I just noticed that the GSX auction in Oklahoma was ended early due to a listing error possibly being called a GTX.If we dont see it again does that mean it sold under the table as a result of being listed on ebay? I wont tell you that I would have bid on the car but now I dont have the chance unless its relisted. I follow lots of different high ticket items on ebay and have noticed more and more lately that the auction was ended early because of a listing error or because it was listed locally and was sold locally,etc.My guess is that in lots of cases it had already been listed locally with no buyers so thats why its on ebay.Some times I'm sure it was sold locally. This is just my opinion but it looks like ebay is just being used more and more for a classified ads page rather than for a true auction.Lately I've had several auctions I wanted to bid on that were ended early.It gets pretty disappointing! I'm a sniper and bid at the last second which I know some dont like but I dont get in to bidding wars early. I have never made an under the table offer for any thing on ebay but I'm guessing others are.We have sold lots of stuff on ebay and have never ended an auction early even though several times we were offered more money under the table than what it finally sold for.. Opinions anyone? I hope I'm not being too rough on ebay sellers.I know there are times an auction has to be ended early.
I agree, it has been happening more and more often with the seller ending the auction early either the car sells locally(someone makes an offer to buy it now) or the 'no reserve' item doesn't get the price the seller wants. It frustrates me also because I snipe as well. Ebay needs to have a penalty fee for ending the auction early too discourage this practice from happening. But I am not going to change the way I bid, so I will live with it and hope that ebay will get even greedier than what they already are and add the penalty fee.
It irks me too. Heck a friend of mine was bidding on a car that someone had on this list. He pulled it off!!!! :af: It was even spoken about in a forum on here that was deleted!!! The guy admited on the forum, he put it on to see what it would go for and when it met his reserve, it dissappeared!! Guess he wanted more or didnt sell it. I saved a copy of it and gave it to my friend, needless to say he would not purchase the car if it was offered to him for nothing because on what was discussed on how to have friends bid up the sale, etc etc!! If the auction would say that its subject to local sale, I wouldn't have a problem with that, but otherwise, yeah it sucks!!
eBay's greed is what is driving this "end the auction early" fad. I've sold a ton of stuff on eBay and have never ended an auction early... But I'm seriously thinking about doing it for the first time right now. I'm trying to sell a few cars fast. I looked into putting them on eBay. Here's what I found: (using round numbers) It's going to cost $40 just to list one Then they'll charge me a $40 "transaction fee" after the auction ends regardless of what the price was (as long as it sells) Then they'll charge me another (approx) $40 for the "final value fee". Thats $120! I'm not selling $25K cars, and I don't make $100K a year. I'm selling $3,500 - $4,800 cars, and $120 loss is big for me. I haven't even mentioned the Paypal fee if I would decide to accept Paypal for them. The only way I can afford to put the cars on eBay is to list them at a low starting bid, with no reserve, and yank the auction in the final minutes if it's not where I want it to be. Too bad for the "snipers". I sometimes snipe too. Sometimes it works to my advantage, other times I lose out because I sniped a tad too low, or just plain forgot I was supposed to bid. Ebay is like a game. Everyone plays differently. Thats just the way it is. o No:
Rick, All those fees don't apply to Vehicles. Here are the vehicle Fees: Vehicles eBay does not charge a Final Value Fee at the close of Vehicle listings on eBay. Instead, eBay charges a Transaction Services Fee at the time of the first bid on your listing (or if you set a reserve price, at the time of the first bid over that reserve). For Passenger Vehicles and Other Vehicles, the Transaction Services Fee is $40. For Motorcycles, the Transaction Services Fee is $25. You will not be charged a Transaction Services Fee if: there were no bids on your item there were no bids that met the reserve price on your reserve price auction But otherwise you will be charged a Transaction Services Fee whether or not you carry out the sale with the buyer. So, I think that by ending a reserve auction before the reserve is met, you would save your fee. If it was no reserve, I don't think you would. If you ended it early and the reserve had already been met (like with the GSX), I think you would still have to pay the fees. I haven't sold an auto on ebay in a while, maybe someone who has can chime in on the fees they had to pay.
I agree. I will say that I have only ended 1 auction early because the grille I was auctioning was stolen out of the car. And even then I lined up the high bidder with another grille(not as nice, but useable). I received 5 responses that ranged from irritated to death threats. I genuinely felt bad. I have noticed that more and more I am seeing the words " I reserve the right to end the auction early for (blank) reason". In my opinion you are either auctioning something or you are selling it outright.
Thanks for the info Chris. I'll look into it tonight. :TU: Maybe I was reading it wrong o No: Regarding Bills story... (and I'm pretty sure of what car you're talking about) I have mixed feelings about doing that. Let me explain why, by presenting you with this question: What is the difference to the bidder/buyer if : 1- I put a car on eBay, start the bidding at $10, and set the reserve at $4000 OR 2- I put a car on eBay, start the bidding at $10 (no reserve) and have a friend bid $4000 on it the first day. (basically setting my reserve at $4K, without paying any "reserve auction fees" from ebay) I can answer the question for you. Answer = Nothing - Nada - Zilch - No difference to the buyer at all. Now even with that said, I still don't agree with doing option #2 (and for the record, I've never done it), but I don't see what difference it makes to the buyer? And I'm not even sure why I don't agree with doing it. Something just seems wrong about it. But I don't know what. It really doesn't effect the bidders at all. It's the same outcome either way. You need to bid $4,001 to get a shot at the car o No:
I realized something when I listed that 73 Riv I had on ebay. To my delight, it sold for MUCH more than I set the reserve at - almost twice as much. And I couldn't even give it away on the street. I don't know why, but I had no calls on it. Now, I'm not one to advocate selling cars for ridiculous amounts on ebay, but it's well documented that some of these cars go for much more than what you can get for them on the parking lot. Why? EXPOSURE! EBay auctions are about as cheap as advertising your car in the newspaper or Autco Trader, and you get 400 times more people looking at it! So why NOT put your car up for sale on ebay and tack a high reserve on it to keep from losing the car too fast? I guarantee that if you list a car on ebay, you'll have 2 or 3 people asking if you want to do a deal OFF ebay. Most of the time it is a halfway decent proposition when they do this, because it's someone who is really interested in the car - not just another tire kicker or some a$$ kicking the bids up to see where you've set the reserve - and then pulling their bid because NOW they know where the reserve is set. EBay has become more than just an online auction - it's its own (HUGE) marketplace. txgwildcat has been discussing market values relating to peoples' asking prices on various forums and most of all - ebay. It's no doubt that ebay prices may spike for a certain item, but 3 weeks later, the same item may go for half as much. I don't really know where I'm going with this one...I think I'm sliding off the subject a little. What has eBay become? That's hard to answer, because it's so many things. As far as I can see, there are people who start an auction simply to get bites on how much they might be able to get for their particular car/part/whatever. Other people see it as a way to get rid of the crap in their houses and garages. "Hey honey, this thing is worthless. What should we do with it?" "EBAY IT!!!"o No:
I have sold several cars on eBay. We get charged 6 to list and another 18 if it sells, which is a better deal that the Autotrader magazine where its 25 whether it sells or not, and that just ends up with idiots come tyre kicking for a day out. "Hey, Merle, lets go waste this guys time some this afternoon". I've pulled one car early, because I was selling it for a friend and he sold it elsewhere. I pulled one which was a "buy it now", the guy came & looked and brought the "buy it now" money with him. He bought it now. But I didn't trust thatsomeone else wouldn;t push that button before thguy got home with it so I ended. Also saving the fee, but thats another story. All the others have either sold through eBay OK or they just missed the reserve so I dealt with the high bidder. Theres some sharp practice going on out there though, and when it comes down to it I wouldn;t want to deal with these guys anyway so they can pull their auctions early or whatever. Maybe the ones who don;t are the good guys and the ones who are good to deal with and arn't hiding bondo in their "never restored" doors...
Rick, I agree somewhat that the outcome could be the same. But in the same essence, this car's reserve was met, the friend would of bid more if not for the comments made in that forum. I far as I am concern it should not of been on if the person had no intention of selling it. My buddy was looking for that particular yr GS, he has a 65 Chevelle and GTO and is trying to make a stable so to speak. He has the money to buy but he didnt this particular car because of what happened. He had since bought an OLds so he won't be looking for a Buick for a while. Its no skin off of my teeth but it gave him a sour taste in his mouth for what happened. I also listed items on Ebay that stated it would possibly be pulled if sold locally. But, I made the potential buyers aware ahead of time what may happen, that is what I used the buy it now feature for. I just don't put items or cars on Ebay just to see what its worth. I have better things to do with my time. Thats all I am saying, I think its wrong, but thats my opinion.
Well Chris... I have egg on my face.. You were right. Here's the skinny: $40 listing fee $40 transaction fee (if the car makes reserve) $2 reserve auction fee. (refunded if the reserve is met) NO final value fee. It's not as bad as I thought, but still not cheap (by my standards) So.. it'll be $42 per car if they don't sell, or $80 per car if they do sell. I bit the bullet and listed them both, with a reserve. Why do I have the feeling I just flushed $84 down the drain. ou: :laugh: :beer
Yeah, you definately did good on that Riv Adam! So.. did you end up with a posi for free... and then some? :Brow: :TU:
RE GSX I was bidding on the GSX, and well I was at work today the owner of the GSX e-mailed me and said that there is a problem with the title and he will e-mail me when he gets the title problem fixed so I know when it is going back on ebay. Time will tell o No:...Chris
Yes:Brow: I cleared $275 (not counting the PITA that comes with the ebay auction - including nagging emails and questions regarding the car) So it was a good deal - and I have John Schmidt to thank for it. He's a super guy:beer
Rick, Don't feel bad about $82 if you sell the car. The only other way you could expose as many potential buyers to your car is to run an ad on national TV during a Monday night football game. How much would that cost? How many times would you run those $15 - $30 local paper ads before you found a buyer? To all the eBay snipers, Tough luck. You snooze, You loose! I usually wait until the last day, hour if possible, of a auction just to avoid early bidding wars but when there is an item I really want I will bid all that I am willing to pay for it and hope for the best. Sometimes I get a better deal than my max bid and sometimes I have to pay the max bid amount. I almost never loose an item that I have bid this way. It's an auction. How bad do you want it?
