advice on a cascade of retracted bids

[radagasty]

I'm selling a PVR by auction, on a ten-day listing with about two days to go, and I've been faced with a cascade of retracted bids.

There were four bidders, say A, B, C, D (in that order). A few days ago, C put in a high bid, double the starting price, and then yesterday, D made a series of three bids, getting most of the way to C's bid, but falling short by a small amount, leaving C as the highest bidder.

Soon thereafter, C retracted his bid, and a few hours later, so did D, and another few hours later, so did A. All three cited 'bid wrong amount' as the reason for retracting, but none have entered a new bid, leaving B as the highest bidder, at the starting price.

My reading of the scenario is that C simply changed his mind, because D had nibbled away at his high bid, and wasn't prepared to pay what he bid or was hoping for a better bargain. With C's retraction, D thought that he had probably over-bid, and A then was simply spooked by the two previous retractions.

Anyway, I am concerned that all these retractions will deter new bidders, and I am considering cancelling the listing without selling the item. Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome. Thank you.

[lyndal1838]

If you want to sell the item just let the auction finish.

While bid retractions can be annoying they are probably preferable to having an unpaid item and the associated wait to relist the item.

These days most bidders will wait till the very end of the auction to place their bids so there is still plenty of time for other bidders to get in on the action.

[kopenhagen5]

Could also be others realised it has no smart network feature.

But assuming you started the auction at a price you are happy to sell at seeing there are no reserves on eBay Aus, you still have one bid and it will sell. Mission accomplished.

Otherwise you should start at your lowest price and anything above is a bonus.

[padi*0409]

It's a bit worrying Kopes and lyndal that the retractors have been retracting nearly all of their bids, albeit they're not bidding on many items, but a worrying trend anyway. 

[lyndal1838]

It seems to be a trend these days Padi.

How often do we see members coming to the boards asking how to retract a bid or cancel a transaction if they have already won.

I have no idea why but so many members seem to think it is one big game with no responsibility attached.

[springyzone]

You really can't blame D, he may have felt like it was a scam, he had bid up and up and then when he wasn't winning, the winner retracts and leaves him up there. If I were ever to be left in that situation again and found out in time, I would be retracting my bids too.

I think part of the problem is with ebay as it allows people to withdraw their bids. It does say that if they type in the wrong amount, they need to re-bid with the correct amount but it doesn't enforce it. It would be easy to.

To be honest, if I saw all the bid retractions I would be wary, I would not bid till the last minute and yes, I would be wondering if something else was wrong, if the others knew something I didn't about the product or whatever.

You still have B as a bidder but take my advice, if you leave the ad on & he wins I would send an ebay message to him. Just along the lines of congratulations, you have been the highest bidder etc

The reason I say that is because B may not realise he is the winner (not everyone regularly visits their ebay email addy).

Why would he know? He was way outbid by  others, so he may well have stopped even looking. Winning could be a big shock, he may even have bought elsewhere. I

I would probably be more inclined to pull the ad and start again. But that's me.

[phorum_junkie*]

You still have more than one active bid and are getting above your start price so I would be ignoring the retracted bids. If you want to go to the bother you can report the bid retractions to ebay as they said they had bid the wrong amount but did not replace with another bid but I wouldn't waste my time.

[lyndal1838]

The new bidder is one of those who retracted his initial bid yesterday.

[*tippy*toes*]

I noticed that one of the retractors rebid so I would assume they had bid wrong, e.g $5,000 instead of $50 (which I've done).

I certainly wouldn't be ending the listing with multiple bids on it. How many people really look at the bid history page anyway? 

[springyzone]

If it is starting to get multiple bids then you are right, no need to cancel the ad.

If one of the new bidders is one who retracted earlier, it may not be that he placed a wrong bid, it may just be he wanted to start over, back at the 'real' starting price, after getting turned off by seeing others retract.

He's had time to see how things have settled & now obviously wants it.

I am not sure how many people look at bid history. I know I always do. It can be a bit of a give away when something has a bid at what you know is the starting price but shows 2 bids by the opening bidder.