is it just me, or has the notion of the "auction" totally be sucked out of this waste of bandwidth? i've been there 15 years and i can't recall a time more prevalent than the last 5 where a seller lists an item for 6 days at say.. $1995, let's it sit for 5 days, 0 bids placed, then yanks it as "item is no longer available" and 'bay does jack squat to monitor this little game of "oh no, I didn't want it to sell that low" because they make $ off of a future listing fee? gimme a break.. take a deep breath, realize yr watch isn't as hot as you thought it was the first 2 times it sold to non-paying buyer's and let the market dictate

 

I love eBay rants. Done a few myself! I'm no fan either, but since eBay does have rules people can use them - and a seller is allowed to pull a listing up to 12 hours left. Nothing we can do about it except contact them with an offer.

 

in this case, it's a watch that's been "sold" for $3500, non-payer, twice, then off to chrono24 for a couple months for $4500, no action, then back on the bay for 2k and no activity.. i guess it's just in some people's make-up to spend an overabundance of time hoping someone will see it with different eyes

 

Hi teenagediplomat,

I can understand why you might find this a little annoying but surely you can't argue with a sellers right not to want to sell something at a loss? I myself need to sell a watch I haven't worn since I bought and although its not worth much I know listing it with a reserve or reasonable price to start with will not attract as many bidders. But at the same time I will withdraw it if it doesn't get close to what I need to get back for it, does that make me a bad person? because I'm not prepared to take a big loss on it?

Marc

 

i'm definitely not here to make judgement calls on who's a bad person. my personal opinion is such that if it sold, twice, for $3500, and no one paid, going to chrono24 with it for a grand more is a "eyes too big for your stomach" move that anyone can read clear as day. I have no knowledge of what you're selling or trying to sell nor was my post directed towards anyone other than this specific seller whom I had correspondence with. that said, a 6 day auction, if you have 20 watchers, and you know that all bidding takes place in the last few hours.. why would you pull it? i had a bid on a 105.012 that went from $3800 to $6100 in an hour.. what made that seller so sure it'd reach that level? confidence in his product maybe? and what separates that seller from this one? this one is afraid it'll sell for half what it sold for previously, although it went non paid. i'll also add that the only shenanigans with the post/pull/post/pull routine i've seen lately especially is that speedy in peru from a 1 feedback seller that probably doesn't even exist, and that watch had 25-30 bids on it then got pulled because it was "no longer available" with 6 hours left.. when we're talking about investment level dollars, forgive me if my standard of ethics is on high alert for BS like this

 

Pull out tactics, Shill bidding, misrepresentation, feedback threatening, scamming you name it .........a lot of bad thing happened in fleaBay.
Unfortunately there is no alternative to it yet in term of scale and choices.
So let's rant but then just accept it as flaw as it is.

 

The recent hike to 10% vigorish has really turned ebay into an even more totally shitty place to buy/sell/trade wrist watches than it was before. Ebay is like a poster-child for how monopolies operate.

Neway...for a 12 dollar pair of used jeans ((( gross!!!))) it's no big deal but for a 2000/2500 dollar watch it makes a tremendous difference. It just does.

in the United States, ebay's business model is entirely based on sales tax avoidance / non-compliance.

I'm frankly surprised our state and local governments have allowed this crap to go on for as long as it has. It's as though no politician wants to known as "that guy" who isn't cool and friendly to the holy internet.

and, it puts brick and mortar retail stores at a severe disadvantage when they have to compete against this leviathan which has a built-in ~ 9% price advantage on everything. All hail the intertubes!!


digression: I always know when I snag a good deal on ebay by the way a seller handles him or herself right after the sale. If they climb right up your ass to get paid it generally means you won the auction for less than the seller wanted. It's as though they're looking for some way to wiggle out of the deal even though they're hard up for money. When sellers send you messages thanking you for your purchase and tell you take your time paying it means you probably paid too much.

Just the other day, I bagged a mint++ condition valjoux 72 for $1200 which I know is somewhere between $300 and $800 less than the actual value of this watch. I hit the guys reserve on a snipe and he wasn't happy, We had a frank after sale discussion and the seller was honest that he desperately needed money and $1100 net, net was the absolute least he could accept.

 

Are you auctioning this specific watch? If so, why not set a reserve or use the "buy-it-now" feature? I know the answer so it's sort of rhetorical. Now that I've re-read your post I see you're being frank about your reasons for offering a no reserve auction but not really a no reserve auction.

I think you're a great person! i also believe that when you're selling something, you should try to be as up-front with buyers as you reasonably can be. People will judge your character on these sorts of things. ebay is a snake pit but I alway's try to not be one of the snakes.

 

teenagediplomat

I was simply playing devils advocate and trying to put the perspective of a seller to you and maybe I failed miserably at doing that. I did however start off by saying

" I can understand why you might find this a little annoying"

Also you may of seen the numerous question marks I used as was simply asking questions to try and gain a better insight to why this had annoyed you quite so much I was not judging you nor saying your opinion on what that seller is and was doing was wrong either. No problem with you being weary of the seller either I also wouldn't be interested in buying that watch unless I really really wanted it or it was something special and I couldn't find another anywhere else.

citizenrich

No that is not the watch I'm selling and don't really want to give to many details as fear that may be considered shilling on the forum but it is a German made 80's quartz chrono with beautiful patina on the dial which is what drew me to buy it but I'm just not really into chrono's more a dive watch fan hence not wearing it and wanting to sell it and its a sub $900 watch. I don't buy and sell watches very often and can only think of one instance when I actually bought a watch to flip immediately and make a profit as I snagged it at below market price. Usually when I sell a watch I'm happy to break even or take a small loss I'm in this hobby for enjoyment of watches not profit and I only ever run 3 day auctions. Oh and I think your a great person to.

Marc

 

you aren't the only one that thinks pay-pal sucks.
I've been trying to get the limits on my account lifted for weeks and am getting nowhere. someone can pay as much as they like into my account but if they do there is no way I can transfer it to my bank account.
I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place because no-one is going to buy any watch I want to sell without using pay-pal.

 

at least some cockney slang has made it's way to this thread!

 

ok here's a good update that must've happened overnight... now we can see how unrealistic a seller's BIN is and the median price of actual sales that take place on items.. this happens on discogs where you can see the high, low, median and last price a record has sold for because if it's $10 but someone in Europe want's $200, you aren't hornswoggled

 

EBay's now super high fees are infuriating and have really put a squash on what items I can list. Where will these fees end?

I've only ended an auction with less than a day to go once since I was going to take a bath on it. I relisted a few days later and thankfully it was seen by enough people to get a reasonable price.

 

don't get me wrong, i'm not against making money, but anyone who runs a business knows not every sale is a plus. my selling on ebay in the past was mostly with vintage guitars/musical gear.. and anyone looking for say, a 1969 gibson les paul standard, is gonna find a few listings that are priced so beyond the actual market that they'll linger for years and that's fine because that's their storefront (unfortunately) while a real life glimpse into what people actually pay is in the completed/sold data.. the only end or lowering of fees as i believe is with the higher volume seller, the stores, who ironically are the ones ending sh*t early, as if their payroll is tied up on 'pal.. its an ugly system.. the heart of the rant was with the definition of auction, if you went to christies and there was a watch starting at $----, it's not like the seller stands up and goes "nah nah i'm outta here"..

 

gatorcpa

I should point out as I sell watches so rarely that most of the time they have sold on various watch fora and up to now I have never sold a watch on E-Bay doing what I was considering doing on E-Bay this time but you have given me food for thought and maybe I'll just list it with a reserve and take my chances that way.

teenagediplomat

Now you really have confused me could you please explain what you mean by this

"if you went to christies and there was a watch starting at $----, it's not like the seller stands up and goes "nah nah i'm outta here"..

As whilst that is true as no one would act in that way in a live auction without being kicked out most sellers prior to the auction have set a minimum reserve price and I have seen many items pulled because they failed to meet the reserve price isn't that the same thing? I mean just because an item is up for auction it doesn't mean you can buy it at any price does it?

Marc

 

Any Auctioneer worthy of the name would try to broker a deal between the seller and the highest bidder if an item doesn't reach it's reserve.
Second chance offers are the E-Bay equivalent no?

 

in my weakest moments of what could be described as "redneck" television exposure, i've seen the car auctions where they have a unique car, right in front of you. all i'm saying is yes, the seller starts the bidding off at a level, but if say that level goes from 15,000 to 20,000 and they wanted 50,000, the seller doesnt hop in the car and say later suckers! once you enter the ring, you fight.

and yes of course ebay is a business and i'm not complaining about any fees associated with it, at all. my rant was about the dishonest practice of post and pull -- just search that speedy in peru, it's literally gone up and been pulled 5 times, then the seller "updated" the username, but still only has 1 feedback. that practice which ebay overlooks -- so they can continue to collect their fees -- is despicable