Why does ebay allow detractions on bids?

[jgod2003]

Someone just retracted a bid they made 12 hours ago saying they put in the wrong amount.  This reduced the bidding between them and another bidder by $200 and now I only have a few hours left on bidding.  It feels wrong they allow this.  You don't get this option at a real auction.  I feel ebay is set up for buyers and not sellers.  Considering cancelling my account once I get my payout as there are tons of other platforms to sell now.  I have guitar I was going to list next week but am now for sure listing it on Reverb and not ebay.

[lamber9347]

Online auctions have nothing in common with live auctions, apples to oranges. 

The person who retracted their bid could have won the auction and then never paid so you actually will fare better with the retraction. 

Yes, eBay is set up for buyers over sellers. They need buyers in order to make money. There are millions of sellers on eBay, and always will be plenty of sellers. We all need the buyers. 

Yes, there are plenty of other venues to sell online but none of them have the outreach that eBay does. Grass always looks greener, but reality is never the same. Good luck selling elsewhere. I've never gotten any sales on other venues, so I stick with eBay, where I do get sales. Best of luck to you....

[femmefan1946]

Be grateful.

If they had won, they would not pay.

Then you would have to wait four days to cancel as Unpaid Item and finally relist your item.

You are not necessarily out money, since that amount was a fantasy, like when I buy my 6/49 ticket.

Most bids arrive in the last second of auctions.

EBay brands itself as an auction site, but less than 15% of listings are auctions. And even those have BuyItNow or Best Offer options to circumvent the format.

If you want you best price list as Fixed Price and get 30 days for customers to find your listing.

And if you want fast payment, opt for FP/ Immediate Payment Required, which will leave your listing open until someone actually pays.

[simba6]

You can list as fixed price or buy it now and set it to require payment right away.  That does away with a lot of that.

Bidders can retract only for a very few allowed reasons.  If it's an incorrect bid, they are supposed to rebid the correct amount right away. However, that rule does not seem to get enforced.

[femmefan1946]

You don't get this option at a real auction.

DH is still principal of an Ottawa ON auction house. We've been holding auctions since 1980 or so.

We have a cataloged auction, available for online viewing and live internet bidding, but also have an "outcry" with a live floor, telephone, mail, online, and fax bidding.
We not only have customers retract bids, but we have bidsheets arrive where the buyer gives us their budget and adds a "preferetial ballot" telling us that if he gets Lot A he doesn't want us touse his bid on Lot B but to continue with Lots C and D, but if he loses Lot A and wins Lot B, he wants us to use his bid on Lot D but drop his bid on Lot C.  Only it's usually more complicated than that.

https://sparks-auctions.com/

[coolections]

There is almost a full day left which is much more than just a few hours. If someone else wants it they will bid before the auction ends. When doing an auction it is not until the auction ends before the final amount is known. So far you have lost nothing as you cannot think of it as losing $200.

[wrong66]

So, because it's not enforced, then it's allowed.

[femmefan1946]

@wrong66 

Yep.

But don't push it.

You can drive 60 in a 30 zone, but not near a school and not every day.