Making an offer

[jwmauto]

An item I was watching ended without any bids being made. Is it allowed under ebay rules form me to make an offer on the item using the contact seller option in the item listing?

PS there was no best offer option while the listing was active.

[rkwm888]

you could message the seller and ask can they do a buy now for you

[jwmauto]

Asking the seller to repost at buy now to match what I was willing to pay is one of the options that crossed my mind also. Still want to confirm how contacting the seller under the above circumactances relates to ebay rules though.

[putney32]

as long as you ask him to make an eBay buy it now listing for you, that's fine.  dealing outside of ebay would be a no-no.

[jwmauto]

Thanks putney, will give it a go was my thinking also that if I had no intention of backdooring ebay it should be cool.

[leader-of-the-band]

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@jwmauto wrote:

Thanks putney, will give it a go was my thinking also that if I had no intention of backdooring ebay it should be cool.

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it's more a case of protecting yourself.  If the seller was to say "Yeah, I will sell it to you but just direct deposit the money into my account" then you would have zero buyer protection.  Doing it as an eBay Buy-It-Now at an agreed price with payment by PayPal would give you buyer protections.

[phorum_junkie*]

 Doing it as an eBay Buy-It-Now at an agreed price with payment by PayPal would give you buyer protections.

While i am no way advocating dealing outside ebay you have full Paypal buyer protection where ever you purchase from as long as you tick the box to say you are paying for goods.

It is sellers who do not have as high a level of seller protection for non ebay transactions.