Hmmmmmm. Am I missing something or is this just an auction?

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

So I'm watching an item on Ebay. Seller has only put it on a Buy It Now, no auction, and the price they want for it as a bit steep, although I've seen these things go for more, but this one is used and has a bad photo.

So no movement as yet, so I mailed them and asked if they'd consider an offer price below the Buy It Now.

They said they had lots of watchers, so they would, but they'd hold onto any offers made so others had the chance to put in their offers and then they could consider all of them and give everyone a fair go.

Erm.....isn't that just an auction then? Ok so it's effectively sealed bids, but still, an auction? And one with no start or end time, just up to them?

Seems cheeky to me.

should i respond to their email? or just abandon them as a cheeky seller?

bump - any seasoned Ebayers got any advice?

I don't think it's cheeky to not want to accept an offer below the Buy It Now price. It's not an auction, as if someone paid the BIN they would sell it, and not hold out for someone higher.

However it bugs me a bit when sellers phrase things as if buying the item is a favour for the buyer. "Give everyone a fair go"... nope, it's that they want to achieve the highest price possible, which is fair enough, but why can't they just admit that!?

tell them to add best offer to the auction.

thing is though, if you put it on Buy It Now only, presumably you want to get that price and no other, no? That I have no problem with.

so opening it up to offers but without using EBay's systems to do it seems a bit odd? Or am I missing something?

aha - they've added the Best Offers thing now. Now I get it.

Before she seemed to be saying we should just email her offers, which seemed a bit cheeky.

Yeah, I prefer things to be more 'above board', and have a seller with the Best Offers option rather than just emailing offers. So much of ebay does seem to get negotiated through email lately; my DP buys quite a bit, and it often ends up getting conducted through correspondence rather than the BIN or auction channels.

i agree with you about people trying to pretend to be all fair and lovely, when you know they just want to make as much money as possible. which is fine, but at least be honest about it!