Buyer arranging for a buy now auction on item with bids

[lyndy-lou0]

I placed a bid on a rare collectable but was notified that my bid was cancelled.  On asking why the auction was not proceeding and if she would be relisting, the seller informed me that she had agreed to sell to another buyer who had not bid but made her an offer.  Before I received the notice (in the middle of the night here) she withdrew the item and relisted as a buy now for the other buyer.  Ironicaly the price she accepted was a fraction of what I and other collectors were willing to pay in the auction.  She was adament that she had acted within the ebay rules as the sale was through ebay. This is very frustrating and has happened a couple of times lately so does this mean bidders should bypass the auction and just approach the seller directly with an offer?  I tried to ask ebay if their rules were broken and am no clearer as to their attitude or willingness to eradicate unethical behavour on the part of buyers or sellers.

[moonia99]

The seller has not broken any ebay rules because the transaction was done through ebay,some sellers let the auction take its course but others do sell to a buyer willing to pay what they're after and yes it does suck when this happens.

[bakeandfry]

Yes, sellers can do that, a few times an item im interested in is in action format, if i dont want to wait ill message the seller with an offer and it usualy works.

[opmania]

This happened to me a while ago

Seller had listed a pair of cranberry murano birds by Archimede Seguso on two seperate auctions with a start of ..99c each

she had pick up only on the page but in the description said that she would post

so I messaged her checking if she would post and said yes and also told me she had several offers on both of them and might end the listing early .

I had bid on both, one was up to $61 with 23 bids and with 17 hours to go all bids were cancelled and listing ended on both.

she said that she had accepted an offer on another site .

about 2 days or so later both listings reappear on Ebay with a buy it now start of $600 each .

Of all the items I have Bid on here these were the two things I loved the most and was so disappointed that I did not have the

opportunity to bid and pay what I thought was my limit which could have exceeded the $600 BIN I loved them so much .

But I"M buggered that I"m going to pay any amount after  being shafted by the seller like that .

Its just not ethical behaviour and no way you could do this in the real world

[joethenuts]

I agree its not ethical , I never cancil an auction unless there is only 1x 99cent bid with at least 5 days to go , the rule is it can be canciled up to 12 hours before finishing, of course there is some auctions cancelled for very good reasons ,

[opmania]

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@joethenuts wrote:

I agree its not ethical , I never cancil an auction unless there is only 1x 99cent bid with at least 5 days to go , the rule is it can be canciled up to 12 hours before finishing, of course there is some auctions cancelled for very good reasons ,

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why would someone even start an auction at .99c if they wanted $600 each for them, doesn't make any sense to me

surely a seller wouldn't expect an item to jump that high from a 99c start

[joethenuts]

i think in this case the seller did not know how much these birds were worth and got big offers during the auction and said ,lets change gears and go for the throat.

[davewil1964]

Have you ever considered giving constructive ideas?