Buying bikes on eBay

Author
Discussion

R8Steve

Original Poster:

4,150 posts

175 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Am i just extremely unlucky or am i wasting my time?

I’ve now won three auctions for bikes in the last few weeks and haven’t managed to get one of them.

Bike 1 – no answer to any of my messages after winning it.

Bike 2 – The guy insisted in delivering it to me, no big problem there, saves me the hassle. He doesn’t turn up and then claims by message he crashed on the way to my house and i wouldn’t want the bike now! rolleyes

Bike 3 – Won last night, got a message straight away, excellent, must be to arrange payment/collection. No, it says ‘Hi there, sorry the bike sold this afternoon but i couldn't stop the auction. Thanks for your interest.’ He then called me a knob for leaving him negative feedback asking ‘was i even a biker as bikers respect one another’ along with some other pointless rants.

I despair!

Rubin215

3,988 posts

156 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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You're obviously not winning them for enough!

Next time you're bidding on something let me know and I'll shill-bid it up to a decent price for you...

fleegle

16,689 posts

176 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Rubin215 said:
You're obviously not winning them for enough!
Spot on

R8Steve

Original Poster:

4,150 posts

175 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
quotequote all
Isn't that kind of the point of an auction though?

As i said to the last guy, if you don't want to sell it for that price, put a reserve on it.

cat with a hat

1,484 posts

118 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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R8Steve said:
Isn't that kind of the point of an auction though?

As i said to the last guy, if you don't want to sell it for that price, put a reserve on it.
I agree with you. You should only auction a vehicle if you need it gone.

Too many people on Ebay play silly buggers by letting the auction run then claim they don't want to sell it for that price or just simply pull out of the auction before it finishes.

Use a reserve if you have a price in mind (even if it is massively overinflated.)

Might sound like an arse for saying this, but I waste a lot of time watching bikes only to see the sellers are playing silly buggers just as much as some of the scummier buyers.

Blackpuddin

16,509 posts

205 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Seller No 3 was telling the truth as you can't stop an ebay auction less than 12 hours before the end if the item's had a winning bid.

R8Steve

Original Poster:

4,150 posts

175 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
quotequote all
cat with a hat said:
Might sound like an arse for saying this, but I waste a lot of time watching bikes only to see the sellers are playing silly buggers just as much as some of the scummier buyers.
Not at all, that's exactly my point, i'm looking for a cheap winter bike and am now three weeks on and no further forward with all the messing about. I put an R6 on ebay, it went for a lot lower than i thought it would but that's the gamble you take. The fact he felt insulted that i left him negative feedback kind of tells me the mentality of some people on there.

He said 'I have bought and sold here on eBay for years, I must bring to your attention that not every transaction receives feedback, I have sold brand new stuff, 2nd hand stuff and according to my account profile bought over 70k worth of gear on eBay, a few purchase's have pissed me off but I always try to resolve before leaving neg feedback'.

Well yeah, you could resolve it by selling me the bike i won. laugh

Anyway, looks like i'll need to brave the scumtree, unless anyone on here is selling a sub 2k winter bike 600cc upwards.

rat840771

2,023 posts

165 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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The best way to sell bikes on ebay is in the classified adverts and add a 'Best offer' option and then you only loose £15 and not 10% of the value.


boyse7en

6,720 posts

165 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Blackpuddin said:
Seller No 3 was telling the truth as you can't stop an ebay auction less than 12 hours before the end if the item's had a winning bid.
Yes, that's true. But if he had it up for auction he shouldn't have sold it beforehand IMO. Should have told however he sold it to to put a bid on it.

Farlig

632 posts

152 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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boyse7en said:
Blackpuddin said:
Seller No 3 was telling the truth as you can't stop an ebay auction less than 12 hours before the end if the item's had a winning bid.
Yes, that's true. But if he had it up for auction he shouldn't have sold it beforehand IMO. Should have told however he sold it to to put a bid on it.
Did he not have a wee disclaimer somewhere saying "bike also advertised elsewhere, I reserve the right to waffle waffle...?"

Prof Prolapse

16,160 posts

190 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Farlig said:
Did he not have a wee disclaimer somewhere saying "bike also advertised elsewhere, I reserve the right to waffle waffle...?"
That may offer basic courtesy to the bidder, but that wouldn't affect the contract he entered when he started the auction.

I really think eBay need to monitor this sort of thing better, especially given their mark up.


R8Steve

Original Poster:

4,150 posts

175 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
quotequote all
Farlig said:
boyse7en said:
Blackpuddin said:
Seller No 3 was telling the truth as you can't stop an ebay auction less than 12 hours before the end if the item's had a winning bid.
Yes, that's true. But if he had it up for auction he shouldn't have sold it beforehand IMO. Should have told however he sold it to to put a bid on it.
Did he not have a wee disclaimer somewhere saying "bike also advertised elsewhere, I reserve the right to waffle waffle...?"
No, the advert didn't have that, nor can i find the bike for sale on any other site.

Think it's just a case of he thought it would go for more and didn't want to pay the paltry sum to put a reserve on it. Pretty naive for an ebayer with 1000+ feedbacks.

sjtscott

4,215 posts

231 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
quotequote all
rat840771 said:
The best way to sell bikes on ebay is in the classified adverts and add a 'Best offer' option and then you only loose £15 and not 10% of the value.
Irritatingly I know about this one having lost me £17 actually.. better still is classified without best offer where you no longer can have time wasters making you an offer which once accepted removes the ad and needs you to shell out the money again to re-advertise when they don't actually turn up to look let alone purchase the bike.


Farlig

632 posts

152 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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R8Steve said:
Farlig said:
boyse7en said:
Blackpuddin said:
Seller No 3 was telling the truth as you can't stop an ebay auction less than 12 hours before the end if the item's had a winning bid.
Yes, that's true. But if he had it up for auction he shouldn't have sold it beforehand IMO. Should have told however he sold it to to put a bid on it.
Did he not have a wee disclaimer somewhere saying "bike also advertised elsewhere, I reserve the right to waffle waffle...?"
No, the advert didn't have that, nor can i find the bike for sale on any other site.

Think it's just a case of he thought it would go for more and didn't want to pay the paltry sum to put a reserve on it. Pretty naive for an ebayer with 1000+ feedbacks.
Then he really is a ...mad

LoonR1

26,988 posts

177 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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rat840771 said:
The best way to sell bikes on ebay is in the classified adverts and add a 'Best offer' option and then you only loose £15 and not 10% of the value.
You don't pay 10% on vehicle sales on eBay.

rat840771

2,023 posts

165 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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just googled it, 1% on bikes/cars.

To be honest that isn't too bad.


Lazadude

1,732 posts

161 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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R8Steve said:
Anyway, looks like i'll need to brave the scumtree, unless anyone on here is selling a sub 2k winter bike 600cc upwards.
Debating selling the SV650 since I can't ride it, issue being I'm Surrey based..

CarsOrBikes

1,135 posts

184 months

Saturday 28th November 2015
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Ebay need to add a function that extends the auction for half an hour if a bid is placed in the last ten minutes. It will kill the snipers stone dead. Any live auction holds out for bids, as they are obliged to see what they can achieve, the ebay flaw allows it to be regarded as a disposal site. I won't deny a sale, but will pull the ad in the last hour due to snipers waiting to see if they can get something for nothing. If you want it bid earlier, and bid higher, then you'll never experience being let down in this way.

CAPP0

19,582 posts

203 months

Saturday 28th November 2015
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R8Steve said:
unless anyone on here is selling a sub 2k winter bike 600cc upwards.
Are we allowed to point at our own eBay listings?

R8Steve

Original Poster:

4,150 posts

175 months

Monday 30th November 2015
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CarsOrBikes said:
Ebay need to add a function that extends the auction for half an hour if a bid is placed in the last ten minutes. It will kill the snipers stone dead. Any live auction holds out for bids, as they are obliged to see what they can achieve, the ebay flaw allows it to be regarded as a disposal site. I won't deny a sale, but will pull the ad in the last hour due to snipers waiting to see if they can get something for nothing. If you want it bid earlier, and bid higher, then you'll never experience being let down in this way.
Sorry, but that is the daftest idea i've heard. If you want a certain price for it put a reserve price on it, it's not that difficult.

If the snipers win then you've actually made a bit more than what the rest of the market valued the item for. If you can't bid in the last ten minutes what's the point in having an auction?

You say bid earlier and higher and i'll never experience being let down this way? That's not the way ebay works though so that's pointless. If a no reserve auction starts at .99p and i bid 10k on it and no-one else bids on it i get it for .99p, not 10k. The reason? No-one else wants it so at that time in that market that's all it's worth.

Cappo - feel free to PM me if you have something