sellers who withdraw listings after bids are taken

[08.lukey60]

When is eBay going to stop sellers withdrawing listings after bids have been taken. Once a bid has been taken a legal contract has been formed and should be adheared to by both parties. It seems this happens when seller gets bids lower than what they think item is worth. Sellers,  please respect you buyers, there what you survive on.

[2106greencat]

I agree Cara, but it isn't always that cut and dried. Some sellers - usually casual/new sellers - follow eBay's wonderful advice and start an item at 0.99c to get more exposure.

Lets say they are selling a hard cover book- they list 0.99c and put a BIN of say $25.00 thinking that is a reserve. First bid $1.50 - BIN disappears, turns out the first bid wins, items sells $1.50 with a minimum postage of $6.20. So if the book is indeed worth $25.00 that new/inexperienced seller has just lost $29.70.

Maybe some could force a seller to do that, I couldn't. A little understanding goes a long way

[phorum_junkie*]

Would you still want me to let the auction run and sell broken plates or would you prefer I end the auction?

You should definitely cancel the listing and relist as china jigsaws :^O:^O

Cara what you are suggesting is a breach of ebay policy, any discussion of buying an item that is not actually listed would be considered an off ebay transaction.

You have no idea why the seller ended the auction neither are you entitled to know, it is the seller's item to do with as they want until there are only 12 hours left and even after that they can cancel bids right up to the last second.

As I said earlier you cannot know if you would have won the item anyway so what is the point of getting so hot under the collar about it?

[cara_83]

Yes I understand this, but this is a person with a whole store on ebay, with hundreds of items, that sell for under $10. I had bid $8 and only one other person had bid also, but they stopped bidding, so the seller stopped it at $3 something with 2 days to go. Anyway I dont care whether people think I am right or wrong, they are a big seller and they should raise their minimum bid if they are going to pull the rug from beneath your feet. Or ebay should make it compulsory that they give you a courtesy message considering this is 'business'.

[2106greencat]

The seller may have found the item was damaged or incorrectly described?? I do agree, common courtesy would be to advise bidders, but it is not a 'policy' requirement and with some sellers [and some buyers] common courtesy isn't that common.

BTW pj isn't a pessimistic old sod - she just shoots from the hip :^O

[cara_83]

LOL shoots from the hip, I like that one 🙂

[flossy1111]

Interested to know how a bidder has the ability to retract their bid, can you let me know how?

[flossy1111]

If the plates were broken during the auction and at point of sale then the buyer I would believe has the right to refuse the purchase due to the item being 'not as described'.  

If you offer an item with no reserve that is just what it is NO RESERVE otherwise you are indirectly misleading potential buyers.

I would see professional online selling etiquette to place a minimum 'buy' price on your product rather than removing an item completely because either a) your selling it privately and avoiding ebay fees or b) as you've suggested something catastrophic has occurred in your small entity which has left you no alternative other than to remove an item which has bids on it. (bit like broken china hey?)

Hopefully Ebay will start to see this and make sellers more accountable of their actions and then maybe certain sellers will become more astute on 'how' they decide to 'sell' their items.

Until then the only way to hold these kinds of sellers accountable is to keep a list of them and avoid them.   

I guess if you're smart enough to know how to operate a computer then your smart enough to recognise slim shady 🙂

[tonalidesigns]

With all of this there are a few other issues:

1.  Don't forget that when you sign up to eBay you agreed to operate under their rules - that might modify some aspects of traditional contract law especially as the parties might live or operate in different legal jurisdictions as well.

2.  As others have noted - even if you felt you had a strong case on an issue are you really going to instigate action to legally enforce something that is of relatively little value and where the loss is more one of "disappointment" than any real quantifiable loss.

3.  It might also be that the item has been cancelled because eBay forced the seller to do it (or did it for them!) for some sort of breach ... maybe saving you a whole lot of grief if you had won.

[putney32]

Interested to know how a bidder has the ability to retract their bid, can you let me know how?

the rules for bid retraction are on the eBay Site Map (link at bottom of every ebay page)

[*new2vintage]

GUESS WHAT ?  DEAD THREAD !