How to cancel an eBay item when someone has bid on it?

JustAnotherSaver

I'm trying to clear stuff out the house so i'm listing on eBay, Facebook, Gumtree & Shpock. I'd obviously want to sell on the latter 3 simply due to the fact they don't charge any fees.



I'm in the last 24 hours of the listing on eBay and one item has a bid on it at the starting price of £1.00 but someone has already come in and offered what i'm looking for it on Shpock and is happy to pay the postage on top - so i've accepted their offer (i actually saw the offer on Shpock before the eBay bid).



How do i go about handling the eBay one? I did put in the listing that it's actually listed elsewhere & that the eBay listing may be removed without notice (if that helps? knowing eBay probably not).

soolin

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

I'm trying to clear stuff out the house so i'm listing on eBay, Facebook, Gumtree & Shpock. I'd obviously want to sell on the latter 3 simply due to the fact they don't charge any fees.



I'm in the last 24 hours of the listing on eBay and one item has a bid on it at the starting price of £1.00 but someone has already come in and offered what i'm looking for it on Shpock and is happy to pay the postage on top - so i've accepted their offer (i actually saw the offer on Shpock before the eBay bid).



How do i go about handling the eBay one? I did put in the listing that it's actually listed elsewhere & that the eBay listing may be removed without notice (if that helps? knowing eBay probably not).

You are not supposed to be cross listing so I would suggest you remove the 'listed elsewhere' statement from any listings immediately, it also flags up to eBay a potential 'off eBay' sale which can get very nasty.

Yes you cancel the listing, find the end item option, it will tell you to cancel bids first and then if you are in time (and I don't recall if it's 12 or 24 hours that is the cut off) end the item. It will definitely cost you FVFs based on final bid plus postage, but eBay often then charge you a listing fee as well rather than allow you to use a free listing. The potential issue is that with your statement the eBay bots may well decide you have got your off eBay sale via eBay ie someone has seen your statement and searched other sites to see where else you cross posted it, and bought there to avoid fees. If they decide that then you are going to get a warning, a possible restricted account, or if you already have any issues with your account a selling ban.

eBay are really cracking down now on people using the site and not following through with sales , so it is unfortunate that you have that statement in your listings and also had a bid.

I started a thread about it a while ago, I'll find it and bump it later.

JustAnotherSaver

Thanks for the advice. I genuinely thought it would be ok to include that in the listing (listed elsewhere).


Another mistake i seem to have made is thinking a shabby item would struggle to sell. Seems it's the most interesting item i'm currently selling. I think i must be really undervaluing it even in the condition it's in because on the other site someone asked if it's for the set or for a pair (my asking price). To be honest i'm not out to scrape every penny i can get so i just want the stuff gone so i said for the lot.






I emailed the eBay bidder (whether it's 12 or 24 hours you say it doesn't matter as we're now less than both) to apologise & that i'd accepted an offer elsewhere. Sorry for the inconvenience.


They came back, rather snotty saying that since their bid/offer was first (turns out it was actually) then they should get 'first dibs'. Went on a bit of a moan about eBay stopping sellers like me & then closed with saying they will NOT be removing their bid.


Well that's fine, don't remove it but i also wont be sending it to you either & if i get hit with an item not sent then so be it but for the attitude they had i don't particularly care. When something is not going to happen you can't FORCE it.


I should remember to check eBay first then when we get in to the final 24 hours.

JustAnotherSaver

Wow and on that note i've just come home to more bids on it. LoL.

This_Year

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

They came back, rather snotty saying that since their bid/offer was first (turns out it was actually) then they should get 'first dibs'. Went on a bit of a moan about eBay stopping sellers like me & then closed with saying they will NOT be removing their bid.

Not up to them. If you as a SELLER choose to cancel their bid, there's nothing they can do about it. (Block the bidder, in case they feel like being nasty).

I wouldn't have notified the bidder myself.

JustAnotherSaver

This_Year wrote: »

Not up to them. If you as a SELLER choose to cancel their bid, there's nothing they can do about it. (Block the bidder, in case they feel like being nasty).

I wouldn't have notified the bidder myself.

I could only see an option to sell to the highest bidder & not actually cancel any particular bid. Is this due to the time remaining?


The snotty bidder is a business seller i think. Over 6000 rating by their name. Looking at their items they trade in the kind of thing i'm selling so probably look to sell it on for profit as is or tart it up a bit and sell it on.




Because of the contact we've had with each other i'm not sure i can trust them to be honest throughout (including their feedback). The postage offered is 'signed for'.

mgdavid

JAS - maybe a start price of £1 wasn't such a good idea; the advice I've followed (for auctions) is to set start price at the minimum amount I'd grudgingly accept. So if you only get one bid it's still OK.

An alternative strategy is to list as a Buy-it-now, set the BIN price at your 'very happy with that' price, tick 'Best offers' and set the Auto-decline just below your 'grudgingly accept' price.


Then again, it depends on the market you're selling into. If there's a lot of competition and you just want to shift stuff a very low start price probably makes sense.

JustAnotherSaver

mgdavid wrote: »

JAS - maybe a start price of £1 wasn't such a good idea; the advice I've followed (for auctions) is to set start price at the minimum amount I'd grudgingly accept. So if you only get one bid it's still OK.

An alternative strategy is to list as a Buy-it-now, set the BIN price at your 'very happy with that' price, tick 'Best offers' and set the Auto-decline just below your 'grudgingly accept' price.

To be honest i didn't really know what it's worth & i just wanted rid. If i knew the value then i do what you mentioned.



I set the price a tad higher on FB & Shpock because i thought "that'll do i suppose" and i priced to allow for all those types who want to haggle 10pence down to 2pence.



Regards these extras like make an offer, don't you have to pay for that on eBay? And all these extras take out of your pocket. I know i said i'm not all in it for making maximum dollar but at the same time when something sells for £30 and you get like £18 in your pocket when it's all done with, it's a bit annoying (hence why i prefer to sell outside of eBay).

soolin

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I genuinely thought it would be ok to include that in the listing (listed elsewhere).


Another mistake i seem to have made is thinking a shabby item would struggle to sell. Seems it's the most interesting item i'm currently selling. I think i must be really undervaluing it even in the condition it's in because on the other site someone asked if it's for the set or for a pair (my asking price). To be honest i'm not out to scrape every penny i can get so i just want the stuff gone so i said for the lot.






I emailed the eBay bidder (whether it's 12 or 24 hours you say it doesn't matter as we're now less than both) to apologise & that i'd accepted an offer elsewhere. Sorry for the inconvenience.


They came back, rather snotty saying that since their bid/offer was first (turns out it was actually) then they should get 'first dibs'. Went on a bit of a moan about eBay stopping sellers like me & then closed with saying they will NOT be removing their bid.


Well that's fine, don't remove it but i also wont be sending it to you either & if i get hit with an item not sent then so be it but for the attitude they had i don't particularly care. When something is not going to happen you can't FORCE it.


I should remember to check eBay first then when we get in to the final 24 hours.

I'm surprised that you are surprised that the bidder is upset, he has placed a binding bid on your item, assuming he won and chose not to pay then you would be cross at him, so why act surprised that he is cross at you? All you can do now is allow the sale to continue, pay the FVFs which will be 10% of the final price plus postage and then just refund money. You may well get a negative feedback which you must admit would be deserved but with a completed sale you are less likely to fall foul of eBay's policy on off ebay sales. A well worded neg for seller not sending can be a hard bit of feedback to overcome as it does rather indicate a seller unused to using online sites with terms and conditions, but at least you are likely to avoid a ban.

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Wow and on that note i've just come home to more bids on it. LoL.

Which is going to increase the fees payable to eBay.

JustAnotherSaver

soolin wrote: »

assuming he won and chose not to pay then you would be cross at him,

Sort of. I've had it happen but i wouldn't say to the seller you HAVE to send it to me now!!! Which in a roundabout way is what he's getting at. I just accepted that they weren't going to pay, i got my fees refunded & i relisted. No point in getting all worked up over something that's out of your control is how i see it.

All you can do now is allow the sale to continue, pay the FVFs which will be 10% of the final price plus postage and then just refund money.

Is that how you'd proceed in this situation? You wouldn't send the item out?


Right now it's actually escalated to more than what i was offered elsewhere (although with fees it's probably going to be about even or pence less).


I've sold items over the years & not once had a negative so 1 negative my way doesn't bother me really. I expect he'll leave a neg or neutral at the very best but hey ho.

Which is going to increase the fees payable to eBay.

True but if more bids come in then i'm actually money UP on what i would've been ... plus it gets rid of some junk out of my house & another box (which is irritating my wife at the moment - the amount of boxes i'm keeping for all the stuff i'm wanting to send:rotfl:)

martindow

As bids are coming in perhaps you will be better off disappointing the Shpock buyer and letting ebay run its course?