Ending an auction and accepting the current highest bid.
I am selling and the bidding for the listed item is getting out of control and I wish to end the auction and take the current high bid, is this possible?
13 comments
I am selling and the bidding for the listed item is getting out of control and I wish to end the auction and take the current high bid, is this possible?
soh.maryl
·9 months agoIf you feel that your item sold for too much, why not donate the excess to your favorite charity?
And I see that your current high dollar listings are BIN, so that's good news for you.
grand-and-glorious-purpose
·9 months agowhy would you do that?
12345jamesstamps
·9 months agoSome winning auction bidders sometimes end up not paying.
Not sure how you have your auction settings turned on as to bidders paying in timely manner or whenever they want to.
You do not sell a lot and these are high end items on auctions.
You need to look at your winning bidder carefully as to where in their eBay ID feedbacks as to what country they live in and their buying purchases and feedbacks.
There are some bad buyers out there that do take advantage of sellers with high end items.
Please return here if there are any problems with anything in the future.
You will get better results here.
meme6253
·9 months agoI agree with gurlcat completely !
soh.maryl
·9 months agoHow is "out of control" a problem for you? Do you not want to get the very most you can for that item?
pickapaper
·9 months ago@bruceferjulian
What @gurlcat wrote is very important. All of it.
I'll reiterate one sentence she made "Oh and one last thing. Do you really want to end the auction with the winner being a buyer with zero feedback? For an electronic item (the most scammed category on eBay)?"
You are a new-ish or infrequent seller selling electronics. Looks like you have only sold a handful of items and only one in the last six months. Scammers prey on new sellers selling electronic items. You just need to be aware of this and sell accordingly. The saying is: Don't sell anything you aren't prepared to lose.
Scamming is widespread and many of us on here no longer sell expensive items on eBay. ("Expensive" is subjective; we all have different levels of what we are comfortable with.)
Unavailable member
·9 months agoYou can’t end auctions with less than 12 hours remaining when there are bids.
gurlcat
·9 months ago"Getting out of control" is the auction seller's DREAM, why would you want to stop it??? And what appears to be the last 6 bids was actually just a newcomer placing 3 bids close together in time, each being beat by the proxy bid of the highest bidder at the time. That's why the newcomer had to keep 'nibble bidding' to see what it would take to get on top.
The fact that they're doing this now, rather than in the final minutes ... another dream for you. They're giving that previous high-bidder a chance to retaliate. So it all means more money for you!
Anyway it's not like it has gone up that much from your starting bid. Just $375 to $430. That's not out of control.
Oh and one last thing. Do you really want to end the auction with the winner being a buyer with zero feedback? For an electronic item (the most scammed category on eBay) ?
bruceferjulian
OP9 months agoBecause anything above that price is pride and not fair market value. Greed is not always good.
Unavailable member
·9 months agoGetting a great price for an item at auction is not greed, its business.
Perhaps you should have listed fixed price instead of auction format at a price you feel comfortable selling the gizmo for.
mtgraves7984
·9 months ago@bruceferjulian
If this ^^^ is how you feel... moving forward, consider setting your selling price and listing BIN. Ride this one out. Good luck.
gurlcat
·9 months agoThis is not actually a bad point, and right after making my reply I looked and there were many BIN listings of the same camera, with most around that $430 mark (some were less, actually). That made me nervous, because it felt like that (0) current winner was bidding like they had nothing to lose .... as in, a stolen credit card, or a plan to do a scam return or chargeback. And I feared that since it already hit that typical market value, probably nobody else would bid any more -why would they, when there are so many BIN listings for around $430?
But look what happened!!! You DID get more bids, a nice winning amount, from a buyer with some history!!! Honestly this is freakishly good luck, because it's really rare for bidders to exceed average BIN prices, in fact when there are plenty available like that, auction finals tend to be considerably lower; that's why people bother messing with them, hoping to get a better deal with a little more effort.
So, although this does fly in the face of everyone who says you should just do BIN's instead of auctions .... I kinda see it as the exception that proves the rule. If you can find ample data showing a clear average value for something, ESPECIALLY if there are numerous available to buy for around that amount, it is normally safter to just do a BIN too, and simply try to take better pictures, have clearer descriptions, a better return policy, etc. .... than the other sellers.
inhawaii
·9 months agoYes.
If you end the auction early the current highest bidder is the "winner".
You are obligated to sell it to that bidder at that price.