Have you ever noticed an ebay auction and it's something you really want and is quite scarce ........ Then the next day "the seller ended the auction early because of an error in the listing" and you know what that means he sold it outside of ebay because he got an offer that appealed to him.
This is a highly annoying practice for sure and that's why experienced bidders will put in a low bid at the very beginning in order to "lock in" the auction. If no bids have been received after, say, five or six days then it is understandable that some (less experienced) sellers could get cold feet and get worried that their item will sell for next to nothing (in reality, this rarely happens because so many people use eSnipe these days).
I personally feel that it's unethical to play these "no longer available" games, unless of course a legitimate error has been made in the description. All of my eBay offerings for the last year or so have carried the following statement at the end:
"FINAL NOTE: I do not close my auctions early." I practice what I preach and I always reject such offers outright. Anyway, I have found that in most cases (but perhaps not all) any such offers are considerably less than the final auction realization!
In the long run I feel that it pays in spades to be "upfront" by letting bidders know exactly where they stand and reassuring them that your auctions will be remaining open until the very end.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2007, 02:06:04 pm by Ottawa »
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" Buy the very best notes that you can afford and keep them for at least 10 years. " (Richard D. Lockwood, private communication, 1978).