posted on February 17, 2002 10:42:45 PM new
Hello. I hope someone can offer some advice on this.
I'm a seller on eBay. A buyer retracted his bids on an item (using the mistakenly bid too much reason) and against eBay rules did not rebid with his correct amount. He also made his retraction 24 hours after his last bid was made.
This retraction cleared out all his bids (at least two, I believe more) and the item in question went from over $300 down to $15.
It appears as if the bidder was in a bidding war, and once the other bidder kept pushing up his maximum bid, he decided to bail out by retracting.
As the bidder was SUPPOSED to bid again (after he made the mistake bid), how does he go back in again after 24 hours (since that time the other bidder put in 6 more bids.)
I was going to write to the bidder (he's no newbie to eBay, has 500+ positive feedback) to try and work it out before going to eBay with this. Unfortunately, I can't find out exactly what this person's bids were before he made the retractable bid. Otherwise I'd ask him to place a bid for not only that amount, but also make the replacement bid like he was supposed to do.
Gosh, I hope this makes sense. It certainly is a puzzler! I greatly appeciate any assistance.
posted on February 17, 2002 11:53:40 PM new
UPDATE
Fortunately I just happened to print out my seller list a few times yesterday and after a little detective work (based on what times bids were made on my items), I now know that the retractor was the high bidder at over $250...THREE HOURS PRIOR to the time he placed the "mistake" bid. For some odd reason, when one retracts a bid, eBay has it set up so ALL the bids by that bid are wiped out...including their legit ones. He was supposed to have bid again. He didn't. How to fix, don't know.....
posted on February 18, 2002 06:32:20 AM new
Is he bidding up high on a bunch of other auctions, too? Or just yours? Maybe he bid on same item from someone else?
posted on February 18, 2002 11:03:36 AM new
ebay never say bidder should or will bid again after retracting bid.
it is up to bidder if he wants to bid again.
there is really nothing seller can do,if you feel the ending bid may fall below your expectation,you can cancel your auction.
posted on February 18, 2002 11:36:05 AM new
It could be bid shielding. Check the bids made by both parties on other auctions and see if you can detect a pattern. If it was me, I would report the bidder to eBay, then cancel the auction and relist it.
posted on February 18, 2002 12:08:29 PM new
I had a similar auction. The bidder pulled his bids about two hours before the auction closed. Of course I was ticked off. Fortunately, the other high bidder met a last minute challenger and the bids took off again to just about the same final dollar amount.
If you feel that the retractions etc are part of a scam, you can cancel all the bids and start over. Depends on the situation. Despite the fact that I suspected some monekey busines regarding my auction, I made so much money on it that I was hardly going to complain.
posted on February 18, 2002 01:45:20 PM new
Hi. Thanks for all the great responses. Very appreciated.
I spent a few hours last night looking into this. (Sort of wordy, sorry.)
The information about bid retracting in eBay's rules is real confusing. They state (regarding retractions before 12 hours of auction close) that "you can retract your bid. However, you will than HAVE to place a new bid on the item." Later it reads, "you will WANT to go back and replace your bid..."
I personally don't understand why retracting a bid before 12 hours of auction close (for entering the wrong amount) wipes out ALL the person's previous bids. In other words, the bidder can bid on an item Mon, Tues, Weds, then on Thurs. decide that the price gotten too high and bail out with the "entered wrong amount" excuse. I mean, how can someone enter the wrong amount more than once? I think the bidder should only be able to wipe out the wrong bid, not use this as an excuse to get out of an auction.
The bidder in my case wasn't shielding and only had one other bid retraction in the last 6 months. He's a seasoned buyer and got into a bidding war with a newbie. That's unfortunate, but I figure if you play, you pay.
This nothing really I can do about this, so I'll put it behind me. If I report this to eBay the most they will do is send a notice to the bidder that they shouldn't do this again or they might suspended.
However, I sure wish eBay would seal up the loophole they have that let's a bidder walk away from ALL their bids with the "whoops, entered wrong amount" excuse.
posted on February 18, 2002 03:09:57 PM new
"Yo! VegHead! Bidders go away, just like sellers have to right to end their auctions for any & all reasons!"
Well, Mr. WeeWee, it's standard procedure in the auction world for a lot to be withdrawn at any time and that a bid is a BINDING CONTRACT. Unless you want to change the rules....
If a seller pulls his/her auction, their is no financial loss to the bidder. On the other hand.....
I personally don't agree with either.
Still feel this is a loophole eBay needs to close up.
posted on February 18, 2002 05:01:55 PM new
I thought it was in the ebay rules that if the reason for the retraction was "entered wrong amount" then the bidder had to bid again using the correct amount within a certain period of time. If a different reason was used then I don't think they have to rebid (like if they bid on wrong item or something). That was just my understanding of it anyway but maybe I'm mistaken.
posted on February 19, 2002 05:27:59 AM new
one can only hope if a bidder retracted a bid in the amount of $1,000,000.00 for typo error,then he would come back and bid $100,000.00 OR $10,000.00 or $1,000.00 or $100.00.
may be ebay in its everlasting search for more revenue can give seller an option-bring on the drum roll and music EXODUS when a bidder bids a certain amount!!!
