Seller cancels item when bidding is not high enough

[joeseller85]

I was high bidder on an item (camera) that had a short time left. The seller cancelled all the bids, then re-listed the item. When I asked why he cancelled the bids, he replied "It wasn't going to go as high as I wanted, so I cancelled the bids and relisted it. Feel free to bid on the item nopw that it's relisted."

How can I report this to ebay?

Thanks in advance.

[gkyn29 · Accepted solution]

Here

That is a definite violation of the cancellation policy and avoidance of paying a reserve fee.

[joeseller85]

Thank you. That was quick.  I got an acceptable response from ebay customer service as well.

[7606dennis]

While yes that would appear to be an attempt by the seller to avoid eBay's reserve fees, I don't believe it is a violation to cancel all bids and let the listing close without a winner.  Of course, for the seller to admit it in any type of communications would seem to be somewhat foolish on the seller's part.

[gkyn29]

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@7606dennis wrote:

While yes that would appear to be an attempt by the seller to avoid eBay's reserve fees, I don't believe it is a violation to cancel all bids and let the listing close without a winner.  Of course, for the seller to admit it in any type of communications would seem to be somewhat foolish on the seller's part.

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It is. There are specific circumstances under which you can cancel a listing...not one of them is "it wasn't high enough".

Despite what the seller said, if he ended the auction and chose not to relist it..maybe, and I say maybe with tongue firmly in cheek, he could use the reason item is no longer available. Clearly not the case here based on the statements coupled with the reslisting.

[mikeystoyz]

There was an error in the listing 🙂

[reallynicestamps]

The seller was also being stupid.

Even if he is not penalized by eBay for cancelling an active auction, he missed most of the bidding.

Most bidding happens in the last few minutes of an auction, either from customers who Search using About to Close or from snipers, manual or electronic, who bid in the last nano-second.

I'm a "bid once, bid early" buyer myself, but I can remember a few years ago, being asked by DH, who was out of town to bid on an item that had been nibbled up to $250 over several days. I bid the $400 he wanted to pay and ignored the listing for a few days.

Then I called him about an hour before it ended, when the bidding was at $295, and was instructed to bid $650.

There was a flurry of last minute bidding and I /DH won at $375.

If the seller had decided to close the auction early, he would have lost out on all those bids.

And of course, you can't fix stupid.

[dollybotique]

I had the same thing done and the seller relisted with a BIN price.  I contacted Ebay and there is nothing they can do and just said it seller shouldn't do that and for me to report the new item and explain.  It puts a mark on their account and if they continue to do this Ebay will then take action

[sharingtheland]

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@mikeystoyz wrote:

There was an error in the listing 🙂

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This ^^^ can be used by a seller to cancel an auction.  If the auction has bids and is canceled within 12 hours of its ending time, the seller pays a fee to ebay.

I canceled an auction not too long ago (no bids but some watchers).   When the bidding didn't start as soon as I expected on the rare, desirable item I knew it wasn't being seen enough and I wasn't willing to wait to the end to see what sniper got lucky with a low bid.   My item, my prerogative.

[freeshipusa1]

These days there is not much bidding fever,if seller would rather pay EBAY the FVF than selling at a loss,thats up to the seller.

if you want the item,ask the seller if he would do it Buy it Now and let you have it at that price.

[joeseller85]

There wasn't an "error in the listing". The guy is a d bag who doesn't know how to ebay, and was afraid the item would sell at too low a price. Ebay already took care of the "problem" for me.

[reallynicestamps]

@sharingtheland

My item, my prerogative.

Absolutely.

The seller has to choose what result he thinks is best for him and for his business.

[sharingtheland]

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@joeseller85 wrote:

There wasn't an "error in the listing". The guy is a d bag who doesn't know how to ebay, and was afraid the item would sell at too low a price. Ebay already took care of the "problem" for me.

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I am not defending the seller; I'm simply saying that ebay allows a seller to cancel a listing using "error" as a reason.  That's because ebay doesn't own the item and can't force someone to sell it.  Just like ebay can't force a buyer to pay.

I have canceled more than a few listings in my years here due to errors I've found in them (almost all of them Fixed Price; I rarely do auctions).   A very nice person messaged me not too long ago about an item I had misidentified.  I ended that sooooo fast, did a bit of research, and relisted at twice the original price.   I've also entered a price incorrectly and honored it when someone jumped on that $100 savings.  It's a two-way street.

[joeseller85]

Here's the thing.......it wasn't an "error in the listing". It was an error in his judgement, or an error in his ability to know how to sell on ebay. What capped it was when he sent ME a rude message saying "I thought it would be bid higher, and I'm not going to give it away for $10. I relisted it and you can bid if you want." (there were some other things as well)
I didn't, and niether did anyone else.
As for "doing what he thinks is best for him and his business", maybe he should be in another business.

[joeseller85]

Finnally- there is a little thing called a "reserve" he could have put on the item which would have alliviated the whole issue.