Seller lies "item is no longer available" and cancels auctions!

[sheldonphoto]

So in the last 3 days I have bid on 2 items and they happen to be by the same seller.  Both auctions were cancelled:

     This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available.

They cancelled all the bids for each auction at the exact same time with no "explanation" given with about a day left (of 7 day) on each auction.

The seller has AND had these exact items listed in other auctions and as "buy it now" sales but are lying and cancelling auctions because the bidding was low so far.  As the item didn't get sold I can't leave negative feedback (and I never have) and there appears to be no way to complain to ebay about this bad seller practices.

This doesn't look good for eBay and leaves honest buyers like me with a bad taste of what to expect of eBay "auctions".  I've spent time researching and bidding honestly only to find my time was wasted as the seller obviously had no intention of following through with the auctions unless it met their unpublished minimum days before the closing.

Don't know if I am allowed to say the seller's name but they have lots of feedback and 98.4% positive.  Reading their replies to negative feedback is funny as they don't even read what buyers say and just paste the same reply each time.  One feedback even said they didn't send the item when the winning price was low.  More than 400 negative in 12 months.

I am truly amazed that eBay allows this blatant abuse of "auctions".  Maybe I should be spending my money elsewhere as it really is a turn off of using eBay.

Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

[marnotom!]

The seller still has to pay listing fees for an auction they end early, so if they're making a habit of doing this, this is going to start costing them some serious bucks.  They may also end up facing some repercussions from eBay.

For what it's worth, I'm not sure what you mean by the seller having "lots" of feedback, but a positive feedback percentage of 98% and a bit strikes me as being a bit low.  A seller with mounds of feedback should be able to earn enough positives to get into the mid-99s at the very least.

[femmefan1946]

The seller is very very dumb.

He took items that did not sell at Fixed Price (perhaps because the price was too high?) and opened them at Auction at a lower price.

But.

Because he didn't bother to learn that Auctions get most of their bids at the last minute, from newbie nibble bidders who slowly drive up the bid of the confident experienced "bid once bid your max" bidders, who then are knocked out of the race by cynical snipers, some of whom may have placed their bids with a service days earlier.

He missed all the heavy hitters.

He pays fees for cancelling an auction with bids.

He will never see those bidders again. (And is a good argument for the Blocked Sellers List).

And his items remain unsold.

But yeah.

Read the feedback. 98% is poor.

And any Response that is not calm and factual tells you to run away.

[fiona_w1956]

It sounds fishy, but there could also be a legitimate reason for it. The seller could have a physical store and the item sold, or they may have it listed on another site as well, and it sold through the other site. I've run across this particularly with books. I'll see a book listed both on eBay and AbeBooks, and if I end up buying from AbeBooks, then within a short period of time the listing on eBay ends with an item no longer available notice.

[reallynicestamps]

I've had that happen too, although more often I am removing the item from the other site than from eBay.

The other answer is only to bother with Fixed Price items from low feedback sellers.

At least with those the seller has (theoretically) decided what he wants for the item and the buyer can decide if that is reasonable.

Auctions are now only about 15% of eBay transactions. Guess why?