Selling advice needed on current auction!

67standup

Two buyers are in a bidding war on one of my auctions; current bid is ~$500. One has a zero rating since 3/2004, the other has a 22 since 6/2001, but has been mostly buying DVDs, some modern stuff under $20.

If both of these bidders are bogus, what is their intention? I'm sending the item Registered or with mandetory insurance. I have 100% feedback, is there a motive there?

mikeschmidt

post a link to the auction item's bid history and we'll comment!

mikeschmidt

Here's the link.

I would send an e-mail to "ilovewebster". Member for three months with no feedback seems suspicious.... But e-mail him before you cancel his/her bids.

67standup

Thanks MS, I always forget that darn link after referencing it.

mikeschmidt

Crypto's bidding makes him look like a collector, at any rate

67standup

I cancelled the bids made by the zero feedback buyer.

AkbarClone

You did more than that....too bad for any snipers.

Also, how long did you give the zero feedback bidder to respond? Hopefully more than 1 hour.

I would have taken my chance on $510 payoff (or more if any snipers were primed and ready) as opposed to ending in the last minute.

67standup

Good points, but the whole thing had a strange feel to it. If the zero bidder is really interested, then I'll here from him. If there were any snipers, then their clocks were set to under one minute, as that's when I ended it.

I relisted it so if there were interested snipers they can try again.


Question: after cancelling bids made by the zero feedback bidder, why did the bid amount go from $510 to $53 if there only two primary bidders?

AkbarClone

Just look at the bid history.

gkeilnoo bid $5.75
cmcclelland bid $15.00
rclemente21 bid $52.00
crypto31 bid up to $500, but per eBay rules, a high bidder only pays one increment ($1 in this case)
more than the next highest bidder.

Once you cancelled the zero bidder, it had no choice but to go down to $53 as the top bid.

I hope you get some real bids next time, but if a seller pulls an auction on me in the last minute, I usually don't waste my time on that seller anymore--unless you have an item so rare that it almost never appears for sale (which may be the case on your card). Good luck.

SoFLPhillyFan

On items that are expected to sell for that much I find it helpful to add a "bidders with less than 10 feedback please email us first" phrase in the description.

Sometimes they bid anyway and then you can send them a message asking about their plans for payment if they are the winning bidder. This may help in your assessment of them as a buyer. You can usually tell the good from the bad. I try to give them at least 24 hours to respond, but you may not always have this much time. If able to give them a good time period to respond you can then mention in the message that you'll cancel their bid if not heard from by X date and time.

Despite the best descriptions some people just don't pay attention. I try not to take personal checks and do not list it as one of my accepted methods of payment, but still have people who send checks anyway.

magellan

Some good advice there 67.......just a note , my snipes are set to go off 6 seconds before auction's close.

Dave

67standup

Akbarclone: I don't end auctions when I'm not satisfied by the top bid, but simply thought it best to relist due to most of the bidding being done by one buyer. Others who might have joined the bidding might have been scared away by the current bid. This way it's fair for them and fair for me. I do see your perspective, and again, good insight.

If I let it go and the zero bidder didn't pay I could only have technically offered it to the second place bidder for $53, so no loss of revenue there.

In any case, it's relisted with a low feedback disclaimer, thanks guys for your input.

AkbarClone

I see your point, and wish you well on the relisted auction. The only extra point I would bring up, is that if you hadn't cancelled any bids and given the zero feedback guy a chance to pay, you may have gotten the $500--and if he didn't pay--then just relist (no need to offer it to the second bidder at all).

Your method just went straight to relist, with no chance for the big payoff.

67standup

You're pretty much dead on: that's why this has been so unsatisfying. Only saving grace is the small chance that the zero feedback guy negs me for nothing since he's got nothing to lose. Nevertheless, your method would have been the better way.

ctsoxfan

I have to agree w/Akbar also. I generally don't like the 0-5 feedback bidder, but a few months ago, a bidder with less than 5 feedback won a fairly large auction item from me. I was hesitant when the auction ended, but I let it go. 5 days passed, and even though I strongly encourage PayPal payment, I received in the mail a money order for the full amount, and a nice note thanking me for the card. Sometimes you have to give it a shot...worst case, you file a NPB and relist.

sjeanblanc

67Standup,

I know its a little late now, but I would have let the auction run its course. What would have happened?

a) Zero feedback bidder pays for item - you win, just cover your arse on the shipping and your OK.

b) Zero feedback bidder doesn't pay for item - you draw, your not out the card and can relist for free and file a Fee Credit refund.

you chose option c) which is:

c) Cancel auction, piss off the original bidders and anyone else who had a snipe set. They probably won't bid again or if they do they will be very skittish about their bidding because you pulled the auction once already - you lose, not trying to bust your chops, but I don't think this was a good choice.

As eBay sellers we would always like to see guys with hundreds of positive feedbacks, but it doesn't always happen. Something else to consider with low feedback bidders is they might not be newbies, but someones second or third eBay account. I've had three zero feedback bidders in the last month and all have been nothing but stellar customers, granted the most expensive item was $60 bucks. I guess what I'm trying to say is that everybody is worth one shot at least, let them prove themselves good or bad.

Scott Jeanblanc
jeanblanc@iconnect.net
Ebay UserId : sjeanblanc
-----------------------------------------
Collecting Nolan Ryan cards (68-94)

67standup

Jab, jab, a left hook, a right cross...I made the wrong decision.

It's nice to see all the input from the regulars. A good lesson for me.

jrdolan

No body blows from me on this particular case, but I'd just like to note in general that we all started with zero feedback. We suspect a shill or con when we see zero, but it's undeserved in most cases. If some newbie gets his adrenaline in a whirl and goes nuts with his bid, who am I to tell him that's silly? As long as you pay, pal. (ho ho)

Not everyone is sensible enough to start small in their eBay explorations. I sure wasn't. Plus, as someone said, experienced eBayers do start new accounts (to protect their selling feedback from buying misadventures, for example).

DeutscherGeist

I got to defend 67Standup's decision to cancel auction.

He has a perfect record. the zero feedback guy could have been a disgruntled vindictive former customer upset about something and wanting to just neg you with the alternative account. All he has to do is win the auction and then you are at his mercy. He can neg you immediately and then you are stuck paying the extortion fee of $20 to have that removed. The zero feedback account might be NRU after that if you file, but the guy built the account to just do some damage, kind of like a suicide bomber. His real account remains intact.

Its not worth the risk. You might have angered a few people by ending the auction, but you have a rare card up there, so I think you are OK. You can even email some of the bidders explaining what happened. They can understand.

bobsbbcards

<< <i>We suspect a shill or con when we see zero, but it's undeserved in most cases. >>



Maybe that's it. 67Standup simply forgot that the zero feedback bidder was his secret shill!!

I have to agree with GermanGhost (translated for the language impaired). I was going to support the theory that this might be a new ID for an experienced ebayer, but red flags for me would be the name (ilovewebster???....if you were going to start a new eBay ID and run right out and buy a '68 3-D Maloney would you choose that name?) and the fact that they didn't respond to emails from 67SU. Too likely that they were not a serious buyer.

That said, it will be interesting to watch the progress of the new auction. Most likely you will get a whole new set of bidders who were hidden by the zero feedback bidder in the last auction (or never got to execute their snipes). Good luck!

AkbarClone

When in doubt--start making up conspiracy theories. You guys crack me up.

It use to be a zero feedback person was just a newbie who possibly could not be trusted to come through with payment--now a zero feedback is the enemy whose sole purpose is to sabatoge our auctions and pop the negs. I think I will stop dealing with eBay and go hide under the bed. Afterall, zero feedback guys join eBay every day. I was once one, as was everyone else.

Even 67standup seems to understand that he should have let the auction run its course. I wish him luck on the relist, and I think he learned a valuable business lesson about the eBay world. He should do well from here on out.

67standup

Participation in these forums are one of the highlights of my day, I truly enjoy some of the perspective. Actually, I was worried that some might think that the zero bidder (ilovewebster) was actually me schilling, so that's another reason I pulled it.

The zero bidder did contact me, but the whole conversation with this 15-25 something sounded very fishy. If he's on the up and up then I lost out on $510 and I apologize for doubting him, but there were too many red flags. I've seen his ID before and he's had the account since March. However, I do realize we all started with zero and maybe he was just waiting for the right purchase.

I feel bad for bidder #2 (Crypto), I emailed an apology and explanation. However, if ilovewebster was bogus, then he drove up Crypto's price, which isn't fair. If Ilovewebster didn't pay, then I could offer the card to Crypto for his top bid of $500, which is still not fair to him.

67standup

<< <i>...He can neg you immediately and then you are stuck paying the extortion fee of $20 to have that removed. The zero feedback account might be NRU after that if you file... >>



Can someone elaborate regarding this $20 fee? Also, what is NRU? I know, laugh it up, as it's such a layman question.

mikeschmidt

<< <i>
Can someone elaborate regarding this $20 fee? Also, what is NRU? I know, laugh it up, as it's such a layman question. >>



If some jerky NEGS you, to get the negative removed, you have to go through Squaretrade or something like that, at a cost of $20 to you.

NRU = not a registered user

MorrellMan

67 - I have always appreciated your posts and I'm not going to pile on with the you-shoulda-not-done's - sounds like you get it. I think you've touched a nerve, though, regarding the dreaded kamikaze buyer that we all live in fear of. This is a deal where I have to tell myself life is too short - if there's some guy lurking out there, willing to spend 500 bucks for the chance to neg me on ebay feedback, who's got the problem? My opinion, for what it's worth, we all have better things to do than obsess over what might be. Negative feedback from a zero bidder means nada, absolutely nada. I can't imagine anyone interested in bidding on a card being dissuaded by a neg from a nobody.

bobsbbcards

Auction is gone again. I guess I will hope that 67SU and one of the bidders from the earlier auction reached an agreement that works for both parties. My 6-second snipe for $4,150 did me a heck of a lot of good!

67standup

Dang it Bob, I missed out on $25 if you were going to bid that amount.