12-25-2022 05:48 AM - last edited on 12-25-2022 08:21 AM by kh-laura
I bid on two listing by ***** and both times before the auction ended the seller cancelled the listing indicating the item was lost or broken. This seller has the same items I bid on listed for sale multiple times. I'm wondering if the seller is just cancelling the auction because the bid amounts aren't high enough and they don't want to honor the eventual auction price. Is there anything eBay can do about this apparent questionable listing?
12-25-2022 06:23 AM
It is specifically against the rules for a seller to cancel all bids and end the auction early without a winner IF it is because s/he deliberately set the Starting Price lower than s/he was willing to sell for, and it hasn't reached that high. This is considered fee avoidance because eBay charges a substantial fee for sellers to have a Reserve Price so they aren't promising to sell as low as their Starting Price.
But there are legitimate reasons why a seller would have to do so, and a few years ago eBay got tired of having to divine the subjective intent of a seller who took that action, so it adopted some procedures that make it less attractive to do so with that intention: it may only be done before the countdown reaches 12 hours AND it charges a fee (the FVF% for that seller in that category times the highest cancelled bid) when s/he does so (with the first such fee per calendar year waived to allow for the very occasional legitimate reason for doing so).
12-25-2022 06:27 AM
His habit of cancelling auction with bids is costing him money. eBay charges a fee based on the highest showing bid.
The fees are based on that highest bid and are equal to the fees that would have been if it sold for that amount.
12-27-2022 07:58 AM
Good to hear but even so not very good business practice from a buyer perspective.
We want your journey here to be as great as can be, so we have put together some links to help you get quickly familiarized with the eBay Community.