[Closed] eBay Bid retraction

So long as you reach your reserve then Id ignore it. You cant mitigate against all the idiots.

So long as you reach your reserve then Id ignore it. You cant mitigate against all the idiots.

Hopefully yes, by the end of the auction it won't matter. However, now the bid has been retracted, the reserve is currently not met, other bidders *may* have been put off, and I may lose out on the listing fee. All hypothetical at the moment, but another reason for not using eBay.

Use the £1 max fee per item listing days and use buy it now.

Latest problem I have encountered is people bidding, then retracting the bid before the auction is over. A bit of googling suggests this is done to find out what the reserve price is, and/or to put off other bidders during the auction.

Report and block them, depends if you CBA.

high Fees ?? maybe you should check your offers which every other weekend i've been getting £1 final value fee offers for 100 listings,. I've not paid a listing fee for 6 or 7 years..

Use the £1 max fee per item listing days and use buy it now.

Tell me more about fees. It seems quite expensive to set a reserve on a high value item (but necessary in this case). It seems to me you either save money by using a 'deal' where you either don't pay listing fees, OR don't pay the final value fee after auction, but not both (and then you have the paypal fee on top). Happy to hear from more experienced eBay users, it's been a while since I used it, as the amount of nuisance users put me off.

if you insist on a high reserve or buy it now - pick your price, don't faff around with auctions, wait for the £1 day and list it buy-it-now

for everything else, £1 start, 10 day auction, timed to end sunday evening, see what happens, occasionally that goes tits up but usually works out quite well

As above if you have a price you want or need just start the auction at that price. Reserves are expensive and annoying if you bid on something to find you didn’t get it as reserve not met. It’s not a big secret we all want as much as we can get or it goes to the charity shop to start with.

The fees are high, and too many people want to exploit the system for their own benefit,

Rubbish. Fees are fine (better than many auctions) and the price you get for an item is pretty much always higher than you would get elsewhere due to the massive audience. I have bought and sold 1,000s of items and never had an issue so maybe I am just lucky...

I retract bids now and again (and don't see anything wrong in doing that as can only do it with more than 12 hours to go). The actually genuine buyers won't bid until the last few minutes anyway so makes no difference whatsoever to the final price. I retract them because I have changed my mind or found something else and not because as you assume to find a reserve price or put others off (not sure how a bid would put others off anyway?)

Use the £1 max fee per item listing days and use buy it now.

This. Don't use a reserve.

I retract them because I have changed my mind or found something else and not because as you assume to find a reserve price or put others off (not sure how a bid would put others off anyway?)

Have a look at eBay's policy on this. You are abusing the system (though, not knowingly by the sound of things). Bid retraction is not meant to be used as a 'change your mind' function. I've just been on to eBay customer service, and they have confirmed this. They have assured me they will take action against the bidder (could be a warning, or temp or perm suspension of account). I'm not convinced that this is effective (otherwise people wouldn't keep doing it?), but there you go. eBay customer service told me that they rely on people reporting bid retractor abuse to help stamp it out. Seems that most people just ignore it, or are ignorant of why the function is there.

As above if you have a price you want or need just start the auction at that price. Reserves are expensive and annoying if you bid on something to find you didn’t get it as reserve not met

Will keep that in mind for next time. Cheers.

Reserve is a waste of time and so is listing as a buy it now and an auction, I’ll bid on stuff with no intention of winning an item,
I retract bids now and again maybe once or twice a year.

Sometimes I’ll bid on an item then buy it cheaper elsewhere hence the need to cancel a bid.. this is better for the seller than me receiving the item and asking for a return.

I tend to list when £1 fees offer is on and 2-3 weeks later cancel all items, and repost on the next £1 fees, buy now (with offers), start high so you can discount

I’ll bid on stuff with no intention of winning an item

You might have to explain that one again....

Check recent sale prices for the item. If it sells frequently then £1 start, 7 day auction is fine. see what happens, occasionally that goes tits up but usually works out quite well. Everything will sell like this so if you just want to shift stuff then don't worry - some stuff goes for much more than i expect.

Reserves are a waste of time. Stuff that doesn't sell so often stick up a fixed price. Sometimes it takes a month or two to sell, sometimes you have to drop your price a bit, but it'll go.

I withdraw bids often enough. If I'm bidding on something that has several days left and then same thing comes up cheaper in between for a buy it now, then I am going to cancel and go for the cheaper option. Never had any grief from ebay about it either.

I withdraw bids often enough. If I’m bidding on something that has several days left and then same thing comes up cheaper in between for a buy it now, then I am going to cancel and go for the cheaper option. Never had any grief from ebay about it either.

Might be because people don't bother to report it? It certainly seems to be widespread. eBay assured me it was against the rules, and would not be tolerated, but it doesn't look like they can do much about it, or are particularly serious about addressing it. Doesn't seem to be a big deal.

Frankly withdrawing bids at least lets the auction come to an end. I've had a fair number of people over the years win an auction and obviously have second thoughts as they then don't pay for the item. eBays process for non-paying bidders is all automatic, it doesn't cost you anything, but it's some weeks until you have it listed and sold again. There's no obvious sanction on buyers who do this.

I had it happen twice on the same item a while back (a Garmin 200 IIRC). In the end the third auction finished at a higher price than the first two but just a pain.

All that said, I still think eBay is great. Stuff finds it's price and 10% commission is fair enough. If you don't want the hassle of posting it just stick it up at collection only and even if you get £5 someone takes it away and it doesn't end up in landfill

Have a look at eBay’s policy on this. You are abusing the system (though, not knowingly by the sound of things). Bid retraction is not meant to be used as a ‘change your mind’ function.

I know the policy to the letter, it tells you every time you retract a bid (In fact I once hit a limit and it wouldn't let me retract as I must have done it too many times within a period - and guess what I still didn't win!)

I will continue to use retract as the most damage it does it takes the current bid down to the next lowest bid i.e. £5 and that is with more than 12 hours to go. If you had sold 1,000s of items you will know that the chances of a bid made with more than 12 hours to go actually being the winning bid are less than 1%

Doesn’t seem to be a big deal.

Bingo

+1 simons_nicolai-uk, eBay beats throwing stuff out. I've made a few hundred quid out of stuff that I was going to toss, hard to complain about that. It's not really that much trouble to ignore the time-wasters.

So.....why do eBay even have a policy on it?

So…..why do eBay even have a policy on it?

You would need to ask them, I don't think many are bothered enough to waste the time. Seems pointless as it doesn't cause any issues and the fact bids cannot be withdrawn within 12 hours of auction ending covers any last minute messing around that could actually impact the auction.