Ending a Listing Early - New Policy

[0biwan]

Is anyone else as PO'd as me over this new policy of not allowing you to end an auction if there is less than 12 hours left in your auction. The first time I learned about this is when I tried to end an auction posted on the American site and lost $160 because I was not allowed to end my auction early (there was less than 12 hours to go). There was no previous warning that I could see about this new policy. I have usually started my auctions at 99¢ with no reserve (in the true spirt of the auction format), but I guess those days are gone. I will now have to start my auctions at a much higher price or have a reserve with both actions allowing eBay to collect higher listing fees. It is a policy that is greatly going to affect how those of us who sell high priced items set up and run our auctions to our overall detriment.

[niko*_*]

This is new?? Its always been there as long I've known but I've only been selling since March.

[shoplineca]

0biwan
There was abuse and Buyers were getting turned off of eBay as they would spend a week hoping to purchase something for a great price (In the Spirit of an auction) and the Seller would kill the auction seconds before it ended as the auction didnt reach the "Reserve" he set for himself in his head.

I fully inderstand, agree and support their new policy as I set my reserves and pay for them (and pay dearly). The fact that I set reserves is known to the Buyers or Bidders so they know that my auctions will continue and either end with a purchase as the reserve has been reached or will end with no purchase as the reserve has not ben reached.

What you were doing, in essence is fee avoidance as you had been setting a reserve without paying for one, watching your auction and if it didnt hit that reserve, you would pull the auction just before someone ended up with your item for less than what you wanted.

Sorry to sound so harsh but that is the reality of what you had been doing so I cant share your pain at all.

Be happy that you probably saved yourself several hundred dollars in eBay fees each year by NOT having to pay for a reserve listing so in the end you are probably well ahead of the game anyway even with your item selling at a cost to you of $160.

Malcolm

[moltencore]

last week I had a buyer inform me that there was an error in the listing that I had not noticed. I tried to end the auction but was unable to as there were less than 12 hours left. I was mighty ticked off (as I had then had to watch the rest of the auction, just in case, in order to cancel any new bids just to prevent a buyer from getting an item that wasn't as described (and as far as I'm concerned cancelling bids is far more annoying to a bidder than the item being closed for a valid reason). I could have easily ended the auction - corrected the error in the listing - and relisted it. As far as I can see if there are no bids and you want to end an incorrect listing you should be able to (after all eBay is "just a venue") this is just stupid IMHO...