What are your thoughts on......

[RickD]

asking a seller to end the auction early to buy the item?

unethical to other buyers or just the name of the game?

Personally I think if you can get the item you want and pay the seller what he wants, then no big deal.

[Mikey]

I would ask if I wanted the item really badly.

I wouldn't ask is if the item had bids.

[jimsmegos]

business is business. If your willing to pay the price he wants to sell it for I'd call it good. While it would suck for other bidders the fact remains that each of them are hoping o get out of the auction for the lowest amount possible. In a behind the scenes deal I see that both party's would end up happier.

But if it is a matter of conscience then ask the seller to close the auction and put it up as a buy it now at the price you've agreed to. It'd be a risk but as far as a fair deal for the seller and the buyer, it looks like a reasonable situation.

If I were in the situation if the money was right on either end I'd go for it. But then again that's just me.

[Toyman_Chris]

Just the name of the game. If you don't ask, someone else will.

[DocDrako]

In my early eBay days, I asked a seller to end an auction. After some negotiations, we agreed on a price and made a deal. There were no bids on it at the time so it worked out. I haven't done it since then.

[batmanmc]

if it has no bids its cool in my opinion, once it has bids i think its uncool to do . lots of people do it every day i know. just my two cents.

[ddgaff1132]

I've had that asked of me about twice now. As a seller, I'm not fond of it. Both times have been Low Ball offers padded with false claims. Nobody thinks about the unseen number of "Watchers" the auction may have. Those people are willing to wait out the auction process and bid accordingly.

[MIB41]

If you have confidence in the buyer, I say go for it. Nothing unethical about it. Ebay just doesn't want you to do it, because they want your money.

[domino]

I wont do it. Not because I have an ethical problem with it, or support ebay, but because the chance for something to go wrong is pretty high. If you don't get your item it might be hard to file a paypal claim on it, as you wont have any kind of buyer protection.

[MIB41]

Paypal offers a 45 day guarantee on any item purchased as long as you don't send payment as a gift. A transaction is a transaction, whether it's doing business here or somewhere else. Just make sure to file your claim within that 45 day window if you don't get anything.

[Adam West]

I never ask a seller to end an auction early but if there is something I really want; I know chances are that someone will make a private offer so I'll usually send an email letting the seller know that I'm really interested in the item and ask that they do not end the auction early if someone makes a private offer on it or if someone asks and they are considering it to please give me the opportunity for a counter offer. That way, I'm basically putting it in their court to decide. I also would never ask unless I was willing to pay above fair market for it. There was a fairly rare Redskins item up for auction recently that I really wanted and knew how much I was willing to pay for it. I did pose my question in the same format above and the seller responded that they don't end auctions early or entertain private offers. I ended up winning the item anyway for less than half of what I willing to offer.