A coin on auction with a "make offer" invitation caught my eye. I did a little research and made an offer of $105 for a coin that was listed at a "buy now" price of $125. He rejects my offer, counters at $120 but raises the "buy now" price to $149! Is this legit?
I would leave that item so far in the dust it wouldn't even be funny. Never mind the red flags going off for some sort of fraud, but even a legit seller should've removed the item and relisted to avoid the image of a fraudulent transaction by negotiating and moving the goal posts. There's many more sellers and coins out there. Is there something specific about this one that makes you have to have it?
Legit? Absolutely. He can raise the price anytime he wants. It may not be conducive to your business, but I will bet the other 10,000,000 people will be none the wiser.
What's the problem? If the coin is worth $120 to you then buy it, if its not worth it to you then either counter again or simply decline.
You can make an offer on an auction? I did not know, would you mind sending me a link via pm? (I promise I will not buy the coin )
Red flags?? Fraud? You must not understand how ebay works. Nothing about this is fishy to me. He just decided to up the buy it now price. Take it or leave it (or re-offer, you have up to 3 offers to give).
Reread my post. One issue I had was potential fraud. The other was it could be a legit business move, but it was a little tacky to move the BIN during a negotiation like that. Simply let the offer of $120 be it and if the buyer accepts everything is good anyway. Moving the BIN just raises unnecessary doubt, doubt that I myself would question whether or not it was smart to finish the transaction, especially if it was a common coin. I'm just saying for $120 coin, there's too much going on for me to feel comfortable. Like I said I would've left that auction in the dust. Maybe I would lose out, but at least I would sleep at night knowing I didn't take an unnecessary chance.
This isn't an auction. It's just a BIN/MAKE OFFER. Noting that the seller has already had 8 offers, it doesn't look like he/she is willing to accept anything less than $120-125. Chris
Count me in the "nothing wrong with that" column. Sellers can raise or lower BIN prices whenever they like. Since you've made an offer and gotten a counteroffer, it shouldn't make any difference whether he changes the BIN to $125, $150 or $150K.
Some sellers are listing coins with BIN prices above the book value, and when you're making a reasonable offer they usually accept it. Sometimes offers are automatically accepted the second you're making the offer.
But I cannot bid on them. I do not have to exceed the current high bidder or any other of the eBay regulations.