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The buyer signed up to ebay and agreed with their T&Cs.
The seller offered an item on ebay.
The buyer saw the item on ebay and not somewhere else.
The buyer contacted the seller and tried to do a private deal.
The seller refused and said they were sticking with ebay.
I'm not sure what ebay and the seller have done wrong?
he paid my via PayPal too!!!!
lesson learnt.
Offering a service AND expecting to be paid for it!
Talk about having your cake and eating it too, outrageous behaviour!!!
Have you considered using an estate agent to sell a house, then cutting them out when they've found you a buyer?
Ultimately, I think Ebay's approach is over the top and restricts sellers to selling their item with ONLY them.
In comparing an online listing with, say, Christies, I think a firm like Christies would be due their fees for their research, appraisals, advertising, etc, which requires a lot more work than what Ebay offer. I think a £10 penalty would not be unreasonable, but £50 on a £500 guitar?
Also, if you're comparing my situation with selling a house, has anyone seen a house listed with two separate estate agents? I know I have. But, in an Ebay-centric universe, that wouldn't be allowed.
Finally, I have decided to keep an eye on the listing and plan to offer no more than what I did for cash yesterday. If I get it, I get it. If I don't, I'll chalk this down to a learning experience. Its only an original '59 Les Paul after all
I'm not really sure how it's bad ethics to go with a genuine cash buyer rather than someone who's made a virtual bid on a website that they might not even stick to.
Someone obviously wanted it enough to make an offer and meet up with me, so I'm not going going to chance it going for a lower price and then I post and get scammed.
I only list guitars as buy it now collection only, but if I'd put a guitar on an auction 99p start with 10 days to go and someone offers me the price I want, I'm under absolutely no obligation to let that auction run. There's a cancel button provided by ebay and I use it.
That's where we differ, probably best to leave it at that.
It's either BIN or an auction.
If it's a BIN you can stop the sale at any time, no problem.
If it is an auction and you have bids you are honour bound to let it run.
Choose which suits you best.
On an unrelated note, my new book 'How To Be Unethical' is available now on ebay.
Its up at £14.99, but if you message me on here I'll do it you for £13.99 and take the listing down.
As for fees, eBay's are so high it is a deterrent but they should be able to charge for the service.
I am guessing their view would be like an insurance company, saying that all the customers willing to pay the fees are subsidising the ones who do not.
Quality!
ebay have forgotten (or won't recognise) that as the item is YOURS TO DO WHAT THE HELL YOU LIKE WITH you are entitled to sell it via many different mediums. Therefore if you sell it outside of eBay you are exercising your right to do so. It's nothing to do with 'ethics'.
Ebay used to charge a listing fee that was non-negotiable whether it sold or not - like a real auction house. If they went back to that model there could be no argument about using their site for "free advertising".
Although just to rejoin the real world for a moment... the banner ads, sale of your data (not personal data, just top level habits) etc will earn them far more than the majority of small item sales... and it's not like their profits are down is it? ;-)