Ebay sale question

[milou]

Hi,

There seems to be a few Ebay sellers here so could I please have a little bit of advice on an item I'm selling.

I'm flogging my son's hardly used GameCube with a couple of games. There's about 30 hours before the auction ends - there's no bids but a couple of watchers. The starting bid is a tenner.

I've had an email from a potential buyer, quote:

"Hi Would you accept £35 including postage to sell tis item to me I can pay directly either wit Paypal or cheque Kind Regards"

Personally I'm happy with that price but it does seem that this is a form of off-site bidding that contravenes Ebay rules. I've searched and this seems to be closest result:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/solicitation-offsite-sale.html

What do you reckon? Cheers

(If I was the potential buyer, I would put a bid in for £10 and my max bid at £35. He/she might get the Cube for a tenner assuming no other bidder...)

 

[Tom]

Theres a thread for this, probably best to merge the two, but I've had a few of these requests, my answer has always been:

"If you want it, bid for it".

If they respond negatively, they're time wasters. Also, by selling outside of Ebay, you bypass the sellers protection that Ebay and Paypal offer you.

 

[Jupitus]

I'll admit that I actually took this approach trying to bid on a rare video for my son. Reason I did it was to be sure I would get the video and I offered a fair price from the start, as appears to be the case here. I didn't want to run the risk of being outbid at the last moment, that's all.

Got refused, btw Got the video on my bid for a fiver less than I offered in email

 

[milou]

Cheers Tom & Jupitus - appreciate it.

 

[Damini]

I've shut down a sale with no bids on it, and sold it for the price I've been approached with. I'd never do it if there are bids already, but I can't see the harm if there aren't, plus then ebay doesn't get a cut (which is one of the reasons they say norty norty). Alternatively, get him to make a bid, end the sale early with him as the winner, and charge £25 postage or whatever to make it up to the amount.

 

[Guest]

Could you have put a buy it now price on it for £35.

Then the person could have just gone thru that process to get the item?

 

[Gray]

30 hours is a mighty long time, since on most consoles they only show on the first page or 2 with about 20 hours to go.

If it ends on Saturday, which is the date i always set the end date for, loads of people will come home from work, just at the right time and make a bid.

Id leave it until you have a few hours to go tho, it will get sold - people always make bids towards the end of an auction, as if there is rarely any bids, it means they wont pay more if its near the end of said auction

 

[Sar]

Yeah, 30 hours is plenty. I've seen Gamecubes on there with no bids literally sell for £50 in the last hour, with furious bidding having ensued.

Stick it out, and if you wanted a minimum price you should set a reserve price, or a starting bid.

 

[Trem]

Or link us to it so we can bid it up to say.....£30 for you

 

[milou]

Hmmm...11 hours to go and current bid is...£41!

 

[Gray]

Seee

Whats i say eh eh eh? Whats i tells ya

 

[milou]

Aye - final bid £70!

 

[Munkey]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4051923.stm <--- just read about that so watch out folks!

 

[Rubric]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4051923.stm <--- just read about that so watch out folks!

Old scam people used to use when buying second hand cars that one.

 

[Doh_boy]

As luck would have it my mate just got this email.

From: ola brown [mailto:
Sent: 30 November 2004 13:33
To: St Clair, Daniel
Subject: RE: 1996 VAUXHALL CORSA 1.7 D LS 3dr Hatchback



Hello,
Thanks for the e-mail.My Associate will send a Bank
Cheque of £2,900 to you which you will deduct £900.which is the
cost of your item from the money and send the remaining balance to my
Personal Assistant to arrange for the shipment of the item.The
remaining balance of the money will be sent to my P.A through western
union money transfer for the shipping so that we could pay our shipping
agency and they can book us for their next available cargo.I will like you
to know that it only take (1-3)working days for a Bank Cheque to get
cleared.
So i want to know if i can trust you on sending the remaining balance to my
P.A through Westernunion Money Transfer. To start with the procurement of
the
banker's Cheque, i will need the followiing info from you:Your full
address(street...,city/town.......,state..........., Country.......... and
.........postcode), your phone........ number.......... and
name to be written on the Cheque.Thank
Regards,
Gregory.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

As luck would have it my mate just got this email.

You really would have to be brain dead to fall for that That'll be half the population then!

 

[Doh_boy]

You really would have to be brain dead to fall for that That'll be half the population then!

Well he sent to us saying that he found it hard to trust a mail that had the words 'my associate' in it.