Help! I am heartbroken. Need Ebay guidance

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

I have been looking for a particular item for years! And it was just on ebay within the last 2 weeks, but did not sell and had no bids. It is now no longer listed. What can I do??

Am I able to contact the seller through ebay? What do you do in a case like this?

[Vinca]

1. It should come up in the completed auctions, even if it didn't sell,

and you should be able to email the seller if you're an ebay member. If it's gone from the completed auctions list, you would need either the seller's name or the auction # to track it down. What's the item?

[grasswire]

2. I second completed auctions

It will show up there for thirty days, and you can search for it. Do you have the seller's user name? It will be easy to find if you have that.

And, sure, you can write to the seller and ask them to either re-list it or if they will sell to you directly. They may not want to sell to you directly because then they don't have the protection of eBay.

Good luck. I know how you feel. I've missed making bids before and rued the day.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

3. Thanks. I emailed the seller through Ebay and told them I would be

sure to bid if they relisted it. It actually was listed a couple of months ago and I found it through googling the item. And, because I had it on my watch list, ebay actually DID email me when it was listed, but I missed it in all my oceans of spam!!!

:banghead:

I haven't heard anything back and it makes me think it's gone.
:cry:

Oh well, I had just resolved to stop buying "stuff" anyway. Vinca, I'm sorry, but I really need to keep what the item is a secret. If I mention it, everyone in the world will suddenly want it too.;-)

[Vinca]

4. That's ok. I have my secrets, too. nt

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. Happiest of all endings. Seller relisted and I won auction.

I was the successful bidder. Have it right now. Love it. Very happy. Dreams do come true.

I honestly believe that if you want a particular item, if you watch every single day on Ebay, it will appear. The day you stop looking is the day it will be listed.

[tavalon]

6. So, now you have to tell us!

What was the item!?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. Here is the story.

When my husband and I first met, he owned a very charming print. Everyone fell in love with it,including me. It was done by a minor European painter who had a brief time in the sun and then seems to have disappeared. We lost that print in a fire and then began a years long search to replace it.

The item I posted about was not a print but an orignal oil painting by that same obscure artist we had loved for so long! Not just a print, but an actual painting! And we have it! And we love it!

[sandnsea]

9. I lost everything in a fire

I found the little porcelain toy dish set like my mother's, on ebay, and was ecstatic. I know just how you feel. :hug:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

10. Nothing like a fire to crystallize what is truly valuable to you.

It really does come down to the sentimental usually.

Side note, it also teaches you to have one of those firesafe boxes for important papers.

[D-Lee]

7. Do an Ebay "search" and SAVE the search

You will be notified by email when items come up which match your search terms.

It does not alert anyone else to the item as far as I know.

The emails continue for 6 months and can be renewed for 6 month periods.

You can modify your search terms at any time.

This works really well. For example, I needed to replace my wardrobe because of weight loss on a low carb diet. I did searches for two clothing lines which always run true to size and had great fabrics, adding my new size to the search line -- as I filled in, I could modify the search to include only items and colors I still needed. Everything I got came from Ebay or on extreme sale at outlets. Wow, what a savings!