What Is Your Understanding Of The E-Bay Buying And Selling Policy?

I'm not sure what the actual policy is, but I can't see a problem with it, really. Is it possible to edit the auctions while they're running, and add a 'buy it now' option for 10 quid? It's been a while since I sold anything on there, but I'm reasonably certain you can edit some aspects, at least. If that seems unfair to the other bidders, bear in mind they're going to be notified of any changes to the auction by email; they have every chance of taking the 'buy it now' offer too. Is this an original Mr. Frosty? I remember those as a kid, and I'm not sure if they still make them. If it was, you probably let it go for way below the collector's value.

Hi Darkwing. I have bought and sold a lot on Ebay and on a few ocassions I have been asked to sell outside. This is totally against their policy and I never would. I would have been really peeved about the winner being the one that offered the £10 and getting for £1.90 though but obviously really wanted and it has gone to the home is it now supposed to be with. Your son when putting item up for sale even though starting at 99p could have put a buy it now price on the item of say £15 then if someone desparately wanted it before the auction ended they could have bought but wouldn't have received a bargain £1.90 certainly was. I put a buy it now often as some items I don't want to sell for less than this price. Ellie :D

no report to e-bay but should always put bunow tag on it then the one that goes the highest still gets it might have to have put !0 buy now or something like that. and I dont know why they couldnt buy it staight form you if ya had with held it.

I would have done what your daughter did. I feel it was unfair of the person who wanted it to ask for it in advance. I do not know the policies but the morally correct thing to do is what your daughter did. It may have been an Ebay spy and could have gotten her in a lot of trouble. Your daughter did the right thing. Good job!

Good Morning Darkwing, I thought I'd pop over here for a minute to see what's going on and here you are. I've been selling and buying on Ebay for years. No one should be able to contact you outside of Ebay and all transactions should be made through Ebay only. This protects the seller and the buyer from scammers. It is against Ebay's policy to do this and your daughter-in-law did the correct thing...no doubt about it. It's a shame she lost money but at the same time if this person for some reason or another decided not to pay your daughter-in-law, Ebay will step in to help. I myself, would have reported them. Have a great day sweetie.

I think eBay does have an option in their system to end the auction early, stating the item is no longer available. Your daughter also could have claimed their was an error in the listing and ended early. Did she do the right thing. Morally, yes she did. I've been the high bidder on items that were ended with less than 30 minutes remaining and these were the reasons that were used. The real reason was the item wasn't being bid on, and the seller just wasn't going to sell the item for the current high bid. In these days of eBay, with the insane fees a seller is charged... listing fees, final value fees, Paypal fees and no protection against non-paying bidders (other than not leaving them a positive feedback) I will no longer have any problem pulling an auction that hasn't reached a price I'm happy with. Currently, I set auctions at a price I'm already happy with selling the item at. If it only receives one bid, that's okay. Multiple bids, I'm very happy. I don't end auctions early to accept outside offers, even if it means I sell the item for less than the offered price. As far as reporting the bidders to eBay, no I wouldn't. First off, eBay really doesn't do much to buyers unless they don't pay for items. For making offers to end early, the only thing they might do is warn them about their policy. Most likely the bidders would never bid on one of your daughter's items again. It does stink that she sold an item for far less than she could have sold it for privately, but I think she did the right thing. I'd consider setting a price that she's happy with selling items for, that way she's never disappointed.

As a marketing type myself, this is one of them strategies, where some of the same buyers try to unsettle the sellers confidence in their listings by offering a bit more than the sellers starting price even though they may have bidded already at a lower price, thus quite often walking away with the item attained by some mystical powerselling hustler method!!

I am not so sure about the Rules there I know when my Son put something on Ebay a couple of years ago he was contacted by this Person to my Son kept it on Ebay and this Person out bid them all the time He wanted my Son to send the Item to him and my Son refused until he had the Cheque as I thought something was not right, he sent the Cheque, we put it in the bank 3 Days later my Son got a call from the bank as the Cheque was a fraud big Investigations went which involved Ebay to, so I really do not think that People should contact the Seller and yes they should be reported as soon as they do because of this sort of thing happening Ok they only got £1.90 but it is safer that way In my Sons Case we where talking more money then that as it was a Car he was selling

I used to sell for several years on Ebay and here's what I know. It is against policy to offer outside Ebay offers. The buyer making the offer should be turned in b/c they are violating the policies by offering to do so. If the buyer does agree to it and is caught (and they do set up situations to purposely catch ppl doing this) they can be banned from Ebay. Your daughter in law did the right thing however she should also have sent the emails or messages from the two ppl to the Ebay staff so they know that these ppl are doing this. **AT PEACE WITHIN** ~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~

I have to say that as far as I am aware you are correct about the ebay policies and if your son and daughter in law had withdrawn the item and then sold it to one of these bidders they could have been banned from ebay forever. You can set a reserve so I may have withdrawn the item and then relisted it with a reserve price if I did anything but as it stand I definitely think they did the right thing! xxxx

Hi Sweet I have been selling since the early 90's. I never sell things that are loaded on ebay in an outside sale. I send a short email telling them to bid if they are interested. A friend lost her ebay account for doing this. I suspect someone from ebay asked to buy the item. She did it 3 different times. You know that greed will get you in the end. xoxoxoxoxo

i wouldn't want to be in your daughter-in-law's situation. it's really hard to accept that i've rejected an offer that is so much better than what i actually got. guess i would have done the same thing as your daughter-in-law since there is already bids on the auction. don't think i'll report it though, as the seller merely made an offer. the no-sell outside e-bay policy is crafted to protect buyers and sellers. sometimes sellers are approached by scammers who offered a much higher price for the item but failed to pay after the item is delivered. cheers ;p

I would only report people being aggressive or unlawful on Ebay. Ebay try and make as much money as possible so they will obviously do their best to stop people trading off their site. They lose their commission you see. She could have withdrawn the item and then added it as 'buy it now'. Then that would be abiding by the policy, but then why does the buyer want to purchase off Ebay? Ehey would be protected partly with the feedback system so it looks odd that they want to buy off Ebay. Perhaps they just wanted a fixed price? I wouldn't report them anyway!

Don't have a clue what you are talking about . . . I guess i have to be in your country to understand it.

i never actually sell or buy items from ebay before... so i don't really know how the system works... i thought ebay should state the policy clearly in their TOS... but your daughter-in-law is doing the right thing even though she suffers lower price... take care and have a nice day...

I agree when selling to ebay you should abide to their policies, even though it's a loss of money. It's too bad they got it at such a low bid though. I would use a higher starting price or a reserve price to prevent this from happening. Or use 'buy it now or best offer'. In that case you have more power over what happens in your listing. I hope that helps.

I didnt think you were allowed to contact the seller outside of ebay. How do they get the email address? I always thought that ebay kept that private. I dont think its right though. Same with selling the item before the auction ends. I didnt even know you could withdraw it. I would of done the same as your daughter-in-law, even though it would of bought in more money. The downside, i suppose, is that she would of got more money, but she did the right thing. If i was watching an item that i was interested in and it was taken off prior to the end of auction i wouldnt be happy. Im not sure about the reporting of them, i dont know how that all works on ebay, but i think they were in the wrong to make contact. Best wishes to you, Darkwing and take care my friend xxxx

I know some of Ebay's rules have changed since I last sold 2 years ago. But my understanding was that you should not engage in transactions outside of Ebay. I think that was more for protection of the buyer, though, than anything else. I do believe it goes against their policies to engage in a transaction like what you are talking about, but I think usually it is the seller attempting it, not the buyer. I definitely think she was right to refuse the transaction.

It is a bummer that you could have gotten more money for it. But it is much wiser to stick with ebay policy in case of scams.

Hello DarkWing, I don't really know much about E-Bay, but My husband does because he has done buy and sell on them. In my veiw I thin if you are selling something on e-bay you should stick to it,its not fair on other bidder, people should not come and offer outside of e-bay, once its on e-bay thats it. Regards Tamarafireheart.