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I did not ask to cancel the sale

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DAK

A

In Reply to: RE: Did ebay shafted me? Again? posted by Lew on December 19, 2024 at 13:52:27

All I did was ask if the postage was correct since it was 2 to 3 times the postage charged by other vendors. So, I asked that and only that. He gives me the song and dance and cancels the auction. I don't think that was fair. He earlier stated that he thought the sale was going to be higher and was disappointed in the final auction price. I dunno, maybe I am just not used to the politics on ebay, where the sellers seem to control things.

Follow Ups:

RE: I did not ask to cancel the sale - FlaCharlie 10:19:31 12/20/24 (1)
It's not "eBay politics", it's just basic strategy.

Since you know the shipping cost up front you just need to decide on the maximum total price you're willing to pay for the item. Subtract the listed shipping cost from the total and that's your highest bid. The total price you're willing to pay doesn't change whether the shipping cost is free, $25 or $100.

I've only sold a few things on eBay and I haven't sold anything in recent years. But I'm under the impression that eBay almost always sides with buyers when there is a dispute of some kind. I've heard many people say they won't sell on eBay any more because of this. That's probably why you also see so many people selling items "for parts or repair", "as-is", and "no returns".

And, again, sellers are allowed to cancel a sale and one of the acceptable reasons is "item is no longer available" with no further explanation necessary.

There are all sorts of buying and selling strategies. Some are attempts to game the system. Others are mostly psychological.

Years ago, many sellers would list very high shipping prices because eBay based their seller fees on the sales price of the item, not the total price of item plus shipping. Ebay caught on to this and their fee is now based on the total.

One possible motivation for sellers to charge high shipping costs is that, if an item is returned, they are obligated to refund the cost of the item but not the original shipping cost and they can specify that the buyer must pay for return shipping. Technically, they still offer returns so any bidders who might balk at "no returns" will likely still bid.

I'm not sure if this actually works to reduce the risk to the seller when it comes to frivolous disputes. I've heard sellers complain of instances where eBay took funds from their Paypal account and refunded the buyer without requiring the buyer to return the item. I don't know the exact circumstances but, if you're a seller, that's pretty scary.

If you're concerned about any aspect of an eBay listing the time to contact the seller is before you bid. Nothing wrong with sending the seller a friendly suggestion. Something like . . . "I'm very interested but I haven't bid because the shipping price seems to be considerably higher than other sellers are charging. I suspect that you would get many more bids and a higher total selling price if you lowered your shipping cost."

Smart sellers realize that shipping cost does affect the number of bids, which is why many list shipping as "free". I once saw some large speakers listed with an extremely low shipping cost. I was thinking about selling some similarly sized speakers so I asked the seller how they were able to ship them so cheaply. They acknowledged that the actual cost was considerably higher but that they had learned that they would get more bids and make more money if they listed a low shipping price and started the bidding at a higher price.
- RE: I did not ask to cancel the sale - DAK 12:51:46 12/20/24 (0)
  Thanks for chiming in.
  Initially the bay sided with buyers too much making sellers bite the bullet on some shady dealings. Within the past 5 years or so, the rules allowed sellers to have more power in dealing since the feedback system was revised and not being used as a cudgel to make sellers be at the mercy of the fb ratings. Unfortunately I stumbled on this auction in the last day of its run so I could not get a timely response from the seller. Still just giving me roughly 10 hours to pay up and I am pretty sure the seller was just going to cancel the purchase anyway. Still I don't think this is a very ethical way to do business. It is like a bait and switch scheme, with the switch being actually nothing. I wonder if ebay still gets its cut?

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