Ending a listing within 12 hours not possible?

[mikesbestpicks]

I have an auction for an item which has been damaged and has had one bid.  I cancelled the bid and tried to end the auction, but was not allowed to do so because the auction ends in less than 12 hours. Since I cannot sell the damaged item, why will eBay not allow me to end the auction?

[luckythewinner]

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@mikesbestpicks wrote:

I have an auction for an item which has been damaged and has had one bid.  I cancelled the bid and tried to end the auction, but was not allowed to do so because the auction ends in less than 12 hours. Since I cannot sell the damaged item, why will eBay not allow me to end the auction?

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I suspect it is because eBay does not want sellers to use "damaged" as an excuse to end auctions when the real reason for ending it is "It's near the end and I'm worried the price will not get high enough". 

[nobody*s_perfect · Accepted solution]

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@luckythewinner wrote: ... I suspect it is because eBay does not want sellers to use "damaged" as an excuse to end auctions when the real reason for ending it is "It's near the end and I'm worried the price will not get high enough". 

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That's my suspicion, too. Also, to encourage sellers to pay more attention to discovering genuine damage earlier in the auction or before listing it.  

During the final 12 hours, the seller can only cancel individual bids. So one reasonable strategy would be to set up during the final minute to cancel any newer bids that have come in, and any that come in at the very end.

[mikesbestpicks]

While I can certainly understand that there are many occasions when sellers would do as you suspect, surely eBay must realize that there are MANY legitimate reasons (lost, stolen, damaged, sold elsewhere, and yes, damaged) why a seller would NEED to cancel an auction within the last 12 hours. Apparently, eBay makes no provisions for this, thus requiring both the seller and bidder to undergo the hassle and inconvenience of having to deal with eBay's shortcomings.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Here’s the policy. Fyi

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

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@mikesbestpicks wrote: ... surely eBay must realize that there are MANY legitimate reasons (lost, stolen, damaged, sold elsewhere, and yes, damaged) why a seller would NEED to cancel an auction within the last 12 hours. ....

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eBay doesn't recognize "sold elsewhere" as a valid reason, since they strongly discourage sellers from offering their eBay items on other venues (or in their bricks-and-mortar store).

The other reasons are indeed valid, and can be cited as long as the auction has more than 12 hours left.  A few years ago, eBay introduced a collection of limitations that apply to the final 12 hours in order to avoid repeated issues such as the "price too low" cited above.

[bigdeals.etc]

Not sure if the policy for auctions have changed since I last used them (over a decade ago). But I've done this a few times (taken from ebay help pages):

"There are bids on your item, and you don’t want to sell it to the highest bidder, but there are 12 or more hours left in the listing. In this situation, you’ll need to cancel all active bids before you can end your listing. We charge a fee for ending a listing in this way."

On a related note, what/when can/can't you revise on an auction nowadays? I ask because if you can't end it but can cancel bids for some reason... cancel all bids then change your title to something not searchable... or even the listing content. And just let it end with no bidder.

I really don't miss having auctions. 🙂

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote: ... if you can't end it but can cancel bids for some reason... cancel all bids then change your title to something not searchable....... 

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You can't change the auction title during the final 12 hours even if the auction hasn't received any bids. And if an auction has received bids, then canceling them has no effect on what you can change.