I’m an occasional eBay user. Lately I’ve noticed that just about every auction I post gets one or more “questions” from people asking to add a buy it now price to end the auction early. This never used to happen.
Sometimes, they want to buy it at the listing price, which I guess makes sense for people to ask. If someone will sell it to you for the minimum price, then you don’t have to compete against others.
They’re not asking me to go outside of eBay, so I don’t think it’s a scam.
I’ve been just ignoring the questions, since I figure if someone is willing to buy it now, someone will be willing to buy it in a week when the auction actually ends.
Its against ebay ts & cs.
If someone wants a set price, then they put up a buy it now or a reserve. Cutting an auction early reduces the chance of a higher price
If someone does cut an auction early and then sell the item, then neither party has any protection, the seller or the buyer could decide to renege, fail to pay or fail to provide, or sell an item that does not match the description.
I am also sure there is a scam there somewhere too, its all just a bit skeevy.
No it’s not.
Otherwise the seller wouldn’t have the option to modify their selling item to accept a buy it now price after the auction has started. If the seller doesn’t want to make the modification, there’s nothing forcing them to.
I’ve had people ask me to set a buy it now price, simply because they wanted the item earlier than waiting the week for the auction to end. I happily set a higher buy it now price (that I was happy with) and then they exercised that option.
If someone were selling something I needed by a specific date, like I wanted it for a birthday gift for a collector, or I needed to replace something damaged ASAP, I might ask a seller to do this, but I would offer what I expected the end price would be, based on similar items selling, or what the same item had sold for the last time it was auctioned, 6 months ago. I would not say “Hey, it’s up to $2 now. Will you sell it to me for that?” when I know full well it’s going to sell for around $25.
For the seller it is reasonable to do this if it is a commodity type item which sells regularly on eBay. It is not a good idea to do this if it is a very scarce collectible.
Policy or not, I don’t like doing that. Though, I think it makes a big difference between doing that for some sort of thing that comes up for sale regularly vs something that doesn’t.
For the regular item, interested people can catch the next one that comes along. For the not so common item I think it is unfair to people that are interested because you’ve changed the rules of the game mid game and they might miss out on the item.
I think a lot of it has to do with people who just don’t like the auction format. I’ve never asked someone to add a “Buy it Now” option, but I do actively avoid or filter out the auction format listings because I greatly prefer “Buy it Now.”
If these people are anything like me, it’s because they think they “Buy it Now” price will be cheaper than the final auction price.
It’s not a scam and as long as eBay gets their cut (it’s not sold outside of eBay) it’s not against policy.
Either it’s someone who doesn’t want to wait for the auction to end or someone thinking they can get a good deal. If I have something with a value I know I’ll usually end it (although this kind of item is most likely already a Buy It Now). If I don’t know the value I let it go until the auction ends. eBay also gives a higher priority to auctions and I’ve found they boost my other listings. If I feel something’s doing that I won’t end it, either.
I think Amazon Prime has conditioned people to getting their item now now now. I’m guilty of this. It may be why we’re getting more requests to end an item early.
Well, when there are several auctions for the same item, trying to figure out which one to enter can be as frustrating as guessing which line to get into at the grocery store. When I absolutely must have an item, I’ve entered more than one auction, only to end up with both items. I don’t back out of auctions; I take my medicine. Then I resell the item, and usually end up losing money (once I made a $15 profit, though!) I always resell as “Buy it now,” because I want to give people that option since I prefer it, but it takes longer, and it’s a pain.
This has happened maybe four times in 10 years, but it’s happened enough to make me think that the auction format really sucks for items that come up all time, six at a time.