Seller pulling item after he made me a counter offer before I accepted or rejected his offer

[divwido]

Yes, they can do that.  it's not nice, but it's not wrong either.

[coolhandluke830]

You snooze you lose.

[mybigsale]

There is nothing wrong to send a message through eBay letting the seller know you will purchase at the last offer price if the item is still available (and that the offer was gone before the offer deadline).

I would not message if you intend to try and negotiate lower. The buyer may have been impatient and decided you were not going to accept, or the price he offered was lower than he wanted to accept. I have had someone purchase an item at full price when offers were out to others. I use eBay inventory of quantity 1 and most sales are not displayed in searches - so it may look like I took down an item with an offer when the item was actually sold.

[inhawaii]

It's a bummer ...... but it's not against policy.

[josie.grounds]

I sent offers & counter offers out to people today, and then the items sold. Of course, one was a hidden sale, yeah, didn't want anyone seeing it, but I'm pretty sure that it looks like I pull it until it cycles through to show sold.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

They may have made a typo in their counter.  There's no way to retract or fix it, so you end the listing if the typo was of a significant enough $$ difference.  You can send them an ASQ & let them know what you are willing to pay & they can relist at that price, if they wish.