I tried to end an item early but could not even though it had more then 12 hours to run

[rgherron]

I tried to end an item early but could not even though it had more then 12 hours to run . I have had to do this before . I have a pawn shop and this happens not unfrequently often because owners of items redeem them at the last minute . I have not had trouble doing this before . Am I doing something wrong or has eBay changed its policy to make this difficult for sellers to withdraw items  ?  

[*crikey*mate*]

Hi, I can't answer your question, but I do have a question for you, if you don't mind.

At what point in time do items that you have in your pawn shop become legally yours to do with as you please?

Is there a time when the customer can't come back and get their posessions?

[cq_tech]

Simple solution - stop listing items which you don't yet own, or to which you don't have full legal title.

[*crikey*mate*]

I am pretty sure that under both ACL and eBay, that you can only send items to auction or offer them for sale if you have legal ownership/clear title of/to them.

So, the OP must have legal title to the things he lists, he surely wouldn't break the law (and admit it), would he?

So I'm thinking the OP is being a really nice bloke and letting the previous owner have their item back afterall.

So, OP, when does a person forfeit ownership of an item they surrender to a pawn shop?

[phorum_junkie*]

You are breaching ebay policy by listing items that you do not own so why should anyone tell you how to continue doing the wrong thing? Even if they have nit been redeemed in time and are legally yours if they are also on sale in your store you are not allowed to list them on ebay either.

I have no doubt some people will have reported this thread and your policy breaches to ebay, I hope they take the appropriate action, the last thing reputable sellers want is people who ignore policy to the detriment of us all.

[coast_golf]

I think there might be a bit of gun jumping. Yes, if he(?) has listed the items for sale prior to the expiration of the redemption period then yes, an offence is being committed but we have absolutely no evidence that this is the case.

It could be the case that the redemption period has expired and he has lawfully listed the items for sale and the original owner has asked if the pledge could be redeemed outside this period, something that a pawnbroker is quite entited to comply with, but is of course in no way legally obligated to.

My primary concern is listing without Paypal as a payment option. While that is allowed on eBay, one of the obligations of a pawnbroker is to make all reasonable attempts to obtain the best possible price and you are listing on eBay without accepting a payment method that the vast majority of members use. I know if a pawnbroker was selling one of my pledges (remembering that I'm entitled to any proceeds of the sale over and above the amount owed) and was excluding a signification portion of the market by virtue of non acceptance of a payment method I'd be more than a touch annoyed. I'm not saying that an arbiter would necessarily agree with that assessment, but it's possible that eventually one of your customers may decide to test it for themselves.

I also note that you claim on one of your completed items that the market value of an item was $700 yet you sold it for $395, this to me seems inconsistent with your obligation to obtain the best possible price. May be worth discussing with your solicitor the validity of this sales tactic.

[rgherron]

Of course all the pledges I am selling have well and truely expired. Nothing I am doing is even mildy unethical let alone illegal . I am actually giving owners of expired items the opportunity to reclaim them long after the pledge has expired and I have alreadu gone to considerable trouble to advise them of that fact . 

While "coast-gulf" seems incliined to understand that the rest of his assertions about not offering paypal and hence not getting the best price I can for the item are equally nonsensical . For reasons of their own and quite unexpalined despite my excellent eBay record -far better than any of yours - they stopped me using my paypal account or i would still be using it . 

frankly It you unhelpful and judgemental people are representitive of the so called eBay "community" then it should be renamed immediately to say the eBay "Kanagroo Court "

I will find my own solutions from now on. 

[rgherron]

Sorry that should be Kangaroo Court of course .By the way phorum_junkie are incorrect slanderous allegations in eBay forums OK under eBay policies about which you obviously profess to be something of an expert ?

[rgherron · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the small vote of confidence crikey_mate .  I am entitled to offer items for sale as soon as the pledge has expired as at that time they become mine . What I always do is try my best to advise customers that their pledges have expired then wait a bit to give them time to respond then and only then offer the items for sale . Sometimes it occurs that the items are listed for sale say with eBay and then the customer returns and wants to retrieve his item . Quite apart fro the fact that I like to give customers every opportunity to get their items back and not lose them as they usually mean far more to the original owner than a prospective buyer I am obliged by law to return these items to the owner if their sale has not occured . Where the law would stand in the case of an item being listed and bid on even but not yet sold I am unsure but I always like to give the owner the benefit of any doubt and immediately withdraw these items from sale . I have been in this business for 23 years without a single official complaint in all that time so I must be doing something right so I get a bit testy when people from a position of great ignorance start jumping to conclusions and making slanderous accusations   about my behaviour from the safety of their bedrooms.

My mother use to tell me "If you can't say something helpful mind your own business" it is quite good advice. 

[cq_tech]

rgherron, several years ago I used to do quite a lot of contract electrical work for my local pawnbroker and as I remember it, the law was quite specific at the time, but it may well have changed during the ensuing period.

The laws are essentially the same for all states, insofar as when a client pledges an item (i.e. borrows money against its value), they will generally have 3 months in which they can redeem their pledge by paying the amount borrowed plus interest (which used to be an appalling 15% per month but could even be higher now).

If they return before the 3 months has expired but can't afford to redeem their pledge, they can still pay the outstanding interest to date, and the pawnbroker must then hold it for up to a further 3 months (6 months in total).

However, if they don't return within the initial 3 month period, the pawnbroker may then publicly advertise in the local press that all of his unredeemed pledges will be auctioned off to the public on a certain date, and he must then hold a public auction sale where he is permitted to have an agent in the crowd bid on his behalf, but every item must still be sold through that auction.

Also, at any time prior to the advertised auction date, the owner of an unredeemed pledge may still pay the outstanding amount and recover their item. However, once the public auction has commenced, their property becomes legally forfeit.

Now unless the law has changed, this means that the only way a pawnbroker can legally sell items pledged through his own pawnshop is to have purchased them himself at public auction. He can NOT just sell something he took as a pledge because the time limit for redemption has expired, and the law is very specific here as it is designed to protect people from being ripped off by unscrupulous pawnbrokers (of which there are many).

In light of the above, my question to you is really quite simple. When did the law change to allow pawnbrokers to bypass the public unredeemed pledge auction and permit them to dispose of unredeemed pledges any way they see fit, whether being sold at retail through their own shop or auctioned privately through ebay?