Is what I've done legal or unethical?

bleugh

Quasar wrote:

Maybe I'm speaking out of turn as I don't do ebay, but it seems to me a bit rich to say that it's the bidder's look out and if they are prepared to pay the price instead of looking for cheaper elsewhere, then tough.

Aren't we on MSE precisely because we are angry at those who would rip us off? Why it's ok to fight back on MSE and not on ebay? Whether it's a supermarket or an ebay seller, a rip-off is a rip-off in my book. How about ebayers keeping one another honest?

Just an idea.

yes, from the buyers perspective, you're correct, however from the sellers perspective, there are a lot of individuals who rely on ebay to balance the books,
thanks to ebay and some frugalness on my behalf i'll have managed to pay off 12k worth of debt in 2.5 years,

if everyone went around telling every bidder that stuff is available cheaper elsewhere i'd be emigrating with nothing in the bank :-(

i made a fortune stripping xboxes down and selling the parts, i'd buy an xbox for £80 at a few local shops, strip it and sell the component parts for in excess of £110 every time, and often around the £140 mark
was i ripping people off?
theres around 200 people out there who would say otherwise

lyniced

soolin wrote:

The book was about railways and I knew the cover price when i bid and it came with the price unclipped as well. I had previously been waiting 6 months for various book searching shops to find me one (they had quoted me approx £50 if they could find it), but a copy never turned up. Then three turned up in a 6 week period on ebay and i bought the third one.

Soo

ah - actually my hubby has loads of old railway books (20 or so years old) - do you think they'd be worth trying to sell on ebay?

soolin

lyniced wrote:

ah - actually my hubby has loads of old railway books (20 or so years old) - do you think they'd be worth trying to sell on ebay?

Do a search on ebay some go very well if they are enthusiast books and not just coffee table books. Start watching the completed items list now especially coming up to Christmas.

Soo

shelly

Quasar wrote:

Maybe I'm speaking out of turn as I don't do ebay, but it seems to me a bit rich to say that it's the bidder's look out and if they are prepared to pay the price instead of looking for cheaper elsewhere, then tough.

Aren't we on MSE precisely because we are angry at those who would rip us off? Why it's ok to fight back on MSE and not on ebay? Whether it's a supermarket or an ebay seller, a rip-off is a rip-off in my book. How about ebayers keeping one another honest?

Just an idea.

So the items my hubby was selling a while ago.....he got nearly double the RRP on some of them.....they were items that are readily available on the high street......we didn't force buyers to pay double.....they chose to......was he ripping people off ??? IMO if people can't be bothered to do a bit of research whilst on-line then its their own lookout.

lapat

alyssa just to clarify you cannot set a reseve on ebay now for less than £50 however you can set your starting price to what you want
jeans are heavy to post approx £3.50 per pair(i sell levis on ebay)
also i charge £5 per pair this covers my
packaging(postal wrapping paper)
selotape(no we dont all work in offices were we can get it for free)
my petrol to and from the post office
and most of all my time for listing the item selling the item,chasing the buyer when they dont pay of forget to sign the cheque,wrapping the item and my 30 minutes in the post office everyday
so the £1.50 that we rip people of for goes towards my less than minimum wage

Joe-C_4

alyssa_mae, what you did was unethical and probably against eBays regulations. You should be banned in my opinion. Disgraceful.

skdotcom

lapat wrote:

alyssa just to clarify you cannot set a reseve on ebay now for less than £50 however you can set your starting price to what you want
jeans are heavy to post approx £3.50 per pair(i sell levis on ebay)
also i charge £5 per pair this covers my
packaging(postal wrapping paper)
selotape(no we dont all work in offices were we can get it for free)
my petrol to and from the post office
and most of all my time for listing the item selling the item,chasing the buyer when they dont pay of forget to sign the cheque,wrapping the item and my 30 minutes in the post office everyday
so the £1.50 that we rip people of for goes towards my less than minimum wage

Well said Lapat. I think sometimes people see eBay as a place where people are expected to sell things at a loss.

apprentice_tycoon

I think that the point has been made and Alyssa has got the message, she acted instincively with the best of intentions without looking at it from all sides.
Perhaps now's the time to let it go.

alyssa_mae

Alyssa...really not sure where you are coming from...er yeh, ok, Yorkshire..


Not yorkshire. London !

alyssa_mae

Jellicle wrote:

Aww - don't give up! you did a nice thing

What you should've done though was to email the bidder and offer to sell them one at a lower price (then run along to Sainsburys and buy it for her!)

- Better still: you should've bought one at Sainsburys and listed it at a lower price placing it so that it finished just before the other auction, or as a BIN auction. :cool:

I like this idea!