Think I am giving up on Ebay for the final time

[sinjans]

Ebays balls--------Your mouth. Thats just how it is.

 

[Garbz]

benhasajeep for someone who doesn't seem to understand contract law as it applies to auctions, you have a very inappropriate signature. Maybe you should google some terms like "invitations to treat", "offer and acceptance", and "revocation of offer".

By the way as a buyer you have the same right to retract the bid as the seller has to retract the offer.

Or we can just keep claiming that ebay is evil when the simple fact is you don't know how auctions work legally.

 

[Fedaykin]

I only buy Buy it Now and from Top Rated sellers, precisely to avoid such problems and others. Even then I still save a lot of money by buying on Ebay. For example I'm getting my first DSLR, a Canon Rebel XS with 18-55mm kit lens brand new from an authorized Canon seller(a retail store, Murphy's camera) through Ebay for $460.

 

[den9]

craigslist is where its at. no shipping, no days of bidding before you can even see the product, then another few days for shipping and handling. it could take weeks before you win an auction at a good price. listing is a pain in the ass too, then getting money from pay pal to your checking account takes atleast a day.

 

[benhasajeep]

benhasajeep for someone who doesn't seem to understand contract law as it applies to auctions, you have a very inappropriate signature. Maybe you should google some terms like "invitations to treat", "offer and acceptance", and "revocation of offer".

By the way as a buyer you have the same right to retract the bid as the seller has to retract the offer.

Or we can just keep claiming that ebay is evil when the simple fact is you don't know how auctions work legally.

Another eBay quote for you -

Requirements

Your ability to end a listing early depends on the amount of time remaining in the listing and whether the listing has received any bids.
If there are 12 hours or more before the end of the listing, you can end the listing early without restrictions. If there are any bids on your item when you end the listing, you’ll be asked whether you want to cancel the bids or sell the item to the high bidder.
If there are 12 hours or less before the end of the listing, your ability to end the listing early depends on whether there are any bids on the item and whether the item has a reserve price.
Number of bids on the item
Can the listing be ended early?
No bids, including no canceled bids
Yes, as long as there aren't any cancelled bids.
One or more bids
Yes, but you must sell the item to the high bidder.
One or more bids, but the item’s reserve price wasn’t met
No

I underlined the rule by ebay that was not followed!

I have been on eBay for over 10 years now. I have gone to several "real" auctions where I had to register and either have a bank letter or bring a certified check with me to bid. So, yes I do have a little experience with auctions - Ebay and Real ones!!!!

Not to mention my wife is in real estate and deals with property auctions fairly frequently as of late!!!

 

[Garbz]

Ending early and withdrawing something from sale are two very VERY different things in auctions. (I actually didn't even know ebay allowed early ending of auctions)

- One indicates the seller no longer offering the item for sale.
- The other is a breach of the rules of auctions and (in Australia anyway) it is illegal to then sell the item to a registered member of that auction who wasn't the highest bidder at the time.

So still aborting an auction before it's end is a termination of the contract and perfectly legal.
Ending an auction early creates a binding contract with the highest seller at the time.

 

[Romphotog]

An old lady was selling a baseball card. She got I think a $500 bid on a card costing $25,000. When she found out later how much the card was worth, she deleted the posting/withdrew it or something.
People sell stuff in estate sales for a few bucks not knowing they are worth thousands. I suggest you watch 'The Antique Show'.

 

[Sbuxo]

I only do Buy Nows.

 

[Joves]

I dont even go to Fleabay to look. I was disgusted with them a few years ago and left. As usual with many of the great things the initial concept is great and works well but, then the get successful and forget what got them there. Problem is there are far too many people using them and, until something better comes along they will get away with what they choose to.

 

[eriqalan]

Haven't really had that problem and have bid on over 2,000 items - then again I bid low and don't usually win

What does upset me is "auction sniper" and other programs that you can set to bid like in the last 3 seconds so no one can respond (you put in a low preliminary bid and no one else bids on it so you don't raise that bid) - people can get really good deals as you think you have won it at a certain bid and at the last second they bid far enough above that they get the item - then turn around and sell it for more

Just shrug it off and move on - I have won enough to be happy

I have noticed that some will use ebay AND craigslist AND local advertising and when it sells craigslist they cancel the ebay item; I have also had notices from ebay when they have to close someone's account because they approach the bidders to sell it off ebay and not pay ebay fees

Yes ebay is a seller's market; they should police it better, do more to eliminate google-spamming (for example a filter relates to a size - not a camera; yet the google-spammers will say for example a 58mm filter is for Canon 50D, XSi, T1i, T2i, 500d, 550D, ... and on and on)

I wonder why no one has started a better site?

 

[Garbz]

There's one thing I never understood, why not place the maximum bid you're willing to pay. Ebay auto bids. If someone else is willing to pay more for the same then sucks that's how auctions work. However by keeping your bid low and getting sniped you're ultimately letting the snipers get away with paying less then they would if you bidded to your highest point to begin with.

ebay does not place your bid as it. It'll only place your bid high enough to beat the next highest bidder. The process seems so wonderfully automatic that I'm surprised sniping is even needed. I get the feeling people aren't using the system right and thus snipers can actually take advantage of it.

The sniping apps still have a maximum bid. They just do in the last minute what ebay does automatically anyway from what I know....

 

[eriqalan]

You would make a great used car salesman - always getting the most out of the customer

1) the more bids there are on one item the more people think it is worth. Insanely I can bid on 10 of the exact same item from the exact same seller and those with more bids will sell higher. Putting a high bid makes it seem more desirable so people will bid 4 or 5 times on that item before they feel it is too expensive - the same item will sell for twice as much

2) - the point of these programs is they only have to pay 50 cents, a dollar more; you might have raised you bid if it were going to be only 50 cents to a dollar more, that is why they wait until the last second

your argument is the rich man's argument - he should get the item because he has more money and can afford the sniping program; I would like to see ebay lock down bids to previous bidders in the last hour; 60 seconds between bids in that last hour

Also have you any idea how many of these last second bids turn out to not pay for the item? All they do is waste everyone's time

 

[benhasajeep]

My problem with ebay wasn't the bidding process. I would say I was a moderate buyer on ebay with about 450 purchases from them. I happen to be a sniper. I don't use the programs. Just I never bid until the very end. And only bid on items that are in my willing price range. I don't get caught up in the competition thing like people can.

My complaint was they allowed an auction to be terminated against their own rules (posted rules anyway). They would not answer my question on why it was allowed to be cancelled contrary to the listed rules. They said contact the seller. Who would not reply to me. Then ebay themselves stopped replying to my questions / complaints!

 

[usayit]

Much of what is said would be resolved if ebay would implement a "real" English auction. Most importantly the part that the auction continues on with no end until the highest bid survives any higher bids. This would benefit both sides: Sellers would get true highest price for said item rather than just how high the bid got in the last seconds. Buyers always get a chance at the bidding higher.... rather than who can snipe. New incoming buyers would be coming into a more familiar bidding style that is most known and common.


With that said.. I have better things to do with my time. I usually just keep bidding what I think the item is worth and leave it be. I almost always eventually win.... eventually.

 

[Garbz]

Would never work. This relies on each buyer being in the room at the same time looking at the same piece with intent to buy. The idea would be nice but doesn't scale well internationally over the net. To get maximum gains the delay for the hammer fall would need to be quite long, and if there's last minute activity it could significantly prolong the auction.

The time based system with ebay acting as your agent gets maximum sales anyway. With the current system buyers do have the chance to bid to their reserve price. Ebay handles that for you. That's why if you see an item that currently has $10 but your reserve is $100, then enter $100 in the window and click bid. Sniping only works against people who don't know how ebay works. If the sniping software 1 second from the end bids a max of $90, you will still win thanks to ebay automatically raising your bid, if the sniping software was set to $110 then you lost but you should have lost in a real world auction anyway, or you have no real concept of reserve price and are bidding emotionally (bad thing to do).

Sniping should have absolutely zero effect on you if you have a reserve price and use it appropriately.