Your opinion please...

So the story goes...

I have an unused 18-50 f2.8 Sigma i put on Ebay no reserve with no mention of mount type {canon or Nikon } ...On the first day i had three solicitiations to sell the lens and pull the auction...

One offer was for $200.00 then i got one for $400.00 and finally one for $550.00 Aussie dollars these are..

Out of a sense of justice and maybe a little greed i left the auction going as i had 6 bidders that had already placed bids up to $300.00 and it was the right thing to do after all...

Then on Jan 28th i was asked what mount the lens was so i edited the listing to say quite clearly Canon Mount prior to this mount was not mentioned though i clearly state ask all the questions you want as ther will be no refunds or exchanges..

Then on the 2nd February i received a bid from lets say MRX which escelated to a wining bid of $488.00

After which i emailed four times ..At first requiring payment then chasing payment then requesting an explanation and finally threatening negative feed back but to no avail...

After 8 days i lodged a complaint of unpaid item with ebay and hey i got a response saying that i had not designated which mount and he wanted Nikon ...Even though i had clearly stated ask all pertinent questions as no refunds or exchanges will be allowed...He then goes on to complain that i have threatened negative feedback and this is correct he refused to communicate with me after several attempts on my behalf until i lodged a formal complaint...

I have now gone from being sick of wasting my time on a mission ...

By nature i can be a little like a dog with a bone if i feel i have been done an injustice....

My most pertinent points are loss of time and now money and i DID give him the opportunity to respond and was quite obvious i was OK to negotiate...

An apology would have been enough....

Damn Ebay!!!
Don't forget who you're dealing with.
I am sorry to hear of your problems though. Did you save the addresses of the other offers?

I've never ended an auction early regardless of an offer amount whether there were bids or not. Sold lots and lots of photo gear thru the years on ebay.

The winning bidder probably looked at your auction on Jan 27th or earlier and saved it without bidding at that time. Probably never re-read it after you edited it to specify a Canon mount. Then made a bid. He probably was a bit unhappy he placed the winning bid to later find it was not a nikon mount. Actually probably a bit embarrased. Well, he should have asked...or re-read the auction write-up....but..well he didn't.

He also should have responded quickly and been up front about the situation...and he didn't. Bottom line is you have to get as much info in the listing from the start or it can create problems. And when there are problems both parties need to respond in a timely fashion.

I'd say send a second chance offer to the next highest bidder (you can do this thru ebay) or just relist it. Either way I"d forget about the bidder looking for the nikon mount and move on.

In the ideal world:
Post the negative feedback. He had the winning bid and did not complete the purchase.
That he may have bid on something that was of no use to him is not your concern.
Offer the item to other bidders, or relist.

In the real world:
Put it down to experience. Try to remember to give all pertinent information in your listings.
Forget about the feedback as it would probably result in a tit-for-tat war, and nobody wins.
Offering to other previous bidders could result in exactly the same situation coming up, so just relist it. Anyone still in the market will see the listing; previous bidders who have bought elsewhere aren't going to be interested.

I'm just wondering - why didn't you post the lens mount information at first? Why withhold that quite important yet simple to state part of the data?

Being a photographer and selling a lens why would you not put the mount in your item description to start with? He is wrong for not going through with an auction he won, but I would say the whole situation is your fault for leaving out important information at the start.

Eagle wrote in post #7327187
Being a photographer and selling a lens why would you not put the mount in your item description to start with? He is wrong for not going through with an auction he won, but I would say the whole situation is your fault for leaving out important information at the start.

Thanks Eagle very refreshing...
And yes thats the way i am going to look at it.I made an error in believing the whole world shoots Canon LOL...I just didn't think of the lens mount which makes me more of an idiot than the buyer.....