Need advice on auction ending soon

[SoulBlazer]

I could use some advice on what to do about a auction that I posted that is ending on EBay in a couple hours.

 

As some of you may know, I'm currently out of work. To help make ends meet, I've been selling a lot of things on Amazon and EBay. Some of that money is used to pay bills, some of it to do a little pleasure spending to help keep me busy.

 

A week ago I listed four adult movies on EBay all featuring the same popular star. One of them is rather old and no longer in print, the others I got a couple years ago. They are all mint condition DVD's. I don't recall the exact prices I paid for the movies, but I'm pretty sure it averaged to about $20 for each of them.

 

When I set the auction up, I debated on having a reserve or not. I finally decided not to for two reasons:

 

1) EBay is doing a special 99 cent listing offer for the month of May, but to qualify you can't use a reserve.

2) I personaly HATE seeing reserves in auctions I'm interested in, and figured that my item would get more attention and bids if there wasn't one.

 

Now I'm really starting to regret not using one.

 

I knew I wasn't going to get a lot of money for my movies, but I was hoping for about $40. Heck, I told myself, I'd sell them even for $20. At least that way it was something. I started the auction at 99 cents.

 

Now with about two hours left, there are 7 bids and 3 watchers -- and the high bid is only $3.75

 

It's possible there may be a last minute snipe, but it doesn't look like it's going to get anywhere near the $20 that I really wanted to sell them. And to be honest, it's just not worth selling them at any less then that.

 

Which leaves me with a nasty question -- do I refuse to honor the auction results and take the hit on my almost perfect EBay score? I don't use EBay that much so I don't care too much about that, but it does bother me about not honoring a sale.

 

Or do I suck it up and ship them out and take a terrible loss on the transaction?

 

Hopefully there might be a last minute surge, but I'm really not hopefull at this point.

[phaxda]

I think many of us have been there... my advice is to honor the auction. Some you win, some you don't. I once sold a complete Atari 5200 setup for $7.34 and shipping. Beautiful system. Just so happened that no one bid on it.

 

I understand your financial situation makes it hard to do this, but doing the right thing has a way of paying you back.

 

That said, I don't know much about the market for adult DVDs on eBay!

[SpendTooMuchOnAtari]

Can you cancel the bids and end the auction? If not, I'd say honor the sale. From what I've seen, there are more Adult DVD's listed than people buying them.

[pangasinan]

Not sure why you would expect $40 for them when adult movies sell from $20 each new in a shop.If you get $5 each for them in an auction then you have done ok.

Ending an auction early because there is not enough bids or not honoring an auction is a dirty thing to do and is frowned upon.

[SoulBlazer]

Not sure why you would expect $40 for them when adult movies sell from $20 each new in a shop.If you get $5 each for them in an auction then you have done ok.

Ending an auction early because there is not enough bids or not honoring an auction is a dirty thing to do and is frowned upon.

 

Like I said, I would have been fine with $20. They ended up selling for $5.50.

 

I'm going to honor the auction and hope that I do better on some other stuff that I sell.

 

Thanks for the input.

[nofrills100]

I always think it is funny when people get hung up on small amounts of money.

I'm neither rich nor poor, but $15 to me is nothing to get hung up on. It is like - a meal, a movie, a pack of cigarettes, four coffees, a lotto ticket, a taxi fare - just go without one of those and you'll be ontop again.

Nothing personal Soulblazer. But you win some and you lose some, it will come back to you in something else.

I'm dubious about .99c auctions too. I once listed a nice boxed Jawbreaker for .99c - and one bid later - it was hardly worth taking to time to post it... but you know you have to.

From now on I start all my items at a minimum price that i'd be happy with.