I'M TERRIBLY CONFUSED...

[katiusciav]

...when someone is bidding on your item against another bidder, and multiple bids are created, can one of the bidders suddenly just cancel their maximum bid before the auction ends WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE/PERMISSION??? i always thought to cancel a bid, it involved an email from the bidder requesting permission, or at least i'd get an email stating it was cancelled...or SOMETHING...i recently sold a painting for 137.00...with 9 minutes left, it went up slowly from 122 to 256 between two bidders...three minutes later, i look again, and its suddenly down to 137.00??? how did that happen??? so i look at bid history and all you see is a long row of just the other bidder remaining, with the second bidder just suddenly gone from the bidding list. its like they bid, then cancelled their bid, and everything disapeared and that was that. can they do that? is it really that easy? and if it is, then why did jakeeangel have a problem with that other bidder who wanted to cancel her bid? from what i can remember (i don't want to go read it all over again), but weren't you arguing with her debbi about not letting her cancel her bid???

[jakeeangel]

Hi Kat,

She wanted me to cancel her bid for her. I told her if she wanted to retract her bid then she had to do so but I wasn't going to cancel it for her. She didn't want to, she instead preferred to leave it high and if I cancelled her bid then the item price would drop. I didn't want that. And then if she won at the highly inflated price she could give me a neg because she likes to neg sellers who are "greedy" and ask for the money she bid the item up to. ?:| Stupid, I know but that's how she thinks....

I'd have to look at your listing to see specifics but I can tell you that, no bidders don't have to ask permission to retract their bid from your listing. They can just go ahead and do so. Under certain conditions and with certain reasons as outlined by eBay.

A bidder cannot retract their bid when there's less than 12 hours remaining in the listing UNLESS they made a bid and retracted it within an hour of making the bid. I know that sounds confusing, let me elaborate. If they make a bid when there's three days left and make no further bids, they cannot retract it when there's less than 12 hours left in the listing. If they bid again within that final 12 hour period they can retract their bid as long as they do so within an hour of making the bid. Follow?

And the system doesn't let the person choose which bid they want to retract, it retracts them all at the same time making your item drop to the bottom price. That's the way the system works. Even if you were to cancel a bid, you can't choose which bid you want cancelled it cancels all bids by that particular bidder.

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[katiusciav]

sure..its item number 250135003646...and yup, i understand the rules on when they can retract and when they can't, makes sense that they wouldn't let you retract after so many days, but will let you within an hour. on that note, look at the winning bidder-i'm unsure now on whether or not to sell to him-new-unconfirmed address, and a po box number...i've emailed some of his sellers to see if they've had any problems with him or not. dang that sucks for me man!!!! a difference of 120us...gone in an instant! she must have gotten carried away with the bidding and then reality set in

[comics-rock]

or its the same person with two accounts...bid up, so no one else bids, then retract...hey presto, they pay $139 instead of $220

paul

[grimsbygaming]

My first reaction was the same as Paul's, but after looking at the item, the retraction may be legit....or maybe its not legit....its impossible to know. She bid 1350.00, cancelled it, and rebid $135.00.....her $1350 was only 7 seconds after she bid $130....Could've just been she added one zero too many as she was bidding quickly, or the bidder could have purposefully bid huge to reveal the other bidder's maximum, and when the price got too high, she decided to retract her huge bid. However, said bidder has no history of such actions. The good thing is that the bidder who retracted immediately rebid, or else the price could've fallen back down to the opening bid of $70.

You might want to put a disclaimer in your future actions....something along the line "items that close over $50 and paid for with PayPal will only be shipped to confirmed addresses". That would've given you an "out" for this transaction.

[katiusciav]

that's an interesting theory. as far as the disclaimer, i'd probably rather leave it out...i'd like to attract as many bids as possible, and honestly, although needed, i really hate disclaimers!! i can still cancel someone's bid before they pay me anyways, especially if they don't have a confirmed address. i got an email back from another seller stating they were quick payers with no problems...so i'll go ahead and take a chance and ship away!

[zarzuella]

i can still cancel someone's bid before they pay me

You can only cancel a bid if the auction has not ended. Payment has nothing to do with it.

Ann

[katiusciav]

Good to know...geez do i ever feel stupid lately...:-(

[westernstargifts]

Hey, cheer up Kat. You are not alone! There is a lot to learn about selling on eBay and I am sure everyone else has been in our position in the past. It would be a lot easier to learn, I think, if eBay stuck to their rules, enforced them and made up tutorials that are plain and simple to understand. I find many of them very vague in their description and not very helpful.

And no question is a stupid question!!

[jakeeangel]

"And no question is a stupid question!!"

You haven't been selling long have you? bwahahaha!!! ROFL :^O

*ducks and runs for cover*

Can you tell me if the red shirt is red? :O

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[westernstargifts]

Okay, I concede that you do get stupid questions from buyers. lol......but we newbie PS's NEVER ask dumb questions!:-D....Just "uneducated" ones.

I have to admit there are lots of questions I haven't asked because I thought they were dumb. Maybe I will start a new thread....."Questions for Dummies"....( or from):O