eBay

mpit7628 · ‎09-07-2015

Hello everyone. I was "recently" bidding on a vintage flute. It was a beginners flute in great shape with the original case. The starting bid was $19.99 U.S. I was the only bidder and the auction was over tomorrow. I just got on my laptop and found that my bid had been cancelled. The reason being that there was an error in the listing. The flute has been relisted at $25.00 U.S. and the auction is for another 9 days. Isn't this against eBay rules? This seller obviously wasn't happy with the lack of bidders and with the auction coming to a end, used the $5.00 increase as an excuse to end the auction in error to extend the auction for 9 more days. More time, more bidders, more money. Nasty sellers!!

reallynicestamps · ‎09-08-2015

Nope. The flute belongs to the seller and she can do with it as she likes until it belongs to someone else.

FWIW, she obviously was willing to give up a sure $20 sale for a possible $25 sale, a silly move, in my opinion.

And wait over a week for that fantasy sale.

From the less popular 10 day listing instead of the most popular 7 day listing.

And she doesn't realize that most auction bids happen in the last few hours or even seconds of the auction, and she lost those potential bidders as well.

So please join me in repeating the words of a great philosopher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxGgnI6kCrs

mpit7628 · ‎09-10-2015

I have been in touch with the seller who stated that the sellers sister listed the flute and listed it with the wrong price. Relisting it for $5.00 more certainly doesn't make a lot of sense though. The seller was apologetic and very nice and encouraged me to bid again. This whole situation of sellers being able to cancel a listing at any time even when someone has bid maybe within eBay rules but I don't understand why. A seller then has the right to end a listing as many times as they like if they don't like the way their listing is going. I have had this happen only a couple of times and so I do believe most sellers realize it's just not the right thing to do even though eBay allows it.