what do you do about sellers that cancel bids cause they wanted more

[timdwightrocks]

Almost got a sweet deal on a card, but my bid was cancelled, and the auction ended prematurely. This guy only sells HIGH dollar cards, almost always BIN. But this one, apparently he wanted to see a big bid war. But he lost his nerve, cancelled my bid, and ended early. Most of the time, bids on NICE cards will soar at the last moment, but like I said, he lost his nerve. I did not expect to get this card at min bid, I bid more than that, but he never gave me a chance to get any kind of deal. I can see NO WAY to report people like this. I checked his feedback, and he has done tis before. Guys like this should be kicked off.

[woodland_gnome]

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 can 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).