Auction

[delmotte21]

How is it that eBay allows a person to retract a bid? Never in any auction anywhere would this be allowed. Am I missing something or do they make their rules up as they go? 

[toysaver]

"Never in any auction anywhere would this be allowed."

It's allowed at ebay and they are one of the biggest auction sites in the world.  Ebay makes the rules.  You can choose to sell with the buy it now option and require immediate payment.  You must have picked to have an auction?   I'd rather have a retracted bid than a return or worse...

[house*of*paws]

Hi @delmotte21 

I believe that eBay developed the online auction … so I guess you could say that they DID ‘make up the rules’.

Bid retractions have always been allowed for limited reasons … but the limitations have been difficult to enforce.

[chevymontecarlo88]

toysaver  is correct.   

            "I'd rather have a retracted bid than a return or worse..." 

As much as of pain it may seem at first, it could get more complicated and expensive if not. 

I am not condoning any actions but the rules have been set and it is what it is. 

[fern*wood]

It definitely isn't a rule that was made up as they go, because it has always been there.  If you ever fat fingered a high bid, I bet you would be thankful that rule was available.

[kennys-kollectibles]

You can also win an item, rent it for free for a month, and then return it at the expense of the seller. 

So, with that perspective,  canceling a bid before the auction is over is not that bad.  

Many bidders use this feature so they can figure how high the high bidder has bidded up to.  

[luckythewinner]

---

---

How is it that eBay allows a person to retract a bid?

First, eBay does not force auction winner to pay, so there is no point in forcing them to "win". Second, sellers can add additional information to the description after people have bid, which can materially affect the listing.

Never in any auction anywhere would this be allowed.

It is permitted under certain circumstances on eBay, and what other sites do really does not mean anything on eBay.

Am I missing something or do they make their rules up as they go? 

Yes they make the rules about bid retractions for their own site. But not "as they go" because eBay has allowed bid retraction for a couple decades.

[inhawaii]

Once a person bids and they don't follow through, how is ebay going to MAKE them pay?

Are you  missing something?  Maybe.  

There is a system in place.

Give the buyer 4 days to pay.

Cancel the sale on the 5th day. Reason: Buyer did not pay.

This gives the buyer a strike.

Two of these strikes and sellers can block this buyer. 

[lakefor94]

@delmotte21

Yes, you missed something.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/bidding?id=4003

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/rules-policies-buyers/rules-policies-buyers?id=4206

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/rules-policies-buyers/nonbinding-bid-policy?id=4228

[Anonymous]

Allowing someone to retract a bid is better than waiting for a payment at the end of the auction that will never come.

[dnasilver]

"Never in any auction anywhere would this be allowed" Sorry but major auction houses do allow it. They have allowed it before the internet and eBay were born. They may never let you bid again, but that depends on what type of customer you are for the Auction House.

[carolynnq]

In most cases, I'd rather have someone retract a bid than to win and not pay.

But over the years, a few times I've encountered the following situation. Two people are bidding up an item. The lower bidders drop out. The second highest bidder at some point decides they don't want to bid any higher. They think they're done with  this auction and maybe bid on another auction or buy what they're looking for with a BIN. Now the highest bidder cancels their bid and that second highest bidder wins my auction but they no longer want it. 

In all my years on ebay, and that includes years when there were nothing but auctions , I've never retracted a bid on any of my accounts. IMO, eBay should restrict users with too many bid retractions from participating in auctions. I've seen users with hundreds of bid retractions. Maybe give a 60- or 90-day time out from auction bidding for the first warning of too many retractions. That might make those people bid more responsibly.

If you're at an in-person auction house and don't honor your bid (or try a later credit card dispute), you'll never be allowed to bid at that auction house again.

[a_c_green]

---

@delmotte21 wrote:

How is it that eBay allows a person to retract a bid? Never in any auction anywhere would this be allowed. Am I missing something or do they make their rules up as they go? 

---

I would have to say that you were missing something, as bid retraction (by a bidder) or bid cancellation (by a seller) has been allowed all along. You can see a bidder's count of past bid retractions (over the past 12 months) by going to their feedback page, clicking on the Feedback as a Buyer tab, and looking to the right side of the page, about halfway down. (Bids cancelled by a seller are not counted.)

While we cannot see your bidder's ID, we can click on his or her disguised ID on your auction's Bid History page, and see a popup history of his or her activity. It shows only one bid retraction on the record for the past year, the one retracted in your auction, and pantyhose is not a high-scam area, so although it's an annoyance, retracting a $12 bid is probably better than having the auction won but Unpaid, or having the items returned later.

You can put them on your Blocked Buyer List (here) to avoid further headaches.

[soh.maryl]

It's eBay's site, so eBay's rules. And they are free to make them up as they go, but, really, most of them are pretty much set in stone --eBay's stone.  

[reallynicestamps]

Never in any auction anywhere would this be allowed.

Apparently you have never run or attended an auction.

Retracted bids are common.

Based on my 40 plus years married to an auctioneer (live outcry, with floor, telephone, mail, fax, and live internet bidding) and ten years working with the auction firm.