Withdrawn Bids

[cessna152towser]

Is anyone else having problems with bidders withdrawing at present?    I occasionally sell privately on eBay and on a recent transaction, the high bidder withdrew about a day before the bidding ended, resulting in a big drop in the now highest bid.   Knowing that folks would have been deterred from bidding when they had viewed the item and found it already bid up to the higher price, I tried to cancel the auction, but found that the only way to end the auction early once there are bidders without myself falling foul of eBay rules was to agree to sell to the now highest bidder at the current high bid price.  I therefore did so, and the buyer got a seriously good bargain.  The same thing happened again last night.  My item was sitting on £31, with six bids.  The highest bidder withdrew his bids, which had stood for several days, resulting in the price dropping by around £20.    The reason for withdrawal was given as "unable to contact seller".    The seller could easily have messaged me.  If he had been truthful, maybe messaged to explain he had been laid off from work unexpectedly or some other good reason, I would have agreed to cancel the bid and we could have parted amicably.  However I reported him to eBay for inappropriate use of the bid withdrawal process and messaged him that I had done so.   This morning I woke to a reply  "Ha ha ha jerk" which I have also reported to eBay.  This bidder alcl-7154 has a feedback score of 5 and a bid withdrawal record of 5 in the past year.  I have blocked him from further bidding on my items.   There are too many nosey people just bidding to find out what the other bidders are prepared to pay and then backing out.  The whole experience of withdrawn bids is putting me off the idea of doing any more eBay selling.

[polybear]

Unfortunately there are T0ssers on Ebay who spoil it, and Ebay seems less than useful in stopping it. Be worth keeping an eye on his profile, just to see if Ebay block his account.

Could you not have ended early as "item no longer available", and list it again in a few months?

[cessna152towser]

Yes, you can end item early as "item no longer available".    This can be done easily if there are no bidders, but if there are already bidders eBay send a prompt discouraging you from doing so, "in order to not disappoint bidders" and say that they can restrict your account.

[John M Upton]

I have had a couple of occasions where someone has put in a bid or even two and then moments later immediately withdrawn it.

 

Seems to me certain people do it to try and see what their competitors highest bid is.

 

 Naughty....

[DIW]

Thanks for the information - I've added that ebayer to the Blocked Bidders' List.

[Hal Nail]

I'm missing something. I get that if someone pulls out you may have missed out on bidders, but what do you gain in accepting the current high price? Do you mean the max they had bid by proxy?

 

Otherwise better off letting it run and wait for the usual last minute bids?

 

I had an offer for a buy it now withdrawn before i could accept with no explanation recorded. I asked ebay why and they couldnt tell me and suggested I ask the bidder. He said he hadnt heard from me (it was less than a day!) so withdrew it. Basically changed his mind which I dont actually have a problem with personally but isnt supposed to happen.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Hal Nail

[Crosland]

I've cancelled sales even after they have completed, with no ill effect on my account. This was when buyers were seriously p****d about the global shipping program. I just relisted with normal postage offered and they rebid.

[Matt C]

Its possible its a friend or bogus account being used, put in a high bid wait until interest has gone away, then cancel the high bid so the much lower one gets it. Those who may have been interested would have seen the high bid and gone looking elsewhere. If it happened to me I would cancel and if ebay question it give the reason ''suspicious bidding activity'

[cessna152towser]

2 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

I'm missing something. I get that if someone pulls out you may have missed out on bidders, but what do you gain in accepting the current high price?

You gain nothing.

I did this last time because I had already attempted to end the auction and then been prompted by eBay which suggested doing so, but I won't do it this time.    I'll hold my nerve in anticipation of last minute bids bringing the price back up.

[GWR-fan]

A "warning" letter from eBay is generally taken with a grain of salt.  Obviously,  eBay wants you to not end a listing or else their fees are lost.  Several months ago I ended several listings as I decided at the price I was offering them I really did not want to sell them and if they were not selling at my relatively low price then they would generally not attract any interest at a higher price.  Weeks later I decided to clean out the number of ended listings that I had.  Immediately I received a warning message that selling off eBay would result in fees for all my ended items being charged on my account and possible restriction of my account.

 

A friend who regularly sells on eBay and as long as not within the final 12 hours or so will unless he can shill the bid price higher will simply end a listing with no penalty to his account.  At one point you had to state why you are ending your listing,  however, now the prompt simply states "end my listing".

[DCB]

On 22/03/2020 at 11:08, cessna152towser said:

Is anyone else having problems with bidders withdrawing at present?    I occasionally sell privately on eBay and on a recent transaction, the high bidder withdrew about a day before the bidding ended, resulting in a big drop in the now highest bid.   Knowing that folks would have been deterred from bidding when they had viewed the item and found it already bid up to the higher price, I tried to cancel the auction, but found that the only way to end the auction early once there are bidders without myself falling foul of eBay rules was to agree to sell to the now highest bidder at the current high bid price.  I therefore did so, and the buyer got a seriously good bargain.  The same thing happened again last night.  My item was sitting on £31, with six bids.  The highest bidder withdrew his bids, which had stood for several days, resulting in the price dropping by around £20.    The reason for withdrawal was given as "unable to contact seller".    The seller could easily have messaged me.  If he had been truthful, maybe messaged to explain he had been laid off from work unexpectedly or some other good reason, I would have agreed to cancel the bid and we could have parted amicably.  However I reported him to eBay for inappropriate use of the bid withdrawal process and messaged him that I had done so.   This morning I woke to a reply  "Ha ha ha jerk" which I have also reported to eBay.  This bidder alcl-7154 has a feedback score of 5 and a bid withdrawal record of 5 in the past year.  I have blocked him from further bidding on my items.   There are too many nosey people just bidding to find out what the other bidders are prepared to pay and then backing out.  The whole experience of withdrawn bids is putting me off the idea of doing any more eBay selling.

 

The problem occurs when sellers don't follow eBay advice and don't list the item for the least money they will accept for the item.  If they list it for 99p and get 99p for it that's what they asked for.    Advertising stuff and then withdrawing it because it doesn't exceed what you are prepared to sell for by a sufficient amount is illogical, and quite annoying to buyers.  There are bargains to e had, usually listings which end at odd times like 3 in the morning.  I often find items rocket on price over the last 2 minutes of a listing, when that is a peak time, weekend evenings s etc and I have myself banged in bids in the closing seconds of the auction, being careful to make sure I bid £50.00  not £5000  as that gets embarrassing if you win. 

[meil]

On 29/03/2020 at 00:08, GWR-fan said:

A friend who regularly sells on eBay and as long as not within the final 12 hours or so will unless he can shill the bid price higher will simply end a listing with no penalty to his account.  At one point you had to state why you are ending your listing,  however, now the prompt simply states "end my listing".

Which of course is illegal. And I don't just mean against ebay rules I MEAN illegal.

[Blandford1969]

43 minutes ago, meil said:

Which of course is illegal. And I don't just mean against ebay rules I MEAN illegal.

There has been one loco kit which has been on three times recently with odd low number ebay accounts putting a bid in at the last minute. Oddly there is never any feedback. Its neither a fair or legal practice trying to artificially manipulate the market place. 

 

 

[GWR-fan]

Although a reason for an account to be deregistered,  shill bidding is very common.  One "successful" local eBayer who sells a lot of model railway items has always amazed me with the end listing prices he usually achieves with his auction listings.  He rarely lists an item as a "Buy it Now"  (which is the only way I sell an item on eBay), preferring to start every listing with a $0.99 bid price.  When one would look at the bid history of many who bid on his items a point that stood out was the unusual bidding pattern used by members.  A more than usual amount of these peculiar bidders had histories of bid retractions.  Bid patterns became very obvious as the bid price was manipulated generally right up to the last few seconds.  Some would bid ten or more times on an item only to be "unfortunately" beaten at the post by a matter of fifty cents or so.  They would then go on to bid up other listings the seller had with the listing category being irrelevant as these shillers switched between different gauges.  As long as there is a genuine buyer then it is relatively simple to shill a listing as the shiller increases his bids and notes the difference between his unsuccessful bid and the current listing bid price.  As the gap narrows the shill bidder lowers his bid value, pushing the genuine bidder's price higher.  A skilful shiller will not overbid a genuine bidder unless he sees that the genuine bidder has placed multiple high bids and is thus able to be manipulated.