Buyer wants me to sell to him ahead of auction end. Is this allowed?

[aufaniae]

A buyer has written to me to say "I am in and can collect this weekend if we can agree on a price?"

I only just put the item on yesterday. It has 22 watchers and one bid so far of 99p! I'm confident it will receive a final bid of between £50 and £80 as lots sell on ebay.

I suppose I could do a buy-it-now, but can I actually do that after the auction has started?

It would be great to get it out of the way, but I'm not sure if it's ethical or allowed?

What do you think?

yes - you can cancel bids and add a buy it now - or you can refuse and leave auction to run. Up to you. Just make sure it is cash on collection, not paypal.

Thanks for the reply :)

I've had two people ask for a buy-it-now price now, there are over 30 watchers and it's already £29 with the best part of the week left to go. I think I'll let it run.

Now how to say that nicely without putting him off?!

Dp had this 3 days ago for a car part they offers him £25, but as it was at £16 he jut messaged them back and said sorry its not fair on those that have bidded, so he wanted to let it run. It ended up for selling for £26

You can't put a BIN price on if there is already a bid. I think you have done the right thing, I would be wary of people offering to buy it before the auction bids as they are trying to buy it before the price gets to high.
Someone contact me about a M&P suit that I had my son Christened in, wanted me to sell it to them for £25. I refused and they ended up being the winning bidder and paying £32.

Just don't reply to him.

It sounds harsh, but you will be messaging people all the time otherwise.

I often get this request, I alway sreply and say I prefer selling by auction and never offer BIN (true, more fun).