Why is someone allowed to retract a bid for "Explanation: Entered wrong amount" was START PRICE?

[p009731]

From eBay >"Everyone can see that a bid has been retracted, but only you and the bidder can see the explanation" so it now can be assumed their is something wrong with my item because someone retracted a bid saying "wrong amount" when the bid was the start price?? I don't see a similar item selling for less?? So now people can see a retracted bid that had an invalid reason for retraction and assume there is something wrong with my item. CRAZY.  I didn't even know you could retract a bid. And does anyone know why I have to pay ebay a % for shipping, when it is an actual cost to the buyer? Or was that because some sellers were selling an item for .99 cents but charging $100 for shipping? I guess it's like life where the good have to pay for the bad.

[reallynicestamps]

There are not enough reasons for a bidder to cancel a bid 'legally'.

Personally, I would have added "I changed my mind.. Ibought it elsewhere. .. I can't afford it after all,... The meds kicked in... or any number of other reasons.

Better a Bid Retraction than chasing a deadbeat buyer.

At least future auction sellers can see that the bidder has a pattern of retracting and can cancel their bids. And 'too many' bid retractions will also have eBay take action to end the irritating bidder's membership.

The retraction shows on the bidder's page, not yours.

 Or was that because some sellers were selling an item for .99 cents but charging $100 for shipping?

Basically, yes.

[p009731]

Good points, thank you.

[michaelbb2]

I have this happen sometimes also.  The last buyer that did this retracted 2 bids from 2 different items. The buyer also had standing bids on about 5 other items so I cancelled all of their bids and then blocked them from any activity on my sales or auctions.  I can't have a buyer placing bids and then retracting them......it makes other buyers suspicious and then reluctant to continue bidding. 

The worst is the feeler bid.  A buyer will place a ridiculously high bid like 555.55 on a low value item with say a 7.50 value just to see where the high bid from the other bidder was set at.  Then he retracts the 555.55 only a minute later with "entered wrong amount".  Then the buyer will bid a few pennies over the current standing bid at the last few seconds of the auction so he/she doesn't have to pay more than they have to.  I have seen this a few times and I have seen that they have had hundreds of retracted bids within a month????  How does eBay allow such activity....it's not like they don't know its going on....they just record the stats I guess.

[femmefan1946]

The winning bid is decided by the underbidder.

So if you have a high bid of $7.50 but cannot see the maximum bid of $25.

The sneaky withdrawer will see the $25 and bids $25.01.

You should be pleased.

An auction that would have closed at $7.50 instead closes at $25.01.

If the withdrawer had really bid $555.55, the auction would have ended at .... $25.01.

You make a good point about how this looks, but as long as the withdrawer is winning he is obviously not a shill bidder, because those never want to win. (A shill bidder would bid $24.99 to force the first bidder to win at his highest price.)

[michaelbb2]

True, it doesn't hurt the seller unless other bidders boycot the listings entirely due to the activity.  I have seen it happen against me though as a bidder.  I get the "you've been outbid" message.....I go look and see that I am still the high bidder......then the auction ends with someone outbidding me by 1 cent.  You can see that there is 1 bid retraction.  I know it was a feeler bid as it followed the bidder followed the same sequence of actions that feeler bidders perform on my listings as a seller.

If there is 1 bid retraction in an auction, as a buyer I will not bid anymore..........seller loses my last minute bid.  People may see little logic in my action but that's how I roll.

[reallynicestamps]

Of course, you can't see the winning bidder's maximum bid either.

I have won auctions with high last minute bids that were a third of my maximum.

When we say 'the underbidder decides the high bid' we mean that the system will only add one increment to the underbid, no more.

The winning bidder may have bid $100 more than you (unlikely, but bear with me) and would still will at no more than one increment.

There is also a good logical mathematical explanation for winning-by-a-penny, but I am dysnumeric and don't really understand it.

[valve37]

To bid sucessfully you need to use my Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) nspired bidding system. It's called the double clutch bidding system named after Ali's double clutch shuffle he often used while boxing. Position three evenly split screens of the targeted auction, one showing bids if any, and the other two with your bids ready to be released. How many times have you wished to have had time to bid once more and a little higher? At the 15 second time left in the auction fire off your first bid. At about 10 seconds left refresh the incoming bid screen and if you are not the winner so far fire off you second bid which should be 1 or 2 increments higher than your first. To be double sure you can fire off your second bid anyway, won't cost you a nickle more to do so. Biddies here will argue bid once, bid your max and do it as late as you can. Doesn't always work, the double clutch system has a better track record!