Ebay and Ending early auctions

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

Does anyone else hate when auctions end early?

I've been looking at a TS which has been up for auction twice in the last 2 weeks. Both times the auction ended early because "an error in the listing". I like errors in the listing. It means that, if you as a buyer, can figure out what the auction is really for, you can pick up a bargain.

[brucecz Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close brucecz]

Does anyone else hate when auctions end early?

I've been looking at a TS which has been up for auction twice in the last 2 weeks. Both times the auction ended early because "an error in the listing". I like errors in the listing. It means that, if you as a buyer, can figure out what the auction is really for, you can pick up a bargain.

Less than 2 weeks ago I bought a CMV UDI off of a ebay seller that had been relisted after a buyer could not come up with the money. We agreed upon a price about 6 + days before the auction was to end.

The listing had quite a few mistakes in it and until I was able to do my due dilagence I would not have bid. The seller was accomadating in helping to provide info to help with our due diligence.

In fact in the ad he had replyed on ebay to someone elses inquiry about it being a UDI and he mistakely said it was not a UDI.

I then contacted the owner directly and he had me bid untill it excedded the highest currant bid and at that point he ended the auction.

We paid more than the amount shown in the auction. It was by far not our greatest CMV UDI Cottage buy but IMHO offered us excellant value with the Bluegreen Points attachented to it.

Those 12,000 Bluegreen Points will push us up to gold level and may give us a few more booking options with those Points.

Bruce

Bruce

[BoardGirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BoardGirl]

I thought auctions had to run their course? I didn't know you could just contact the seller and arrange something privately! Dang, I'm gonna quit bidding and just do a behind-the-scenes deal!

[topcop400 Member Find all posts View Profile Close topcop400]

I thought auctions had to run their course? I didn't know you could just contact the seller and arrange something privately! Dang, I'm gonna quit bidding and just do a behind-the-scenes deal!

Sellers usually won't end an auction if there's bidding on their item. They want it to go for as much as possible. BUT, if a seller is not confident about their listing, or uncomfortable with being a seller, they are more open to ending it early.

Personally, I like the auctions with typos or misspellings in the item title. For example, you can do a search for Marriott spelled with just one "R" or some other misspelling and add the search to your "favorite searches".....then, you'll get an e-mail whenever there's a listing with that error.

These listings are an advantage because they won't show up in a search wherein the name is spelled correctly.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Becky,

Thanks for sharing that tip. Sometimes obvious things are not so obvious to those who don't look.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

I've ended auctions early where I had a "Buy-it-Now" option that disappeared because aomeone placed a bid. A subsequent bidder offered me my "Buy-it-now" price in a private deal, so I accepted and terminated the auction.

The BIN, of course, was a price I was willing to accept sans bidding (if that weren't the case, I wouldn't have created the BIN option). So I was content to close the deal getting the price I wanted and without paying the final auction fees.

[cshelz Member Find all posts View Profile Close cshelz]

I like that idea

Sellers usually won't end an auction if there's bidding on their item. They want it to go for as much as possible. BUT, if a seller is not confident about their listing, or uncomfortable with being a seller, they are more open to ending it early.

Personally, I like the auctions with typos or misspellings in the item title. For example, you can do a search for Marriott spelled with just one "R" or some other misspelling and add the search to your "favorite searches".....then, you'll get an e-mail whenever there's a listing with that error.

These listings are an advantage because they won't show up in a search wherein the name is spelled correctly.

Good tip. Thanks.

[Keitht Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Keitht]

Property auctions on Ebay aren't binding on either party. They are simply a method of making an offer. Vendors can legitimately have the same unit for sale through other methods at the same time. It is therefore entirely possible for the property to be sold privately whilst an auction is 'live'.