calstar 

I wasn't aware a seller can cancel a listing once bidding has began(if you already know this no need to read further). I just got off the phone with an e-bay rep and found out any auction can be canceled up to 12 hours before auction ends, doesn't matter if there is "no reserve", doesn't matter if bidding has started. This seems more like a listing than an auction. Anyway, the rep stated a seller can only cancel if the item is no longer for sale(sold elsewhere, lost, damaged, etc.). How do they know this? Only if the same seller offers the same item at a later date, i.e. the item is still available for sale. If this is the case(in this instance, yes) a confidential complaint may be filed and the seller will be "investigated" by ebay(according to the rep). Regarding this item the seller has it offered on CL and "buy it now" on e-bay, at the same time as the regular auction(listing).

So.....if you're bidding on an item and it seems like the price is too good to be true, don't get your hopes up until the magic 12 hr window is entered.

Brian

Drakonchik

Yes.

Ex Pres 

Sounds like if the BIN price was that good, you should'a paid it rather than biddin'. Just sayin'.

Ratherbesailing

I can understand it. And I'm sure they charge a cancellation fee. They afford the buyer a good deal of outs as well.

calstar 

+100 The bin is not even in the realm of reality. I'm not posting to wank about one item I now know will never be sold on the regular auction/listing, but to pass on some "new to me info" on the workings of e-bay. FWIW I called the seller from the CL listing, asked what happens if I want to buy it even though its being auctioned on ebay--"No problem, I always cancel auctions before the last 12 hours"! Just sayin'...

BTW, the auction/listing is still open, I have no interest in following it any further.

Brian

repechage

Also interesting is a seller may adjust the initial bid amount up or down if there are no bids yet. I watched this on a bike that had an initial offer of $1000. requested. with about three days to go he changed the minimum bid to $1500. sold for a single bid at that amount. I would have bid more, but avoided the auction. Too bad, probably was a bike brand that will not come again in my size.

Ex Pres 

I focused more on this part, as you can still get screwed even when the auction is done. I been the only low-ball bidder on several items that have magically gotten "lost in shipping" and have had my money cheerfully refunded, no questions asked. Too obvious.

RobbieTunes

I'm sorry you had to find out that way, but it's better than paying that great price and never seeing it.

Dave Mayer

Ha Ha. Yea, I've had a few of these too.

I am a cheap bottom feeder with a bidding success ratio of less than 10%. If I can't get it real cheap, then I'll wait until the next auction or the next or one 5 years from now. There are several ways in which your great auction deal can vaporize:

• Seller discovers after the auction close that the product was: 'broken', 'lost' or 'mislabeled'. Translation: 'the final auction price was too low'.
• A shill bidder attempts to bid up the price and then finds to their dismay that you only put a stink bid in and they now have won their own auction. You'll get a 'second chance' offer shortly afterwards. Ignore this and let the seller pay a bunch of listing fees - serves them right.
• A product is listed at $90 and the auction sits there until close to the end. You have bid already. At the last moment a shill bidder swoops in and bids $100. Any sensible bidder (you) would have put in a proxy bid of $100 right? The shill bidder can reasonably expect bidders to bid in even dollar increments and round the price up. This would allow the bidder to run the price up another $10. Wrong: I put in a bid of $99.99, and now the shill bidder owns his own auction.

Listen up: when bidding on auctions you should follow the following rules:

• Never bid with more than a few seconds left, unless it is an early stink bid that is only meant to discourage other bidders.
• Never bid in even dollar increments.

wrk101

I've had a seller cancel, on a buy it now, after I paid for the item. Seller claimed item was no longer available, and then one day later, reposted the same item, BIN, at 3X the price.

pcb 

I'm not sure the information related to you is entirely correct. A seller can cancel an auction with more than 12hrs remaining even if bidding has begun, for several specific reasons:
1. Item is no longer available (maybe I'm selling on consignment and the owner has changed his/her mind)
2. Item was lost or damaged (pretty obvious, I describe item as fully functional, check it over again before auction ends and it's not working)
3. Mistake was made in listing (I described wheels as clinchers, but they're tubular, yadda yadda)

Ebay says ending a listing under these conditions is unrestricted. There are no guidelines or rules I've ever seen saying the item can not be relisted, and in fact you can always right-click an item ended early and select "relist" from the drop-down menu.

I suppose if a seller repeatedly ended and relisted the same item and a bidder suspected it was because the bid price was too low (not considered a valid reason for ending an auction early) ebay might look into it.

It's never over till it's over. I generally never bid unless it's in the last 3-5 seconds, I'll put in one bid at my max. If I win, I dance a jig, if I lose I shrug my shoulders and keep looking.

Certainly there are creepy sellers who end auctions for non-approved reasons, or lie about the item being broken to avoid shipping something that ended too cheaply. There are also creepy bidders who just don't pay when they win, or bid on multiple identical items and withdraw bids on later auctions if they won an earlier one. That is also against ebay rules, but doesn't stop folks from doing it.

thenomad

yep, so whats the problem... ?

jolly_ross

Pretty bad. Do you get the chance to post negative feedback in that situation?

wrk101

Yes, I gave them negative and they acted all put out.

anixi

I agree that it's a scam. I've had too many hopeful "bargains" either lost in the mail, a defect "found in the frame", or the most aggravating one "it's been sold locally" even after the auction ended and I won. Ebay has become one of the biggest source of frustration and disappointment lately. Scamming sellers on Ebay are some of the most socio-pathic losers in the world.

anixi

I hope you reported the seller, Bill! The seller should lose his account for that.

Henry III

I don't see what the big problem is. Their bike parts not an needed body organ where your going to die without it. Sometime I have things listed up on eBay,n CL on the forum. If I can sell it on CL or here instead of ebay I'll cancel the auction and sell it to avoid fees or to deal with shipping. If the item has a bid I leave it and let it run it's course. Though recently the issue came up as why would anyone bid on something to before the auction is anywhere close to ending? We'll you stop the possibility of someone getting the item on a BIN. I recently got a message from a seller that looked like a absolute nightmare. Just a massive pile of questions that were either answered in the description or related to how I would ship my product and could I ship it to them for free even though I had a set price listed down. I answered their questions but instantly put them on my blocked buyers list.

I see buyers like them that are usually never happy with what they get no matter what they receive and just a bare to work with. My last negative was with a buyer like that. I had a bicycle listed up and it was already disassembled and packed into a box so I could figure out pricing. Though a price was listed up and was a set price. Well the buyer sniped it at the very last second with no contact to me before it ended. Then came the worst of any buyers I've ever had for the ten years I've been on ebay with over 2000 transactions. He told me to break the box down to a specific size box and told me what the price will be even though the bicycle was already packaged up. I told him the price was set and included my time and material used to ship the bike. He received the bike without any damage and even after chopping the box up to fit his measurements the price wasn't the same. Thus he received the item and was happy with it but left me a negative for not shipping it to him for his price.

If I listed something up drastically lower and found out it was worth more. Hell yeah I would pull it down or leave it up and bump up the price. Ebay allows you to adjust the price until I believe 24 hours before it ends or after someone places a bid. So for those who don't like to bid until the last second and snipe then it's your own fault to try and get that killer deal. You snooze and lose and should of put your bid in. I don't however claim something is lost or damage if someone wins the auction. Regardless you still get your money back ASAP and I don't sit on it like I've had happen before.

There's always two sides to an auction from the buyer and sellers point of view.

thenomad

With all the BS from buyers, I dont see these seller tactics being a big issue, as long as its within ebay policy.
If you were in front of me and we haggled price from 100 to 30 in your favor and agreed; then I changed my mind and wouldnt take your money for it you'd be miffed but in reality no harm was done.
Not saying i ever do this stuff but just pointing out that in reality its not a done deal. We as sellers are supposed to just put up with non-paying bidders like its their right.

anixi

It seems that we have two separate issues:
1. Buyers that don't pay
2. Sellers that don't ship when they're paid.

I believe both are dead wrong. Are we in agreement? If you put something up for bid on Ebay, you're legally bound to ship it no matter what the final price, assuming that you have no reserve. If you buy something, no matter what the price, you're legally bound to pay.

I don't understand the friction. Why can't we all just get along?

thenomad

its the human condition

sailorbenjamin

I canceled an auction once. I got to feeling suspicious about this really nice looking high end Shimano hub so I opened it up and found the races really pitted.
Now I clean and repack the bearings on anything I sell, just so I can be sure. Looking around, it seems like I'm the only guy out there who does that.