AUCTION BID RETRACTION ISSUE

[murphcrud]

eBay has been made aware of this issue but I am sharing it with all.

I was bidding on an auction and became the high bidder.  My maximum bid was set much higher than the bid of another winning bid at the time.  This now losing bidder upped his bid marginally at least 10 times to a point where he became the high bidder.  This bidder then retracted his bids which now made me the high bidder again.  Now this is where eBay screws up.

At the bottom of the listing, eBay shows the bid retraction which is ok.  They then include the amount of the retraction.  With a little analysis of the bidding history for this item, a potential buyer can easily determine what my maximum (or close to it) was set at for the item.  This does not constitute a fair, honest auction.  I am truly surprised that eBay has not addressed this issue previously.  

Something to consider if this happens to you.

I have asked the seller for a bid retraction rather than go the normal eBay route.

Perhaps the retraction will show up on the listing the same way as the earlier retracted bid did.

You might ask, why would I retract my bid now.  Just the principal of the situation.

[murphcrud]

I should have added, this retraction bidder has retracted bids twice in the past 30 days and 5 times in the past year

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

The general advice is to bid once and bid your maximum.

What happened to you is why many buyers also bid late.

This makes nibble bidding to expose your maximum difficult.

If you don't have the time to make that single, late bid, you can use a sniping service like e-snipe.

The pattern you saw, especially if those other retractions were with the same seller, smell of being shill bidding.

Which is not only not allowed by eBay, but is actually illegal in most jurisdictions.

Report it at the bottom of this page to Help & Contact-> Security Centre.

If the seller does not cancel* your current bids, you can retract them without his permission. If you have to do that, you should let him know why.
Either he is honest and someone is messing with his auctions, or he isn't and might possibly in the best of all possible worlds, smarten up and fly right in future.

*Jargon-- sellers cancel bids, buyers retract them.

[murphcrud · Accepted solution]

Hopefully eBay will address this as this is just not right or fair.