So I’ve been ebaying recently for religious medals (I have no idea why I love them so - I’m not even religious) and won a couple of lots of medals that I bid on for one or several of the medals they contained, not all of them. Would it be too creepy/asking for trouble to try to contact the next-highest bidder to see if they want the ones I don’t?
Three things: Yes, I am sort of looking to off-set cost (I shouldn’t have paid so much for them, frankly, though I can afford them). And I know how bizarrely attached I get to these things, how it saddens me a bit to lose one I especially like (these are not new medals, by the way, and many of them I would be surprised to see again for sale). Thirdly, I would have to go through the seller, which would be a little awkward, I think.
What do you think? I would be selling them through ebay - I have the faint recollection that you can list items that are limited as to who can bid on them, and it would be a price agreed on beforehand. Would you still find it offensive/creepy to be contacted for this reason by another bidder on ebay?
It’s not offensive, but it is a little weird. If you’re selling it through eBay, why not let everyone have the opportunity to bid, instead of rigging things so that a certain person can get it?
Maybe I’m missing something. Or, are you not setting up an auction, but a store, with flat rates? The same basic question would stand, though. Why not just list it, and let the people find them on their own through a search?
You know, I’m not sure. I guess it seems a bit unseemingly blatant, maybe, that I didn’t like some of them. I don’t know, I guess I’m actually kind of concerned that the seller I got them from would be a little hurt, as though because these medals are religiously important to them, it would be offensive for me to be so pecuniary about it. Which is pretty ridiculous. Maybe I will just auction them off.
Contacting another eBay user about a private sale of items is against the eBay TOS. If caught (read: if the second place bidder rats you out), you could be banned from using eBay.
However, if you contact another user and set up a private auction through eBay, I’m pretty sure everything is cool.
Basically, you should go with your gut and auction off the ones you don’t want.
Well, if you went to the next highest bidder, the seller would be alerted anyway, right (as per your OP)? I wouldn’t over think it, and complicate things for the possible benefit of the original seller.
Ok, you won an auction for a number of items and are considering contacting the other bidders and offering to sell some of the items you don’t want, correct?
I’ve been contacted a few times like this. I always turn it down. Directly selling items to another ebayer is a violation of ebay rules. Plus the transaction won’t go through ebay, so if something goes wrong you’re screwed.
Now, it has been awhile since I’ve really bought or sold on ebay and I know they’ve come out with a lot of new stuff over the past few years. But I’d say your best bet is to list the items you don’t want in another auction. Or if you don’t want to pay the sellers fees, put it on a different auction site or craigslist.
I’d guess that it will all be moot since you’d have to ask the seller who the next-highest bidder was and there’s almost no chance that he would tell you. If a buyer asked me that I wouldn’t answer and would add him to my blocked bidders list. Even if the seller does give you the information, the buyer is likely to smell something scammy and ignore you.