Yet another one bites the dust!

[vintagebrett]

It's the first post in this thread - someone got the seller to end it early at $175 - looks like he has almost doubled his money already.

[Mr. Mitt]

Thanks Brett. My money is on the reserve not being met. He won't be satisfied making up to 500% profit on his shenanigans. He'll likely shoot for the moon and stars and end up not getting his price and relisting it multiple times.

[mjkm90]

The seller put a BIN on the page for $175 for the Mantle, but he may have sold it for $750 and didn't want to pay the ebay fees on that amount.

If you want to prevent a BIN situation on an item, then place a significant bid. That tells the seller this is a good item. Here is an example.

These bookends were on ebay a few weeks ago. I emailed the seller asking if there was a price for which he would end the auction early. He asks what I had in mind and I made a very good offer. He said he would think about it. The night before it ended, the highest bid was waaaaaaay under what I was offering, so he ended it early despite 13 watchers. If there was more bidding activity, he probably would not have.



In the case of the item belowe, a friend of mine offered the seller 4 x what it eventually sold for and they rejected it thinking it would go higher, so it's a two way street on the old BIN early.

[okdoak]

Maybe I'm not connecting all the dots, but I just can't buy into that scenario. Who is going to trust a complete stranger to complete a deal like that without ever wondering if they are going to get burned?! What recourse would the seller have if the buyer paid the $175 thru Paypal and stiffed him on the remaining $575? He sure can't complain to ebay or Paypal about it.
Believe me, I've been tempted more than a couple times to ask a seller to end the auction early with an arranged BIN. I think that a general acceptance of that practice would just be a boon to the professional re-ebayers and put collectors at a disadvantage.

[mjkm90]

I agree with you completely. That was simply a possible scenario. Any time I've offered a BIN the seller just ended the auction.

[AkBandit]

Well the box ended with 8 bids and a price of $669.98. The reserve price was not met. Makes you wonder what exactly the reserve price was.

[Mike**Mize]

On the subject of ending auctions early, I just went through the same issues as a seller with an old card (one of a few nice ones that I've had kicking around for many years). This thread and others like it have taught me well. A few hours after I listed this ungraded card I was hearing from buyers ready to help me with ready cash if only I would alter the listing with an instant BIN. In a nice way I posted my "Nothing doing" comment right on the items description. Believe me, I think it actually helped things along to give potential bidders a clear indication that the card would not be ended early. Without the Forum, I'm not sure what I would have done. Probably the same thing; but when I declined to take part in an auction ending scheme, I felt I was doing it for myself and the Forum. Here's the card.