Advice on item that already has bids

[alltheprettylittlethings]

I just noticed that a pocket watch I have up for auction has a defect I did not see before (the luminous material has fallen out of the watch hands). I'm glad I saw it in the photo before the auction ended but now I am not sure what to do - or how to alert the bidders to this defect. 

Is there a way to alert the bidders without taking down the auction?

Advice, please. Thanks.

[anjofak]

Just end it and eat the fee's. 

Its the lesser of the bads.

[evry1nositswindy]

Not sure if that is a big deal or not, as I know nothing about watches.  Message the bidder and pose the question?  Maybe they will cancel their bid.    

[slippinjimmy · Accepted solution]

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

Here are the instructions for ending an Auction, study it carefully and note the phrase "You may be charged a final value fee based on the amount of the highest bid".

This usually happens if there has been any type of communication between you the seller and any of the bidders. Based on the current price the fees might be about $4.00 IF they are charged.

The alternative it to let it run, cancel the sale as Out Of Stock and leave yourself open to a negative feedback plus the automatic serious defect for cancelling.

Personally I would just cancel to avoid any after sale issues completely and just suck up the minimal cost for my error. I might message the leading bidder (or all three) with a brief explanation. To confirm that you could relist with a revised description and price.

I might go a slightly different route if it was day one of the auction but time is of the essence and yours is running out.

[stephenmorgan]

Is this it?  I looked at the pictures and it is quite obvious that the luminous material has fallen out of the watch hands.

You can not do anything about the description as you have Bids on it and can not change anything.

After the listing ends I would just send a message to winner and make sure the saw this in the pictures and are ok with it.  If they are not ok I would ask if they want to cancel the sale.

[alltheprettylittlethings]

Thank you for the link and the advice.

The money lost is fair for a lesson learned and experience gained.

I messaged the highest bidder and apologized but let them know I was going to relist it with an updated description. I then canceled the auction.  

[alltheprettylittlethings]

Yeah. That's it. I know the photo shows it - but I wasn't feeling good about not putting that in the description which I would have if I had noticed it when listing it. 

I messaged the highest bidder, let him know I would relist and canceled the auction. I appreciate your response though. 😊