Charlie, I think he is looking to make a bit more money to help pay his ebay selling fees. A lot of ebay sellers pad the shipping costs to help with the fees since ebay has increased their fees so much over the last two years. IMHO ebay has gotten greedy and really sticks it to sellers, but what competition do they have?

As long as people bid and pay, sellers will keep doing this. Buyers are in 100 percent control of the situation and set the market and behavior of sellers with their pocket book. Buyers are the only ones to blame. Most sellers get away with this because Americans love gambling and have a desire to win, despite paying too much. For any decent items in demand, I look elsewhere because I find many items I can buy new locally in a store at the same price. The only bargains on ebay are obsure items with zero demand that do not generate bidding wars.

I'm in the process of buying a reel mower where I found the seller on ebay, but am buying the mower off ebay. Saved the seller $100 not to list it and another $100 by not using PayPal. He passed the $200 savings on to me.

Sure, there's risk involved, but contact the seller and get a feel for what kind of person they are. Never trust anyone that talks too fast and repeats themselves a lot. Always ask for references and VERIFY the references. If it seems shady or underhanded, re-verify the references. Ask the references for references. After all of that if it still feels wrong, don't do it. You're gut will tell you. Don't ever let any seller talk you into doing something your gut tells you not to. No matter how good the deal seems.

When verifying references always question the source of the reference before disclosing the party in question. A typical conversation would be: "Hello, my name is _____, and I'm calling to verify a reference." Proceed to ask the person their ocupation, location, and job title. Ask the person for three people that can verify the information given by them. Then disclose the name of the person and ask their relationship to them. It's that simple. It shouldn't take more than three minutes per phone call and shouldn't be less than ten contacts made. A half-hour to verify that the person you're sending a check to is who they say they are and are located where they say they are.

I do this when making large transactions where payment is sent to a private party or small business before the product will be in my hand. If it's less than a $100 I usually don't bother but some people may find it worth it.

Sellers on ebay often have more equipment than what's listed. If the seller offers contact information call them and see if you can make a deal on anything he may have to offer off screen.

Greenjeans

But how did any of that have anything to do with lawn mowers? : )

Buyers always have a choice if they don't like the price or the terms. Just don't push the buy icon. There are plenty of used and new lawnmowers available.

Just don't push the buy icon

Some are addicted and cannot do this. Ebay is a disease for many.

To be a successful ebay buyer, you must be patient and know your price and not alter from that position on emotion.

For me, when I see something I want, I put my top price I will pay, and NEVER look back until I get an email that I won or was outbid. If I was outbid, I never go back and bid higher.

That's good advice, but if you really want to avoid a bidding war and want to win the auction: enter your highest bid in the last 60 seconds of the auction. This will enable you to take complete control of the auction on your terms, and force the highest bidder to pay his maximum bid.

Some people may consider this method a little unethical, but it's only business. Worse things have been done.

Greenjeans

I don't sell too much on Ebay, but when I do, I would actually PREFER local pickup paying with cash. Sames me the trouble of packing it up and taking it to get shipped!
One thing I've listed I actually said I would give a discount for local pickup!

I agree with some sellers charging too much for shipping. When a cd sent snail-mail cost you $6.00 you have to throw up the bullcrap flag. On the mower above just call the guy and tell him (if you are local) to deliver it to your house. Dont bother with pickup...

"That's good advice, but if you really want to avoid a bidding war and want to win the auction: enter your highest bid in the last 60 seconds of the auction."

RB> Nonsense. How does that give you any more control over the auction than if you had entered your high bid 5 days earlier and just relied on the Ebay proxy system. The winning bidder will always be the guy that enters the highest bid.

I've read posts about last second bidding from a lot of guys and my sense is that they really don't know what their maximum price is. It's a win-at-any-price mentality mostly.

"This will enable you to take complete control of the auction on your terms, and force the highest bidder to pay his maximum bid."

RB> Again, how is this any different than entering a bid and just relyng on the proxy system. Some of us find it exciting to sit with sweaty palms finger ready to hit the enter key at the last moment. But it makes no difference to the outcome. You could automate the last second bidding buy paying for bidding software, but it does the same thing as the proxy system.
"Some people may consider this method a little unethical, but it's only business. Worse things have been done."

A bid is a bid and whether it is entered 5 seconds after the auction opens or 5 seconds before auction close is irrelevant to the outcome. The guy who is willing to spend the most will win.

Posted by greenjeans_il zone5 IL (My Page) on Thu, Oct 12, 06 at 10:38

"I'm in the process of buying a reel mower where I found the seller on ebay "

This is exactly why what you did was unethical. Regardless what your opinion of the fees charged by Paypal and Ebay, you and the seller used Ebay as the venue to advertise and locate the item desired. Otherwise you would never have met and made the transaction. Ebay is entitled to fees for this service and you simply assisted the seller to break the rules and opened yourself to a chance to get ripped off.

Greenjeans posted the following:

"I'm in the process of buying a reel mower where I found the seller on ebay, but am buying the mower off ebay. Saved the seller $100 not to list it and another $100 by not using PayPal. He passed the $200 savings on to me. "

That must be one very expensive lawnmower for the Ebay listing fees to be $100.00 and the Paypal discount fees to be another $100.00

For your sake I hope you get what you bargained for. Because you bought outside of Ebay and Paypal (and presumably without a credit card) you will have nobody to help in negotiations if it doesn't turn out as you want.

The mower I'm purchasing was never listed on Ebay. I called him with questions on a mower that was listed but the one I'm purchasing is larger and better suited for my needs.

Yeah, it's a $3000 mower. I'm a all grown-up and I'm sure I can handle my transaction. I've checked his references and everything turned out really good. If it's not "what I bargained for" I can handle my own negotiations. Transactions used to take place on a hand shake long before Ebay came around, and Ebay's making enough money off the guy with the other mowers he's got listed.

Broke who's rules and defied who's ethics? I'm entitled to pay Ebay $100 because I found a different mower than that which was listed? The $100 I'm saving is the money I'm paying to trust the person I'm buying from. I've talked to this guy every day since the trasaction began, I talked to his boss where he works, I spoke with the instructor at the school where he trains to become certified to repair these mowers. I did the leg work to confirm his credentials so why shouldn't I keep my $100?

What's with the attitude on this forum? I don't care for the insinuation that I'm incapable of conducting a transaction on my own without the help of Ebay.

You guys need to chill out.

Greenjeans

Greenjeans,You did fine on the negotiations in your transaction. There is an attitude on this forum, a lot of people have left or rarely post because of it.

If I was selling a push mower I'd prob want more than actual shipping for my pocket. Gotta buy a bit of lumber to crate it and spend some time doing it. Hardly worth the effort.

I recently tossed a whole lawn boy - had one seasons mowing, then I moved... it went in the dumpster because wasnt worth much as had been sitting in the shed for 20 yrs and only started up hand full of times. Wheels rotted.

~
I buy a bit of stuff off ebay, bid at last 2 - 5 seconds.
Bid what its worth to me basically. No bidding wars - I either buy it or not for my price or less.
Recent auction had 2 bidders, me and da other guy that put a bid on it. I paid 86 cents & $10 shipping, for best deal online a $48 shipped item. Its new!