Quote:
Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra
Ah yes, you are referring to putting in a maximum bid, the maximum amount one is willing to pay.
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Yes, the seller only gets what the SECOND HIGHEST bidder is willing to pay (plus an insignificant increment). As opposed to a normal auction (house auction, disposal auction, clearing sale, etc.) where the seller gets what the HIGHEST bidder is willing to pay. There's often a big difference on ebay - I'm sure we've all bought items for considerably less than our maximum bid.
Obviously when someone makes an phone offer he'll have to pay what he offers, but the fact remains he's at a huge advantage over ebay bidders, because he's the only one conveying his maximum bid to the seller. In practice the seller has no idea what ebay bidders are willing to pay until the final few minutes/seconds of the auction. The strong temptation therefore is to accept the phone offer - a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
As Tony says, the seller has the option to increase his reserve price to match the phone offer, and invite the person to make a genuine bid. In this case that wasn't possible, because it was a combined offer for two auctions - and possibly even conditional on getting both vehicles. However, even in the case of a single auction, there's always the risk the person may not bid his phone offer - he may "cool off", or get run over by a bus. In that event the new reserve price may not be reached and the seller will be forced to relist the item and risk a lower price. As I said earlier, it would be unreasonable to compel sellers to risk a lower price than they've already been offered.
Hence it's entirely acceptable for sellers to terminate auctions early - indeed it's often stated that the item is advertised elsewhere and the seller reserves the right to withdraw from auction.
What's NOT acceptable however is the deliberate subversion of ebay auctions by phone bidding. Phone numbers are provided for further information, not as an invitation to make phone bids. Such bids not only usurp genuine bidders, they also put the seller in an invidious position. Therefore it behoves anyone seeking information by phone to REFRAIN from making phone bids. The fact that in this case it was a combined bid for two auctions is no excuse whatsoever.
In the interests of stamping out the practice of phone bidding I'm happy to name and shame the individual concerned - one
[name deleted]. I'm led to believe he's a member of the MV community, which makes it even more galling. If anyone here knows this character they might like to inform him of our displeasure at being backdoored in this fashion.
In addition, since it was the actions of
[name deleted] which deprived us of knowledge of the sale price of these two vehicles, I feel free to divulge it here -
[price deleted] for the pair. You can make up your own mind about that.
Others here may not share my indignation in this instance, however I make no apology for my comments. The practice of phone bidding is potentially contagious, and it's hardly conducive to good relations within the MV community.