A month or two ago I tried to bid on a Pivot Mach 5.7 frame that was sitting at something silly like £400 with a minute to go. I bolloxed the bidding due to shite phone signal and watched it sell for just that. I felt really sorry for the seller cos my bid, even if not successful, would have netted him another couple of hundred quid.

If a couple of bidders had run the auction up to 4x what he was expecting, do you think that he would have refunded part of it?

As other posters have pointed out, there are ways (reserve, starting price, etc.) that the seller can set a minimum. He did not, so pay what you owe and enjoy whatever you bought.

My mate got a set of Oakley skiing “googles” for 99p a while back. You can get some bargains on Avid “Elexir” brakes (or indeed “breaks”) sometimes too.

Sometimes it pays to be a spelling nazi.

There is an app that searches for common misspellings of items I think.

Had a few:
£5 for brand new XTR front brake and disc – buyer meant to put a £5 res, but still went through with the sale.
£25 for brand new Turner rear triangle
£35 for brand new Northwave Celcius boots
£50 for a CCDB in the ‘unicorn’ 6.5 x 1.5 size

Also been stung with my own £1 res auctions, win some, lose some.

It’s funny you ask. Had my eye on a Ribble Audax on for £1. Forgot on the weekend in question and ended with no bidders. If I had won I’d have given the chap £20 when I collected.

It all evens out, so I wouldn’t have felt guilty at all.

As someone mentioned, Ebay does have this reserve thing you can use, if you’re particularly worried about price.

You’re lucky he doesn’t just refuse to sell it.

I won a Mondeo estate a couple of years ago, a good price but not crazy cheap and the guys just refused to sell it saying he was “hoping for more”

He’d specificity listed it “no reserve”, so I left -ve feedback and reported him to ebay who did bobins. same car was for sale the following week an only made £50 more than I won it for, who knows if he sold it that time.

Annoying especially as I’ve sold stuff before which didn’t reach what I’d hoped for but still sold it.

If people are too stupid not to put a realistic reserve on an item, that’s their fault!

Cheers,
Jamie

haveyou had the old “its been stolen/its broken/cant find it ” email yet

I sold the seat stays off my old Top Fuel last week. Properly tiny market, but actually expensive, and if two people need them then woop de do, potential to make reasonable money.

Listed at 99p, one bloke wanted them, so sold for 99p. I then had to post them to Germany! Passed on the postage costs, but with fees, hassle, etc I’m out of pocket, which is a shame! Still, someone’s got some new seat stays, I was never going to use them, so they’re not cluttering up the garage!

I’d not want the buyer feeling guilty, he’s just done rather well out of it!

njee – Just wondering why you didn’t start the auction at something like £25?

starting auctions with a higher price incurs higher listing fees iirc. as does having a reserve. shill bidding FTW.

I’ve actually refunded part of the amount on something when the buyers have paid well over the odds. They got carried away and it really wasn’t worth what they were prepared to pay.

maybe I’m a mug? maybe I’m just nice? All I know is I’m happy being me.

Hah nice one gogg, maybe you were just worried they’d neg you when they got the items and realised they’re actually a pile of dog doo!

My item was picked up on tuesday and I’ve been out today giving it a bit of welly on some bmx tracks; very pleased indeed. Win some lose some eh? I’m veering away from using ebay to sell anything these days. I don’t like the way they take so much from sellers now, and do very little for their share of the money. They have a monopoly on a specific market and for some reason they haven’t been successfully challenged.

Dan, no I just didn’t think it was worth that much, rather than being worried about a neg.

£23 for a pair of brand new bontrager 29-3’s they’re something like £40 each, so mushn’t grumble

OTOH, I’ve sold an unused (but rare) WP ink ribbon to someone, she paid a decent amount, I had a used ribbon (no idea of how used) as well, so chucked that in as a sweetener. Karma..

I’ve had folk give me extra for postage (esp. books) when I’ve put less than it cost for P&P (in early days when I was naive).

Scapegoat – Member
A month or two ago I tried to bid on a Pivot Mach 5.7 frame that was sitting at something silly like £400

I was looking at that too. My other half distracted me at the critical moment and like you I watched it go in disbelief for under £500 😥

I sold two old derailleurs for 99 pence each plus postage, I just wanted to get rid of them so I feel quite happy that they will get reused.