So i just sent an email to a seller asking about purchasing all 7 of an item offered/available

[haroldshort]

I just sent a seller an email asking several questions about an item and asking if they would combine shipping if i purchased all 7 of the items available. The seller wrote back and said they were ending the auction and would be changing the price. I am assuming they wont be LOWERING this price. I was just about to purchase the items after getting the sellers answer and it seems to me that this is abusing the "ask seller a question" option. Is there some kind of policy about this? I mean whats to stop any vendor from seeing good interest in a product and then stopping the auction and starting another higher priced one. Can anyone advise me? And to be clear, there is no misrepresentation of the item in question description wise. The seller has just decided the price is wrong (too low now I offered to buy all of them) and wants more money. Seems unfair. Is this permitted?

[mpit7628]

A month ago I contacted a seller from the States about their Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket. The bidding started at $125.00 and had the buy it now set at $165.00. I contacted the seller about the measurements of the jacket and received a message back later in the day. When I went back to the listing the buy it now had been changed to $195.00. I went ahead and bid and eventually won the jacket for $182.00. You see it all on eBay!

[mapleleaf-collectibles]

I believe as long as there are no bids on the items, then the seller can revise them at any time, or cancel them at any time. Once you have the winning bid, you own it, or the seller must squirm out of it by getting you to agree to cancel the transaction. 

[haroldshort]

yeah i hear ya...my suspicion told me there wasnt anything i could do about it but i have a misplaced sense of fair play that tends to serve me ill..... i dont do ebay very much and i guess i optimistically hoped there was some policy about not obviously shafting the consumer so I thought i would ask y'all...i ended up writing a super-polite (useless and a waste of time obviously) email to the seller expressing my dissatisfaction much good that it may do me.

[femmefan1946]

If I understand, the seller RAISED the price of the widgets after receiving an enquiry about shipping cost?

Seems stupid to me. Put them on your watch list and find out if he ever does sell them at the higher price.

But as mentioned, the seller seems to have decided his stuff is worth more than his original offer. It may not have been your email, btw, other members may have made comments or offers that made him look again at his pricing.

The dumbest thing is that since he had interest, and since most bids arrive in the last few moments of the auction, some from electronic sniping services, he lost all the bidders and potential bidders he had attracted with his low starting price.

Rookie mistake.