Special order after an auction question...

[lynn's lampwork]

Hi!

If you receive a special order from a person that lost an auction, what do you charge the person for the special order? The price of the winning bid or the price of the auction at the start?

I had this happen today and the winning auction was $39.00 with the starting bid at $19.99.... I charged her $35.00 plus shipping...

What are your thoughts?
Thanks! ~Lynn

[JavaGirlBT]

This happened to me a couple months ago. I charged my customer the per bead price of the ending price of the auction (she wanted more beads than the set in the auction had). I think it's a reasonable way to do it. You don't want to shortchange yourself or undercut the winner of the auction. Neither would be fair.

[Karen Hardy]

If the winning auction was 39$ then you already have a market value of the beads. I would have charged her the full $39 - otherwise you're screwing with the whole auction process and undermining your own efforts.
Why would I participate in one of your auctions and pay you the higher amount, when I know that after the auction closes, you'll be willing to make me the same beads for less money?

If anything, I would have charged her more (not significanly, but at least $5-10 more). The whole idea behind ebay and other auction sites (and ANY auction, including ones you go to in person) is that you (the customer) are getting a good deal - something for less - saving money. That doesn't extend to custom orders.

[MaryBeth]

I also would have charged at least the full auction ending price. It isn't far to the auction winner to charge the second place bidder less.

[lunamoonshadow]

Full auction price, plus shipping, plus another "$5 custom order fee" (to encourage her to bid higher next time)