Ebay - ending auctions early

Lemoncurd · 31 May 2005 at 4:46PM

I listed a load of old university textbooks at the weekend and have had quite a bit of interest. One person offered to buy a particular book early (saying the needed it next week). I looked it up online and found that it is out of print and there are places elsewhere asking as much as £80 for a copy (although most were nearer £30). A second US buyer has asked if they can buy ALL of my books now.
Neither have come back with an offer yet but what would you do? I've sold quite a few things before but never had people asking me to end auctions early. I guess they are expecting them to sell for quite a bit so want to get in early but I don't how much of a risk it would be to end them early and how much would be a reasonable offer.
I'd already checked ebay history before listing them but no other copies of any of these titles came up so I don't have an idea of how much they usually go for.
To be honest I was expecting most of them not to sell at all so this is quite a surprise!!!

bleugh · 31 May 2005 at 5:32PM

USA buyers will pull out when they realise the shipping costs, books are heavy

my experience is to never end an auction early unless they get payment to you before it ends!
less hassle all round, and walk away if he disagrees

DOn't be nice here, i've been f@cked around a LOT by yanks promising payment that never materialises, often ending auctions early

if he wants the books that quickly he'll be prepared to DHL you cash or send paypal payment (watch for chargebacks) immediatley

oscardog · 31 May 2005 at 6:38PM

Do not end early - all sides lose any protection offered by the system (granted that is not much at times) and you have no way to ensure the deal happens.

Let the bidding war commence!!

EvilMonkey · 31 May 2005 at 6:45PM

Just to give the other side, I had someone pay my asking price in cash to end an item early. I'd looked up the prices (which I know you can't do) and added £20 on top, the guy was desperate and his company was footing the bill!

Lemoncurd · 31 May 2005 at 6:46PM

The US buyer asked how much postage was on one book first - he wanted surface mail which was only £2 more than UK postage.
If I did end them early I would do it by switching to Buy it Now at an agreed price rather than going outside of Ebay. The first person has come back with an offer of £10...

Tojo_Ralph · 31 May 2005 at 7:22PM

Are you a man/woman, or a mouse?

Unless you are desperate for the money ..... let em roll

..... EBay is an auction site after all ..... Or used to be.

You have a product that is not the usual tat that EBay is awash with, so reply politely advising that having already declined two offers

, it would be unfair to accept a third persons. Then sit back, enjoy the experience...... you win some...... you lose some, but ending auctions early is IMHO a tad boring, unless of course you have only listed the item to snare a particular buyer who you know for a fact is going to pay way over the odds.

soolin · 31 May 2005 at 7:41PM

Lemoncurd wrote:

The US buyer asked how much postage was on one book first - he wanted surface mail which was only £2 more than UK postage.
If I did end them early I would do it by switching to Buy it Now at an agreed price rather than going outside of Ebay. The first person has come back with an offer of £10...

I see a problem immediately. US buyer asks for surface mail which can take anything from a week to 12 weeks to arrive, pays by paypal.

8 days later does a chargeback on the basis his books have not arrived and as you cannot prove delivery paypal find in his favour and reverse his payment. This wouldn't normally be a problem as you would just claim against your COP at the post office, but as it was sent surface the post office won't even consider your claim for months, if at all.

IF buyer wants them that badly he can pay for a postage method that protects you, airmail and signed for. It will be expensive but you must ensure you have covered all your bases.

Soo

Lemoncurd · 31 May 2005 at 9:33PM

Thanks everyone, it's good to get some different points of view. The reason I was considering ending one early is that they are university texts and it is exam time at the moment - to be in with a better chance of getting a good price I'd have to wait a few months until the courses started again and as we are prob moving soon I wanted to get rid of them before then.
The UK person who asked for the auction to be ended early claimed that he had an exam on the subject next week (as I put it on a 10 day auction it would be too late). On further investigation his story seems to check out, he is in my old uni town and I doubt many other places run this course (there were also only 20 of us on the course when I did it). Another possibility would be to reduce the length of the auction but it's a risk if only a few people have seen it.

I'll certainly be more cautious about overseas buyers. I've sold quite a lot of books to the US before and about half chose surface mail. I'm always quite clear in all correspondance that it can take up to 56 days. Last time some one bought a big lot (7 large hardbacks) I sent it by courier as it was cheaper anyway. The only problem was when one woman kept on asking where her book was, I kept on reminding her that it could take up to 56 days and got a bit stressed as she had negged people in the past but she eventually got it after about 54 days and gave positive feedback luckily!!

Lemoncurd · 3 June 2005 at 5:25PM

Several days on... none of the 7 books have any bids and only a few have watchers, those with watchers only have 1 or 2.

Rockee · 3 June 2005 at 10:07PM

You have to be careful that these 'buyers' could be phishing for your email address. I had this done to me a couple of weeks ago. Unless they are prepared to back up what they ask for by paying for it, then they are more liable to be scammers. Reply to any questions via the contact button on their feedback page.

Ebay - ending auctions early

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