Buyer "accidently" bid... next highest bidder offered $100 less than they bid.

[retrogamestoreau]

If you've been selling on eBay long enough I'm sure someone has won one of your auctions or purchased one of your items only to send you a message shortly after asking you to cancel because they bid "accidently" or their son or daughter made the bid...

This happened to me recently when I sold a phone, I got a message shortly after the auction ended and the bidder apologised and asked me to offer the item to the second highest bidder..

I knew I had two options, I could offer the phone to the second highest bidder or wait a few days and open a case against the buyer.. After a while I reluctanly chose to offer the phone to the second highest bidder as I didn't want to risk recieving negative feedback or false returns.

The following day I recieved a message from the 2nd highest bidder who offered me $100 less than he bid... This infuriated me. Why bid more than you're willing to pay?! Is it possible both accounts are owned by the same buyer and this is a cheap scam to win cheap auctions?

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do? It's exhausting selling on eBay sometimes.

[eol-products]

I buy from auction alot and the worst thing is bidding against a non genuine buyer who does not pay. I do not know if the other bidder has intention to pay so if I want something I need to pay what it takes to win. If the other bidder was never going to pay I am really only bidding against myself and over paying.

Recently lost an auction I was willing to pay $5 for for which sold for $31. 2 weeks later it was back up for auction and I won it for $5. My guess is the lower bidder wanted it but was not willing to pay for a bid against a non payer.

[retrogamestoreau]

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate you taking the time out to respond. I think I will definitely sell my old phones as buy it now listings in the future.

[springyzone]

There are quite a few reasons I can think of that the second highest bidder did this.

1. As others have said, your highest bidder didn't pay. That unfortunately makes the whole transaction look less attractive. Second highest bidder is now asking himself-who else wasn't genuine, was the price pushed up a bit artificially?

2. Second highest bidder has lost a bit of interest. When the auction was on, he may have been keen. If he had just pipped someone else to win, he may have been happy to pay. It's about perceptions. But to be honest, after a few days, a lost auction sort of leaves your mind, you forget about it a bit and move on. Having this second chance offer come out of the blue hasn't got the same urgency as an auction with multiple other bidders.

3. Opportunism. Your sale fell through, he may feel you are a bit desperate and might take a lower offer.

What i would do is as others have said, tell him no and just relist, but relist at a price at least slightly above the lowball offer he made you. That way, if he does want to buy, he will have to re-bid and at least you might get some fresh customers.

[retrogamestoreau]

eBay doesn't allow you to relist or even "sell similar" items that have been Second Chance Offers, despite just sending me an e-mail telling me I should relist the item... It's costing more and more to sell on this platform but it's becoming worse and worse.

[springyzone]

I have to say, that shocks me.

I can understand you would not be supposed to relist while second (or third etc) chance offers are in play, but once they expire, it seems madness that you cannot relist.

How long does this go on for? Presumably not forever. Surely not. The mind boggles.

There must be a lot of people who have similar items they might want to sell.

If you wait a while, maybe a month, are you able to relist if perhaps you gave the item a differently worded title and changed some of the ad around, had a few different photos etc?

It's been a while since I sold anything on ebay, but if sellers can't relist anything that has ever had a second chance offer, it certainly wouldn't encourage them to use that format. I would think a great number of second chance offers never get taken up, for the simple reason that often by the time they are made, the buyer has moved on, perhaps even bought or made an offer elsewhere.

[go-tazz]

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@retrogamestoreau wrote:

eBay doesn't allow you to relist or even "sell similar" items that have been Second Chance Offers, despite just sending me an e-mail telling me I should relist the item... It's costing more and more to sell on this platform but it's becoming worse and worse.

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Whenever I've had a problem with an item not relisting I go list it as a new item and just open up another tab and

copy all the information across.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@retrogamestoreau wrote:

eBay doesn't allow you to relist or even "sell similar" items that have been Second Chance Offers, despite just sending me an e-mail telling me I should relist the item... It's costing more and more to sell on this platform but it's becoming worse and worse.

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Maybe it's a glitch? I've always been able to relist second chance offers, one as late as last week. Mine wasn't due to the highest bidder not paying, I had 2 the same, so decided to offer it. I allowed 3 days and when they didn't take it up, I relisted no problems.

Also in regards to some of the posts where people have suggested that the second highest bidder may have had suspicions of different things, I always add a note to my SCO's, saying I have 2 of this item and have offered the second one to them. If it's a time where the highest bidder didn't want it, or didn't pay, I add that into the message. I'd say about 75% of my SCO's get accepted.