Is it common to have a seller cancel a transaction due to no stock, when item still available?

[mar_caps]

Have had two sales cancelled by the seller with reason of "i ran out of stock", only to see the item relisted or continue to be listed. Paid the seller immediately for both items, and informed days later that items were out of stock. Are these guys scamming people, or perhaps realizing that they are selling cheaper than other suppliers then cancelling the transaction to try and recoup/increase profit?

Anyone else in the same boat out there?

[marnotom!]

It's not common but it does happen.

I'm still trying to work out your logic as to how this is a "scam" though.

[Anonymous]

"Scam", you got to wonder if it is a scam.  Why should sellers cancel the transaction saying they are out of stock and then relist them?  You got to wonder what is up? 

[marnotom!]

If it's a scam, the seller should be somehow taking advantage of the unsuccessful buyer.  The seller doesn't really have anything to gain from pulling this.  They're going to be out listing fees, for starters.

The seller may well have the same item for sale on a venue in addition to eBay.  Some sellers have large volumes of inventory and they don't update their counts as often as they should.

Sure, it's a sloppy selling practice and it's inconvenient and annoying for the person trying to make the purchase, but that doesn't make it a scam.

[reallynicestamps]

And of course sellers who are dropshipping have no idea what is in the warehouse. These sellers are also more likely to be naive about what is happening with their selling account.

If a seller thinks his supplier has 100 caps, and he sells one, eBay will automatically set his number for sale to 99. He doesn't have 99, and his supplier doesn't have 99, but no one has told the eBay bot.

Another reason not to be a dropshipper or to deal with dropshippers.

[patken123]

Another reason not to be a dropshipper or to deal with dropshippers.

I have found  a couple of my purchases were made from a dropshippers  after I committed to buy ,some do advertise in their listings

I am not sure if there's a way to recognize  dropshippers in order to avoid dealing with them,I am very interested in find out how to do it,if you have any tips please let me know.

Thank you.

Ken.

[t-bone.tnt]

I had the same problem.  I bought a book for $21.20 on Sept.10. 2015.    It was a buy-it-now and I immediately paid.  The next day or so, the seller cancelled the transaction and on Sept. 22 relisted the book for $61.02.  I left unfavorable feedback for her.  Guess that they were testing the market.  

Not a fair practice and Ebay should not allow them to relist the the item EVER, EVER again to stop this practice.  It is very dishonest. Ebay should immediately cancel her auction/buy-it-now on this book and give her a warning to complete her further auctions or receive a "stiff" fine..

[femmefan1946]

This new unilateral cancellation policy always leaves one unhappy member. I kinda understand why it has been put in place, but in the long run, I believe it will be shown to be as dumb as the 'masked identities' which were meant to reduce fake SCO and turned out to be a boon for shillers.

Leaving a negative feedback was the right move, in my opinion.

Dropshippers are supposed to put the location of the item in their listings, but an awful lot of them put their own location instead. This can be Reported to eBay since it is a violation, but how would a buyer know until he is hit by a customs bill for importing from Zimbabwe?

[walking_dolphins]

At the very minimum, eBay should be showing stats in Sellers profiles that count up the number of Cancelled auctions / items.

As a winning bidder to have the auction cancelled on the last day of bidding, it certainly feels like a scam even if it is not. I tend to accept that it is probably not, because sellers who have high reputations are engaging in pretty regular cancellations. But it might just be that when they get the price they want, they deliver the product as promised and provide good service, hence good reputation and when they don't get the price they want, they cancel the auction, no feedback or stats, no reputation damage.

I think this is important enough for its own thread.

[reallynicestamps]

But that seller still pays cancellation fees based on the high bid at the time of cancellation.

And a seller cancelling early because the bidding is not high enough is missing:

• that the high bid is not the bidder's maximum bid
• most bids arrive in the last few hours or even seconds of the listing
• snipers*-- who either hover over the keyboard in those last few seconds, or who place automatic bids with a service to execute in the last few nano-seconds.

*And before we get into the usual sniping discussion... it is not the last bid that wins it is the highest. Anyone can beat a sniper, just bid your maximum.