How do deposits work if your bid is less than the deposit amount?

[gronks-online]

I've recently been watching postings on some of the auctions for vehicles without a reserve price specified in the listing. There are may vehicles that are posted for auction that sit in about the $100 range, but also call for a $500 deposit to be paid after the auction closes.

I'm confused as to if you would have to pay a $500+ down deposit if the final bid doesn't pass that value. Other wise it just guarantees the seller that they'll receive at least that much, and their listings get sent to the top of the order when searching "price:low to high" because it's not figured into the actual value of the sale. It would be totally abusing the search system, but then again a lot of them seem to complain about buyers not finishing the sale, so I suspect this to be the case.

Could someone walk me through this in a little bit better detail? I've attached an example listing to this.

[tony1963]

When this occurs, you have to do the following:

• Send a certified letter to the seller giving notice of the price discrepancy.
• Complete IRS Form 4508 - eBay Sales Conversion.
• Give notice to the Canadian Revenue Office.
• Write a letter to Walter Cronkite.

The process is not difficult.  However, there are several steps, described above, that need to be completed.

[atikovi]

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@gronks-online wrote:

I've recently been watching postings on some of the auctions for vehicles without a reserve price specified in the listing. There are may vehicles that are posted for auction that sit in about the $100 range, but also call for a $500 deposit to be paid after the auction closes.

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You won't get any car for $100.

[nunabr0]

Yeah,k really. Imagine someone selling their car for less than the price of scrap...and paying Ebay fees on top of that! They'd essentially be paying subsidizing someone to take their car!

[marinermikes]

Scammer running a non refundable deposit scam would be my guess. 

[gronks-online]

I appreciate the 'contribution' here, but this was more or less of an example in trying to figure out how the system of that would work. It's not necessarily the case that I'm intending on getting a car for this low of a price regularly, but there are definitely plenty of opportunities for great prices where often times you'd still end up with a winning bid lower than the deposit amount.

PLUS, there are plenty of vehicles in great running condition that sell for under $100 all the time if you search sold listings. Granted it's extremely lucky for the buyer,  it does happen despite what would make sense economically.

[nunabr0]

You're living in a fantasy world, my friend.

First off, I don't know of any Ebay policy that would cover this issue- I don't think they need one, because as I said before, no one is going to sell something (and pay to do so, no less) for less than the price they could get by calling the scrap man (which I used to be) and having their car hauled away and a few hunnert bucks put in their hand.

Those many vehicles that you think are selling for $100 are ones in which the auction was ended early because the seller and buyer struck a deal; or in which the seller was using a shill, but no one else bid, so he ended the auction; or maybe a legit case where someone won the auction for $100- but that does NOT mean that they ever got the vehicle in question.

I know someone who tried selling his 80's Monte Carlo on here. Look at completed auctions, it shows he got $5K for the car. In reality, the auction winner never paid; the guy still has the car, and will try selling again in the spring. But you'd look at that and say "See? This Monte sold for $5K!"- and Ebay lists it as a successful auction, even though it was a non-paying bidder and my friend got his fees back.....

Be realistic- what you see on a computer screen is not necessarily representative of real life. In real life, no one is selling even a non-running, mangled pile of scrap for $100. They could get $100 for just the catalytic converter on many of 'em.....

[atikovi]

Dat you Mr. Howell III?

[nunabr0]

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@atikovi wrote:

Dat you Mr. Howell III?

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Wait a minute, my boy! You do NOT sound like Lovey! Now where's my teddy? All this talk of dreadful manual labor is making me tired!

[atikovi]

Just wonder how long it will take the Canadian to figure it out.

[marinermikes]

I'm not canuckistanian but I figured it out a while back. First mate.

[ujokinme]

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@marinermikes wrote:

I'm not canuckistanian but I figured it out a while back. First mate.

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I'm not canuckistanian either but from nunabr0's first post I thought that it was LB back to posting on the boards too.

[nunabr0]

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@ujokinme wrote:

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@marinermikes wrote:

I'm not canuckistanian but I figured it out a while back. First mate.

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I'm not canuckistanian either but from nunabr0's first post I thought that it was LB back to posting on the boards too.

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What's an LB? Ya mean, like Linda Ellerbee?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ellerbee

Liar! Liar! Any resemblance between me and any person living or dead, is strictly a pigment of your paint code...errr...I mean a figment of your imagination! I am just a random being who has come here to participate in the peer-to-peer user experience of the Ebay community, and make fun of them poutine-eating, Loonie-spending parts-pullers from the province of Sasquatchuan.

[atikovi]

So your vacation was a pleasant one I take it?

[nunabr0]

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@atikovi wrote:

So your vacation was a pleasant one I take it?

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Vacation?! If ya can call it that! I've been sitting here out in the lawn chair, waiting for the cargo plane to drop off that '59 Corvette, for which I sent off my $2003 worth of gift cards....but it seems to be a little late (I think Mr. Ellerbeewood mighta swiped it- it was a red one- and may be on his way to Vegas or eastern TN. to gamble with his money, or his life- respectively...)