I was hoping not to be the one to start this thread, but I've had a rash of "shady" situations occur in the last week.  My annoyance, and my belief that this would be a public service, have now officially exceeded my civility.


First up on the platter:  The issue of undercutting offers.  By this I refer to two different, related situations.  In the first, honest bidders are bidding on an item, when the item mysteriously vanishes and is "no longer available."  The reason for this is usually that an outside buyer who wishes to avoid the bidding situation e-mails the seller, and offers to buy the item outside of eBay.  (For example, if the bidding is currently at $80 and someone suspects that the seller is ignorant of the item's value and that the bidding may rise to $250, that individual may contact the seller and offer to buy the item for a flat $200.)  The second situation is when you as a seller receive such offers.  I've been getting lots of these, despite stating explicitly in my auctions that they are not welcome.

In eBay parlance, this is known as Fee Avoidance, and it's against the policy:

>>Circumventing Fees
[snip]
Users may not avoid eBay fees.  Users may not use systems or techniques to circumvent eBay fees.  Examples:  Offer outside of eBay - offering the opportunity to purchase the item or other merchandise outside of eBay through an item listing.  To report a listing that circumvents eBay fees through an offer outside of eBay, unreasonably high shipping or handling costs, Multiple Item (Dutch) listing avoidance, or a catalog sales violation, contact us with the item number.

I am currently having this difficulty with several auctions, including (for example) 3174214830.  But proving the wrongdoing is difficult.

Has anyone else been having this problem?


The second problem:  Reserve fee avoidance.  This is a problem that occurs with sellers that aren't making as much money as they want to:

>>Reserve Fee Avoidance - Canceling bids and ending a listing early because the seller's desired price has not been met.

I have several other issues going on, but I wanted to start with these.  I'll provide others as they arise.  Feel free to post other concerns here; the more people there are aware of them, the easier they are to solve.

Thanks all!

Got the rug pulled out from under me a couple years ago. It was on a huge module lot. I suspected off-ebay transaction. Sure enough. The very same bunch of the modules showed up on ebay about two weeks later as separate items. Several monos were included and it was easy to compare the separate modules to the lot. The seller was not the same or even from the same state  

I have had people try the off air stuff with my items. Sold a mono D3 in mint condition about three years ago. Got Solicited via email. I did not respond, but forwarded to ebay.

I know my anecdotes are old, but I have not been too active again until very recently.

Ending auctions early because of email offer outside of eBay: I think it's a shame. I know many here are doing it, because they think if they don't do it, someone else does, so what. You may think I'm stupid for not doing it, but that's not my attitude.

There is an older thread about this issue. Might be of interest: Woodgrain went quick today!