topic Re: Bid retractions in Buying

Bid retractions

sprinklespowerpuff — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 11:35:20 GMT

I was the winning bidder on an auction today. I placed my max bid 2 hours before auction finish as I would not be able to bid in the last 10 secs like I normally do. Anyway, when I checked the bidding history later I saw that one of the bidders had placed numerous bids one after the other to bid almost up to my max bid. No problem, I take that risk when I bid early but saw that this person had 23 bid retractions in the last 6 months. 23!!!!!!. What the !!!!!!. Why is this nonsense allowed. These people should be suspended from trading after a few retractions let alone 23. I can't see any excuse for this behaviour. Maybe someone can enlighten me if this sort of thing can be justified.

Re: Bid retractions

*crikey*mate* — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 11:39:37 GMT

In eBayland, that's supposed to be a bit naughty, but in the real world, it's perfectly legal and ok.

I can't see a great drama in it in eBay land as long as they didn't retract their bid after exposing your high bid iykwim

also i don't see a problem if they retract the bid prior auction end if they are the only bidder.

It's just when they do it to expose a high bid that's a bit dodgy, so as long as it doesn't affect the integrity of the auction, I see no drama.

Re: Bid retractions

davewil1964 — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 11:40:02 GMT

You have more experience than I, especially as a buyer, but I would hazard a guess that one a week is okay.

Re: Bid retractions

thecatspjs — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 12:03:15 GMT

@sprinklespowerpuff wrote:
I was the winning bidder on an auction today. I placed my max bid 2 hours before auction finish as I would not be able to bid in the last 10 secs like I normally do. Anyway, when I checked the bidding history later I saw that one of the bidders had placed numerous bids one after the other to bid almost up to my max bid. No problem, I take that risk when I bid early but saw that this person had 23 bid retractions in the last 6 months. 23!!!!!!. What the !!!!!!. Why is this nonsense allowed. These people should be suspended from trading after a few retractions let alone 23. I can't see any excuse for this behaviour. Maybe someone can enlighten me if this sort of thing can be justified.

Bid retractions are allowable on eBay only in very particular circumstances.

It is a policy breach if a bidder is withdrawing bids outside of the reasons that are allowed on eBay.

A bid is a binding contract. All bids are active until the auction ends. If you win a listing, you're obliged to complete the transaction. Except under special circumstances, bid retraction is not permitted. Furthermore, misuse of the bid retraction option to manipulate the bidding process is not permitted. This includes any manipulation of the bidding process to discover the maximum bid of the current high bidder or to uncover the reserve price.

Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

Listing cancellation
Limits on account privileges
Account suspension

Re: Bid retractions

springyzone — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 22:58:59 GMT

Bid retractions are allowable on eBay only in very particular circumstances.

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Yes, so i have read.

But they don't enforce those conditions, that is for sure.

I have been in the situation having a bit of back and forth bidding between myself and one other bidder and being outbid, only to find out days later that i had won the auction, after the last bidder withdrew her winning bid over 24 hours later. She listed it as a mistake but it certainly wasn't and she didn't fix her so-called mistake and rebid or anything

What really irritated me was that all her previous bids were left in place and had pushed the auction price up.

I think if a winning bid retraction is made, then all that person's bids in the auction should be considered null and void. That would be fair.

These people are just trying to find out the top bidding price of the auction item and they are treating the auction process as non binding.

I understand the occasional bid retraction after a typo, but anyone who does it a lot probably needs a sanction.

Re: Bid retractions

cq_tech — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 02:03:01 GMT

I think if a winning bid retraction is made, then all that person's bids in the auction should be considered null and void.

I absolutely agree with you, springy. The fact that this is not the case has been a major peeve of mine for as long as I've been a member of ebay, and is the primary reason that I flatly refuse to have anything to do with auctions on ebay sites.

Re: Bid retractions

phorum_junkie* — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 07:49:15 GMT

Ebay do act on excessive bid retractions if the seller reports them, it is easy for a seller to see how often they do this and members have been restricted for as few as 4 retractions in as many months. I reported a buyer who retracted a bid, one of dozens, and it may have been coincidence but she was chucked off ebay two weeks later.

Re: Bid retractions

jpapas01 — Thu, 01 May 2014 13:14:47 GMT

I had a serial bid retractor hit my auctions a little while back. Sort of deters other buyers in my view too. Noticed off memory around 20 bid retractions in a small period of time. They retracted bid at some point on the last day.

Very frustrating as a seller. Also with so many high retraction I didnt want their business, just my view and wondered if they buy what further problems ly ahead. So I decided to add that individual to my blocked list. (because of the high number of retractions noted)

Funnily enough, I started having listing violations being reported recently and confirmed (without being named by Ebay) that the person reporting the "fabricated" violations (as per finale investigation) was on my blocked list too. Since Jan added 4 people, good chance it could be them. Others were ages ago.

Thanks PJ didnt realise they could be reported, will keep it in mind.