A reserve could have made him feel more comfortable in the sale. I have seen a lot of good items disappear in the last few hours because the seller gets scared the price will finish too low. Thing is, a lot of auctions don't have real action until the last 5 minutes, and many times, in the last few seconds. A thing can go from a few hundred to over a thousand in the last second. It is impossible to actually make a seller complete a sale if he chooses to refuse.

With me being a very often seller on ebay, I have 3 drums listed now as I type this out. I feel for the seller in question. I got burnt big time on a leedy floor tom once, I have never repeated that scenario again. I have pulled items off ebay due to low sales bids, Now I list it at what I need or want out of an Item. Sellers get a raw deal on ebay.

Yeah, that is so correct... I've been selling mostly ham radio stuff on eBay since early 1998. This CEO treats sellers like dung.

I do the same thing. I set the price and that's it. Most all of my stuff sells, so I either price it low or just right.

I don't understand this.

First of all, disclaimer: I've never sold anything on eBay, and I've only bought a few items years ago, but I keep my eyes on it as a window shopper, so to speak. So, unless there's some mandatory user policy I'm unaware of, I'm hoping I'm not speaking incorrectly about the service, just the users...

Here goes...

If you don't want something to sell for below a specific price, don't configure your ad for the possibility of it potentially selling below that price.

...I hope that wasn't too offensive, harsh, or out of line, but it's the simple, no-brainer concept that will save a lot of heartache for both the sellers AND buyers. I mean, if I see something for sale with a starting bid of $0.99 and no reserve, I fully expect the item to sell for at least 99 cents, if someone will bid on it. If the seller wants it to sell for more, they need to either raise the starting bid or add a reserve price. It's that freakin' simple, isn't it? If a seller *wants* it to sell for more, but it happens to not sell for that much, then that's just too bad for the seller. If they were using the low starting bid as a way to get attention for their item, and it doesn't sell for the price they want it to, then their strategy backfired, and they need to take it as a "loss" or whatever. They should have their ducks in a row before posting the auction, right? I mean, I've been to a music store where an item was mislabeled, and because they had that price labeled on the item (not just a switched tag or a misplaced decimal point), they were morally obligated to honor the price. I respected that, and decided to not buy the item after all. If they would have fought me on it, you bet I would have walked out of there with a DW snare for $89.

This situation of a seller backing out of an auction THAT THEY CREATED is just bunk. They were pulling the strings/setting the arena from the get-go, and if they didn't like the way it could have potentially ended up, they shouldn't have constructed the parameters of the auction to allow for that possibility. It's unethical if you ask me...

How did you get "burnt" on the floor tom? See, THIS is what I don't understand. If you want to get $xx.xx for an item, why not just list it for that, or have that be your reserve price? The only way I can see getting "burnt" on an eBay sale is if you make a mistake in your listing (I mean, besides fraud claims, SNAD claims, etc. etc...). The seller sets the parameters for how the sale will go. Unless nobody buys it, there is no room for people to "underbid" your starting price, unless you leave your auction open for offers, which, again, is under the seller's discretion.

If you genuinely want to see what an item will sell for, and put a starting bid of $0.99 with no reserve on the listing, then that communicates to the buyer that you are willing to take as little as $0.99 for the item. That's it. Done. Plain as day. There's no room to read anything else into this, unless "$0.99 with no reserve" is some culturally-specific-to-eBay code for "this seller will probably pull the auction if it doesn't go how they want it to," which I have never heard of, not being of the eBay culture myself. Correct me if there's something I'm missing...

I know sellers can get burnt bad on ebay.

I once bought a "26" Ludwig bass drum...quoted shipping was only a few bucks. Auction was just a few dollars. I think I did not send over 30. It cost 119.00 to ship the 28" Slingerland BD that came to me. Now if that had been me, I would have boxed that sucker, rolled it out into the street and ran over it three or four times the moment I found out what actual shipping cost would be. The buyer would have gotten a full refund and pics to prove the damages.

As a buyer I have been miffed more than once on an auction that mysteriously closed in the final hour.

I have to agree with caddywumpus, although I have 170 stars, I feel I'm still new at this. I think some sellers (not all) may do this low open biddding if they have something HOT, I feel the odds are in their favor that a bidding war will ensue. What they dont factor in is perhaps the real players, or guys that might want it, might not even be on line during that time. who knows. I have also got stung, but I do it on a small way. sometimes I mis guess on shipping, and have to eat it, but thats part of this ebay game, I'm not even getting into the snip bidding people do, I don;'t even know exacty what that is, but I heard you can get in a bid in the last millionth of a second which will cancell out and normal bidders. which is also unfair to everyone else.

Morality has nothing to do with it. It was a business decision to stand behind the (incorrect) price marked on the item. It would have been well within their rights to correct the price and put it back on the shelf.

Innocent mistakes are made, by individuals and by businesses, and neither has any 'moral obligation' to be punished for their mistake.

As far as sellers starting an item low on eBay, that's a sales strategy - nothing more. What it does reflect is a lack of understanding that many auctions take off in the last few minutes.

I have no problem with someone cancelling an auction when it nears the end if the item has not attracted a high enough bid. It's their item to do with as they wish, and as a bidder it's happened to me plenty of times. We may not like it, but I reserve any moral indignation for life experiences that really warrant it.

Dan, thank you your on the mark here . to answer thte op's question how did I get burnt. I started the leedy floor tom at a 99 cent starting price the drum sold for under a $100.00 I had twice that in the drum. It was a gamble I took and I lost but I sold and shipped the drum for that price then paid ebay 14% fees too boot ! I have never repeated that mistake ever again.