Ebay novice, please assist with buyers question

[rodgershawk]

I am in the process of selling (don't ask sooo stressed, not going according to plan..)
Anyway.. I thought I would put my stresses to one side and do something constructive.

I put our sofa on ebay and got a message today from someone who said that they were moving before the end of the auction and had a van and would be interested in buying the sofa on a buy now if we could agree the right price.
I sent her a reply with our expected price, but if we agree I have NO idea on how to do the "buy it now" option..
Am I allowed to stop the auction?
There has been no bids so far..

Such a techno phobe, was well pleased with myself when I managed to put it on ebay in the first place, but now and confused.

Please help..

If there are no bids so far you can 'edit listing' and then go down to the bit where you choose auction or buy it now and click on buy it now and put a price.

I'd wait till the person gets back to you to say if they want it at the price you suggested.

Firstly, this is a common pseudo-scam amongst potential buyers - they say they would like to buy it, but are only in the area on X, or need ti urgently etc in the hope that you will sell it to them at a lower price than it would otherwise reach at auction.

You are not obliged to sell it to someone just because they ask for a Buy It Now.

HOWEVER if you DO decide to sell it to them, then yes, you can cancel the auction - have a look in the eBay help pages - and you will probably be able to give a reason like it's no longer available for sale, or has been sold elsewhere.

Ebay don't like you doing this, as it evades the final value fee, but it is possible.

Personally if I haven't set a BuyItNow I never sell the item early or cancel the auction as you will nearly always get more for it if you ride it out....

Sorry - yes - if you don't have bids then you can edit the listing to add a BIN.

Thank you.
Put it on for 99p and asked £120 from potential buyer, so probably they will not get back to me..

thank you for your help, will have a look at edit listing, did have a quick look at what to do incase..

Feel such an idiot but always a first time for these things.

thanks again

Legacy is right, I often get people asking me to do a buy it now price but I always decline and say thanks for the enquiry but I prefer to let auctions run their course.

Good luck with it hope you get a decent price whether auction or buy it now.

if you do sell it to them, make sure they pay through paypal. Otherwise you have no proof that they actually have the item and they can open a dispute with ebay and scam you.

noo! make sure they DONT pay by paypal! never accept a paypal payment for something that is to be collected in person - easiest way to be scammed otherwise!

Yep, NO paypal for collection. Big scam potential.

Cash is the only way for a collected item.

Wow, didnt realise this was such a minefield!
Just wanted to get rid a a few bits prior to emigrating so we didnt have to ship them!!!

I dont end a running auction for a BIN outside of ebay until I have the cash in my hands.

I have decided, sod the BIN, I'm just going to let it run its course.
It's part of the excitement!

I have decided, sod the BIN, I'm just going to let it run its course.
It's part of the excitement!

But also you cannot stop someone paying using PP on collection as you have to offer it now. Lose lose as always....

MaDuggar is right, I had my pregnancy brain on tight when I typed that.

The problem is, you have to offer paypal, so if they choose paypal there is potential for scam.

What sort of scam are we talking about???

Thought I was a hardened detective but hey ho. No idea what you are all talking about!?!?

My buy it now potential buyer went AWOL, as foretold to me by MNers so now what next?

4 days to go on 2 items... both large so free collection..

What should I watch out for??

they can pay by paypal. come get the item, then open a dispute saying they never received the item and because they picked it up from your house you cannot prove that they have it (no tracking).
Paypal will rule in their favor and then you are totally out of money & product.
it's a really crappy scam.

You could try getting them to sign a 'receipt' for the item, and you could give them one for the cash?

Update!
The buy it now person never came back to me.. Surprise surprise!

I had a winning bidder (had) on Sunday, who just text me saying "sorry, I didnt realise how far you were from where I live, sorry it's too far for me to drive"

So basically thats it! I sent a second chance offer to the second bidder, and the original buyer offered to pay the difference (its only a quid) but Im still the 10% ebay fee out... noticed the option to send a pay dispute but they wont let me submit this until 7 days after the event!!!

aaahhh!

ebay sucks for small sellers now - you are better off offering it on gumtree.

Hopefully you will be able to get your fees back, i think your original buyer has to agree that they did not go through with the purchase of it in order to do that.