Sold my TV on Ebay...almost

[Carlsberg19]

Here was my dilemma:

About a week ago i decided to sell my TV, so i checked online and found a guy who buys and sells stuff online for you (he was based in my town) so i thought this would be a better option than me selling it because basically i wouldn't know where to start when selling on Ebay plus the whole thing about packaging etc..i didn't have a clue, so thought i would get this guy to sell it for me and he would take care of all that..

So he asked would i prefer to put it on ebay for a reserve price ( i said i would like €500 for it ) or i could also put it on a 99 cent starting price and let people bid for it..i chose the latter

Anywho the bidding ended on Sunday night..what did it sell for?...€360..after his fees i got €220..

€220 for a 42'' HD TV, i had none of it and said their is no way in hell im selling my TV for €220. This is where the problem started, he said that he was legally bound to sell this TV to the highest bidder, now im a total Ebay novice and i am not with it in terms of contracts etc but all i knew was i am not selling it for €220

So after a heated discussion on the phone with him, he was saying he was going to get negative feedback and what was he going to tell the buyer etc.

Just today i got an offer for €500 for the TV from somebody else and i am going to sell it to this person, i just thought i would share this rant with you guys, never again am i selling anything on Ebay!

[ludawg23]

almost 40% of the sell price as "ebay" fees? ridiculous.

[mikejet]

He's right you're wrong. You should have put a reserve price then if the tv did not hit the price you wanted you would not have to sell it.

[Teabaggins]

you better let him sell it dude

[fatediesel]

Originally Posted by mikejet

He's right you're wrong. You should have put a reserve price then if the tv did not hit the price you wanted you would not have to sell it.

Going to have to agree with Mikejet on this one. When you sell something on Ebay you are entering a contract to sell the item for the final bidding price. If 500 was the minimum you'd accept you should have set that as the minimum price.

[Blu-Benny]

Originally Posted by mikejet

He's right you're wrong. You should have put a reserve price then if the tv did not hit the price you wanted you would not have to sell it.

+1. if u wanted a definate amount for it, you s/h sold it w/a reserve.

u really have no right to be upset over this, the guy that offered to sell it for you does.

[ludawg23]

Then again, if the guy sells items on E-bay for a living, he should have had OP sign some type of contract so he wouldn't get screwed over in the end.

You technically have no legal obligation but it's still a scumbag move. But the difference between 500 and 220 is significant...

[My_Two_Cents]

No offense, but you were in the wrong, here. When you argree to sell something on eBay, and choose to hold an auction, you are bound by the user agreement to sell the item for the winning bid to the winning bidder. If you wanted a minimum from it, you should have held a 'Buy it Now' or reserve price auction. It also seems that you either weren't told about or didn't have a clear understanding of the fees involved in selling items on eBay and through an independent broker.

Now, with that said, I'd do the same thing you just did. I would not follow through with the transaction if you are only going to get 220 out of the deal. He'll get one negative feedback, and may have to cover some listing fees, but that's it. At the least, you should cover his expenses. If you signed anything with the broker, then you may be on the hook for more.

Next time, understand what you are doing before you enter into an agreement like this.

[Teabaggins]

carlsberg- think of it as good karma and write it off as a lesson learned. don't be a douche because you didn't get the details.

buyer(in this case, "seller") beware.

[Carlsberg19]

Originally Posted by Ricshoe

No offense, but you were in the wrong, here. When you argree to sell something on eBay, and choose to hold an auction, you are bound by the user agreement to sell the item for the winning bid to the winning bidder. If you wanted a minimum from it, you should have held a 'Buy it Now' or reserve price auction. It also seems that you either weren't told about or didn't have a clear understanding of the fees involved in selling items on eBay and through an independent broker.

Now, with that said, I'd do the same thing you just did. I would not follow through with the transaction if you are only going to get 220 out of the deal. He'll get one negative feedback, and may have to cover some listing fees, but that's it. At the least, you should cover his expenses. If you signed anything with the broker, then you may be on the hook for more.

Next time, understand what you are doing before you enter into an agreement like this.

I agree totally, its not like i set out for this to happen, and if i put it up for €500 reserve price i wouldn't be in this predicament today, i am going to cover his listing price which is €80...even that i still think is ridiculously expensive but i wont complain, just give him the money and everybody's happy.

[Sussudio]

sucks man, but that can happen if you don't put a reserve price on it. technically if someone has the winning bid for an item on ebay you are obligated to sell it to them. that's pretty lame of you (although i understand you don't want to sell it cheap) to not do so and therefore let the negative feedback fall back on the guy selling it for you. his fees were pretty ridiculous, but if he gave you the option to do a reserve and you declined, it's your own problem.

edit: good to see you're still going to cover his listing price hopefully he won't get bad feedback still

[brettallica]

I don't want to beat the dead horse too much, but yeah...you kind of messed up there, my friend. Always set a reserve if you have an absolute minimum in mind and cannot take anything less than that.

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by Carlsberg19

I agree totally, its not like i set out for this to happen, and if i put it up for €500 reserve price i wouldn't be in this predicament today, i am going to cover his listing price which is €80...even that i still think is ridiculously expensive but i wont complain, just give him the money and everybody's happy.

Wow! 80 Euros in fees? He's hitting you with his "handling fees". The actual eBay fees for a 360 Euro winning bid should be less than 15 Euros.

Good to see you are covering things for him, though. Lesson learned.

[toef]

I think both of you are wrong. You're wrong to renege on the deal, but the guy who sold it for you is insane if he's taking such a huge cut for selling it. Although maybe his fee included paying for shipping, which was likely a lot for a TV, so maybe he wasn't too insane.

If you were worried about the price, you could've always had a friend bid up the price of the auction, like a lot of people do.

Originally Posted by Teabaggins

you better let him sell it dude

Welcome back. Now where's Crim?

[Carlsberg19]

Originally Posted by toefer

I think both of you are wrong. You're wrong to renege on the deal, but the guy who sold it for you is insane if he's taking such a huge cut for selling it. Although maybe his fee included paying for shipping, which was likely a lot for a TV, so maybe he wasn't too insane.

If you were worried about the price, you could've always had a friend bid up the price of the auction, like a lot of people do.




Welcome back. Now where's Crim?

Nope, the person buying covers the shipping cost

[ground chuck]

you're lucky the guy that was supposed to sell the tv for you doesn't knock your block off. i know i would have if i was him.

[Uniquely]

You're very, very wrong.

He asked you up front if you wanted to set a reserve price, and you decided not to and instead start at 99 cents and let the chips fall where they may. Then AFTER the chips fell you decided the price was too low?

This man offered you a legitimate service in good faith. His fees may have been high, but it takes an EBay seller a LONG time to get a high number of good reviews, and most serious buyers will NOT buy from someone that does not have those reviews. Giving him his fees back will not take back the negative review he is VERY likely to get out of this deal.

[proxpilot]

that's some serious BS man. It's not like he didn't give you the options up front

[JJ]

Yea, one of the worst fears I have outside of the successful cloning of velociraptors is to get negative eBay feedback!

[fatediesel]

I'm curious about why he didn't take the TV before listing it. This would prevent stuff like this from happening. Also, I'm surprised there wasn't a contract that would state what would happen if the merchandise wasn't delivered.