price and to haggle I could have stuck it on GumTree. I don’t want to spend time going back and forth with timewasters. The point of an auction is that you get the market value for it *today*. eBay is bloody good at that. The fees are getting steep though and I don’t understand the justification. They’ve got a lovely business where they just skim cash without ever touching the goods or cash. It’s not like their costs are going up.

Well a big thanks to Toys and all the rest that want to do a deal off Ebay. No wonder they keep putting the fees up with all you people effectively defrauding them.

Or maybe people have started “effectively defrauding” them because they keep putting fees up?

Oooooh Marko get you, defender of the big corporations. 😀

It’s an auction. If I’d wanted a fixed price and to haggle I could have stuck it on GumTree

You get more interest on ebay, bigger shop window.

OK anyway never mind, I was just just trying to be helpful. I find ebay works great and I normally do well there getting rid of my spares and stuff I no longer use. You guys are free to use it however you want.

Oooooh Marko get you, defender of the big corporations.

Not really. Stalinist Guardian reader, so screw the Capitalist pigs!

Seems to me you entered a contract with Ebay and then you want to break it. Where else would you do that so flippantly?

My name is Marko and I claim the moral high ground!

You can have it. I abandonded it a long time ago. No one dies or is remotely harmed by my lack of ebay scruples. In fact i think youy are being immoral wasting your moral outrage on such trivial matters. Next time it could have been a childs face.

Item one – A twin pushchair travel system with seats and carry cots
Item two – a Group 0 car seat and very heavy EasyFix Isofix base

aaahhh flogging all the unwanted baby gear… did this a while back and had millions of stupid fekin questions so i know what you mean!!…

we had a bloody nightmare with a quinny pram aswell, we described it as used, in good working order, it was sold but then they didnt want it so a claim was put in… (first time ebayer)

be careful!