How to make an offer to unsold items?

[sunilsan1102]

Someone was selling and it did not sell in the auction.  When I tried to contact him to get the price reduce Ebay placed restrictions on my account. I did not know that buyer & seller are not allowed to exchange telephone numbers. I agree with Ebay but I did not know about this rule.

[lane-ends]

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@springyzone wrote:

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@sunilsan1102 wrote:

Someone was selling and it did not sell in the auction.  When I tried to contact him to get the price reduce Ebay placed restrictions on my account. I did not know that buyer & seller are not allowed to exchange telephone numbers. I agree with Ebay but I did not know about this rule.

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This is not a market or gumtree, this is ebay.

Ebay will think you are trying to make arrangements to buy outside of ebay and that's against the rules.

And the seller may not want to reduce the price. Just because it does not sell, does not mean it is up to you to bargain with a seller. To me, it is a little bit rude. If they want to reduce the price they will relist it at a reduced price.  Or maybe at the same price with make an offer. Just wait to see if they relist.

I have found a lot of sellers relist at exactly the same price. Just because it does not sell first time around does not mean it won't sell at that price next time.

I was once watching an item (it was like something  my daughter planned on selling so i wanted to see how it would go). First week, it did not sell at $700. Not one single bid. 

Next week, the seller did lower the price to start at $600 but a few people were interested and it sold for over $900. About $970 from memory.

So if anyone was waiting to see the price reduced they missed their chance first time round.

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Often a prompt that you are interested could make the difference between them relisting or not.

[springyzone]

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@lane-ends wrote:

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Often a prompt that you are interested could make the difference between them relisting or not.

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That's true although I always put items in my watching list so sellers could always see how many are watching, I suppose.

not that all watchers are intending bidders.

Or else a person could ask a question about the item. Say they are very interested and want to know x.y or z.

I have actually been watching a couple of heavier items (listed pick up only). intended to bid the other day on one of them, only to find it was saying "seller removed the ad as item is no longer available". That has happened to quite a few items I have looked at in the last few months.

I would guess either they have come to private arrangements with someone on ebay who has sent a message or else they have sold elsewhere although I monitor gumtree so I know it hasn't been on there.

I know sometimes sellers might just change their minds etc but I don't think this is the case so consistently, time after time. Maybe that is why ebay is clamping down.