Calrification regarding revised listings.

[ekrabappel]

Hi all,

Can someone please clarify, if a seller changes postage costs on an live listing, does e-bay notify those who have the item on their watch list?

Thanks

[padi*0409]

I've never had a specific change of postage notification on my saved searches, so I doubt if they do.

[ekrabappel]

That is what I thought. I am just concerned if this can be used  to scam those using sniping software or maybe even those placing bids early via EBay.

Scenario - You see an item for $1 start price and $5 postage. You set the snipe for $5 so expect to pay $10 all up if successful. Next thing you get a winning bid notification of $8 plus $25 postage.  If you don't pay you get marks against your account.  Can this also be used if I place an early bid via Ebay (no sniping software) with a max bid of $10. You go away for the weekend and come back to find you have won the auction with $25 postage instead of $5.

[ekrabappel]

That should be winning bid of $5, not $8. 😞

[countessalmirena]

Frankly, that would be a good way to enrage a customer, and it’s not likely that sellers would try increasing the postage price just to ensnare snipe-bidders.

If it’s simply that the seller underestimated the postage cost, and corrected the amount in the listing, then presumably the postage cost initially shown in the listing would have been unrealistically low. In that case, I’d already be cautious as a buyer, thinking “They can’t possibly post it for such a low price”… and I would be unlikely to sashay off for the weekend without checking the listing a few times.

[ekrabappel]

@countessalmirena - I'm not talking about unrealistically low postage and low starting price. As a regular buyer of coins I often see sellers list the same coin with either a cheap starting price and high postage or a high starting price and low postage. It is obvious the seller wants a certain minimum for the item and postage combined, regardless of whether an item could be posted for that little.

The reason I raised the issue was some coins I was watching a while back.  For each item the coin and postage was a little overpriced but I calculated that if I bought 4-5 coins with combined postage (which I verified with the seller) it would be an OK deal. About 24 hours before the auction ended the postage on each item was doubled. It was now a **bleep** deal even with combined postage so I removed all the items from my watchlist. Luckily I hadn't placed bids on them or entered them into my snipe software or I may have been stuck with the excessive postage.  

The idea of placing an early bid with ebay and letting "EBay do the bidding for you" seems ludicrous if sellers can revise an item within 48 hours of the auction ending. Is one meant to wake up at 2am in the morning to check on that overseas auction just in case the seller quadrupled the postage? I always assumed that revised items, especially a change to postage, would require a re-listing or at least an automatic message to those who are actively watching it. 

[countessalmirena]

That is strange behaviour on the part of the seller.

Checking on eBay's Revise a listing page, I can see that for an auction-style listing, a seller can revise the starting price if there are more than 12 hours left on the listing and there are no bids on the item. Nothing is mentioned about changing the postage cost.

If there is any bid on the item, the starting price can't be changed, and I'd have thought that the postage price is also not able to be changed. It's not explicitly stated.

If the auction-style listing has fewer than 12 hours left, it's specifically stated that the seller can ❝Add new post-to locations❞. That isn't even given a glancing mention in the "more than 12 hours" points. I am really not sure what this means in terms of being able to change existing postage prices.

... And if the auction-style listing with fewer than 12 hours remaining has a bid, then the seller can't ❝Change or add to the postage details❞.

You can edit your notification preferences, and that includes watch alert and watch item relisted (under Buying activity). I am not sure if that would include an alert about a watched item being edited.

I would probably place one bid on an item in which I'm interested (like a holding placesetter), then place my real (highest I'm willing to pay) bid on an auction sniper. That would at least mean that the seller has the least chance of being able to edit their listing with regard to postage amount. (A seller on these boards might be able to confirm whether or not postage amount can be edited if a bid is placed on an auction item.)

It also reassures the seller that you are serious and haven't just done the tyre-kicker routine by asking about combined postage.

Finally... if a seller is able to change the postage amount post-bid (initial bid), and that makes the item unacceptably high in total price, and you weren't notified of such a change, and you won the item with a snipe bid that you would not have placed if you had been notified of the postage increase, I would contact the seller to say that I wished to cancel on the basis of the total price changing without my being informed. If the seller didn't want to cancel, and opened an Unpaid Item Dispute, I'd contact eBay Live Chat and explain the circumstances. Any Unpaid Cancellation Record/Strike that I received could be appealed on the basis that ❝The seller changed the terms of the sale after you committed to buy or won an auction❞.

Since a bid is a commitment to buy if the bid is successful, it seems inconceivable that the seller could change the postage amount (thus changing the terms of the sale) after the buyer has placed a bid.

So... I'd suggest that placing a bid is the way to go.