Expert: Marvinator - 10/30/2007

Question
i listed an item with 6 watchers
a buyer( 100% feed back)contacted me with, wanting to buy it,
i answered that one before, sold for such a price and the same shipping. They said they would buy it at such a price and ask if i would list it, as buy it now. how do i do this and is it better to let the auction go or sell? thanks

Answer
There is no hard an fast rule about these things.  You are allowed to do this, make changes and sell to whom you wish.  (The only rule here is that you USE Ebay and not cancel your listing and sell to the buyer privately. This is called "Off Site Selling" and is against the Terms of Service.  In addition, there are no safeguards in place when doing business 'off site.')

How to do it:   If your auction has no bids, you can add the Buy It Now for only 5 cents by using the REVISE YOUR LISTING link on the auction page.  If your auction already has bidders, you cannot change it at all.

If you so choose, you can end your auction early, canceling all bids, and then use the RELIST feature found in Myebay adding the Buy It Now before you finalize the listing.  (By using the RELIST feature the second time around, you are eligible for a refund of the listing fees should the item sell.  Since you KNOW it is going to sell, this is a wash and will cost you no more to relist than if you had let the auction run.  Note: Be sure to cancel all bids when you cancel a listing, other wise you end up with a winner at too low of a bid.)

Your only point of consideration is whether live bidding would have made you more money.  There is no way to know for sure, so it's best to look at the money in hand and consider it a done deal.