eBay Bid Cancellation Notice - Item

[goldguy22k]

Dear eBay Community Member,
The bid that you entered for the item (kkkkkkkkk ) has been cancelled. You can view the reason provided for the cancellation by selecting the (bid history) link from the individual item page.

Please be cautious if you are contacted about purchasing this item after the bid has been cancelled and as always avoid paying for your eBay item using instant wire transfer services through Western Union or MoneyGram as these payment methods are unsafe when paying someone you do not know.

Regards,
eBay

No reason other than 'no longer available?'

Seller should be banned!

[lamber9347 · Accepted solution]

@goldguy22k Sorry this happened to you. Sellers are not supposed to do this and it is against policy here. If it's any consolation this seller will receive a demerit for canceling an auction with bids on it. A few more of these and their selling account will be suspended or closed. Go find this item with another much better and reliable seller. Best of luck to you....

[7606dennis]

It would then appear that the reason is that the item is no longer available for sale.  Under the auction laws of most states, the owner of an item can remove an item from a sale up until the hammer falls with the exception of the case of an absolute auction.  Since there can be no absolute auctions legally on eBay, tat doesn't enter into the matter.

However, eBay does have restrictions in place that affect an auction in its last twelve hours.  Of course, you didn't mention how long the listing had left to run or if the seller closed the listing after canceling all the bids.  If they canceled all bids and let the auction end without a winner at its scheduled ending time, there was no violation of eBay rules. 

[7606dennis]

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@lamber9347 wrote:

@goldguy22k Sorry this happened to you. Sellers are not supposed to do this and it is against policy here. If it's any consolation this seller will receive a demerit for canceling an auction with bids on it. A few more of these and their selling account will be suspended or closed. Go find this item with another much better and reliable seller. Best of luck to you....

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Actually, sellers may cancel any and all bids prior to the end of an auction without breaking any eBay rules or the law, even within the final twelve hours if they don't end the listing early.  Of course, they run the risk of a last minute bidder winning the auction with a snipe bid.

If the seller ended the auction early but before the final twelve hours after canceling all the bids, I believe they are within their rights to do that without consequence.  However, to cancel bids and close the listing in the last twelve hours has restrictions. 

Of course, once the auction ends with a winner, for the seller to cancel the transaction with that reason would, at the very least, earn them a defect.  However, the OP mentions canceling bids and not transactions.

[mudshark61369]

@goldguy22k,

It looks like the seller cancelled all of the bids at the same time which indicates the seller decided to end it.   Sellers can cancel bids and end auctions, but there are limited legitimate reasons they can do that. Without seeing the whole bid history we do not know if they may have cancelled to sell to the highest bidder or not.  This was supposed to be a 10 day duration auction, and we do not know when it started. 

At the very least the seller could get a defect on their account.  Depending on when the listing was ended and the circumstances for ending it, they may have to pay the final value fee (10% of the bid) for the highest bid received on the item.  They may also have their account limited or banned if they've done this before.

The link below will let you know when a seller can cancel and some of the penalties.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/ending-listing?id=4146

[woodland_gnome]

Were you logged in when you got this screenshot?  Since you had a bid cancelled you should see your own User ID and the reason the seller gave for cancelling (in this case all the cancellations would have been to end the auction early without a winner, not quite sure how they phrase that) on the line corresponding to your bid.

The reason the seller GAVE for cancelling all bids (picked out of a short menu) and ending early without a winner will be at top left of the Listing Page (either the short form one for completed listings or the "original listing" with the Description and Shipping and Payments tab.

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.  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 may only be done before the countdown reaches 12 hours  AND it charges a fee (generally 10% of 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).

[goldguy22k]

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@woodland_gnome wrote:

Were you logged in when you got this screenshot?  Since you had a bid cancelled you should see your own User ID and the reason the seller gave for cancelling (in this case all the cancellations would have been to end the auction early without a winner, not quite sure how they phrase that) on the line corresponding to your bid.

The reason the seller GAVE for cancelling all bids (picked out of a short menu) and ending early without a winner will be at top left of the Listing Page (either the short form one for completed listings or the "original listing" with the Description and Shipping and Payments tab.

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.  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 may only be done before the countdown reaches 12 hours  AND it charges a fee (generally 10% of 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).

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er, actually yes and no.  Good Question!  Was logged into eBay in one browser and email in another browser and followed the link in the email bowser to post those screen shots.  Here is the shot from when I follow the link while logged into eBay.  So yeah, there is more info!  Thanks for pointing that out!

The reason given is kinda "meh" 

@woodland_gnome 

[woodland_gnome]

The reason given is kinda "meh"

eBay supplied that reason when seller clicks the single link to cancel all bids and end the listing early without a winner (or however they label it, that is what it does).

The reason the seller gave when s/he took that action is on the Listing Page at top left, but again that will just be a generic one picked from an eBay supplied menu.

[kristinwilliams14]

The last 4 items that I have been outbid on (and then moved on to bid on a similar item) have had bid cancellations after the auction is over. This leaves me as the highest bidder, forcing me to pay for the original item that I lost and the replacement item that I won. This is highly fishy and seems incredibly unethical. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

It is not possible to cancel bids after an auction ends. If you provide a link or a listing number, we can look at the bid history to help you understand what happened.

It's unwise to "move on" after being outbid.  Any bid can be canceled or retracted BEFORE the auction ends, making you the high bidder. Your bid is a commitment until the auction ends. This is why many members wait until near the end of the auction before placing their bids.

[woodland_gnome]

@kristinwilliams14 

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@kristinwilliams14 wrote:

The last 4 items that I have been outbid on (and then moved on to bid on a similar item) have had bid cancellations after the auction is over. This leaves me as the highest bidder, forcing me to pay for the original item that I lost and the replacement item that I won. This is highly fishy and seems incredibly unethical. 

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Don't do that.  You are the one putting yourself in danger.   Don't blame someone else for your error.  And your question has  nothing to do with the subject of this 10 month old thread you appended it to.

The winner and price are determined from the active bids (i.e. not cancelled or retracted before the end) at the end of the auction.  Until then any bid could win, even if it has been outbid (if the higher bid is cancelled or retracted; exception: if there is a Reserve Price that remains "Reserve not met" AFTER you place your bid that bid CANNOT win the auction no matter what anyone else does).

If cancellations/retractions put you back as high bidder when the auction ends, you are the winner (unless your bid was "Reserve not met" after you placed it) and are obligated to pay, so don't go looking for a replacement item unless you are willing and able to pay for both.

Once the auction ends without you as the winner (if you are watching the countdown give a hard refresh after a few seconds to what appears to be a final result before relying on the results--a last second but still timely bid might not have been processed and the new results available to all servers for a few seconds) then you owe no more obligation to that auction.  The seller might send you a Second Chance Offer if the winner backs out (and you have not opted out of receiveing such SCOs in your My eBay: Account: Communication Preferences) but you are under no legal or moral obligation to accept it.

[kristinwilliams14]

Good to know, thank you. I haven’t used eBay in a few years and never encountered this problem so it was a shock when I received bid cancellations on all items I had been previously outbid on. All I have are the screenshots from the message. I am, however, unable to view the actual retraction/cancellation website or mobile. 

 

 

[nobody*s_perfect]

Thank you for providing those screen shots.  I looked at the bid histories and was very surprised to see that neither of them shows any bid retractions or cancellations. 

[papa486516]

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@kristinwilliams14 wrote:

Good to know, thank you. I haven’t used eBay in a few years and never encountered this problem so it was a shock when I received bid cancellations on all items I had been previously outbid on. All I have are the screenshots from the message. I am, however, unable to view the actual retraction/cancellation website or mobile. 

 

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@woodland_gnome @nobody*s_perfect  @eburtonlab can you make a guess how this happened?

[eburtonlab]

The bid histories of those listings are less than helpful -- possibly because those are private listings, though I am not entirely sure if that matters.

There does not appear to be any indication of a bid retraction shown on either of those bid history pages, at least when viewed by a non-participant.

https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/154851825987

https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/313875448055

The histories may show different information if viewed by an actual bidder.

Perhaps if the bids are cancelled under certain circumstances they are not displayed. Or else eBay has changed the way that retractions or cancellations are handled or displayed.