Specialist Motorsport autographs.Need help fetching pittance on fleabay

flufff

I am devasted.Looking how much signatures go for this should of gone for a few hundred I was advised.
Thanks NOT for the ill advice.I could of pulled this auction.You advised me wrongly.

funkyfunkymonkey

I'm not an expert on Ebay but have found some links to ending a listing early.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/end_early.html

Ending a listing early for the following reasons is prohibited as it is considered fee avoidance:

Cancelling bids and ending a listing early because the reserve price hasn't been met to avoid reserve fees. See Reserve Price Policy.

Cancelling bids and ending a listing early in order to sell the item off-eBay. You should be aware that as well as avoiding fees, you risk fraud by selling items off the eBay website. If a member writes to you to ask you to sell off the eBay website, please report them to us.

Note: It is acceptable for sellers to end a listing early and sell an item to the highest bidder at their current bid price. Bidders are permitted to contact sellers with requests to end a listing early for this reason; however, sellers are under no obligation to do so. To end a listing and sell to the current high bidder (at their current high bid), go to the End My Listing Early form and select "Sell to the high bidder".

You can't end a listing less than 12 hours before the end of the listing if the item has a winning bid:

You may cancel bids, but not end the item unless you are selling the item to the high bidder. To do this, go to the End My Listing Early form and select "Sell to the high bidder".

You can't add to or change the item description.

You can't convert the item to "pre-approved bidders" only

If the item becomes unavailable during the last 12 hours of the auction (for example, you break it) you must contact the high bidder or buyer and explain what happened. You can get a Final Value Fee Credit if you and the buyer must confirm you mutually agreed to withdraw from the purchase
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/questions/endlist-now.html

If needed, you can end your listing before the scheduled end date. If there are bids on your item, you can cancel them.

Reasons for ending listings early include:

The item is no longer available for sale.
There was an error in the starting price or reserve amount.
There was an error in the listing.
The item was lost or broken.
To end your listing early:
Type your item number into the End My Listing Early form. (You can get this number on your listing, on your confirmation email, or on your My eBay page.)

If there are bids on your item, choose between

Cancel bids and end listing early or Sell item to high bidder(s) and end listing early

(If your item has no bids, you can skip this step).

Choose the reason you're ending your listing early.

Your listing will end and will no longer be displayed on eBay. If there were bidders, they will be emailed that their bid was cancelled and the listing ended early.

It does look like the MSE guys above did give you correct guidance.

FFM

aeuerby

flufff wrote:

I am devasted.Looking how much signatures go for this should of gone for a few hundred I was advised.
Thanks NOT for the ill advice.I could of pulled this auction.You advised me wrongly.

Nobody gave bad advice. You were given correct advice. Ebay do not allow the ending of an auction with less than 12 hours to go. Therefore you could not have pulled the auction.

Just because you didn't get as much as you wanted for it is not the fault of the good people on here. So it is not necessary to have a go at them just because they didn't tell you what you wanted to hear.

Next time if you want to sell on ebay I suggest you pay the relevent fees to avoid the same situation.

As for specialist sites have you tried googleing it?

soolin

flufff wrote:

I am devasted.Looking how much signatures go for this should of gone for a few hundred I was advised.
Thanks NOT for the ill advice.I could of pulled this auction.You advised me wrongly.

Buyers set the price, if something 'should' go for xx amount then it will go for that, unless of course the higher price was a one off.

Autographs are not massive sellers and using the plural 'autographs' meant it didn't show when a number of people looked for 'autograph', that alone probably lost you quite a few bids. A signed rally book went for £49.99 2 days earlier, a signed photo for £24.95 and a leaflet at £9.65 so you might be looking at the 'book' prices for autographs rather than the real ones. The Sci Fi ones are the same, look in a collectors catalogue and a Walter Koenig is supposedly worth £50...but in reality you'd be lucky to get a fiver even with a proper COE from a main collectors shop. I think you did well to get £50, that appears to be a good price for ebay.

Also, you make a point in your auction of saying how this has a low start price and no reserve, so you knew the gamble you were taking.

Soo

Hintza

A couple of points here:-

1. Listings and titles need to be clearly thought out.

2. When to list (is the week before Chritmas a good time for items like this?).

3. Do you know your market or are you going on heresay.

4. If selling something hard to value start your auction at the minimum you are prepared to receive.

My sister sold some 30's very large bathroom tiles that I think to the right person at the right time would be worth a small fortune. It took my brother in law hours to get them off in one piece..auction ended at the weekend at 99p!! C'est la guerre!!

Blacksheep1979

Whoops did someone report someone else for shill bidding..... Wouldn't normally do this but due to OPs general attitude in her last post.

Contains_Mild_Peril

Hintza wrote:

My sister sold some 30's very large bathroom tiles that I think to the right person at the right time would be worth a small fortune. It took my brother in law hours to get them off in one piece..auction ended at the weekend at 99p!! C'est la guerre!!

Ouch.
Flufff, you say you were advised it was worth more - by whom? Couldn't the same source have advised on the best place to sell? As Soo says, "list" prices can be hugely different from eBay prices, and are often well in excess of prices you could achieve anywhere.
The information you were given here is correct.

You can't end a listing less than 12 hours before the end of the listing if the item has a winning bid:

You may cancel bids, but not end the item unless you are selling the item to the high bidder. To do this, go to the End My Listing Early form and select "Sell to the high bidder".

You can't add to or change the item description.

You can't convert the item to "pre-approved bidders" only

If the item becomes unavailable during the last 12 hours of the auction (for example, you break it) you must contact the high bidder or buyer and explain what happened. You can get a Final Value Fee Credit if you and the buyer must confirm you mutually agreed to withdraw from the purchase
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/qu...dlist-now.html

In other words, there is nothing you could have done about it within the last 12 hours of the auction that you can't do now. If you were to refuse to sell to the winning bidder, they could complain to eBay, and if they won't agree not to proceed with the transaction then you forfeit all your fees (and still end up without any money for the item, which would be very difficult to sell now you'd have missed the Christmas market).
I'm sorry you didn't get the sort of sum you were looking for. I know it hurts. Nobody on this forum is to blame, though.
I am surprised that a search for "autograph" didn't find the listing. I've found that searches often return plural as well as singular results, without always having to search for the plural separately. I have to admit I pretty much assumed that this always happened.
I do think you left it just a little too close to Xmas to get the best price. An auction ending early December might have done a little better. Then again, who knows? EBay auctions, like any other auctions, are somewhat unpredictable.
If you're selling something you value but you're worried about being left with big eBay fees for an unsold item if your start price is high, you can always wait for a cheap listing day. Normally this might result in a lower final price because there are more listings, but I don't think that would be an issue with such a specialist item.

frivolous_fay

Reported .