Why eBay Sellers Drink: Oops, Accidentally Bid an Extra Dollar
airplanenut
Posts: 22,410 ✭✭✭✭✭
A few hours after an auction ended, I received an email from the winning bidder. I asked a question just to make sure I hadn't screwed up without realizing it (and to give the buyer one more chance to consider his request).
Bidder: I didn't fully understand the listing and accidentally bid on it, would it be possible to cancel the order? I apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you.
Me: Hi, Could you please explain the issue? Is there an error in the listing?
Bidder: The listing is good, it was my mistake since I made an initial bid, then came back to the item later and increased my bid without revisiting the full description and taking all aspects into account.
Bear in mind, we are talking about an item that the buyer originally bid $15 on (after a few other bids, none of which made him the high bidder), and then he bid ONE ADDITIONAL DOLLAR the next day. The listing closed ~4 hours after his last bid.
Comments
First of all, the buyers story is consistent with what happened. He might not have bid just $1 more, by the way, that is just the increment that won it.
Makes no difference really. Cancel the transaction and move on. There is nothing else you can do or should do.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
I dunno, sounded like a great excuse to do some drinking...
LOL. Except that drinking might cause you to do something here that you shouldn't do.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
canceled auctions or buy it now on e bay are more then likely at a all time high, it's just too easy now as long as the buyer doesn't pay, buyer requests the auction or buy it now to be canceled, the final value fees are refunded automatically, and the auction is automatically relisted if you check the box. state taxes are the main reason for canceled auctions in my opinion
Regardless of Ebay's policies, the bottom line is people need to be held accountable for their actions.
If you're adult enough to turn on some device, go to a website, create an account, log in, browse listings, bid several times and win...be the adult that contributes to mankind and take responsibility for your actions.
Pay the $16 and learn from it rather than acting like a child and putting the burden on actual adults who are contributing to the world.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
That is indeed troublesome, and likely the buyers mistake - one way or another. However, I would just cancel and move on...From what I have seen, arbitration usually favors the buyer on ebay anyway. Cheers, RickO
Option 1) Cancel and move on
Option 2) Force buyer to pay, does not pay, wait a week, file case, wait more, file non paying, finally auction is closed, you get no money.
Option 3) Harass buyer into paying, ship coin, SNAD for whatever, you lose, pay to have it shipped back, full refund, you are out shipping both ways.
I would go with door #1.
Cancel, offer 2nd chance offer to #2 bidder if you dont care about the difference of a quarter.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
Agree, and why even bring this up. Not unusual...buyer hasn't paid...seller hasn't shipped the item.
On the plus side, now you don’t have to part with that beauty!
Probably because the OP is upset that he's not going to get $16 for a $3 coin. But there is simply no point in fighting it. The other alternatives (SNAD etc.) are worse.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
So, you're saying that you've never ever returned anything to a store in your life?
And when you returned that ugly sweater that Aunt Jo bought you, the store had to eat the credit card fees and possibly had to dump the "used" sweater at a loss. [Many stores do not put returns back on the shelves.]
In this case, since there was no payment and no shipping, there is no loss to the OP.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
So, if the same scenario occurred at Stacks or Heritage could the bidder "cancel" his commitment to purchase because of his own mistake?
At what point is one held accountable?
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
One is usually "held accountable" by being blocked from future participation by the seller. On eBay, that's typically not a major deterrent. With a large auction house, it is, since there are only a handful of those vs. thousands of coin sellers on eBay. Honestly, if this had involved hundreds or thousands of lost dollars, it might be worth being upset about. For an experienced eBay seller, losing out on a $16 sale should simply be taken in stride.
@CoinJunkie
Mostly agree - although smart eBay buyers should consider being blocked a deterrent, especially if they are picking varieties, undergraded coins, etc. On occasion, I've bought items on eBay that I was tempted to return, and probably should have, on principle (raw AU's that looked BU in the photos, and were advertised as the latter).
I bit the bullet and kept them, because the sellers had large inventories that I didn't want to be blocked from, in the future.
Ah, stay on topic now. 😉
But I'll take the bait and state that I do not return things but have had a rare exchange although none of this pertains to the the OP's situation.
My point is more people need to be more accountable.
Aunt Jo means well and if that's what she picked for me, then god bless her, I'll wear it.
As far as no loss to the OP...it could have been won by the underbidder and I would expect @airplanenut 's time to be worth more than $0.00.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
Good points. I'm not arguing the buyer in the OP's auction is smart. I can't imagine a scenario where I'd back out of an auction win. A fixed price sale where a return privilege was advertised is a different story. But even in the latter scenario, I'd contact the seller and thoughtfully explain why I'd like to return the coin prior to just initiating the process through eBay. If the seller is reasonable, he/she won't block me for that. If he is unreasonable and does block me, I'm not sure he's someone I want to deal with anyway, especially if he's habitually misrepresenting coins in his listings.
FWIW, I'll often offer to pay return shipping and forfeit any lost PayPal fees, etc., if I want to insure that the seller won't block me in the future.
@CoinJunkie
If I have an established relationship with the seller, that is what I would do, as well.
I tend to follow the varieties, wherever they appear, so often I am buying from people I have never dealt with before. In those cases, I try not to test the relationship on the first sale, if I can avoid it. Even a reasonable seller may not give you a second chance if you make an issue on the very first sale.
Sounds like a lot of work for a trivial amount of money.......
BTW, I'm pretty sure JK doesn't drink, making this a strange hypothetical.
I'm annoyed that it's a waste of time. Everything I sell is on consignment, and for a coin of this value, I'm going to make the same amount regardless of a few dollars in either direction (to be clear, I'm going to do what I can to get my consignor the best return, but whatever the coin sells for, it doesn't affect my bottom line). When someone backs out of a sale, it's a week for the original listing, and now an additional week before I can relist, so it's at least two extra weeks that I'm keeping track of the coin and not closing out a consignment that otherwise may be done. And yes, it happens and I deal with it. To be honest, I'd rather someone just ignore me and not pay, rather than come up with a dumb reason to justify their actions.