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Is a seller able to sell multiples identical with in one auction?
I just bid on an item and lost to a last second bid. Within an hour I received a second chance offer for $23 more than the opening price. If the last second bid hadn't come in, I would have paid the opening price. I contacted the seller and they conveniently said that they had two of the same items to sell. Does ebay allow this kind of auction selling? It seems like a scam to me. What should be two separate auctions allows to buyers to bid against each other and inflate the price for both. Or maybe they just induced a false bid to inflate the selling price. Either way, it smells fishy.
6 comments
misterfixit92
OP2 years agoThanks all.
woodland_gnome
·2 years agoEach auction if for one and only one item (or lot of multiple items for the one winning price). However if the seller does have duplicates it is legitimate to try to sell one via a Second Chance Offer to any non-winning bidder who has not opted out of receiving such offers (and can make more than one SCO) at the price of that bidder's highest bid (eBay sets this, not the seller). It is up to each recipient of the SCO whether to accept the SCO or not.
A seller is under absolutely no duty to auction every item s/he has at the same time. S/he is right to not list in multiple auctions so as to deflate the price (s/he most likely has enough competing sellers selling similar duplicates to accurately reflect the demand side of the market), and that often leads to confusion by bidders as to which s/he bid on causing him/her to bid on both when s/he only needs one. It is perfectly legitimate for a seller to list one, have the auction set the price, and then either make SCOs and/or list the other as auctions or as a BIN once the market value is determined by the bidding or whatever.
inceptions
Mentor2 years agoHI @misterfixit92
There is nothing wrong with what the seller did. Since he has a second item, he offered it to you. You're under no obligation to accept the offer and can wait to see if he relists and then you bid on the new auction if you prefer.
Some buyers will jump at a second chance offers and some won't. The seller doesn't know until he offers one. It's up to the buyer to decide whether to take it or not.
Sellers are not allowed to run auctions for multiples of the same item, so they can either choose to just start a new auction or make second chance offers.
woodland_gnome
·2 years ago@inceptions Duplicate auction listings are allowed under some restrictions (it is fixed-price where it is totally prohibited):
Identical auction-style listings are allowed if they:
Have the same start price
Have the same reserve price
Have the same title and description
Don't use the Buy It Now option
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/duplicate-listings-policy?id=4255&st=3&pos=2&query=Duplicate%20listings%20policy&intent=duplicate%20listings&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1251#section1
inceptions
Mentor2 years agoHi @woodland_gnome
When I wrote "Sellers are not allowed to run auctions for multiples of the same item," I wasn't referring to duplicate auction listings, I was referring to multiple-quantity auction listings. Each auction can be for only one item.
misterfixit92
OP2 years agoThe title should be "...multiple identical items with one auction"