Wow. I'm surprised there was an entire thread on this twiggy. What seemed like simple interactions between a buyer and seller turned into this? And in actuality, I didn't SWAMP the seller with e-mails to pressure her to sell, but in trying to figure out how to end the auction.
Since it's up to three pages, here's the story from what started it all:
The one morning out of the week I had to get up at 4 AM PST to see my husband off. I happen to see this listed so I e-mailed the seller about a BIN and ship cost, nothing adnormal here. Because she said the ship cost included up to 500 pounds insurance, I offered that amount so it would be completely covered. She PROMPTLY AGREED & ACCEPTED then said if I could pay asap, it would be sent out the next day. This was maybe 5:30?
Unfortunately, she didn't know how to put a BIN on it and asked if maybe I KNEW. I don't sell either so I had no idea but tried to help in some research. I explained it would be easier to go through the auction since my paypal (that I know of) doesn't convert to pounds but it could be used as a last resort. In the mean time, I'd try to figure it out and e-mail if anything. She then said she'd send me a Paypal invoice. Anyway, she apparently had to go to a meeting for an hour or so and within that time any e-mails maybe 3 (?) with updated INFO (shouldn't have been pressure here) telling her I had talked to a friend and apparently you can't do a BIN for an auction with bids. My next thought (updated her here) was if BID 500 pounds, maybe she could end it as the high bidder but had no idea if it would end at 31 pounds, a high amount it stayed at for more than an hour after that. So I emailed to let her know I did that and if it gave her the option to end it at 500 but then later realized that wouldn't work either SO I told her not to waste any time on that thought. I gave her a currency conversion that I could use to paypal her directly unless she was able to create the invoice. OK, I'm still wondering what's going to happen to the auction if we did it this way. Then miraculously, it went up to my accepted offer amount and then was told it would be so easy for her to just end it then. In a final e-mail about his, I told her to disregard the other suggestions unless the bid amount changed again. After briefly checking in to let me know she had been in a meeting the last hour and would have to run off to another one that would take another hour, my LAST e-mail was to tell her I didn't want this auction to interrupt her at work and that any e-mails (3 at the most) before the last one were updates that weren't even necessary now that the bid amount had risen to the accepted offer amount exactly. Yes, anything more than ONE e-mail seems excessive to me but these were INFORMATIONAL not PUSHY. Then, in my next e-mail was received an hour or two later telling me I had won the auction.
I'm sorry if she felt my updates and info on how to finish off the transaction was looked at as badgering or she IS just very nice and maybe didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but not once was there a hurry hurry in ANY of my e-mails except the one telling her it could just be ended with the highest bidder at that point. And this was so, because I'd spent since pre 6 am to complete this while giving suggestions along the way and G forbid if it HAD risen above the agreed amount then trying to start over again. Also I had no idea she had went to a meeting and wanted to standby to pay since I wanted her to know I was a serious bidder and ALSO on a less important note, I wanted to go back to BED! I realize it's not brain surgery and am embarassed that this was so hard to figure out, then feeling the need to post this..but this is what happened. Unfortunately, you can't pull unread e-mails back although they would have been helpful if the amount had stayed where it was at the time they were sent.
The seller is very nice (and a bbag addict like I am) and did say she honoured my amount we had agreed upon way back in the wee hours of the morning (for me anyway). I had no idea she was setting herself up for a buyer even being upset with selling it to me or I may have just backed out. I've done it before voluntarily on bags I had won (I specifically remember a seafoam or another pistachio and lilac) to not put a seller in an awkward position, so it's not a life altering deal to me. Honestly, the explanation sounded like I was a hound, which is so far from the truth. If either one of us had been more experienced in selling and she wasn't preoccupied with work, it would have ended at 530 or 6am that morning when the max amount was at 20 pounds insead ot 10 am.
And maybe there's no air to clear, but JUST IN CASE there is some unvoiced speculation out there.... no, I'm not in cahoots with any of these sellers. I wouldn't have to dig on ebay if I were.
**wow..didn't know it would turn out this long