Offers to close auction early

[ge_rik]

I've put some camping gear and other bits and pieces on eBay and have so far had at four different messages offering me what I consider to be paltry sums if I will close the auction and settle early. Is this a new trend or just a feature of those buying camping gear do you think? Are campers more impatient - or cheekier than other eBayers?

Rik

 

[stockers]

Just tell them the buy it now price is £500 quid. They soon get miffed.

 

[KeithT]

It is not uncommon.
There are always 'chancers'.

 

[vsmith]

Yep I had it happen for some HO stuff I was selling. Trouble is the sum they were offering was way below what I considered reasonable, I wasnt asking any huge sum to begin with just what I considered a fair low starting bid and they low ball it, I would rather give the stuff away to some struggling modeler than dump if for the fire sale price I was offered.

 

[Lordraglan274]

I have recently had over 100 seperate auctions on Ebay to fund the G scale stuff, and got a few of these requests. I only agreed to withdraw auctions if the offer was for two or three auction items and no bids have been placed on any of them, otherwise they could bid just like everyone else. If other sellers did the same the practice would soon die out, but it does happens and Ebay doesnt seem to bother even though they lose the final value fee to off-Ebay sales.

 

[bazzer42]

I've found you get them when it appears they can get a bargain on something that has, as said before a low start price or is more "collectable". New old stock raleigh chopper spares will bring those offers flocking, Bachmann DMU's less interesting.
I too would rather see it go on an auction to someone who wants the item and even pays less than a would-be-chancer (perhaps that's why I have to buy Gscale cast offs and thinking of straightening track).

 

[ge_rik]

Sounds like a bit of a trend - I've not experienced it quite on this scale before. Interestingly, after a couple of enquiries for three of the items I decided to put a Buy it Now price on them for what I thought they'd be worth (well above the offers) and two items were snapped up almost immediately - the third item (which is identical to the other two) is slowly making its way up to the BIN price - will be interesting to see what it eventually goes for.

The postal costs are quite high on these items as Royal Mail really piles on the cost if an item is over 1kg. One of the offers suggested a combined price for two items 'including postage' - which would have only just covered the postage costs - I thought that one was particularly cheeky.

Rik

 

[3Valve]

Happens all the time. Pretty much every time I've sold I've had 3 or 4 request to end auctions and accept ridiculously low offers.

I always politely refuse and tell them that I prefer to await the outcome of the auction. The way I see it, if they want it that bad, they'll bid.

Surprisingly none of them ever do.

 

[ge_rik]

Happens all the time. Pretty much every time I've sold I've had 3 or 4 request to end auctions and accept ridiculously low offers.

I always politely refuse and tell them that I prefer to await the outcome of the auction. The way I see it, if they want it that bad, they'll bid.

Surprisingly none of them ever do.

The auctions for these items close on Sunday - I'll be interested to see if any of them do put in a bid.

Rik