Seller retracted my bid/closed auction/no reason given

[rmillercwi]

I was a few days into a 5 day auction for a Tonka truck. I was the only bid up until recently when I got a message from ebay saying my bid was cancelled and the auction closed early.

Is this ok?

If so, is there a way to leave negative feedback somehow?

[***super_nova***]

Would it make a difference if the seller gave a reason?  You still would not get the item.  And the option to retract a bid is there also for buyers; although the reasons do not include change of mind, most sellers prefer if the bidder retracts than if they end up with NPB.

[peternt2001]

Actually it would make a little bit of difference.

What ebay and others maybe cant see, is that, me personally, when i enter a bid on an auction, i commit myself to that bid / auction.

So what you say ?

Well, as an exampl, a while ago i bid on an item and was following it through, i think the duration was roughly 4 days. But on day 3 i got a message too saying that my bid had been cancelled and the auction ended. Ok , i dont get the item, but i am not out of pocket ....................

But in the 3 days that i had committed myself to that particular auction, i had stopped from bidding on the same articles from different sellers. And in this case i did miss out on the item cheaper by different sellers, but i had committed myself to an auction and i will stick with it, i dont want to bid on 3 or 4 different auctions in the hope of winning one and then blowing off other sellers if i had won more than one.

So by an auction being ended before time, it can effect a buyer and their potential to bid on other auctions for the same item during the same period.

And yes i know there are legitimate reasons an auction may end, the seller may be NARU'ed , it might be a hijacked account, or the seller may have broken the item and it is no longer available for sale.

However in recent posts i have seen, there are sellers who will close out an auction just because they are worried it wont earn them the money they expected.

[thesoulyearns]

jabbajay, I think you're saying all bidders (and not just the winning bidder) should enter into the same contract to buy if the winning bidder doesn't pay, for example. Is that right?

[jabbajay01]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As I stated earlier, it is not my intention to argue the point, you will get extra meanings of transaction when you look up different dictionaries, the context in which it was used etc etc. 

Apparently if the buyer does not pay up, there is some method about recording a "strike" or something against him and being put on a BBL, which I got no idea what it is. I also don't agree about a negative feedback but I think there should also be a way of the buyers knowing if a seller withdraws items if he puts them up for auction.  We all know that things do occur basically beyond our control and there is a reason why the item was withdrawn.  A one off withdrawal is not a problem, but has the seller done this previously and how many times, no one knows (As far as I am aware)

To answer your question, super_nova, if the buyer has to give a reason for not paying, why cant the seller have to give a reason for the withdrawal. Also if the buyer cannot have a "change of mind" why is the seller allowed to.  Whatever happened to the old saying, "level playing field".

Of course you wont get the item, but at least the buyer, (majority) will understand and wont get so disgruntled because of the time he/she spent to make the bids, and maybe missed out on some other item because they could not afford to bid on both..

[jabbajay01]

Sorry thesoulyearns,

I missed your last post (should put my glasses on, not that I see any better.)

 No, I am not advocating that all bidders enter a contract, just the winner enters into that final contract. From what I understand, and I dont know all the rules, the seller can offer the item to the second highest bidder if they wish

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

Basically, it is one transaction, where a number of people are involved.  Best way I can describe it is like a sports team, whether there are 5 a side, 10, 11 or 13.  All the players are playing ONE game for a certain period of time.  To me an auction is like that game, all the bidders, together with the seller (who might be selling on behalf of another person) are involved in one transaction.  In this scenario,  the game ends at the allotted time with the highest bidder being the winner.  It then concludes when the money is exchanged for the item.

I don't understand your team analogy because teams work together towards a common goal i.e. the team winning.

"all the bidders together with the seller involved in one transaction" . . . . . I don't think so.  All involved in the process . . . YES

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

No, I am not advocating that all bidders enter a contract, just the winner enters into that final contract. From what I understand, and I dont know all the rules, the seller can offer the item to the second highest bidder if they wish

The seller can offer the item to any underbidder if the highest bidder does not honour the contract i.e. they do not pay.  The process is that the seller needs to either lodge an UnPaid Item claim or a Mutual Cancellation (that is accepted by the high bidder) before offering a Second-chance offer.  The mere offer of a Second-chance by a seller does not constitute a transaction either.  A transaction to an underbidder does not take place unless the underbidder accepts the Second-Chance offer.  They are under no obligation to accept the offer.

As for ending listings early, I have done this.  When I needed to urgently travel to Sydney early last year I cancelled all of my listings.  The reason I gave was that the "item was no longer available" which was entirely true.  For the listings that had bids, I cancelled the bids before ending the listings.  If you are saying that there should be some mark against my account because I ended my listings early then you are wrong (and headed for my BBL).

[thesoulyearns]

The seller can offer the item to any underbidder... The process is that the seller needs to either lodge an UnPaid Item claim or a Mutual Cancellation (that is accepted by the high bidder) before offering a Second-chance offer.

A Second Chance offer can also be done after a successful transaction, if the seller has another of the exact same item.

[peternt2001]

One senerio that i am not sure has happened, but has me a little worried is a bid retraction.

If i am bidding on an item say my max bid is $100 and someone comes along and outbids me.

I think fine i havent won this item, and go on my way and find the same item with another seller and commit to buy.

Then there is a bid retraction from the buyer that outbid me, leaving me exposed as the highest bidder again,

Am i obligated to continue with the auction and make the purchase, even though thinking that once outbid my obligations to that auction were now over ?

[leader-of-the-band]

I am not trying to be hostile, argumentative or condescending . . . . but you need to go to the bottom of any eBay page and click on the site map link and start reading up about eBay.  The reason I say this is because of the following bits of two of your posts:

From what I understand, and I dont know all the rules, . . . .