ebay Starting bid adjusts to best offer

[mig9976]

Hi all,

I collect comics and this is my problem.

A seller has a comic for sale for let's says 20$.

He lists it on auction with a make a best offer option.

So I offer 30$ and submit my offer.

Moments later the start bid turns magically to 30$.

He does this on all his listings.

No way he is fast enought to change his prices.

What the heck is going on ???

Can someone please explain how this works on the sellers side ?

Thanks

[7606dennis]

You do realize that once a bid is placed on an item being sold at auction the BO option becomes deactivated and any offer made becomes void, right?  Your offer does not convert over into a bid and you would have to enter a bid to stay in the running to purchase the item.

With regard to the starting bid price increasing to the amount of your offer, in my opinion, that would have to be some sort of coincidence unless eBay has decided to further mess with the way auctions are conducted on its site without regard to the laws governing the conducting of auctions in numerous states.  Of course, eBay being merely a venue, doesn't always consider such things and leaves the seller to face any legal repercussions.  

Naturally, the seller could increase his starting bid price at any time before a bid is placed.  That would have no affect on your offer.  However, once a bid is placed, as I previously mentioned, the BO option is no longer available and all offers are off the table.  Even if the seller wanted to accept the offer, he could not, without ending the auction and relisting.  This stems from the fact that to allow that to be done would result in the bidder having a legitimate complaint about the auction not being conducted in good faith in violation of many state's auction laws.  The laws governing the conduct of auction sales can be quite complicated and vary from state to state.

So basically, if it is an auction listing with a BO option and no bid has been placed, the seller can accept an offer and the listing ends with no auction having taken place.  The sale would have been an online retail one with the priced negotiated.  However, once a bid is placed the laws governing auctions in the seller's state kicks in.

I'm not sure if that is what you wanted to know or not.  However, why the starting bid price increased I have no idea unless the seller was in the process of raising it while you were making your offer.  Frankly, eBay's adding of the BO option to auctions, in my opinion, was ill advised.