Been messaged asking to buy it now

[QIsForCube]

I'm new to selling on eBay, so I'm not sure what the protocol is in this situation. I'm selling a book on auction for £4.99 which ends in 2 days. A potential buyer has just messaged me asking if I will accept £3 for the item if I end the listing now. It is quite a niche book and it has only had 3 views so far! So I'm thinking this is my only chance. However, the potential buyer is also 'watching' the item, so do I just let the auction run its course and hope he bids? The other thing is, I've no idea how to end a listing or what the payment procedures are if I do go ahead with the offer from the buyer. Any advice?

£3? Cheeky sod.

How long has the listing been up? You can add a buy it now to the listing as long as it has no bids (just edit the listing and there will be the option)

Sorry, two days to go, missed that.

Add a BIN if you like, but I wouldn't put it on for less than your starting price.

Buy it now offered is supposed to be more than the auction price! And is 60% more than auction if you select the buy it now option as well as auction option price. So he is just being cheeky and is trying his luck. Let the auction run its course. You can always re list it if it fails to sell.
Also being a new seller, I wouldn't end an auction early, as eBay penalise you of it happens too many times. E.G. Restricting your seller privileges etc.

Ok thanks for the advice. If I don't want to end it now, what should I say to the person who messaged me?!

He's chancing his arm. If you want to reply, just say thanks for the offer but I'd rather let the auction run its course.

You don't have to reply if you don't want to btw

People do this a lot on eBay. I jut say sorry, i prefer to sell by auction. But you don't owe him a reply...

Sorry my error, buy it now is 40% more than auction price.
You don't have to message them at all, but if you want to I'd say because your offer is too low. They need telling!

Let him know you'll consider the offer if no one bids but lots of eBay buyers never bid until the last few seconds of an auction so if you end it early you will never know how much you might have got for it.

Bear in mind it is a quiet time for selling. If you know what it could sell for, having researched it, let it end. If it is unsold I would list it again on BIN with Best Offer which is free and you can set it to reject offers under a certain price. If he really wants it he will find it and buy it.

I would be inclined to ignore the offer.

I have just been offered a minimal amount for 2 items. I have replied saying I was hoping for a bit more and had a response offering me a little bit more, however I had also explained that I wanted to cover the cost of purchasing them and the postage to send them (not to mention the fees) so will take my chances when the rest of the buyers are back from their holidays.

ImaLannister, how can BIN be 40% more than the auction price if the auction hasn't happened yet? I'm confused.

When you list stuff as buy it now AND auction eBay don't let you list buy it now as less than 40% more than the auction price. She didn't list it as BIN + auction, but my point is BIN is more than auction anyway. So they are cheeky sods, they are supposed to offer more when asking if you would take BIN. There is no law on it, but generally it's 40 % more + So they are being cheeky.

So you can do something bad and piss people off without even knowing. It's very discouraging. Thanks for explaining.