Buyers and sellers arranging private deals

[CrockedPot]

I have sold a few things on eBay over the years, (and bought loads) but recently I have noticed more and more people messaging to arrange things off auction.

Last week i was selling an item and was messaged to ask if I would agree a price and buyer would collect which I just sort of avoided answering by just saying I was happy for her to do cash on collection if she won but she was very persistent, asking for my mobile no, etc, which i ignored.
Today I wanted an item which was being sold locally. I emailed the seller to ask if she would accept cash on collection rather than posting it out (postal charges are £8.50 and the seller lives in the next town to me so I thought it worth an ask) she came back to me asking that was fine but did I want to 'agree a price' or wait for auction to end. There were no watchers/other bidders on the item, which had a starting price of £3, but I asked her what she was hoping for. She emailed back saying she wanted £10. I didn't bother to reply and have bid and won at £3, but am now embarrassed to ask if she will still do the cash on collection. Is this common practice now,? I find it really awkward and don't know how to reply to people that I would rather just stick to the eBay rules..

Just say you want to stick to Ebay rules, then, if people ask. Gives buyer protection so greater benefit when you are a buyer.
I don't think you can really blame many for ignoring Ebay rules (god knows Ebay has little enough respect for many of its users).

I would ban anyone who pestered me, though!!
I think a lot of deals happen outside formal deals. This has clear benefits & risks for both sides.
Most sellers save costs by taking cash on collection so are fools not to, I would assume that was still happening unless someone said different.

I had this recently, where it was local and I wanted to do cash on collection. I emailed before hand and seller agreed. I then put in bids and he emailed me to say they were not enough and he wanted £x to cover. I asked him to remove my bids as he was no longer in compliance with our agreement all conducted through ebay emails. I am still tempted to report him to ebay.

I sell a lot on eBay and larger items I always ask for cash on collection and quite often sell the item off auction. One reason for this is if you list something for auction but also include a buy it now option, the buy it now option disappears as soon as someone places a bid which is really annoying! Something I have noticed recently though......
If you have a large item to post and you send via Royal Mail it might cost you say £8.50 so charge £9.00 for p&p but if you use a commonly used courier like myhermes the same package might cost only £4.20 to post (they go by weight) and the cost of postage is not printed on the paperwork (unlike RM postage stickers) so you can still charge £9 and make yourself nearly £5 profit on postage!!!