A little bit of eBay advice please.

Maccy · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:19

Hi guys & gals.

I've got an item on eBay which I've set a reasonable reserve for, been up since Sunday evening and currently has one bid at £0.99.

Somebody has contacted me last night and has since offered a reasonable offer which I'm willing to accept, however I'm not sure whether or not it would be wise to remove the auction and accept a standard payment through PayPal (they won't do PayPal Gift or bank transfer understandebly)? Or whether I should put a Buy It Now price and get them to go through that?
The user has over 200 positive feedbacks with 100% rating.

Thoughts and advice please

J86 · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:20

Personally I'd remove the auction and put it up as buy it now.

Best to keep it through eBay imo.

SeraphX · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:21

Dont!

never accept offers to complete the sale outside of ebay, you won't have any protection if buyer stiffs you

Maccy · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:22

Should've added - I've taken images of all serial numbers both on the item and the box, and this user is quite an active seller including some higher value items.

antijoke · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:24

I still wouldn't. You just never know 100% if the account has been hijacked.

J86 · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:25

Maccy said:
Should've added - I've taken images of all serial numbers both on the item and the box, and this user is quite an active seller including some higher value items.

Wouldn't say it's worth all the hassle if it does go sour.

People can't be trusted, no matter how many feedbacks or how active they are. Best to cover yourself me thinks

kylew · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:25

I've done this as a buyer quite a few times with no problems. With PayPal you're both protected now anyway.

Building Candy · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:29

kylew said:
I've done this as a buyer quite a few times with no problems. With PayPal you're both protected now anyway.

Me too, ebay take 10% more or less so I quite often sell outside ebay, your "protection" is mostly through paypal anyway, they handle all the disputes if there is one.

Its no different to selling somehting on a forum and accepting paypal, a bit like selling on here!

Maccy · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:33

This is it, if I accept payment via normal PayPal then it would offer protection and cut out the eBay fees for myself too.

grez · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:50

How much have similar items been sold for? If they're higher than what you've been offered you might be better letting the auction run till the end.

Pug · 18 Oct 2011 at 10:00

i too often make an offer prior to the auction ending, and my family are worse for it than I. Always worked out smoothly. Besides, doesn't eBay almost always side with the buyer anyway?

sbi5ar · 18 Oct 2011 at 10:06

I don't really see what can go wrong...

Get the money first then post it.

Ebay always sides with the buyer so if it goes **** up it doesn't matter as they can't put a dispute in. Plus you miss those pesky charges...

I don't know anything though so ignore me

tonyt3rry · 18 Oct 2011 at 10:20

ive never really used ebay much only for buying stuff.ive done forum trading on avforums, but only with high feedback people

taliesyn · 18 Oct 2011 at 10:38

Put it on a buy it now.

bloodiedathame · 18 Oct 2011 at 10:52

taliesyn said:
Put it on a buy it now.

This.

Dan Dan · 18 Oct 2011 at 10:53

Edit your item, add buy it now, sell through ebay.

/thread

Gustov · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:48

Remove from ebay > ask for guy to pay into your paypal > wait for fee's to go into bank account > send item.

I've done this many a time with no problems

Dan Dan said:
Edit your item, add buy it now, sell through ebay.

/thread

Whilst giving ebay 10% of the selling price.

If you trust the seller (he has good feedback!), remove it and screw ebay over for a change!

Nymins · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:58

Gustov said:
Remove from ebay > ask for guy to pay into your paypal > wait for fee's to go into bank account > send item.

I've done this many a time with no problems

Whilst giving ebay 10% of the selling price.

If you trust the seller (he has good feedback!), remove it and screw ebay over for a change!

Even if you transfer the money into your bank and if the guy puts in a claim, Paypal will take the money out from any source possible.

Just because its out of your Paypal account, doesn't mean the person can't get their money back.

A better (I say better, but its still breaking eBay rules) would be to list the item as buy it now and put it up for £1 + £XXX postage, where X is the remaining total for the item (e.g. item is £100, list it BTN for £1 + £99 postage). eBay don't charge fees against the postage.

Maccy · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:58

Yeh I've accepted to take it via PayPal. Only thing is, they've underpaid by £10!

moogle · 18 Oct 2011 at 12:06

Maccy said:
Yeh I've accepted to take it via PayPal. Only thing is, they've underpaid by £10!

Because of fees? Send them to PPCalc to calculate the right amount to send you.

I would have waited until they sent me the money then I would take it off eBay. You could have ended up taking it down, only to get a phishing email (even though they've got a legit eBay account) and wasted your listing fees for some idiot.