What are pony deals you missed out on?

[kingluke]

Nice catch, LBS, I missed that.

It's a taboo in the community. Once I saw an ebay seller published questions like that on the auction so it was obvious who was asking and why, so it's not necessarily something you can do without being found out.

But it's generally bad etiquette, so good practice not to do it. I know there are people who have been community blacklisted for it in the past.

I remember blacklisting someone from my auctions in the Jem community because she had a practice of getting auctions closed early and bids cancelled.

Sellers worth their salt will not comply anyway.

Wait, I don't fully understand. Is asking to buy something loose wrong? Am I missing the point?
I don't want to be blacklisted anywhere. I've never had it happen before but I'm pretty sure I'm missing something here. Can somebody explain?

[SkyCakes]

A decent looking thundercloud is what I missed out on. I bought another mountain boy at the time. I could go back and buy him. He had a head/mismatch but that did not bother me. I keeping I will find him someday. I also missed out on a few mountain boy auctions. :/

[LadyAmalthea]

Please don't message sellers to end their listings early so you can get the HTF piece in the lot.  It's actually something that is against Ebay TOS.

More importantly, and on-topic, MANY MANY MANY MLP collectors' biggest pet peeve is when someone does this.  It has caused a lot of hurt feelings and drama. 

Really? I had no idea that this was a bad thing to do. I just figured, hey, it's a buy-it-now auction, so there are no bidders or anything (I wouldn't have asked if there had been bids), who was it hurting to ask? I won't do it anymore. I'm kind of mortified, but glad you told me, thank you.

I still think the seller(s) could have taken the time to message back and just say no they couldn't do that.

[Barnacle_lady]

Nice catch, LBS, I missed that.

It's a taboo in the community. Once I saw an ebay seller published questions like that on the auction so it was obvious who was asking and why, so it's not necessarily something you can do without being found out.

But it's generally bad etiquette, so good practice not to do it. I know there are people who have been community blacklisted for it in the past.

I remember blacklisting someone from my auctions in the Jem community because she had a practice of getting auctions closed early and bids cancelled.

Sellers worth their salt will not comply anyway.

Wait, I don't fully understand. Is asking to buy something loose wrong? Am I missing the point?
I don't want to be blacklisted anywhere. I've never had it happen before but I'm pretty sure I'm missing something here. Can somebody explain?

I will explain it since we have the same local selling website. 
For other collectors it's not cool if you see a lot of ponies in an ad and you ask the seller to sell you a specific pony.
The selling system we have has been set up in such way that as long the ad doesn't mention "all in one buy"  you are legit to ask for a specific pony (product). It would be very nice if the seller mentions that a few ponies already have been sold. But sadly enough they don't do that all the time with the risk you are not getting everything. Which happened to me once.
Recently there is this feedback system where you can mention they didn't ship everything in the ad so that should prevent this action.

As for Ebay, that's an auction site. So whatever you bid on, you should be counting on it you get what you bid on. Then it's really not done to contact the seller if you want a specific pony. Because it's basically asking to end the auction and relist without that pony. And like someone mentions Ebay has specific rules.

Do I have stories of ponies I missed out? Too much too tell after almost 20 years of collecting. But the best part is there will always be another opportunity to get them. Sometimes it could take a month and sometimes a few years.

[goddessofpeep]

I've missed out on a lot due to the "oh, there's a lot of them up right now, so I'll just pick one up later" thing.  The worst was a MIB Greek Baby Minty.  For 1-2 months in the summer of 2002, there was a glut of them on the market, and they were cheap.  Babies that had non-Greek counterparts(Baby Cotton Candy, Baby Blossom, etc) were $50 MIB.  Babies that were pretty much exclusive to Greece(Baby Minty, Baby Butterscotch, etc) were $100.  I graduated college right then, and my boyfriend(now husband) offered to get me a pony for a present.  I felt bad about asking for the $100 Baby Minty, and opted for the $50 Baby Cotton Candy, figuring I could pick up a Baby Minty later since there were so many of them.

Yeah, big mistake.

There is another thing that happens on ebay that makes me violently angry, and I've encountered it more than once.  It's a handful of people that do it, but it's extremely hard to figure out who.  Not that they'd stop if exposed, but they would probably be driven out of the community if outed.  There are a few people who stalk COMPLETED BIN auctions for deals.  They'll find an item that went to someone else for a deal, and contact the seller to see if they can get the seller to sell to them instead.  Some do, and that's all on the seller.  The seller usually contacts the legitimate buyer with some crap story about their cat eating the pony, or "my toddler threw it out and I took out the trash without noticing".  Somehow cats never eat cheap ponies, and toddlers don't touch anything worth less than $100.  It's never a beat up Peachy, it's always something rare.  Sometimes it's not even that much of a deal, it's just something hard to find.

I've had it happen to me more than once.  The most memorable time was a lot of accessories that included the charm from Mail Order Sweet Scoops.  I won it fair and square, I paid for it immediately, the seller confirmed it was going out the next day.  I don't remember how much I won it for(rage has blocked that out), but I woke up to a message from the seller the next day that his daughter wanted to keep the items for "sentimental reasons", and he had already refunded my money.   That was a total lie.  He even had a completed pony auction from a week before that actually stated he was selling his daughter's ponies because she didn't care about them.  Anyway, I didn't get my charm, and I never found out who contacted the seller.

When I win a BIN, I don't count it as mine until I have it in hand, or at least a legitimate shipping number.  I've had more than one "my dog ate it, here's your money back" BIN happen.  It's been going on as long as there have been BINs available on ebay.   There are people who just check first thing in the morning to see if anything good sold the night before, and they just take a shot that the seller's a terrible person too.

[kingluke]

I will explain it since we have the same local selling website. 
For other collectors it's not cool if you see a lot of ponies in an ad and you ask the seller to sell you a specific pony.
The selling system we have has been set up in such way that as long the ad doesn't mention "all in one buy"  you are legit to ask for a specific pony (product). It would be very nice if the seller mentions that a few ponies already have been sold. But sadly enough they don't do that all the time with the risk you are not getting everything. Which happened to me once.
Recently there is this feedback system where you can mention they didn't ship everything in the ad so that should prevent this action.

As for Ebay, that's an auction site. So whatever you bid on, you should be counting on it you get what you bid on. Then it's really not done to contact the seller if you want a specific pony. Because it's basically asking to end the auction and relist without that pony. And like someone mentions Ebay has specific rules.

Do I have stories of ponies I missed out? Too much too tell after almost 20 years of collecting. But the best part is there will always be another opportunity to get them. Sometimes it could take a month and sometimes a few years.
[/quote]

Wait, asking that is really wrong? How did I not know this. I might have done that in the past once but not out of malice. Can you also not ask if a seller is selling loose anyway? Do you just buy lots then without asking 'Can I only buy peachy and lemondrop for example?  I don't end any auctions on ebay, that i understand.

Thanks for explaining so far

[Taffeta]

Regarding the unpleasantness of asking for an auction someone else already won, I remember someone - I think it was Ponyland? -talking about this almost happening to her one time. I think what happened was that she won the pony we think is one of the original FF pony prototypes, with the original symbol and such. And she paid for it. And then someone tried to get it by sending the seller higher offers. Fortunately the lot had already been shipped, so though the seller wanted to get it back, they couldn't. And the pony made it to her new home safely. But I agree with goddessofpeep, it's a truly disgusting behaviour.

Maybe that's what happened with my MIB baby Tic Tac Toe but I am not sure it was. It's very subtle, the difference between the UK and the US boxes, and you have to know what it is to spot it. The US one MIB is not so hard to find someone would take time to try and grab it, I don't think...but I've never seen another one since, so that one still rankles with its mysterious 'it went missing' scenario.

@Kingluke, I think Barnaclelady explained it really well, but just from an ebay perspective - and let's not forget that these are unspoken rules of etiquette built up over decades through which how Ebay functions has changed somewhat. But basically...

If someone lists an auction, then it's an auction. It's listed. That's it.

People don't always bid on auctions right away. They often add them to watch lists and bid at the end.

If you had your grail in your watchlist, then it vanished, got relisted without the grail pony in it - you'd probably be pretty upset.

So that's why it's something we don't do.

[Skandalous]

I think a lot of confusion is stemming from whether the listing is an active auction, or just a “buy now” listing. If it’s the former and you contact the seller about selling an item privately to you, then that’s rude to the other bidders. However, if it’s just a “buy now” (no active bidders) and you ask the seller to sell one of the items separately, is that also taboo?

[IceCrystal02]

I think a lot of confusion is stemming from whether the listing is an active auction, or just a “buy now” listing. If it’s the former and you contact the seller about selling an item privately to you, then that’s rude to the other bidders. However, if it’s just a “buy now” (no active bidders) and you ask the seller to sell one of the items separately, is that also taboo?

Yes, I also think there is some confusion because of these two listing types. If a seller has a "buy now" listing and you ask them if they would remove one item from the lot and sell it to you separately, I see no problem as long as the seller then immediately adjusts their listing, so that the now sold item isn't visible in any of the photos and isn't mentioned in the description anymore.

[Taffeta]

I think that one may be subjective based on how you as an individual see ebay.

Personally for me it's the same thing, because you can equally have a BIN item on your list. And I include in that asking a seller to put a BIN on an active auction (which is a thing now). But those things are probably moral grey areas. Just because I'm an old school pony collector who has used ebay since it was all in $ and before BIN was a thing, I tend to see it all the same.

It's like sometimes people here list ebay stuff then offer the same things on the arena at discount. I don't personally like that, I'm uncomfortable with it because there will be people on ebay watching those items, maybe waiting for payday, only to have them vanish mysteriously without any explanation.

So for me it's the same thing. Unless the auction ends without bidders, and then you ask the seller to relist an item for you with a BIN. That's fine, so long as the sale happens through ebay and not privately. (The exception of course being if items were on ebay, and didn't sell, and were later listed at another place, like here. Those transactions can of course then happen directly through the Arena).

However I think other people will give different answers to that question.

[kingluke]

I think a lot of confusion is stemming from whether the listing is an active auction, or just a “buy now” listing. If it’s the former and you contact the seller about selling an item privately to you, then that’s rude to the other bidders. However, if it’s just a “buy now” (no active bidders) and you ask the seller to sell one of the items separately, is that also taboo?

Yes, I also think there is some confusion because of these two listing types. If a seller has a "buy now" listing and you ask them if they would remove one item from the lot and sell it to you separately, I see no problem as long as the seller then immediately adjusts their listing, so that the now sold item isn't visible in any of the photos and isn't mentioned in the description anymore.

Yes, that is what I think. I don't want to harm any other sellers  by doing so however.

Post Merge: June 19, 2020, 09:04:27 AM


@Kingluke, I think Barnaclelady explained it really well, but just from an ebay perspective - and let's not forget that these are unspoken rules of etiquette built up over decades through which how Ebay functions has changed somewhat. But basically...

If someone lists an auction, then it's an auction. It's listed. That's it.

People don't always bid on auctions right away. They often add them to watch lists and bid at the end.

If you had your grail in your watchlist, then it vanished, got relisted without the grail pony in it - you'd probably be pretty upset.

So that's why it's something we don't do.
[/quote]

Yeah that would really suck. I would never do that to somebody.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Think of it like a retail store.  You see something on the shelf you like.  Maybe it's packaged in a basket with a promo VHS tape of "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".  Buy the whole basket, do not tear open the basket in the store, throw the VHS aside and ask to be sold just the one thing. 

If the BIN has been listed, either Buy It Now or don't.  Do NOT contact the seller unless it does not sell!
If it's an auction, either be the high bidder, or don't.  do NOT contact the seller unless it does not sell!
Secondhand can be tricky.  Some platforms operate like Ebay - so behave accordingly.  If the seller is willing to break up the lot, that's their right to do so.  But I feel it's much more fair to just buy the whole lot of ponies and then flip what I don't want. 

[kingluke]

Think of it like a retail store.  You see something on the shelf you like.  Maybe it's packaged in a basket with a promo VHS tape of "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".  Buy the whole basket, do not tear open the basket in the store, throw the VHS aside and ask to be sold just the one thing. 

If the BIN has been listed, either Buy It Now or don't.  Do NOT contact the seller unless it does not sell!
If it's an auction, either be the high bidder, or don't.  do NOT contact the seller unless it does not sell!
Secondhand can be tricky.  Some platforms operate like Ebay - so behave accordingly.  If the seller is willing to break up the lot, that's their right to do so.  But I feel it's much more fair to just buy the whole lot of ponies and then flip what I don't want.

That does make a lot of sense, thank you.
I guess my days of buying certain ponies from lots are over. I don't want to do the (although it was unknowingly)  wrong thing. Good thing I usually buy them loose anyway

I take it t is allowed to buy loose ponies from lots if the seller specifically states you can, right? Or is that also wrong?

[Taffeta]

Think of it like a retail store.  You see something on the shelf you like.  Maybe it's packaged in a basket with a promo VHS tape of "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".  Buy the whole basket, do not tear open the basket in the store, throw the VHS aside and ask to be sold just the one thing. 

If the BIN has been listed, either Buy It Now or don't.  Do NOT contact the seller unless it does not sell!
If it's an auction, either be the high bidder, or don't.  do NOT contact the seller unless it does not sell!
Secondhand can be tricky.  Some platforms operate like Ebay - so behave accordingly.  If the seller is willing to break up the lot, that's their right to do so.  But I feel it's much more fair to just buy the whole lot of ponies and then flip what I don't want.

That does make a lot of sense, thank you.
I guess my days of buying certain ponies from lots are over. I don't want to do the (although it was unknowingly)  wrong thing. Good thing I usually buy them loose anyway

I take it t is allowed to buy loose ponies from lots if the seller specifically states you can, right? Or is that also wrong?

If it's an ebay lot, or any other type of auction site, then it would be a no go. If it's a private seller listing on a classified site in your country, I dunno what the rules are. But a magazine ad or online ad for pony sales is not the same as a proper auction listing, so unless it's set up on ebay with the option to buy individual items rather than a lot, it's not a good idea.

[Heelys]

While I wasn’t selling a pony, I’ve personally had someone contact me on eBay asking me to sell them an item that the winner had already paid for. It was the Animal Crossing amiibo card for Tasha the Squirrel, and the buyer had already paid their $20 bid when someone sent me this message in its entirety:

Hello I fell asleep can I buy for 30$?? I really wanted

Sorry bud. I like extra cash, but as a wise person once said, “you snooze, you lose.”