Ending an auction early for an interested buy it now buyer?

[chrysalis]

Hi everyone
I am a bit of an ebay novice and wanting some advice.
I have a few bits and pieces on ebay 10 day auction which will finish up at the end of the long weekend in Victoria.
I have received an email from a prospective bidder wanting to know whether I would offer a buy it now price for a certain item? My assumption is this person wants the item more quickly than the auction end date. There are presently 3 watchers on the item. Its a BNIB gloworm toy.
My questions are:
1. Strategically would you do it or wait for the auction to finish?
2. If you were to consider doing it how would you go about naming your price would you simply post the buy it now price you considered fair and hope the interested buyer would pay it?
I don't want to contravene any ebay policies as far as i can read as long as either a) i offer a buy it now price or b) i end the auction early on the current bid I am not doing anything wrong.
Thanks in advance.
Cheerio
Belinda.

[Mel A]

hey belinda
I havn't been on for a while, and it may have changed. but when you post an auction without a buy it now price, you couldn't change it.

If you can post a buy it now price do that. If not respond to the prosective, let them know your hesitant to close the auction but ask them to put in a bid. you could always close the auction early if you wanted.

Mel

[~Trish~]

Hi Rebecca,

I would name the price you are happy to accept and if they aren't happy with that then so be it. You can work out the average price that people are willing to pay by doing an advanced search for "glow worm" and ticking the "Completed Listings" box. (Advanced search is on the top right-hand side of any eBay page) If the prospective buyer is happy with your proposed price, as long as there are no bids on the item, then you can add a Buy it Now price.

If it already has bids you can end the auction to the highest bidder (the person who contacted you), but it is a bit iffy about getting them to pay the agreed price and not the price that the auction ended at (if that makes sense!).

Another way to do it if you already have bids is to end the auction and relist it with a Buy it Now price, but this will cost you more in fees.

Good luck!