Originally Posted by justflyingin
I actually think you aren't supposed to be buying things from the sellers "outside of the normal realms" of the auction. IOW, unless he would set up another auction that you could bid on, you are taking a big risk even buying it "off the normal path". And you aren't supposed to because EBay doesn't get their percentage.
Ah, this is a huge issue among sellers.
If you're a smart Seller, you love those kinds of deals.
If I had something listed, and you contacted me because you wanted to know if I had more of a product, or another color, I'd have you buy the one item as a BIN (let's say it was a yard), and then I'd sent you an adjusted invoice for the additional yardage/items/addl shipping we agreed via email.
Now, obviously, eBay hates this, which is why they hide the ASQ button, no longer provide email addresses with the questions, and otherwise try to keep a seller as far removed from the buyers as possible.
However, once we've completed a sale on eBay, we can certainly move our business off eBay, if we're both comfortable with the change. eBay would prefer it not to be. But I've got buyers that now just email to see if I have Itemxx in stock, and I'll just send them a PayPal invoice (so the BUYER is still protected for the transaction). It can be anywhere from 10-15% savings for the seller on the transaction.
I'll just add - if you're personally uncomfortable with taking things off eBay, then you can always ask the Seller to set up a separate listing.
I used to do this all the time years ago. I would set up the BIN so only your ID could bid on the listing, and eBay would get their percentage. However, for reasons I can't understand, eBay took away that feature. So no more private listings for individuals.
Now, if were to set up a BIN with items specifically for you, anyone else could come along and BIN it. And maybe they aren't serious. So now I've got a deadbeat buyer, and an interested buyer who can't bid on the item.
So I just began taking those transactions off eBay. There are ways. But they took away a pretty helpful feature which was allowing them to get their cut. :roll: