Not sure if this is the appropriate forum, but I always like to give people a head's up on seller's who play games and don't play by the rules. This seller had this Panasonic RX-5250 up for auction. I bid a max of $125, as it stated the tape transport is not working. Notice the auction CLEARLY stated that expedited shipping was FREE. This is how it showed up in both searches and on the actual item page. See for yourself. So last night, with about 24 hours to go, I was the high bidder at $113.50, and got this message in my Ebay inbox: sir i see you have bid on my Panasonic RX-5250Ls boombox auction.As you can see i have revised it on the bottom as a shipping fee of $50.00 .It is not a free shipping as stated in the auction, the reason being that a local person living about 30 miles wanted to buy it with free shipping and i did not mind that, but he changed his mind .so that is reason i had to alter the shipping.Are you O.K with this or do you want to cancel your bid , Let me know as soon as possible. Thank you I responded with this: I do have an issue with this. Your ad is listed as FREE shipping. As a seller, you either need to cancel the auction, revise the ad to reflect your shipping is not free and follow ebay policy regarding posting the actual shipping cost. Feel free to cancel the listing, re-list it correctly, and I will decide if I wish to bid or not. $50 shipping? Come on. I'm an experienced ebayer. Please do the right thing and follow the rules. Thanks, Erik Then this part: No problem .i will relist it.it was NOT my fault.The person who lived close by let me down BIG TIME.If it was not for hime i would have kept the auction as is. I contacted Ebay as I was having an issue cancelling my bid. Just for the record, it took a total of FOUR Ebay representatives and a total of 48 minutes on the phone to cancel the bid, all the while the seller did what they should have done from the beginning and cancelled the auction, and relisted it they way they wanted. Ebay stated I was absolutely correct, that per their auction rules, once an auction is active with bidders, the terms CANNOT BE CHANGED and the only option a seller has is to end the auction early and re-list, otherwise the terms as listed remain in effect and are enforceable by Ebay/Paypal. I believe the seller decided they weren't getting what they wanted for the box and decided to tack on some absurd shipping cost to either cause me to cancel the bid or agree to their extortion. The story about someone backing out of a BIN is immaterial. When someone bids on an auction, it becomes a legal, binding transaction and the seller (or buyer) cannot just change the terms as they see fit. The seller trying to add additional information as a comment is not enforceable asking for more money and is actually a violation of Ebay listing practices. So, just watch out when dealing with this seller. My intention is not to bash them, I have in good faith bid on an item for a fair and reasonable amount considering the unit is NOT fully working and agreed to the terms as listed. It was the seller who brought this upon themselves for being shady and attempting to jack up the auction price with some inflated shipping. (FWIW, the first 5150 I bought from an HONORABLE seller was packed so well it could have been dropped from 10 feet onto concrete and only charged the actual $26.00 for FedEX insured ground from the same part of the USA this seller says they are in). Caveat Emptor
The first time you saw the auction, was he charging for shipping, or was it always free? Maybe he changed it to free when the other buyer told him he'd come pick it up. But what he should have done is provided 2 shipping options - Free with pickup, or at cost for everyone else. BTW, regarding FedEx, I agree with you that they're the best price for shipping large items like boomboxes, but not everyone has a FedEx dropoff near them. He might be using USPS, which is more expensive.
That's just it: you can't change a listing when it's active with bids. The listing was shown as FREE SHIPPING when I placed a bid, and I outbid a previous bidder. This is a clear case of a seller who wasn't going to get what they wanted. Fine, cancel the auction, relist it with the inflated price, and commence taking bids. But a seller can't jack up an auction price or modify terms (including changing FREE shipping to some RIPOFF $50 shipping price) because the auction is going sky high. Be honest, act with integrity. Won't be bidding on this seller's items ever. Do so at your own risk.
Ebay.com might be different but on Ebay.co.uk you specifically have to say if an item is collect only. I have picked up a couple of bargains including a Sharp GF555 that way. I don't think you can change parts of a listing once it has bids, although you can add additional details which appear at the bottom as date and "Seller added the following information" Looking at things the other way I have had a few problems with people bidding on large items. The winner of the auction for a chest of drawers was convinced I was just round the corner by her local church, while I am in Christchurch 150 miles from her ! she hadn't looked at the postcode and was most apologetic when it sank in.
I didn't mention this earlier, but I'm the one who sold that RX-5250LS to sareenanijjer, in Sept 2016, for $111 plus shipping He re-sold it last month (like you said), for $165 And today I see that its new owner, conion65, has listed it on Ebay for $600, lol You can see in his photos that he changed the speakers, but he does not mention this. Those are NOT the original speakers. You can see they have foam surrounds -- The originals do not have those type of surrounds. I admit, the bigger dustcaps look cool, but he should really describe what he did and why he did it. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Rare-...861976?hash=item212cb331d8:g:8a4AAOSwBEpZnKhO
