Ebay Bidder Offering Over What The Item Sold For

What do you do when a party lost out on a item by 2 seconds ? I had a bidder literally beg and offer me 100.00 over what an item sold for. I had to tell him no as this wouldn't be fair to the successful bidder. Just curious as to what others may do in this situation. I try to run honest auctions and simply can't accept as after the fact offer.

IMO, your honor, your reputation on ebay, and the potential for trouble - plus the basic rules of ebay - all seem to be more important (to me, anyway) than the $100 or pleasing the losing bidder.

You have a legally binding obligation to fulfill the ebay sales contract with the winner.
I would not have responded to the offer from the loser, unless I would have been reporting it to ebay.
The timing of the bidding is not relevant to the ethics.

As tennapel says, proceed with selling it to the actual winner of the auction. If the bidder who lost out was the "victim" (for lack of a better word) of a last second sniper, it's another example of why I would like ebay to introduce an option to extend an auction for some limited period of time - 30 seconds, a minute, whatever, - if there is a bid in the last few seconds. Make it a true auction and let the best bidder win. I would prefer to have that option available rather than just requiring everyone to enter their "best" price and let it go at that. If someone really wants it, he/she will stick around to continue to bid.

Honor the sale to the winning bidder - always. However, you could tell the winning bidder that you got a late offer and you will send the lot if he wants or you would pay him say $50 to cancel the sale/buy back the item. Of course that assumes you trust the disappointed bidder to honor the offer - otherwise you lose the sale and $50.

I told the person who made the offer that I cannot sell it to him as another bidder was successful. Funny how now he comes up with a story ( true or not ??) that he wanted them for his dying grandfather ?! I go by the ebay rules and my conscience.

ignore my suggestion above about trying to work out a deal and just move on with the sale to the winning bidder.

Something doesn't sit well here: If that bidder was willing to pay 100$ more than the final bid, why didn't he put that sum in his bid? Let's say that the bidding ended at 300$ and he was willing to pay 400$ - he could have bid 400$ in the first place, and when the current winner offered 300$, the dying grandfather's grandson would have been winning.

Pretty easy to know what is the one right thing to do here.

I recall a thread from awhile back where an inexperienced SCF member sold a stamp on ebay, only to receive an email from another ebay user that the stamp was a much rarer variety and worth much more. The SCF member posted here, seeking advice about what to do, especially given his ignorance regarding the value of the stamp.

I tried for awhile to find the thread but could not figure out what keywords would find that thread. Although many responses, including mine, stated that a deal was a deal, the OP decided that given his naivete (code for didn't do any research beforehand), he was entitled to cancel the transaction and either relist the item or sell it to his informant. He received some support here in SCF for that decision.

I'm sure there will still be varying opinions here, but it's always best to recognize that "a deal is a deal" and should be binding once agreed to.

Do what legions of philatelic legends have done (look under the hood) and take the $100.

Being the prankster at times, I've often wanted to buy some random common stamp for less than a buck and email the seller before they mail it something akin to "Wow, cannot believe you let this rarity go for just seventy five cents and shipping, woo hoo!" just to see what happens.

Gizzmo, you made the right call though (IMO); a deal is a deal.

Any chance that we can see the original offering? I'd like to hazard a guess at why the losing bidder thought that an extra $100 was needed.

It seems unlikely to me that the offer had anything to do with his Grandfather.

It's happened to me a few times and I've offered to pass the offer on to successful bidder and let the successful bidder decide what he wants to do.

Ken

I'm with Rob Roy on this.

If the bidder wasn't willing to 'pay the price' before the auction ends then that's just how it goes.