Seller has auction as "LOT" with active bids, then started listing things from the lot individually

[hanajae]

So, I have a bit of a dilemma...

I have an active bid on an auction from a seller that has advertised for 30 items to be included in one lot.
Two days later, they have also started creating individual listings for items that were advertised in the lot... the same items... while the "lot of 30" auction is still active and a number of people are bidding high prices on.
Obviously this is a problem, since people bidding on the lot are expecting to get all items advertised, but that won't be the case if the individual listings sell before the auction is over. 

Even though the physical description has not changed in the auction, would eBay's bid retraction policy of "The description of the item changed significantly after I placed my bid" still work in this case? I don't want to spend $300+ on something that I won't actually get all of the pieces for, and I don't want anyone else to fall into that trap either. It seems sketchy. 

Note: The seller has no seller feedback and has a username ending in -0.

[nobody*s_perfect]

I would go ahead and retract, even if not currently the high bidder.  While technically your reason doesn't quite match "changed description," the fact is that eBay doesn't seem to investigate bid retractions or have any penalty for invalid retractions.  The only downside is that it will show up on your feedback record and some sellers hesitate to deal with buyers who have a significant retraction history.  You can retract your bid as long as the auction has more than  12 hours left.

A zero-feedback seller might actually be confused about how auctions work and what his options will be if he sells specific items twice.  Is it the type of itms that he might have duplicates of?   

[hanajae]

For the first individual listing, I thought he may have had doubles and didn't think much of it. But once he listed 5 or 6 identical items, I zoomed in on the details of the flaws... and they are the exact same flaws that show up in the images on both the lot auction and the individual item listing. Unfortunately he seems to be double-listing, either intentionally or unintentionally, I don't know. But I'm not about to take any chances when there's literally hundreds of dollars involved. I just hope everyone else on the auction can see what's happening as well and retract their bids if it turns out to be a scam situation. 

[mudshark61369]

@hanajae,

Have you sent a message to the seller asking if they have multiples of some of the items in the auction you are bidding on, that they are selling separately?   If they do not reply and it gets down to around 12 hours left in the auction, retract your bid.  The seller listing items from the lot, would be a valid reason for a bid retraction. It falls under  Seller significantly changed the description of the item.

Below is a link to retracting a bid.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/retracting-bid?id=4013

[hanajae]

Thanks for the reply. I had originally assumed that he had doubles of what he was selling, and even sent an offer on one if the individual listings (which he turned down). 
But over the course of a couple hours, he made individual listings for a number of other duplicates as well, which made me pay more attention. I then zoomed in on identifiable item flaws present in the pictures on both listings, and they are identical. At this point I strongly believe he is double-listing, and feel that retracting my bid may be the only safe thing to do here. 

[mudshark61369]

@hanajae,

Things like this is one of the reasons, you should always think twice about bidding on (0) feedback seller's auctions.  They probably do not know if items are photographed as being in a lot, they have to be included with it.

[hanajae]

They have an overall feedback score of 3, but that was just for buying, not selling. 
The original auction was a really good opportunity to get a lot of nice items in one go, and yeah, I fell for it unfortunately. I usually don't buy from sellers with 0 seller feedback but that one was too good not to. Oh well. There is 4 days left on the lot auction, so I think I will retract my bid.

[mudshark61369]

@hanajae,

Once the auction ends, if the individual items are ones you want and are still up for sale, bid on them, but wait until they almost end before bidding.

I would still message the seller asking why they have photos of the individual items in the lot, if they were not part of the lot?

[hanajae]

UPDATE:
My suspicion about this seller was right. 

I checked back on their feedback, and the exact lot that I was talking about has negative feedback written for it. Apparently the seller never shipped the lot... and the winning bid was almost $600. Awful. Glad I backed out of my bids. 

[7606dennis]

Frankly, I do not see where you have a valid reason to retract your bid.  You have no evidence that the seller will not fulfill the terms of the auction should you be the winning bidder.  By your own admission, the description in the listing has not changed so that reason for making a retraction would be invalid and a policy violation.

If the seller fails to complete the transaction as described by not providing the entire lot if you're the winner, you would indeed have a legitimate NAD claim.  In fact, you would have a good legal case against the seller for breach of contract.  However, it would probably not be economically feasible to file one. 

Of course, that would only be the case if the seller failed to complete the transaction and deliver all the items included in the lot.  Thus, until the auction is over, you have real issue and no valid reason to retract the bid.  The seller, however, could find themselves between a rock and a hard place if they aren't able to deliver all the items sold in the lot.

[froggyjump]

I agree and do not understand your dilemma, except maybe having too much time on your hands.

Using the same photos is fine, don't worry about it.

Handle the problem if it arises.

[7606dennis]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

I would go ahead and retract, even if not currently the high bidder.  While technically your reason doesn't quite match "changed description," the fact is that eBay doesn't seem to investigate bid retractions or have any penalty for invalid retractions.  The only downside is that it will show up on your feedback record and some sellers hesitate to deal with buyers who have a significant retraction history.  You can retract your bid as long as the auction has more than  12 hours left.

A zero-feedback seller might actually be confused about how auctions work and what his options will be if he sells specific items twice.  Is it the type of itms that he might have duplicates of?   

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I have to disagree with the advice to commit an invalid bid retraction since it is still a policy violation even though eBay doesn't seem to be enforcing their policy regarding it.