[Closed] eBay price gouging

Why would you not do it as an auction? You're not "taking advantage" as the market determines the price it sells for...which would probably be more than you dare ask for it anyway!

I used to do auctions but got tired of the string of “wots ur lowest pryce?” messages trying to get me to sell off eBay. Buy It Now means they can make sensible offers and have to pay immediately too.

It's your right to sell anything you own at any price you want and obviously someone it prepared to pay. Just ignore people who moan about it, they can either pay what's available to buy, or wait until supply returns - no one 'needs' a Wahoo ELEMNT.

If you relist something, everyone who was watching it gets a notification that it's been relisted, it's annoying when people cancel though.

Imagine the idea of supply and demand actually influencing the price of a luxury item in a free market economy. It's a fancy cycle computer, not a month's supply of insulin.

Buy It Now means they can make sensible offers and have to pay immediately too.

Sadly not if it's a Best Offer, as I recently found out to my cost. Sold a item for £1,500, expecting immediate payment as that was what I'd stipulated on the BIN settings. Apparently immediate payment doesn't work for offers, buyer never paid, lost the sale and use of £1 FVF too. Total waste of time.

I used to do auctions but got tired of the string of “wots ur lowest pryce?” messages trying to get me to sell off eBay. Buy It Now means they can make sensible offers and have to pay immediately too.

IME the people who do that are the same people who'll want a partial refund for it not being "as described" or otherwise dick about or cause you trouble. I simply reply "as stated" to avoid eBay getting pissy for not replying to messages.

Frankly though, I gave up on eBay a few years ago, it's more trouble than it's worth.

Amazing!! I am sure some people think the only reason other people sell things on ebay is so they can grab a bargain!
Crazy that someone would message you to tell you they think you are taking advantage of a shortage.

So what if you are?! If it's not worth the asking price, it won't sell. If someone wants to buy it, happy days.
I have got an old 'dumb' turbo trainer & a Tacx Flow smart trainer to put on ebay. Stories like this really put me off bothering though. Just the thought of all the "Wuld U seLl for £10? Can kollect in 5mins" messages puts me off.

I’ve had 2 listing recently where the winning bidder was clearly a stolen account. 1st was a Garmin Fenix, winning bidder wanted it posting to Russia, buyer location according to ebay was USA. Was able to cancel the sale but it put me off resisting.
2nd was a Tanita scales won by someone in Portugal with a buyer location of USA
In both cases they were listed as no international postage so it’s very frustrating

No idea what would have happened if I hadn’t pulled the sales - but I guess I would have lost out

I simply reply “as stated” to avoid eBay getting pissy for not replying to messages.

Did realise you had to reply to everyone - I had someone wanting to send a courier for a car and pay via paypal when it was clearly cash on collection, so I just blocked him from bidding and carried on rather than get into a conversation.

Did realise you had to reply to everyone – I had someone wanting to send a courier for a car and pay via paypal when it was clearly cash on collection, so I just blocked him from bidding and carried on rather than get into a conversation.

I don't know if you HAVE to reply to every message, however crackers, but they sent me a moany message a few years back for not doing so, and I think it's one of the things that can trigger 'held' payments.

Annoying isn't it. I sold a turbo trainer a while ago and I'll admit it went for silly money considering it was listed as noisy (something that happens to that trainer as it ages). A few days later i noticed that the same turbo was available from various outlets at a wee bit less than mine sold for. Suddenly got an aggressive "unusable" "noisy" "not as advertised" notification and had to refund forked out for postage too.
Bloke that bought it two days after i got it back and picked it up very happy with it.

As long as the bin price is for something that's out of stock and still lower than the brand new rrp I can't see any issue.

Can't stand it when sellers bin price their 2nd hand stuff for more than the same item that's still in-stock new at reputable web retailers. Chancing the some one will miss read that it's used rather than new.

Sadly not if it’s a Best Offer, as I recently found out to my cost. Sold a item for £1,500, expecting immediate payment as that was what I’d stipulated on the BIN settings. Apparently immediate payment doesn’t work for offers, buyer never paid, lost the sale and use of £1 FVF too. Total waste of time.

Contact eBay, same thing happened to me and it resold with a big final value fee. I contacted eBay and explained what happened and they refunded the whole fee so it was the same as paying £1 on the offer.

I’ve found them to be excellent recently in resolving issues like this.

That reminds me. I once bid on a synth, put my highest bid as like £700, and it was currently at £450.

Some point later, a very high bid came in. My £700 bid had been activated, the bidding was now at £720, and I was out of the running.

Then the high bidder cancelled their bid at the last minute, and I won with £700.

It struck me that this would be a simple way for a seller to ensure they got the highest amount they could out of me. Did I get scammed?

I haven't used eBay for years. Does it ever run smoothly or is it always a load of grief?

I've got some stuff I want to shift and I think eBay would be the best place for it but I've always imagined it's more hassle than it's worth. I'd be looking to run an auction for small but expensive stuff. Canon camera gear, brand new Garmin etc.

I was thinking of advertising my van among other things. It's on Facebook marketplace but it's had 40 views in 4 days. Maybe I'm being penalised for not paying to 'boost listing'.

That reminds me. I once bid on a synth, put my highest bid as like £700, and it was currently at £450.

Some point later, a very high bid came in. My £700 bid had been activated, the bidding was now at £720, and I was out of the running.

Then the high bidder cancelled their bid at the last minute, and I won with £700.

I got that once on a bike frame, 5 mins after listing ended he messaged me saying winner didn't want it and I could have it as I was second highest, he got all salty with me when I said I didn't (frame was IMO worth the cash but not a huge bargain I just didn't like the fact that I thought I had been bid up by his mate)

Does it ever run smoothly or is it always a load of grief?

It almost always runs smoothly you just hear about the problems

Contact eBay, same thing happened to me and it resold with a big final value fee. I contacted eBay and explained what happened and they refunded the whole fee so it was the same as paying £1 on the offer.

Interesting, thanks - probably too late now but worth thinking about for the future.

It almost always runs smoothly you just hear about the problems

In general I've never had a problem as a buyer or a seller.

Just discovered though that as a seller if you refund a buyer (even if they're the one that requested a cancellation), you have to pay the non-refundable transaction fees of 5%.

I haven’t used eBay for years. Does it ever run smoothly or is it always a load of grief?

I’ve got some stuff I want to shift and I think eBay would be the best place for it but I’ve always imagined it’s more hassle than it’s worth

eBay tells me I've sold 393 items over the years. That ranges from things that I let go for £1 plus postage so something gets used again rather than thrown away to £1500 bike frames or a few hundred for cameras or mobile phones. If it's something that sells frequently (ie theres at least one selling every week) it goes on as an auction starting at £1. It will sell and find it's market price. Cut and paste reply to anyone asking to end an auction early (or ask them for x£ above best price the item has sold for to end and ship early)

If it's more unusual for some reason it goes on at fixed price and sits there (sometimes for a year or more, usually accepting offers). I just got £25 for an old RS Pike air shaft that I took out of a new fork 2 years ago?

I've never had any trouble - always use PayPal and happy to pay Ebay and PayPal fees for the service. A few non payers but that's par for the course. I've had a few 'not as described' but all solved amicably. If it's someone taking the piss asking them to return it usually sees them go quiet. It sounds like there are some clever scams that are hard to avoid - buyer sending back an empty box signed for delivery, or returning a broken version of what you sent them - but maybe I've been lucky.

Just discovered though that as a seller if you refund a buyer (even if they’re the one that requested a cancellation), you have to pay the non-refundable transaction fees of 5%.

that's new isn't it? never had that

Yes, it came as a surprise to me as well. Guessing it's to do with the recent shift to in-house payment processing. It's not mentioned anywhere in the help pages but confirmed by the person I spoke to on the web-chat.

The charge shows up in the transaction history but with no invoice or explanation attached to it. If you don't have alerts for payments on your card turned on then the first you'll know about it is if you read your credit card statement.

Probably worth bearing in mind if you sell a laptop or something.

Then the high bidder cancelled their bid at the last minute, and I won with £700.

It struck me that this would be a simple way for a seller to ensure they got the highest amount they could out of me. Did I get scammed?

Yes and no

You can use a shill bidder (probably the seller with another login in) to drive up the auction price and ascertain peoples maximum bid. So yes in that sense its a scam and against eBay's rules and strictly speaking its fraud- 'the offence of dishonestly making a false representation with the intent to make a gain or to cause loss to another' but I'd be very surprised if anyone has been charged or prosecuted for Shill Bidding on eBay. But have you been scammed in the sense of being tricked out of money?  the worst that has happened is you'd paid the amount you were prepared to pay anyway so its difficult to say harm has been done.

Some point later, a very high bid came in.

You wouldn't know if it was a £1m or £710 just as nobody knew whether you'd bit £450 or £700 until they used a shill bid to reveal it

I haven’t used eBay for years. Does it ever run smoothly or is it always a load of grief?

I've got feedback of nearly 800, so probably 1000+ transactions over 20? years and I recon on about 1% of crap deals, either as buyer or seller, but as above only list things to sell as buy it now on £1 weekends otherwise the fees just feel like I'm being taken for a ride.

I haven’t used eBay for years. Does it ever run smoothly or is it always a load of grief?

I’ve never had any issues with buying or selling on eBay. Quite the opposite in fact. Last purchase was a Frog bike for Funk Jr and the seller sent a new crankset and mudguards bought directly from Frog as he’d not mentioned the chain guard was cracked. Always had cordial, bordering on pleasant interactions with buyers and sellers. Where am I going wrong?

Gumtree on the other hand is full of mad people who can’t spell properly and think anything can be swapped for something else that’s worth one tenth of the value of the thing being sold. Randomly I always used to get offered fishing gear as a swap for anything I tried to sell on there.

I reckon buying from eBay is better than selling.

Everyone who contacts you with a whine you take their id and add it to blocked buyer list. Same goes for the mysterious canceller.

Things are worth what people are prepared to pay.

In a corner shop: "£1.50 for a pint of milk? It's only £1 in Tesco!"

Go to Tesco then.

"But it's on the other side of town!"

Then that'll be one pound fifty.

It struck me that this would be a simple way for a seller to ensure they got the highest amount they could out of me. Did I get scammed?

You could potentially have been shill bid. But you set the price you'd be prepared to pay, if you weren't prepared to pay it then that's on you. You got an item that you clearly thought was worth the price you paid.

You could potentially have been shill bid. But you set the price you’d be prepared to pay, if you weren’t prepared to pay it then that’s on you. You got an item that you clearly thought was worth the price you paid.

Not really if he had bid 550 then the other bidder bid him up to 700 then what price should he pay (he would have won the item at 550 if it wasn't for the highest/shill bidder so should he pay 550 or 700 for the item) I bailed on my item because I thought I was shill bidded and did not want to deal with someone untrustworthy.Also once the highest bidder has 'won' the item there is no obligation on the second highest to buy.

If he didn't think it was worth that price then he shouldn't have bid that high in the first place. That's the whole point of a maximum bid.

Turning that around: if you submit a max bid of £700 because that's what you think it's worth and it sells for £550, has the seller not been ripped off to the tune of £150?

You're trying to game the system and taking the hump when you're being gamed right back.

Turning that around: if you submit a max bid of £700 because that’s what you think it’s worth and it sells for £550, has the seller not been ripped off to the tune of £150?

Absolutely not,on Ebay if I bid at £550 and submit my max bid at £700 the item stays at £550 until say bidder ABC bids £5 more than me then my bid will increase, bidder ABC continues to do this until £705 pounds is reached at the end of the sale (the item is now his and I can buy another frame etc). 5 minutes after auction ends the seller says to me the high bidder does not want the frame (what price was ABC willing to actually pay ?)By the time this happens I have a bad taste in my mouth as it looks like I have been bid up probably by the frame owner(the whole point of the bid is you pay what it is worth if the seller wanted minimum of £650 he should have started the bidding there) so the whole point of Ebay is trust and if I feel I have been bid up on an item then the trust has gone and I do not want to deal with that seller. On the other hand if I had won the frame at £700 I would have taken it it is just the fact that it went a little bit past my max bid then suddenly the winner doesn't want it (by which time I suspect I am being had)I think when you look at it this way it is me that is initially being gamed

As a seller When eBay works it’s great. The problem that has driven me away from it is the constant non-payers that just waste time and money. eBay doesn’t seem to do anything about them. CBA anymore with listing re-listing, hoping not to get scammed etc

I don't see anything wrong with the OP but it does annoy me when people buy up things like, for instance popular LIDL specials on tools or whatever, then stick them straight on eBay with a big markup. Was the same with ooni pizza ovens last summer. I dunno why it annoys me so much, I think it just seems a very parasitic way of making money.

Absolutely not,on Ebay if I bid at £550 and submit my max bid at £700 the item stays at £550 until say bidder ABC bids £5 more than me then my bid will increase, bidder ABC continues to do this until £705 pounds is reached at the end of the sale

of course the way to deal with this would be for the 'next highest bideder' offer to be at the price if all of the highest bidders bits were removed.

id if you were at 550 and the 'shill bidder' bid you up to your maximum of 700, if they dropped out then the price you would be offered at would be 550, not 695. I can't remember whether that's the way it works or not.

I’ve never had any issues with buying or selling on eBay. Quite the opposite in fact.

I do think it depends on the particular market you're selling in - for example, most of my buying and selling has been musical instruments, and generally the buyers and sellers know what something is worth and what the condition description means, so (on the whole) there's few problems. My recent experience was the exception, rather than the rule.

What I didn't get was that the "buyer" made the offer to buy - not like 'inadvertently' winning an auction, but he made the conscious choice to make an offer at that exact amount and then ignored all contact thereafter. I would have been less annoyed if he'd just said "sorry, made a mistake" but the whole thing was bizarre. It wasn't too far away so I was half-tempted to turn up at his house to ask what was going on, since we were talking £1,500. That aside, it's been largely fine.

On the other hand, selling a used mobile phone - blimey, that was like a whole different world. So much illiteracy, so many blagging attempts ("wats ur best price m8", "wood u take a PS2" etc).

IME bikes fall somewhere in between - at the lower end there's quite a lot of chancers, but there's also a lot of knowledgeable people with products that have been looked after. A relatively recent highlight was the bike I bought for my son, which was basically a NOS Kona - hardly used, came with all the manuals, tools, tags etc, for a cracking price and which is doing sterling service now. Seller was a delight to deal with.

Silly pricing doesn't seem restricted to eBay, someone posted a force axs rear mech on a popular FB selling page for £399 this morning - these are still available for £240 from shops....

I do think it depends on the particular market you’re selling in – for example, most of my buying and selling has been musical instruments, and generally the buyers and sellers know what something is worth and what the condition description means, so (on the whole) there’s few problems. My recent experience was the exception, rather than the rule.

Completely agree, including that bike stuff (at least, nice bike stuff) generally falls on the right side of this line.

My worst experiences on eBay have all been when selling clothes or trainers.

I think you lot have convinced me to have a go at auctioning some stuff. Which leads me to my next question.

What's the best courier for small expensive stuff like Canon cameras and lenses? I used to just queue up in the Post Office and pay whatever they suggested but now the price has shot up and there's lot of other options.

What’s the best courier for small expensive stuff like Canon cameras and lenses? I used to just queue up in the Post Office and pay whatever they suggested but now the price has shot up and there’s lot of other options.

I just buy postage via Ebay, it's all integrated now, you get a choice of options. I normally use RM and just drop it off at the local PO to be scanned for Recorded delivery.

Absolutely not

Glad you agree.

Canon cameras and lenses?

What've you got? </thread hijack>

What’s the best courier for small expensive stuff like Canon cameras and lenses?

Running a postoffice - your only option would be special delivery to cover the insurance costs. You could try parcel monkey for a parcel comparison (which will ultimately be cheaper than walking into a postoffice), but make sure your insured for the correct amount.....

Royal Mail Tracked 24 (but you can't buy it or drop it off at a Post Office) or Special Delivery.

PRetty sure the T24 option is deliberate attempt by Royal Mail to take Special Delivery sales away from Post Offices, so I tend to pay the extra for SD at mine. Otherwise they're basically the same.

What’ve you got? </thread hijack>

I'll be selling all of these...

www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/17-55mm.htm

www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/24-105mm-ii.htm

www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/70-200mm-f4-is.htm

www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/100-400mm-ii.htm

I've also got a 7D mk1 and mk2. I'll either keep the mk2 for now or sell the lot and go mirrorless. Currently undecided.

Royal Mail Tracked 24 (but you can’t buy it or drop it off at a Post Office) or Special Delivery.

RM tracked 24 only insures to £100...
Special delivery insurance starts at £500 and you can also add in additional insurances.

On the other hand, selling a used mobile phone – blimey, that was like a whole different world. So much illiteracy, so many blagging attempts (“wats ur best price m8”, “wood u take a PS2” etc).

I had a guy once win an auction for a phone and opted for cash on collection. He then tried to haggle with me when he came to collect. 😒

Perhaps I am lucky when selling but I am a ration of 1 in 1000 idiots so far.

The one idiot annoys me per thousand but if you're honest in your description, cordial and have the "prat" radar on high alert I've always (so far!) been OK and agree with all the above comments around things being what someone is prepared to pay.

As a buyer I've had 99 out of 100 good experiences with one dodgy wheel buy (weird axle tolerances) and some good bargains but like all things go in as an intelligent buyer and don't get caught up in emotions or auction or thinking eBay will be cheapest - it often isn't.

Tried to buy a new (to me) bike recently and responses from seller sounded dodgy radar and wanted (in my own view) to much as an offer (but would take outside eBay with no seller protection - no thank you) so backed away politely.

If it feels dodgy probably safer to back away.

What’s the best courier for small expensive stuff like Canon cameras and lenses?

They're all equally good and bad. You've no idea who is going to handle it through the chain - you only need a temp cover driver on the final drop for it all to fall apart.

the only real question is whether you shell out for full insurance or 'self insure' and chance it at the default compensation. (I've nearly always chanced it and saved far more in insurance that it will cost me if something goes missing one day). the only things that have gone missing are low value items in standard post that aren't even worth the effort of chasing up with the Post Office.

What’s the best courier for small expensive stuff like Canon cameras and lenses? I used to just queue up in the Post Office and pay whatever they suggested but now the price has shot up and there’s lot of other options.

Still the Post Office IME. The others end up costing about the same once you've added up the insurance etc.

I send anything camera related or expensive electronics via special delivery, it's not that much more (because it's insured for a lot more as standard) and you know its tracked and gets there by 1pm. Even for big boxes (PC's etc) it's only £3 more than the regular options.

Jeez, I've not posted on here for ages!

Ebay's not as good as it used to be, but it's still more good than bad IMO. The bargains get rarer and the n0bs get less so, but as people have already said, you usually get a feel for what's right or not.

I've not done so much of the blocking as someone's said, but I do have a mental list of stuff I'll never sell on there (electrical goods being my main one but musical instruments are a close second).

If you list "free returns" ebay will automatically refund you 50% of your sale price once the item gets back to you, which is worth knowing. I only found out after I sold a cymbal which was disputed as cracked despite it not being when I shipped it (dented, yes, but well described...). The buyer was an Ebayer of cymbals so I think he bought it to try and bend the dent out, cracked it and as ebay tends to side with the buyer I got stuffed. I disputed it but it was a lot of hassle but talking to the ebay staff I learned a lot.

What’s the best courier for small expensive stuff like Canon cameras and lenses? I used to just queue up in the Post Office and pay whatever they suggested but now the price has shot up and there’s lot of other options.

I just buy postage via Ebay, it’s all integrated now, you get a choice of options. I normally use RM and just drop it off at the local PO to be scanned for Recorded delivery.

Worth reading the small print - many carriers don’t insure glass which means they don’t insure lenses and cameras We sold a video camera recently (a broadcast one so a bit spendy) and it ended up cheaper for me to drive it to London from Scotland than send it with any courier who could actually insure it.

There is no point in putting in a highest bid (or any bid) with any more than 45 seconds to go, that only leaves a shill bidder seconds to think about it and can miss out while their screen is refreshing.

Boight a bike and a frame and forks recently. My highest bid was the figure at which I felt I would be gutted if I missed out. So with the aforementioned 45 seconds to go I click on the algorythmned 'bid now' figure and immediately put in my highest bid amount when the window opens, then click confirm with 5 seconds to go.

For the bike I put a maximum bid of £415 and got it for £217.

For the frame and forks I maxed £225 and got them for £142.

Never gambled before but the final minute rush as you place the bid is quite something. Felt like a winner on both occasions.

So folks, don't bid a thing until literally the last minute. You'll just be showing your hand and wasting money if you do.

So folks, don’t bid a thing until literally the last minute. You’ll just be showing your hand and wasting money if you do.

Doesn’t everyone just use sniping software?

Sadly not if it’s a Best Offer, as I recently found out to my cost.

I always sell Buy It Now, immediate payment required, no offers accepted.
When someone then emails me an offer, I just reduce the price to that offer price and they buy it having to pay immediately which removes the problem you have raised.

Still the Post Office IME. The others end up costing about the same once you’ve added up the insurance etc.

Yep, post office for me. Special Delivery is good. It is expensive buy I am not paying it, the buyer is. If they don't want that level/cost of postage then don't buy the item.

I just buy postage via Ebay, it’s all integrated now, you get a choice of options. I normally use RM and just drop it off at the local PO to be scanned for Recorded delivery.

Remember if you value your local post office then they make zero money from your buying post from eBay and dropping it off there.

If you value royal mail then why not buy online from them and use their postie pickup service?

I sell everything on FB now through Groups. Agree a price, they come round and see the "thing", shake hands and done.

No commission, no PayPal, no refunds, buyer gets to see the item and is happy, no messing.

Selling through a virtual bulletin board is the way forward!

I sell everything on FB now through Groups. Agree a price, they come round and see the “thing”, shake hands and done.

I don't really want loads of people coming round (and I am certainly not shaking anyones hand!), and I don't mind paying fees as I am getting better prices by selling to the whole of the UK rather than someone who can pick the item up.

Remember if you value your local post office then they make zero money from your buying post from eBay and dropping it off there.

We do make something on eBay prepay, but cirtainly no where near as much as an item that needs to be processed. Postoffices make zero money from any royal mail processed items - which is why they are refused.

It almost always runs smoothly you just hear about the problems

Although that's true the problems can end up being quite severe depending on what you sell and price etc.

Just a cautionary word over selling cars ATM, seem to be a lot of Audi's being stolen locally where the buyer comes for a look, clones the key and comes back at 3am...

Just a cautionary word over selling cars ATM, seem to be a lot of Audi’s being stolen

I wouldn't think that would affect anyone on here.

Just my van on ebay a couple of hours ago. 120 views and 3 watchers already.

45 views and no bites in 5 days on Facebook marketplace.

How often do ebay offer the free listings? I notice there's one on now but it ends on the first and I'm totally unorganised with everything I'd like to sell.

I'd say that they come up about once a month but they've been every couple of weeks recently

Vehicles are never on free listings Tom, don't get included.

Yeah I've paid 15 quid to list the van. Already had more interest than I got in a week on Facebook.

We do make something on eBay prepay

That's good to hear.

Facebook Marketplace sucks compared to eBay. Not that this actually means much.

It's worse with free stuff - the number of "can you deliver this to xxx miles away for nothing" was remarkable.

Having said that I gave some stuff away on here via the classifieds a few years ago - even covered the postage - and didn't get a single thank you from the recipients so who knows?

My first lens went live a couple of hours ago for a 7 day auction. I was a little nervous starting at 1p no reserve but it had bids within minutes and now it's over £600.

Madness. I've been putting this off for ages. Now I'll be racing to sort all my other gear out tomorrow before the free listings end!