Bids Changing After Items Started

[amorin124xic]

I recently started eight items on Ebay. When I checked the bids the next morning I noticed four of them had the opening bids changed to a lower amount. Has anyone experienced this before?

Art

[ittybitnot]

Has anyone experienced this before?

I have been here 20 years and have never heard of this.  However, nothing would surprise me anymore.  If the listings have no bids, have you tried to "revise" them?  

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

Are you saying the lowered amount was less than what you started them at? Or are you saying the highest bid was missing and its gone back to a previous high bid?

My guess is its number 2 of those options. If so its likely someone removed/canceled their bid. Ebay allows buyers to do this for simple reasons like "miss typed number" , "didnt read item listing right", etc. Here at ebay only you the seller is held to policy standards.

[slippinjimmy]

At least one of the OP's listings is showing a bid retraction.

[juststuffisell]

Bid retraction. When I have a bidder do that, I hate to say it, but I add them to my block buyer list. Simply put, you make a bid and retract it, I'm not going to hold you to it, but I am also not going to let you bid on my items again 🙂

If they did it to 4 items, IMHO, not a buyer you want bidding on your items. Others will probably disagree with me and they're probably right 🙂

Cheers

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

No disagreement here. Ebay holds sellers to the promise of selling an item if it gets a bid or get defects that effect our fees and ability to sell. Buyers get patted on the bottom and allowed to run wild and do as they please. I have been around auctions all my life. Never seen an auction where someone could take their bid back and ever be allowed in the place again.

[slippinjimmy]

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@cashvaluerecovery2011 wrote:
 Never seen an auction where someone could take their bid back and ever be allowed in the place again.

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I've never seen an auction where the seller/auctioneer can arbitrarily cancel a valid bid without so much as an explanation but sellers can do that on eBay.

If it's a binding contract when you place a bid it should be a binding contract when you accept a bid. On eBay it isn't in either case, that's the way it's been since day one.

[reallynicestamps]

@slippinjimmy 

If it's a binding contract when you place a bid it should be a binding contract when you accept a bid.

The point is, the seller who cancels a bid is NOT accepting it. He's actively refusing to accept it.

This gets trickier when the seller cancels a winning bid after the auction closes.

Even there eBay allows a few reasons for refusal without Defect - problem with address being the most common, I suspect.

If a seller is unhappy with the amount of the winning bid, he should be using Fixed Price not Auctions, or starting his Auctions at the minimum he will accept.

auctioneer can arbitrarily cancel a valid bid without so much as an explanation

In live auctions, it's not uncommon for an auctioneer not to "see" the bids of someone who has been a problem buyer in the past.

This is easiest with mail bids but there are floor bidders who are permanently invisible to the auctioneer.

[mstreetsellers]

Yes, I noticed this on my selling account last night. Ebay has taken it upon themselves to lower my auction starting price before it receives any bids. It happened about four times in the last 12 hours.  I have raised the price again each time. Once, eBay even lowered it, and then lowered it again before I had a chance to change it back.

A couple of weeks ago I thought I saw where eBay had a check-box option to have the starting bid lowered automatically periodically if no bids were received. But I looked over the form this time when I was correcting the starting bid, and saw no such options.

Maybe eBay is conducting tests on this right now. I don't think sellers are going to approve. Watch your auctions everybody.

[amorin124xic]

Hi-Thanks for the feedback.I agree. It just bears monitoring on my part

Art

[amorin124xic]

Hi-Thanks for the feedback. Will monitor items when I post.

Art

[kid-n-kaboodle]

It's not just you!!  I have been selling on ebay since the early 90's and this "ebay changing opening bid prices" has been happening to me also in the last week or so..  Infuriating!!  I thought this was MY business...  It's like if I were to go into Walmart and just start changing the prices to suit myself.  They had better get this thing fixed or they will have a giant PR nightmare on their hands...!!  Fraud comes to mind...

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Hmm - that's 3 different sellers who've seen the same thing.

[carlqsportscards]

tyler@ebay 

Paging an ebay employee.

Is this a known problem or test?

[fern*wood]

If you mean your opening price was lowered before getting any bids, then it sounds like the new feature ebay announced last summer.   It was called Easy Pricing or something and would lower your opening price automatically by a certain percentage after a time until it sold.  

I think it was for newer sellers and could be opted out of.