Ebay warning. Bid against yourself

muppetlab

Where does it state this in ebay terms. There is no mention of a bid”jumping” to meet a reserve. 

booneruk

I don't see what you're miffed about to be honest. You bid higher than the reserve price, which Ebay's systems correctly interpreted as intent to buy with a maximum ceiling. This ceiling you set was higher than the reserve price, and since you were the only bidder you got it for the lowest price possible.

Enjoy your item.

muppetlab

If no one else bid over £8.50 i think there may have potentially been negotiation space. Instead ebay wanted their fees and automatically bumped up
the price essentially. Any other auction if you were a winning  bidder but didn't meet the reserve then the auctioneer would liaise between seller and prospective buyer to hopefully affect a sale at a mutually agreeable price. I have never been to an auction where whilst bidding the auctioneer states that no one else is bidding against you so therefore you have won the item but at the reserve which is £500 above your current bid. 

soolin

muppetlab said:

If no one else bid over £8.50 i think there may have potentially been negotiation space. Instead ebay wanted their fees and automatically bumped up
the price essentially. Any other auction if you were a winning  bidder but didn't meet the reserve then the auctioneer would liaise between seller and prospective buyer to hopefully affect a sale at a mutually agreeable price. I have never been to an auction where whilst bidding the auctioneer states that no one else is bidding against you so therefore you have won the item but at the reserve which is £500 above your current bid. 

Be serious, you were chancing no one else bidding but realistically your price and that of the seller were way apart, I suspect you had little or no chance of the seller bothering to offer you a second chance offer at your earlier bid. On eBay they can’t just sell at a price agreed between you afterwards, all the seller can do is offer to sell it at your highest bid or walk away, you can’t negotiate. 

I also don’t understand your analogy about winning at a higher bid than you placed? You said you out in a bid that jumped to the reserve, so how is that more than you bid? At a live auction if there is a reserve of say £500 and the auctioneer was getting no where near that most would go to unsold and pass. If someone was bidding and got close to the reserve the auctioneer might state reserve not met, and some houses will say what the reserve is in case buyer want to meet it, otherwise lot will be passed. On occasions if seller is in the room, and that isn’t necessarily the case, auctioneer might take him aside after the auction and ask if he wanted to lower it, and then do a set sale (taking his fee) at a price agreed between buyer and seller. 

On eBay you can’t negotiate at all. All seller  can do is look at the highest bid and if they were happy it was high enough offer a second chance offer to that bidder. There is nothing else they can do to negotiate. 
It isn’t spelt out but it is clear from the various ‘how bidding works’ FAQs and helpful videos on eBay that a bid capable of winning an auction will always be shown and knock out a lower bid. Look at this for instance 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/bidding/reserve-prices-work?id=4018

it explains how a reserve auction works and reminds bidders that you cannot win a reserve auction if the reserve isn’t met. 

muppetlab

Incorrect. A dialogue can be started where a mutually acceptable price is agreed. The seller can then relist either at the agreed price or add best offer and accept the previous agreed price. Ebay still then get their fees. I agree with you. If the reserve isnt met through bidders bidding against each other then the item
should be unsold and relisted.

theoretica

muppetlab said:

If no one else bid over £8.50 i think there may have potentially been negotiation space. Instead ebay wanted their fees and automatically bumped up
the price essentially. Any other auction if you were a winning  bidder but didn't meet the reserve then the auctioneer would liaise between seller and prospective buyer to hopefully affect a sale at a mutually agreeable price. I have never been to an auction where whilst bidding the auctioneer states that no one else is bidding against you so therefore you have won the item but at the reserve which is £500 above your current bid. 

It is very common for an auctioneer to bid on behalf of the seller (ie the reserve).  Depending on the auctioneer and auction it can be hard to spot what is an absentee bid, a quick nod from the back of the room or the reserve.  If there is only one bidder but they don't go high enough to meet the reserve the hammer will go down on a 'bought in' bid.

A similar situation to yours comes if you leave an absentee bid with an auction house.  If no one else bids a realistic sum you would get it at the reserve - not your top absentee bid, and not far below reserve where any other bidder dropped out.

soolin

muppetlab said:

Incorrect. A dialogue can be started where a mutually acceptable price is agreed. The seller can then relist either at the agreed price or add best offer and accept the previous agreed price. Ebay still then get their fees. I agree with you. If the reserve isnt met through bidders bidding against each other then the item
should be unsold and relisted.

Any attempt to discuss selling an item that isn’t currently listed is likely to cause one or both parties to have their account restricted. This is not as simple as you think to negotiate on eBay.

Your only hope really would be that item is relisted and you can then safely contact the seller to ask them to lower the reserve so you can reach it. However, seller is now already out of pocket as reserves are a very expensive way to sell and may even hold more firmly on their price to regain some of that lost money. 

Howeve back to the original question, the reserve part is exactly how it has always been. The only different thing now , and it has been the same for the past few years, is that eBay actively discourage dialogue between buyers and sellers where an item is not currently listed as the Bots often perceive it to be an attempt to deal off eBay, and tend to be very quick to start issuing warnings and restricting accounts. You need to negotiate when item is live to be safe.