New seller, how long do I have to ship item? (going out of town)

[yolanda5]

I set an auction to end on the wrong day by mistake. I have a listing that will end Tuesday night (not Monday as I thought). I will be out of town Tuesday> Friday. Can I ship on Saturday? I would of course communicate with the buyer and apologize.  I cannot bring the item with me and ship from my destination.

Listing has a bid so I cannot cancel it.

I am so mad at myself!  I have been reading the FAQs but I can't seem to find clear info on what is expected with regard to handling time.  I selected Standard Shipping (USPS First Class Package®) 

Thank you! I am a long time ebay buyer but very new to selling.

[cka197818]

What did you set your handling time to?  

[yolanda5]

I can't seem to tell!? (sorry, I feel like such an idiot).

[yolanda5]

OH! I just found it - 2 business days. 😞

[yolanda5]

OK, so if listing ends late Tuesday, assuming buyer pays immediately, I am supposed to ship on Thursday. How bad is it to ship Saturday? I have a few other listings and I just changed the handling time to 5 days, to cover this.

[sam9876]

I would ship it on Thursday. 

[yolanda5]

I am going to package it up, and give it to a friend to mail for me.

[thatsallfolks]

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@yolanda5 wrote:

I am going to package it up, and give it to a friend to mail for me.

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Is your friend going to buy the postage and input the tracking number into your eBay account? If not, it's no different than shipping late.

And you CAN cancel the auction, even though it has a bid, as long as there are more than 12 hours left.

[yolanda5]

I am going to log in to my ebay account and print the label (via ebay) and I figured I could send her the PDF to print out - she will print the shipping label and apply it and drop in mailbox. (so the info will get uploaded to ebay automatically when it is scanned - right?)

[jen_8417]

Why don't you just cancel the bid on the listing then cancel the listing and relist when you come back from vacation?

Too much can go wrong in between the sale ending, the buyer paying and your friend shipping it.

[yolanda5]

OK, that would certainly be easier for me. 🙂 I thought it was frowned upon to cancel a listing if there's a bid.

I was once soooo sad when a seller canceled and item (I had actually already won and paid for it), I was refunded, but that was some special vintage Fluevogs. My item is not that special. 🙂

thanks everybody - things are complicated on the seller side, LOL, hopefully I get the hang of things soon.

[lintbrush* · Accepted solution]

I wouldn't cancel a bid on an active listing unless I broke it.

It creates a bad buyer experience, and yes, eBay does frown upon it... so much so that you get penalized for doing it.   When you cancel a listing with bid(s), you are charged a selling fee as if it sold for the high bid showing. 

But I just went to look... and it seems you cancelled.  If I were in your shoes, I'd write to the buyer and let them know why you cancelled and when you'll relist.  And then I'd contact them on the relist with the new listing number.  

[yolanda5]

Yes - thank you - I did write to the buyer (just before I cancelled it, with profuse apologies).
Now I have another question.
I actually sold another listing today that was Buy-it-Now (I accepted a best offer). That buyer hasn't paid yet, so... what if they don't pay until Tuesday and I run into this situation again? 😮

[sam9876]

Yes.