Where do you sell used HT equipment? (1 Viewer)

[GarryW]

Rajee makes a good point Mike. Ebay submits bids in minimum $5 or $10 increments depending on the value of the auction. So if he is willing to pay $400, his bid won't kick in until someone bids at least $395.

 

[Mike Witt]

Rajee, Garry, or any other experienced ebayer, new developments have arisen. I got an email from another bidder that was almost exactly the same as the 1st bidder. He wanted me to sell him the receiver at a certain amount (the same amount as the other bidder) and close the auction. He bid the amount on the auction. I never told him I would close the auction immediately because I wanted to give the 1st person a shot at it since I corresponded with her 1st. Now this bidder, who has met my reserve price is telling me if I won't close my auction and sell it to him, he wants ME to cancel his bid. (?) He says he doesn't want it anymore because there are other receivers of my type for sale and he is in a hurry (moving). What would you do? I've emailed the 1st bidder who contacted me about the situation, but haven't heard back from her. Since he has met my reserve price, I am obligated to sell it to him, UNLESS his bid is cancelled, correct? Hopefully someone will just overbid him, but if not, should I cancel his bid for him? I feel like he is trying to strong arm me. But on the other hand, I would love to sell my piece at this price to either of these people. At any rate, this has been interesting and I thought I would share this part of the story since I've already discussed so much of this here with you guys.
Would you cancel this guys bid?
Thanks for your help.

 

[Saurav]

He's playing games with you. Did you agree to close the auction if he bid on it before he bid on it? If not, forget about it. Here's how it goes:
* He bid on your receiver, which took it past its reserve price. If no one outbids him, he is obligated to buy it from you, regardless of when the auction closes or how much of a hurry he is in. All that is irrelevant.
* If he doesn't want your receiver, he should retract his bid, not ask you to cancel it. A cancellation/retraction looks bad on a person's record, and there is absolutely no reason why that should be on your record and not on the buyer's, because you haven't done anything wrong.
Having said that, isn't that two emails to the other bidder which have gone unanswered? You could forget about her and just close the auction and sell it to this bidder, because at least they bid on your auction. However, you are right, he/she does seem to be trying to strong-arm you. So if you'd prefer waiting for the other person, you're perfectly justified in doing so. If this new person wants to cancel their bid, let them be the one to do it. I think they'll have a hard time justifying their reason to eBay - "I'm in a hurry" isn't really a valid reason for eBay to accept a bid retraction.
Finally... since you're getting so much interest in your receiver, maybe you just want to let the auction run its course and see where it ends?

 

[Don Whitley]

Mike:
It seems to me that auction participants are expected to act ethically. You as a seller expect that the highest bidder (in fact, all bidders) will honor their bids. Furthermore, the bidders should be able to participate in an auction to its ethical conclusion.
Just my two cents.

 

[Kevin. W]

Try Canadian Audio Mart as well as the newsgroups.
Kevin
http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/

 

[GarryW]

>>>>>Finally... since you're getting so much interest in your receiver, maybe you just want to let the auction run its course and see where it ends?

 

[Mike Witt]

Well, here is my update. First let me say thank you again. All of the response to my questions/concerns about this auction that you guys have helped me with have reassured me and taught me some things.
I had decided I was not going to cancel this guys bid for him unless someone else also bid above the reserve price. I was going to make him cancel it himself as you all suggested. Then the original bidder who contacted me stepped in and bid the same amount he did. With this in play I did cancel his bid as he requested (he seemed like a jerk on email anyway). Now, I had agreed by email with this bidder to close the auction at a mutually agreed price at an earlier date. So I closed the auction and sold it to her at that price.
I would have preferred to let the auction run its course and will probably never close an auction early like this again. The main reasons I did were the history of sales of my receiver showed it selling for about this price maximum. There were also several other receivers of this type being sold at the same time as mine. Some came onto ebay after mine with no reserve and one guy even giving away cables and stuff with his. Since the history of sales was with me on this price and the competition was heavy for my make/model receiver, I went ahead with the deal that I had previously made with the first bidder who contacted me.
I do see a pattern here though. This must be an ebay tactic to contact a seller and ask at what price you want to sell your item at. Then offer that price and ask the seller to close the auction immediately so they will win the bid at that price. I am happy to sell my receiver at the price I am getting for it. Could I have done better? Maybe. The point is now I will never know. I expected this price to be the maximum I would get so I'm okay with this. But I doubt I ever close an auction early again. Now that I have faced this tactic, I will be ready for it. Both people had good reason why they were in a hurry (moving, many bids out there on other items), but in the end, if they want your product they should ride out the auction.
Thanks, and I hope I haven't bored you with my ebay saga. I have another item for sale there now and I'm about to list 2 more. I now have a little (very little) experience , and won't close my auction early on these items. I hope they sell!

 

[Saurav]

Make sure you get your feedback out of this. I've seen newcomers on eBay trying to sell fairly big-ticket items, and they often go for much less than a concurrently running auction on the same item. People tend to prefer paying $100 more, rather than buying from someone with low fedback. When you're just starting out, everything counts. If you're listing new items soon, you might want to wait till your buyer posts his feedback, and you might also consider asking him to mention in his feedback that he bought a receiver from you - sometimes that goes a long way too.

 

[Mike Witt]

Saurav, thanks for the advice. I definitely want to receive positive feedback from this sale and will make it a point to ask this buyer to give me their feedback.

 

[KeithH]

I have sold used gear through eBay several times and have sold a few things on this site as well. All transactions went smoothly. In the past, I always accepted money orders or cashiers checks as payment, but I am in the middle of a transaction where I accepted payment through PayPal. So far, so good.

 

[Mike Witt]

I love ebay so much, cause I can upgrade equipment every few years and I get a reasonable amount for the used items I'm selling. A few years ago I would just stick with this old equipment cause I had nothing else to do with it and I couldn't justify the cost of new models with an older one sitting on my audio rack. Now...ebay here they come.

I'm with you there Rajee. That's exactly what I am in the process of doing, unloading some old gear to make way for some new. The upgrade bug has bitten again!

 

[James Bergeron]

Craig, you can try the ott.forsale newsgroups in Ottawa! They work great! There is ott.forsale ott.forsale.other and ott.forsale.computing (although the computer guys don't like seeing non computer stuff).
Also the AudioShop posts stuff on their website I think soundadvice (or some other shop) does as well.
I can post them on the newsgroup at work if you want too.
Send me a mail if your still looking for ideas.
[email protected]