I'm in two minds about the subject of offers-to-buy on active auctions. The comments that Deadlord and Johnhuck make are perfectly valid - if a seller doesn't know the value of the item he's selling, or if a seller lists an item with a BIN much lower than the worth of the item, I for one wouldn't try and educate the seller - I'd hit the BIN button as fast as I can.



But at the same time, I don't make offers on items. I don't email sellers and ask if they have a BIN price. Basically, like darkseraphim says it's a disservice to the rest of the collecting community - I'd much rather see an auction out in the open, than have the auction on ebay in name only while the real bidding goes on behind the scenes. And as a seller, I've had people email with offers to buy which I have invariably refused - just on the principle that having listed the item, I'd rather see the thing run to it's natural conclusion.



The practice generally only affects high priced items, and as I'm rarely (if ever) in the market for items worth more than say $100, on the whole it doesn't affect me. But even so, I'm against the practice simply on the grounds that when I high-priced item comes up for sale, I enjoy watching the auction run, and speculating on who might bid, and what the final price might be.



Regards



Mike

Roll her over. I like that, Bill, you think like I do. That is, after all, why God invented doggie style. So the ugly ones could be serviced too.

I'd gladly make a deal. Shut down the Interesting Items thread and I will cease to e-mail sellers. I wouldn't HAVE to.

I'd forgotten about that.  Technically, you've got me I guess...let me amend that to "I've never asked a seller to end an auction early".



I wasn't particularly worried about security, given that they were low-priced items, coming from a forum member, and I was getting an item in the same batch via eBay where I could give negative if need be.

I also wasn't very concerned about fairness to other buyers, since there were no bidders yet and they were not highly-collectible+rare items by any stretch.

The part about eBay's cut never even occured to me at the time, since the seller always handles it, and I haven't ever sold anything.

beyondthebreach wrote:

mordrin wrote:This seems to be a contentious issue, but I'm not versed in how they work.



Having never sold on eBay or participated in an 'auction-ending' offer, I'm curious -



When someone says "I'll give you $X to end the auction now", what happens then?



Is the transaction then performed outside of eBay/PayPal without feedback or protection?



And does eBay then get no % of the sale (thus meaning that both the buyer+seller used eBay's service to conduct their business, but are paying them nothing in return)?

Hi Mordrin - now I am just thinking back a ways here. . . but didn't you win a Module from me back in early April?  Since it was only a $2.50 item you inquired about a possible trade. As an alternative,  I mentioned that I had a few items up for auction that didn't have any bids and I would sell them to you for the opening price and end the auction.  I believe it was the Rogues Gallery for 2nd edition AD&D and DLS4 Wild Elves.  I belive I had you just add the extra $5.50 to your Paypal payment and I ended the auctions.  (I do keep good records!)