IS THIS ALLOWED?

[luckykey3]

i just won an auction fair and square and instantly it's out of stock probably because they didn't like the price I got it at.  Is this fair?  Oh and I wrote to him to tell him of my dismay and he said that he isn't going to sell on eBay anymore because it takes all profits.... as he put it.

[fab_finds4u]

If the price was too good to be true it usually is.

eBay can't  force the seller to ship after getting paid. They allow them to cancel the transaction. They got a defect for cancelling. 

[luckykey3]

It was an auction. With an auction it should go to the last bidder.  The one that wins the auction. 

[ryanrobyn]

sadly this has happened to me sa a seller. I sell all items and then Ebay ghost lists the item again. This has happened to other sellers as well. Sadly the seller gets a gigantic defect.

[luckykey3]

You lost me on that one. I was talking about winning an auction and as soon as I won it was out of stock.  I talked to the guy and he said he didn't want to let it go for the price I won it for.  That's just not right.

[mudshark61369]

@luckykey3,

"i just won an auction fair and square and instantly it's out of stock probably because they didn't like the price I got it at. Is this fair"?

No it is not a good thing for seller's to not complete auctions, because they did not get a good price for their items.  However, If the seller was new that is not an uncommon problem. Did you check the seller's feedback profile page to see how much selling they have done? 

eBay's getting started info doesn't tell new sellers up front about things like payment holds, how much they now take in fees, 15%.  But they do encourage them to start auctions at a low price, "To encourage bidding". Not telling them that as a new seller their search placement is such that their auction may not show up on the first 2 pages of a search in a crowded category, until the last 48 - 24 hours of its duration.

Do you remember back when you started selling some 22 years ago how simple it was to go through the getting started info, and even view the pretty good video that explained things clearly?  Try looking up the info now. (set aside a few hours to do that)   You quit selling just over 3 years ago, because of the changes ebay was making, well they have made even more since then, none of which have done much to benefit sellers. 

Is this fair"?

I guess the answer to that question depends on which side of the fence you are standing on.

  You bid on the auction in good faith, hoping to win the item at a good price. You did most likely being one of very few, if not the only one, to bid on the auction.  So it isn't fair to you that the seller has backed out, even if they do get a defect on their account and will be charged the final value fees after you get a full refund. 

 But is it fair to a seller who took ebay's poor advice, and may have ended up with a net loss on the transaction, if they completed the sale?  eBay will still take their cut from the seller's bank account.

[tinsoldierunderground]

No, it's not right.  But ebay can't force a seller or a buyer to complete a transaction, all they can do is penalize them if they refuse to do so.  

[luckykey3]

Then how do I get eBay to penalize him? 

[jameshen1]

---

@luckykey3 wrote:

Then how do I get eBay to penalize him? 

---

That is done automatically as soon as they cancel for out of stock.

But if they are not going to sell here anymore it really won't matter.

[kensgiftshop]

---

@luckykey3 wrote:

Then how do I get eBay to penalize him? 

---

They already did when he chose out of stock to cancel the order.

It's a good thing they are not going to sell on Ebay anymore, many out of stocks and Ebay will give them the boot.

[woodland_gnome]

The seller already got a "defect" when s/he cancelled the transaction (unless s/he lied to eBay to blame you, which s/he didn't). That is the primary tool eBay uses to weed out bad sellers, downgrading the selling status of those who get too many relative to their sales volume (as opposed to having to pay employees to actually investigate to see how likely it was that the seller had a legitimate reason to cancel vs. deliberate policy violations).

You may leave appropriate (calm, factual--if the seller said that x was the reason say "seller said x. . ." so people don't think you are just jumping to conclusions) feedback to warn future buyers/bidders. If the usual links have vanished, go to anyone's Feedback Profile (doesn't matter who, click on the feedback score in parentheses behind the username) then scroll down to below the last comment on that page to find a "Leave feedback" link that doesn't vanish (it brings you to a list of items you can leave feedback for).

Theoretically you could sue the seller for breach of the contract of sale (for the difference between the auction price and what you ended up having to pay for a replacement), but that is almost never practical.

[selsa84]

O.p. never said the item was underpriced. They said seller canceled sale after auction ended and that seller didn't like the cost of doing business on eBay.

[luckykey3]

I wrote that before I had the complete conversation with the seller. He also said he didn't like the price I got it for and quoted the higher prices other people have gotten for the item. 

[luckykey3]

Thank you all for your input.  You are the best.  And by the way ... it didn't give me the option to leave feedback.  Actually he didn't have any and just started on eBay in Mar 2024. By what he said to me I doubt he will be continuing which is a good thing.

[luckykey3]

I thought I would add that I bid on another auction and that the seller also had no feedback, no other sales just like the last one ... I lost the bid by one from an unregistered bidder who also didn't have any feedback or sales.  And soon that item was relisted on auction with a higher starting price. Ooooooh eBay is such fun with all the games being played.