Nice SD 102

[Cheshire Cat 4]

Well what a surprise
Fat wallet wins again

[Stelios_Rjk]

When I say that such posts are no good I am weird.

Now.. Cheers

[Adrian Dale]

Well what a surprise
Fat wallet wins again

The opposite is actually true: an ultra high bid at the end will always win; a negotiated settlement half way through gives a win win to both the buyer and the seller with out the risk or the potential of ridiculous high $$$ due to a "buy at any costs" bid

AJ

[Charles uk]

The ultra high bid at the end only wins if the item stays to the finish!

So really the ultra high bidder & the vendor are getting robbed!

[charlesp]

+1 Charles. I have been on the end of an eBay "intervention - the chap bought the item for rather less than my existing bid.

It's worse than that, of course. The person persuading the vendor to stop the auction early has obviously undermined the highest bidder, and deprived the vendor of the hammer price that would eventually have been established. He/she has also forced the vendor into dishonestly breaking eBay's Terms & Conditions (fibbing about a bogus reason for ending the sale early) and has most probably broken the law. Auction fraud isn't usually prosecuted, and it's a long time since I was involved in real auctions, but I'm pretty sure it's deemed as "well dodgy" to subvert the process.

It's all fine, of course, if the Vendor offers the item on a "Buy it Now" or "Best Offer" basis - other bidders can see that's what's offered and can act accordingly - but in this type of case it's just plain wrong on a number of levels.

So it's not "win-win". It's "cheat-lose-lose" in my book.

[headdownarseup]

HERE HERE
couldn't have put it better myself Charles.
I've been there a few times now. (very annoying isn't it)
One minute you're the high bidder, the next the item has been withdrawn. WHAT THE .......

makes my blood boil sometimes


jon

[charlesp]

Jon, its' what has turned me away from eBay, and the "greed" aspect of Seagulls has soured a bit of the whole experience, too.

We all like a bargain (I'm a Yorkshireman, so it's in the DNA), but this auction disruption business is, after all, not about getting one over on a stranger, it's about (most probably) getting one over on a mate. Actually in some cases two mates (vendor and high bidder).

[Hugz]

It is also defrauding ebay of their fees.

[Adrian Dale]

This is the conversation that we had to have, quoting a prominent Australian Politian.
I have been involved in two cases that have caused some consternation in the forum, the first an ultra-high bid that trumped all others at the end taking the value to almost double the expected price, which I lost and the second a few days ago, to avoid such an event, I made an offer through a uk friend that was ultimately accepted.
It is in my understanding that in an auction, unless specific auction house rules dictate otherwise, the seller can withdraw any time up to the point the item comes under the auctioneers’ control. Prior to that, whether advertised in catalogues or other media, a deal outside can be struck. With ebay the 'auction" runs for days, sometimes weeks where the seller has full control of his items and therefore is at liberty to close outside. I believe the two are in a way similar, only in the last few minutes of an ebay auction do bids become serious and by this time the seller has lost control and must honour the final offer. I don't see an ethical problem here, selling on ebay is simply a way of getting mass coverage and the highest price, negotiated deals are part of that. Having said that I have never sold on ebay so have no experience with the sellers’ point of view.
Clearly I have offended several of the forum members over this which is a pity, but there are two very polarised points of view here that will continue to play out. Above all, Ebay will continue to drive up prices of select items including spares that most of us are happy to exchange to see another motor running.
AJ

[JERSEYMAN]

[Niander101]

What are you shocked about ?

[Oyster 49]

That's pretty clear Jerseyman. by doing any deal out of eBay and most probably paying cash, then eBay have missed out on their fee linked to the selling price. when you advertise on that site you are accepting their terms and conditions, and sooner or later they will clamp down! Perhaps they should put a " Make offer" button in?

[Niander101]

They already have but its a sellers option if he likes.