Can we Email a Buyer & Let them Know We Found their Item?

[katzrul15]

Early Nov we sold a NOS item and then of course, could not find it anywhere.  Buyer was very nice and even sent us a "Buyer Cancel" request.

Last night we found it.  

We still have the emails where we emailed back and forth about the missing Whoopot.....Can we email the Buyer and let them know we found it?  If yes, can we re-list the Whoopot and price it really high, put a Best offer on it and tell them to offer exactly what they paid previously and we'll accept the offer and give them free shipping for the prior inconvenience?

Have tried to read up on this and cannot find anything exactly like this scenario - do not want an issue with anything considered Buyer solicitation, etc.

If we cannot offer them the item, can we at least let them know we found it and let nature "take its course"?

[mr_lincoln]

@katzrul15   First, you have to handle this as though that Buyer may have already found another one or is no longer interested.  Next, you should go ahead and Relist the item for the same price.  You can then message them with the eBay item number from the new listing and explain that it was found and is available to sale again ... then wait.

Despite your original mistake you still want to sell the item for the price you listed it at and at the end of the day you really don't care who Buys it.

Listing it with a higher price may push it down in the Search results with a Best match setting by Buyers ...

[jayjaspersgarage]

I used to over-think things like this until I learned that the system is rigged against us.   For items under $10 I just mail it directly to the original buyer at no cost to build goodwill.  I also dig deep to be sure that the ebay software does not have the item in my unsold area.  Last thing I want is to do a batch relist and have items I sold (which happens) or something I temporarily lost get relisted.  You could simply send an email to the original buyer but it is not necessary.  If you plan to sell on a large scale on ebay you need to set up a better inventory system with dedicated space only used for activities related to your ebay business. 

A hint:  If you have a larger spare room use that for your ebay business and do not store any other personal items in that room.  There is no guessing as to how much you can write off on your taxes when it comes to a home office / warehouse space.  Square footage as a percentage of the total size of your house or apartment is the key.  Hint #2 for people who rent apartments.  Use the larger bedroom as your ebay "office" so you get the biggest write off possible. 

You sound very conscientious and are going to be very disappointed when a buyer makes a false claim on an expensive item in the future and ebay does nothing to back you up as a seller. Your money will be taken as a refund and send to the original buyer before you even get a chance to respond.  The facts of the sale will make no difference to anyone as we have all been scammed on ebay in recent years.   

[dhbookds]

There's nothing wrong with your idea.......  I would put a time limit on it........."next Monday, I'll reduce the price to normal', assuming you're no longer interested in it.".........

[xedicl-0]

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@katzrul15 wrote:

Early Nov we sold a NOS item and then of course, could not find it anywhere.  Buyer was very nice and even sent us a "Buyer Cancel" request.

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Technically however, you should've cancelled for reason "out of stock."

What happened here is manipulating the buyer into taking the defect for you.

And now you want our permission to do some more of that.

[katzrul15]

You're wrong - they emailed and let us know that they would do same and did it before we even responded.  We have been selling here since 2000 - we have 100% FB for a reason and I ASKED the question as the guy was so nice to us about not being able to locate item (btw, we do have a separate storage area with everything in tubs and labeled that is just for e-Bay and separated for Amazon) - that I wanted to know if I could reach out to him (it has been over 45 days) and let him know we found it.  We have the (1) NOS one (still) on the site and there are others, but used.

THIS is exactly why we took 3 months off this board and came back with a posting ID.  There is never a reason to be rude or to jump to conclusions.  You just want to be a troll.  If you cannot be helpful, you should not be on here where people come to ask questions to try and solve an issue.

Thank you to everyone who responded - Lincoln, thank you.  You are correct - our goal is to sell the item.  As ours is the only New one (NOS) I wanted to give them an opportunity first.

[katzrul15]

Thank you - hadn't thought about that either - excellent suggestion.  I will.

[katzrul15 · Accepted solution]

The item sold originally for $78 with $12.95 shipping.  If it were a lower dollar item, I would ship it to him for free - will think about that.  Perhaps free shipping does not make up for the inconvenience of purchasing the item and we could not locate it.

We do have a separate storage area that we pay for - one color tubs (numbered) for e-Bay and another color tubs (separated and numbered) for Amazon.

It was in the wrong tub.  Thought we looked in all the adjacent tubs, but guess not.  Found it when we pulled an item from the tub it was in unfortunately.

Thanks for the great suggestions though.  We need to do inventory during this down time and work to be certain we do not have more issues like this.  We keep a pocket on the front of the tub and in the pocket are index cards with the items in the tub (also on a spreadsheet) and we cross off and delete, etc.  Was a little more hectic at the onset of the holiday season and we messed up.  Thanks for taking the time to write out your helpful hints.  Much appreciated!

[wrong66]

I would take Mr. Lincoln's sound advice, were it me.

[18704d]

Your buyer sounds like a good buyer, but

generally speaking...

if you use eBay's message system to inform this (or any)  eBay member about an item you have for sale, without their prior permission,  it could technically be viewed by eBay as "spam" under their policies.

I'm not saying your specific buyer would report you for that.

They may still be interested in your item.  Maybe not.

If not, they may not even report you.

I'm just playing a polite devil's advocate and saying that sending such an item-for-sale message to someone you're not currently in a transaction with, runs the potential of violating eBay member-to-member messaging policy.

Respectfully,

Lynn

[18704d]

And if you use your and the member's personal email address,

their and/or your internet provider may view that email as spam.

I have received personal emails from a seller or two who I had made a good purchase from.

Since I never officially subscribed to such emails, and never would, I was unhappy.

One or two such sellers, only sent one message which I ignored.

Another sent multiple messages, each time they posted a new eBay listing.

I went into my ISP account and blocked their emails.

I never reported them to their ISP, though I could have.

Using one's email account to spam others usually is a violation of one's ISP terms of usage.

fwiw,

Lynn

[katzrul15]

This is what I was worried about....

Will just re-list the item at the same price and see what happens.  If previous buyer purchases, we will ship and refund his shipping for the prior inconvenience - Lincoln is correct, we just wish to sell this!  🙂