Retracted Bids...

[local_estate_and_auction_services]

I have had several people cancel their bids after they drove the price up high. They then cancel the bid and snipe at last minute for a better price.  The price gets driven up quite high, driving all other bidders away, then they snipe the item....seems unfair. Is there anyway to stop this? Why can they just cancel the bid? I get a notification from eBay saying the bid was cancelled because of "wrong amount" (or something like that), then the price is lowered way down to the next lowest bid (which is quite low), they then snipe the item at last minute. Can we please stop this??????

[jela5879]

Block them before they can snipe

[my_boston_baked_beans]

I can feel your frustration, and that is one of the main reasons I stopped doing auctions along with a large number of non-payers.

Fixed price stops that issue along with adding immediate payment. Your sales might become slower waiting for the right buyer, but there is more security in the fixed price, immediate payment. You can also establish the price you want as excepting a lower price that is undesirable.

[my_boston_baked_beans]

Blocking does not serve a purpose as you might be blocking a good buyer with your guess work.

Block someone that has not paid or abused the return policy.

[1tuna]

the practice you describe sounds like bid shielding

I also run lots of auction and just like you stated,ebay lets you know about canceld bids. I go in an block them most of the time but 1st I like to check the bid retraction record of the offender

these kinds of bidder will make your good bidders hesitant to bid

bidders mistakenly think the seller is up to something..afterall nobdy likes bidding in an auction when bidders drop out

[releasethekraken_1]

Got an example?

[luckythewinner]

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@local_estate_and_auction_services wrote:

I have had several people cancel their bids after they drove the price up high. They then cancel the bid and snipe at last minute for a better price.

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Not sure I follow the scenario you are describing. 

If bidder X drives the price up to $100, it must be because another bidder Y has a proxy bid that is one bid increment below that ($99).

If bidder X retracts his bid and then comes back later to snipe it, he cannot win the item for less than $100 because bidder Y's proxy bid will always win it.

So in the scenario that you have described, how was bidder X able to snipe it at a price that is lower than bidder Y's proxy bid?

[jayjaspersgarage]

I don't know if you have a real problem.  I just let my auctions run and don't watch them.  Based on your listings I might have to break our my photos of my grandfather fishing with Mickey Rooney and filming the synchronized swimming movies from the 1950's.  He worked in Hollywood at MGM Studios for over 20 years and worked on The Wizard of Oz.

[eburtonlab]

@luckythewinner 

In a bid shielding scenario, bidder X and Y are in league or actually the same user with two accounts.

Sniping is not strictly necessary; if X and Y are the only bidders, when X retracts the $100 bid, bidder Y will win the auction at the minimum starting amount. Any other possible bidder that was willing to pay an amount between the starting price and $100 has been effectively blocked -- unless the potential bidder notices the retraction and acts quickly. Many bidders lose interest in an auction once the bid amount has exceeded a certain amount, and simply move one to another auction.

Typically bid shielding is done early enough in the auction and at a high enough bid amount to prevent other bidders from bidding on the auction at all.

eBay changed the rules about bid retractions in the last twelve hours of the auction to make it harder for standard bid shielding to work. In the last twelve hours of an auction, bids can only be retracted if they were placed within one hour of the retraction request.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/retracting-bid?id=4013

[releasethekraken_1]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

@luckythewinner 

In a bid shielding scenario, bidder X and Y are in league or actually the same user with two accounts.

Sniping is not strictly necessary; if X and Y are the only bidders, when X retracts the $100 bid, bidder Y will win the auction at the minimum starting amount. Any other possible bidder that was willing to pay an amount between the starting price and $100 has been effectively blocked -- unless the potential bidder notices the retraction and acts quickly. Many bidders lose interest in an auction once the bid amount has exceeded a certain amount, and simply move one to another auction.

Typically bid shielding is done early enough in the auction and at a high enough bid amount to prevent other bidders from bidding on the auction at all.

eBay changed the rules about bid retractions in the last twelve hours of the auction to make it harder for standard bid shielding to work. In the last twelve hours of an auction, bids can only be retracted if they were placed within one hour of the retraction request.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/retracting-bid?id=4013

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Sniping would defeat the purpose unless both X and Y retracted their bids.