So lately I've been kicking myself for not bidding on items that weren't properly listed before they're revised or canceled. Example:

This listing:

Classic Lejeune French Lugged Road Bike 58cm Simplex
($0.99 initial bid, no reserve)

became this listing:

Classic Lejeune French Lugged Road Bike 58cm Simplex
($500 BIN)

Can auctions such as the first be canceled once a bid is placed? I always hesitate to place an early bid so as not to show interest to other buyers 9 days out or whatever. But in cases such as these where the initial listing is skewed to the buyer's advantage, lacks a reserve, or was poorly worded and so obscured from searches, is it advisable to do so before it can be changed?

it can be canceled up until 12 hours before the auction ends

regardless of bids, eh?

Alright, then. I'll stop kicking myself for failing to take action.

EDIT: Yep, just found a third party site that explains it much more clearly than the official pages I was turning up. Restrictions on revisions increase as the auction attracts bids or nears closing, but the cancellation policy is pretty plain, as above.

yep, nothing you could have done about that one

Even if you do win a ridiculously low bid, and a seller refuses to sell an item, I don't think you have any recourse except for getting a refund and leaving a negative feedback... and if as a seller, I had a choice of letting a nice bike go for$ 0.99 or getting a negative feedback, I think I just might take the negative.

Unless I was in a good mood and it was a Bikeforums member.

I've had many bids cancelled on items "that were broken, etc".

Always when I'm the sole 99c or another low bid on an item. For some reason it's never happened with a higher priced bid. Amazing, isn't it.

Never a whole bike, but I have had sellers not ship an item that I won too cheap. Of course it's always been "lost in shipping" and I've had my money cheerfully refunded. It's hard to prove anything, so I haven't left negative feedback, but I haven't left positive in these cases, either.

Well, seeing a low reserve or low or no bids on an item 9 days before the bid doesn't mean anything. If it's some really oddball item, that nobody else would want, it could be promising. Otherwise, it'll probably have pretty good prices if it's desirable, reserve or not.

I think you can be pretty sure that auction wasn't going to close at 99 cents or even 99 dollars. The occasional low volume or poorly represented item does, but in all my auctions, I've only had one thing go for a shockingly low price, and that was because it was a very low volume item (a NOS Tortex pickguard in J-200 style). The buyer actually even thanked me for completing the deal, being completely aware that he got a fantastic price.

That was perhaps an overly dramatic example. I didn't think it was going to close at $0.99, but as it's a little obscure the bidding might have been on the low side.

The seller should not be holding his breath for a $500 bid for this bike. Can someone point out the Reynolds sticker he says is on the seat tube?

The BIN seems rather high to me too, but the seller has little to lose by trying. The Reynolds sticker does not appear to shown in the photos, but I'd guess that's an oversight.

I love it when someone writes in to a seller and says, "Hey, that's a really special bike! It has a heart on it! It must be a De Rosa! Those are worth a ton of money to collectors!" Yadda, yadda, yadda.

I apogize for somewhat hijacking this thread, but what is with Ebay's new policy to protect identities by hiding the username? I have bid on a few items recently, the bid jump drastically to a point above my highest bid, then I get an email from Ebay saying I have a last chance to get the item at my highest bid because the seller has more than one item or the high bidder backed out. Every case has ended up with an email to me by the end of the day or beginning of the next day after the auction ended. Is Ebay doing anything to protect buyers from sellers who bid on their own items? Only once did I go ahead and buy the item, because I really needed it.

There's that, and the "do-gooders" that will email the seller to tell them if they spelled "Mazi" with an "S" more people might see their auction. Of course I think this only happens when the bike is not in the "do-gooders" size.

Ebay is just so big it's hard for even the worst ad to fly under the radar but it does happen. Last week I scored a nice chrome steel Cinelli road stem that had been listed as a 1A. I could not believe it made it the whole week without somebody who did not want it to write in with a correction! In the end it was not a steal, but it did go for at least $50 less than what they usually bring in its condition.

The best deals are still in the buy-it-nows, but the good ones only last minutes!

Shill bidding is endemic to ebay, and from a financial standpoint, ebay has some interest in letting it continue. Higher closing prices=higher fees. There is a universe of information on this.

Bottom line is use sniping, don't bid more than you want to spend on an item, and caveat emptor. It is a jungle out there...