e-bay item relisted?

[John Brady]

I bid on a lens recently and the winning bid was much higher than my offer. As usual a ten year old lens sold for about twenty percent under new retail (crazy). I was notified that the lens has been relisted for non payment by the high bidder.

I am still interested in purchasing this lens for a reasonable price.
Is re-listing some type of a scam? what should I do to safeguard againt a fraud. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

John

[Ted Harris]

John, relisting is what happens if the winning bidder doesn't pay. Also, I'm no tso sure that 20% under current retail is anunrealistic price, that is in the general range that a retailer would charge assuming the lens is still a current design.

[Ash]

'second chance offer' is usually the one to watch out for. I wouldn't fear with an item being relisted.

You could even contact the seller about purchasing the item at a fair price prior to the auction end 'via buy it now' and may even get it at a good price that way.

[eric black]

I just had to use a second chance offer on a 35mm lens I was selling where the winning bidder missed a reserve by a few dollars- this allowed me as a seller to evaluate the best offer and use the 2nd chance offer instead of relisting-

[alec4444]

Even in legitimate cases I think second-chance is a scam. You're max bid has basically been shown to the seller. The "winning bidder" who supposedly didn't pay up could easily be a friend helping to sniff out what the max bid was....or perhaps they were trying to pump up the bid for their seller friend and went over the line. Either way, it stinks.

--A

[Ernest Purdum]

eric, there was a large-scale study of eBay results which showed that "reserve price" usually worked poorly. For someone selling only a few items who wished to be sure they didn't sell too low, a high starting price worked better than a reserve, but still not as well as a low starting price. If selling a larger number of items, a low starting price, though some might sell low, the average was better.

[Capocheny]

John,

The sad thing about ebay is that there is ALWAYS some element of risk involved in a transaction unless you've dealt with the seller previously. And, even that isn't a guarantee that something won't go wrong.

Establish some form of communications with the seller and get a sense of whether you can trust them or not.

Then, if you wish to proceed, just use a form of payment (i.e., Visa) such that you have recourse if the item isn't sent or isn't in the condition the seller stated.

Some credit card companies will reverse a charge for the card holder. Some won't.

Lastly, if there is some way of communicating with the seller through the "actual" ebay site... send them a note and see if you get a response back through the ebay website. There's a greater chance (certainly, still not a perfect methedology) that the second chance offer is legitimate since his name/profile is in the ebay system.

Good luck

Cheers

[John Brady]

Thanks to all for the sound advice! Bid placed, fingers crossed....
I guess it was the second chance offer that I had heard others warn about.

[Brian C. Miller]

I have used second-chance offer with a bidder. The item was offered at the maximum price the bidder posted. If you don't like the price of the item, don't accept. Simple.

[Jean-Louis Llech]

IMO, most of the time, a scam.
Some crooks see that you've lost the affair and try to pick up your money.
It happened to me two or three times, and I never answered.

[eric black]

Guess I got some advice here as well- ultimately though I think it comes down to hopefully dealing with fair people (99% of my deals have been), using a credit card that protects you and only paying what you feel is right for an item. I figured out the reserve price thing after I had already listed the item (duh) and am using it for future sales, but that second chance offer did hook me up as I really didnt want to relist when the winning bidder came so close to what I wanted- thats for the suggestions, this was an interesting post to me.