Bidder now wants to Buy-It-Now

[lady.stark]

I need some advice please... three days ago, I put on sale photos with a starting price of $8 and a Buy-It-Now price of $12. A person bids on a picture, and today, I receive this message:

Hello,

I don't want to take the chance I could lose this picture in bidding. Could I buy it now; if so let me know your price, and maybe we could start negotiating from there.
I look forward to hearing from you.

What would you do? Thanks!

[msmaggie060]

Just tell her your Buy-it-now price ($12). Maybe she didn't notice it.

[karl*katz]

"Buy it Now" went away when the other person bid.

Sugest She bid like anyone else.

Or if you have another identical item do a "Buy It Now" listing for that customer.

[lady.stark]

How would you phrase it when responding to her message? Also, since she already bid, how would you proceed if she accepts the $12 price?

[lady.stark]

Hi karl*katz, it's the same person. She bid (she's the only bidder for the moment, but 3 persons are "following" the auction) and then 3 days later she wants to buy it.

[pierrelebel]

"maybe we could start negotiating from there."

Not worth the extra effort.

I suggest you contact the buyer and explain that the Buy-it-Now option is automatically deleted by eBay once a bid is entered. Wish the buyer good luck with their bid.

[lady.stark]

Hi Pierre, I think I will proceed as you suggested, because I don't really feel comfortable with this... if I end the auction now to make her the high bidder, I will have to add the $4 of difference in the shipping price. I feel she could then give me a 1 star for shipping price once she receives the package...

So if I write her the following message, will it be OK? I know you are very professional in your messages and I don't want to sound harsh to her, so please feel free to suggest me something else if my message is not good. 😉

Dear bidder,

Thank you for your interest in my auctions and for your question. The auction you are bidding on had a Buy-It-Now price of $12 when I listed it. Once a bid is entered, that option is automatically deleted by eBay. Since 3 people are following it, I can't end it now and risk upsetting those people. I suggest you enter your maximum bid near the end of the auction to give you more chances of winning it. I wish you luck with your bidding and have a really great week!

[lady.stark]

Well, I thought I would have some input before sending my message to the bidder, but I can't make her wait any longer, since I always reply to messages within 1 business day. So I will send her the message above "as is". I just hope it was professional and not harsh. Thanks everyone who helped me! 🙂

[isle_k]

Just a side note, several times I've seen multiple items a seller has, not all buy now, and contacted them with a offer for all of them. We worked out a sum we were both content with and they've removed item from auction (there weren't bids on it that i can recall and it was no where near end time)

To me thats a great seller, open to making a deal and in turn got themselves a repeat customer whos actually recommended them to people on and off line.

So what if at the time 3 people were watching, not bidding, and one buyer really wanted the item. In the end they may bid on it to win and they may look at you as a seller to avoid. Depends on how at the end of the day they ended up feeling.

[lady.stark]

isle_k,

What you are suggesting is - unfortunately - against eBay rules. You cannot make a "Best Offer" when the option is not available in the listing:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/best-offer.html

The fine print

- If the Make Offer button doesn't appear in the listing, the seller isn't interested in receiving offers and you shouldn't try to contact this seller to negotiate price or terms. Doing so violates our offers to buy or sell outside of eBay policy.

[isle_k]

So if a seller has 5 item's listed as buy now, you can't contact them to see if theres any kind of combined shipping or discount on larger orders, or make an offer on those five or more items?

Alot of sellers have it written, please feel free to contact me with any questions and for information on multiple item orders. So if i do that, i'm in violation? Even if they have it written it's fine.

One seller even contacted E bay as how to end an auctioned item. All were fine except one that was down to a day. So i guess they were in violation too, even though they took the time to actually ask.

No wonder people are so confused.

[lady.stark]

Hi isle_k,

Sorry for the late reply! I wasn't on eBay often these last 2 weeks, except to ship items and respond to questions from my buyers. 😉

In your last message, you are comparing apples and oranges here: a seller can offer a discount on combined postage for multiple purchases, yes. But you can't send offers for the prices themselves.

And no, it's not a violation to end an auction early to make the high bidder the winner. Only negociating the price when Best Offer is not an option. I hope this is helping you understand the rules better. 🙂

[Anonymous]

Yesterday afternoon a buyer asking me to include Buy It Now price as she wants to buy them, not wanting to lose them by waiting in aucton format and I asked her which item.  She replied all of them!!  It is insane as I have about 255 items and she wants me to revise all of them and add Buy it Now Price??!!

I told her it is not possible to do that I just listed them with lots of revisions like changing the postage information, delete some information, etc., and asked her to give me which items and she gave me 8 of them which I did revised and add Buy it Now price for 6 items as 2 are already have a bidder and guess what she didn't use them!! 

So be careful when someone ask you and then not follow.  As if she wanted me to do 255 items!!  My foot!!  It is a lot of work for no $$$$$!!!