Cancelling an eBay auction when the bids are low - Unethical?

Dynoman

Dynoman

Active Member
I would describe myself as an opportunistic bidder who possesses a few legit tricks (only one 100% feedback account) up my sleeve to fool another bidder into thinking it's not worth competing. For all that, my wins would only be around 5-10% of my total bids. Conversely, on the seller side, I've often let go of things too cheaply. Like the recent bidder who won some gorgeous UNC 64 Kennedy's off me for less than spot. So what really aggravates me is how some sellers will repeatedly cancel the auction. Just this week I've had three closed on me. They were all hovering around spot at the time. Perhaps with silver lower & a few keen to cash up on losses they're experiencing much lower bids than they're used to?
 
I never knew a seller would be able to cancel an auction while there are bidders on it
 
Kam-L said:
I never knew a seller would be able to cancel an auction while there are bidders on it
Click to expand...

Yes you can cancel bids , or even cancel the auction upto 24 hours before the auction ends
 
Kam-L said:
I never knew a seller would be able to cancel an auction while there are bidders on it
Click to expand...

Oh yeah:

Dear eBay Community Member,

The bid that you entered for the item (ID Omitted) has been cancelled. You can view the reason provided for the cancellation by selecting the (bid history) link from the individual item page.

Please be cautious if you are contacted about purchasing this item after the bid has been cancelled and as always avoid paying for your eBay item using instant wire transfer services through Western Union or MoneyGram as these payment methods are unsafe when paying someone you do not know.
 
I have experienced that before when bidding for an opal series coin. Is it possible to leave a negative feedback ? Haven't tried that method yet but at least it will impact his ratings.
 
Unethical? You betcha!

Allowed under ebays very dodgy rules so it can be abused by unethical sellers? Yes
 
Frustrating as often you have invested the time and effort to bid and follow the auction. Especially if the price is too low for the sellers liking.

There however may be quite reasonable reasons for the seller to cancel the auction. It is not unusual to do a "private deal" with seller /buyer off eBay to save eBay fees and take the item off the market. Happens often with high value Panda/MCC coins. You don't get eBay/PayPal protection but if the buyer / seller is trusted then the risk is mitigated somewhat. eBay probably does not approve but it happens quite frequently.
 
As a seller you can cancel an auction. It can be for any reason but one might be you have sold the coins elsewhere (like here) before the auction is completed. Its allowed under ebay rules.
 
Matthew 26:14 said:
As a seller you can cancel an auction. It can be for any reason but one might be you have sold the coins elsewhere (like here) before the auction is completed. Its allowed under ebay rules.
Click to expand...

...but only if u added the bin option at the beginning,as far as I know...I usually dont do that that is why ebay never let me cancel any of auctions....maybe there is something I should know ...
 
Cancelling bids or the auction because the price is low is just as unethical as shill bidding.

If a seller has a minimum price in mind they should bloody well set the starting price at that level and stop wasting everybody's time.
 
Some scumbags bid high on items early and then just before the 12 hour deadline cancel their bids leaving your item exposed and often well under value. They then snipe bid at the last minute to buy under another ebay username or friends account...that sucks! I put a clause in all my ebay listings that should the above happen I reserve the right to void the auction.

Want a great seller tip......bid on lots of new listings....small amounts....99p / 99c and do it outside of bullion ie in cars for sale etc.
Often the seller will look at whos bidding and look at your listings for sale and sometimes but not often buy from you.
Worst case scenario you get a car or whatever you did not want for 99p / 99c but this is even less likely to happen.
 
Has happened to me several times where at the last minute the auction has ended or someone else has placed a high bid to force all the automatic bids to appear in bid history, then retract it as " having entered the wrong amount " ... Yeah !. I have also spoken directly to eBay on their basis of "entering a legally binding contract" etc. but that gets glossed over so you get no redress for your research and wasted time when there are some sellers that break the code.
 
How do I cancel an auction that finished & winner does not pay?
 
Do you mean to tell me that unethical actions have actually taken place in the sacred, sainted, holy and hallowed halls of our beloved, perfect and infallible eBay?

I am truly shocked! Shocked, I say -- Shocked! How could this possibly be? Oh, be still my racing and palpitating heart!

I think I may need a sixer of those big fat oilcans to calm me back down!
 
STC said:
How do I cancel an auction that finished & winner does not pay?
Click to expand...

I think you can open a case of an unpaid item. eBay will ask the buyer to make payment or a case of non-payment will be recorded against him.

I know cos I was previously marked for non-payment but I appealed saying the seller refused to send me a consolidated invoice. Luckily I managed to clear it from my record. Hope this helps!
 
ethics and eBay are on different sides of the field ...

I place automatic bids that are made within last 10 seconds ... so I don't care who does what ... the thing I need is the item I won.

P.S. in japanese yahoo auction there's an option when making a listing for the sellers to cancel the auction ... so people use it when they feel the price is no good for them ... do they feel "unethical"?! I have no idea.
 
Alot of good posts here , my opinion is that if I start a auction at 99cents or whatever, I have to be prepared to sell at whatever it ends at , sometimes they do really well and sometimes someone gets a steal and if so it makes for a very happy customer . Usually if it finishes really low I get emails from people that "just missed the auction and want to know if i have more to sell at that price" yeah right! they should have just bid. Sometimes I will cancel an auction if I work a deal with someone and the coin is no longer available but I always tell people to decide quickly because once I get bids I will not cancel the auctions, I just dont think it is fair, but that is just me, I also am disgusted with the people that do bid retractions just to see what the highest bid is especially towards the end since once they place a high bid it turns other possible bidders of from bidding and can lose real money , and this has happened to me several times, if you look at the history of bid retractions of some of these people their bid retractions can be in the tens and even hundreds .. I think ebay should have a policy of only allowing 3 bid retractions a year , it is one thing to make an honest mistake but when someone has 50 or even 10 in a year that is just BS and ruins it for the honest people.
But haveing said all this that is just a part of dealing with ebay and life for that matter , I can guarantee whether buying or selling if you do enough transactions sooner or later you will have a problem, just hopefully not a big one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top