posted on June 14, 2004 01:04:28 PM new
Hi All,
I have been selling and buying on Ebay for several years and I thought I was aware and up to date on their rules and regulations.. apparently NOT...
I had a bid on an item, starting bid 1.00 with No Reserve. I placed my bid and waited. One hour before the end of auction, the Seller canceled the auction.
I thought it was against the rules to pull an auction with bids, within 12 hours of it's scheduled end..? By the way, the Seller did this on two of his auctions, both with low bids.
I wrote to Ebay and inquired if this was legal and they just wrote me and told me yes... They said a Seller can end an auction at anytime regardless of bids etc.
Well, then why would we as Sellers bother putting a higher opening bid, or a reserve on our auctions and pay Ebay a larger listing fee... if we can just list all at a dollar, then end our auctions early if we don't get what we want for them? Am I seeing this right? Maggie
posted on June 14, 2004 01:06:15 PM new
eBay is just a venue. The item still belongs to the seller. There's not much eBay can do. They've rec's there listing fees
Cheryl
posted on June 14, 2004 01:11:57 PM new
maggie,
as seller,you can do whatever you want with your item.
it is your time and money.
if you have item worth 100 dollars and you start it at one penny,it would take a lot of competitive biddings to reach 100.
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on June 14, 2004 01:18:56 PM new
eBay states if the seller did not inform bidders of an impending cancellation that they must sell item to the highest bidder! I don't know if they enforce this or not........
posted on June 14, 2004 01:27:15 PM new
You know, I am almost positive that I have seen it written in the regulations on ending your auction early.. where it said you could end the auction early, up to 12 hours before the scheduled end.. Am I dreaming this? I have ended auctions early myself, but not on the day the listing was to end.
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this.. so what you are telling me is... I can list anything I want for a dollar.. no reserve and if it doesn't come close to what I want for the item, I can just cancel the auction.. Okay, live and learn! And who said you can't teach an old dog a new trick! :0) Thanks! Maggie
posted on June 14, 2004 01:34:07 PM new
Here is what Ebay wrote to me, I guess they don't enforce the rule to inform the bidders of the cancellation.
Thank you for contacting SafeHarbor with your report.
I am sorry for any frustration this situation has caused you. The most
common reason for an auction ending before the scheduled time is that
the seller decided to end the auction early. We encourage sellers to
post an addition to the description of the auction explaining why they
have ended the auction early. However, sometimes, sellers do not take
our suggestion.
Just as a storeowner can remove an item from her shelves at any time,
sellers on eBay have the right to end their listings at any time prior
to completion. While I know this policy can cause our buyers
disappointment, we don't feel it's fair to force someone to sell an item
they have decided not to sell after all.
Maggie
posted on June 14, 2004 03:30:17 PM new
It may be legal, but I can't imagine paying those listing fees over and over, and ending auctions if I don't like the bidding. The fees sure can add up!
___________________________________
As I've matured, I've learned . .
#2. . . that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon and all the less important ones just never go away. And the real pains in the butt are permanent.
As I remember, the auction descriptioncannot be altered in the last 12 hours.
Your post explains why a few auctions I was watching in the last few months disappeared before I could snipe at the end. Sellers who are doing that are shooting themsleves in the foot, IMHO. I was pi$$*d and emailed the sellers in most cases. Like., "Oh shucks, what happened to your auction? I was going to bid and it disappeared."
They just need to pay for the reserve and let it ride. There could be many people watching an item. Just because they have not bid yet does not mean they will not later.
Any savvy buyer knows waiting to bid at the last few seconds can keep the price down. Sellers who cancel the auction just drive the buyers to another seller. Maybe they are thinking twistedly that they are going to teach buyers to bid early? Won't happen. Just teaches them to stay away from that seller's auctions.
posted on June 14, 2004 07:37:28 PM new
I agree Meadowlark, they just canceled my bid and another buyers bid, and didn't even notify us that they were ending the auctions.
I did write the Seller and they replied, stating that they had a very legitimate reason for ending the auctions early..
They said that they had found a flaw in both jackets just before the auctions were to end.. and that they pulled the auctions.. because they certainly didn't want to sell damaged merchandise..
This just added insult to injury as far as I am concerned, they are just laughing at me. Oh well... live and learn.. I was just surprised that this is sanctioned by Ebay.
Maggie
Yeah, I keep getting the, "OH! I found a flaw and had to be an honest seller and end the auction!" excuse as well. How stupid to they think we are? It's happening too often to be true.
posted on June 14, 2004 08:16:29 PM new
I have been the high bidder on a certain 'item' 4 times now only to have the seller cancel the auction. Those sellers go right on my blocked bidder list (like that helps, but it feels good!). I know the problem is they are not getting the amount of money they want so they are just pulling the auction. You are right, eBay won't do anything.
posted on June 15, 2004 06:15:06 AM new
I don't think so, the names were different. But of course they could have had more than one id. The item was going to sell for under $100.00 and they usually sell for $130.00-170.00 is why I think they yanked it.
posted on June 15, 2004 07:33:12 AM new
I know the bid retraction for a buyer can't be done in the last 12 hours...
reamond is right, no binding contracts on eBay
Twelvepole,
Thank you. I knew I had read that somewhere.
Hmmmm.. so... the Buyer has the binding contract.. but the Seller does not..Why so one sided?
What do you think of that Raemond? LOL
Maggie
