Please advise me if this is allowed under ebay rules.

[DumbledoresGirl]

I listed 3 My First Thomas items together: Thomas, Annie and Clarabel. There is a buy it now price for them and also a chance to bid. No-one has bid yet and I have no watchers as yet.

Someone emailed me saying she only wanted Clarabel and would I sell it to her separately? She asked me what price I would want and seems happy to accept that price. (basically it would be a third of my buy it now price plus p&p) But I said to her, although I was willing to do this theoretically, I did not think it was allowed under ebay rules and perhaps we should wait until the listing ends and I will then sell her the one thing she wants (assuming the whole lot doesn't sell of course).

She has now emailed me back saying this: "as long as no-one has actually bid on your item then you can change it, you can either withdraw the item and basically start again, by re-listing them separately (this will mean you will have additional listing fees) or you can amend your existing listing to just thomas & annie & then sell clarabel separately to me, that way you will not have additional listing fees."

Is she right? I want to make any sort of sale I can make, but I will not break rules.

I think she is right.

You are not her are you?

You can amend your existing auction as long as there is more than 12 hours left on it, and you have no bids.

It will be best to set up a Buy It Now auction for the single item, and get your buyer to purchase via that.

You can change your listing.

However, if ebay catches you doing a private sale ie not being paid fees they wont be very happy.

Tell her you'll wait until the listing ends

lol, no. Also SaintJude & Lady Hex are right about the sale should go through ebay.

How do I set up a buy it now only auction? I have only worked out how to add buy it now as a second option within an ordinary auction.

Also, won't I incur more fees doing that? Since we are already in email contact, wouldn't it be easier just to withdraw Clarabel from the original auction and sell to her privately? Or is that not allowed either?

Ah right x posts. So it has to be done via ebay so I will need to set up another auction for Clarabel and get buyer to cover additional fees?

yes, set up additional for her and as you say, add extra to cover fees.

just amend the original so no extra fees.

I wouldn't risk an off ebay sale so i'd double check with her on price and if she's still interested before you go to all the trouble

Personally, I have done lots of 'off Ebay' sales. I don't worry too much about it. You could just send her a Paypal invoice (although I bet she'd know how to do it herself anyway), and when you receive the money, revise the other auction. Think about the price though - I'd say one by itself, was worth more than one third of the BIN price, as you then devalue your other two as they aren't a complete set.

Or yes, as 6lmonkeys says, include the extra fees you will pay in the new BIN auction. Tell her why you're doing it. I sometimes give people the option X price for a private sale, X price plus X pounds extra for an Ebay sale. They usually choose private.

Well, I emailed her saying I would go ahead with the sale as suggested below, setting up another separate sale via ebay, and I have not heard back from her.

I am quite pleased as overnight I thought about it and thought I really couldn't be bothered to fiddle around for something that was basically only going to earn me £2. Also, it occurred to me, as Laura said, that I should charge more than a third of the original price for the three items. If she really wanted it, £5/6 would not be an unreasonable price to pay.

Laura, I have to say, you have been a fount of ebay kowledge recently!