buy it now option, was it there or did I miss it?????

If there was only one bid on the auction and that bidder retracted their bid or the seller cancelled it then the BIN would return. I found about this in the eBay bidding board!

Recently I wanted to BIN an auction but didn't have the cash in my checking account to do so at that point so I put in a min bid to kill the BIN. Then a check I was waiting on cleared so I could afford to BIN the widget but the BIn had gone. There were no other bidders but I KNEW there would be others bidding on this widget at the end because it was very desirable. It could easily have gone way up over the BIN price. I e-mailed the seller & she agreed to cancel my bid. As soon as she did so the BIN returned and I BINned it.

Something like this may have happened in your auction. A lot of people would say its unfair to ask the seller to cancel you bid or retract so the BIN returns - like reserving the item for yourself. But that's how the rules work and they are there to be manipulated.

You may care to remember this tactic if you have more than one eBay id and you are waiting on say your pay to get into the bank. Use an ID you are not bothered about to kill the BIN, then later (when you have the dosh) retract and use another ID to BIN. Asking the seller to cancel is risky because there can be a gap between them cancelling & the BIN returning and you finding out about this. In the gap another bidder could sneak in and BIN it. Just a thought.

Dear Becky:
This happened to me also. I posted to the board and AS says it happens in 1 out of every 1000 auctions. There was no BIN on the auction. See my post in the other category of the Chat list.
Hope it doesn't happen again!
Karen

I am not clear on why one would go through all the hassle of making and retracting a bid, or asking the seller to cancel it and reinstate the BIN. If one simply uses the BIN feature, and needs another day or two for a check to clear, can he not just use BIN, then use PayPal or whatever means a day or two later? Payment does not need to be any more immediate when using BIN, does it?

"Payment does not need to be any more immediate when using BIN, does it?"

I believe that the "Now" in "Buy It Now" means exactly that. It's part of the BIN process.

Actually, Buy It Now auctions are no different than other auctions as far as the timing of your payment for them. It does not mean you have to pay for it instantly. Most sellers state in the listing that payment is required within a certain amount of time from the end of the auction. I've noticed it's usually at least 7 days.
The Buy It Now feature is simply a way for the buyer to commit to a preset price ending the auction early.

As for the 'rules are there to be manipulated' attitude, I'm a fraud investigator for a national comapany, so obviouly I couldn't disagree more!! And quite frankly, this 'tactic' is not really a matter of manipulating the rules but is completely against the rules!

eBay clearly states:
Under exceptional circumstances eBay allows you to retract bids. For example:
It's OK to retract a bid if...
*You accidentally enter a wrong bid amount. For instance, you bid $99.50 instead of $9.95.
(If this occurs you will need to quickly re-enter the correct bid amount).
*The description of an item you have bid on has changed significantly.
*You cannot reach the seller. This means that you have tried calling the seller and his or her phone number doesn't work, or you have tried emailing a message to the seller and it comes back undeliverable.

Clearly, 'manipulating' the rules does not fall into exceptional circumstances. I wouldn't recommend this 'tactic' to anyone who wants to avoid being kicked off eBay.

>>Actually, Buy It Now auctions are no different than other auctions as far as the timing of your payment for them. It does not mean you have to pay for it instantly.<<

That's what I thought. Although most BIN auctions seem to take credit cards, I have seen a few that only take checks. Obviously this precludes instant payment. So we are back to "why start asking the seller" to change things if you are waiting on a check--just wait the extra day or two.

... as a matter of courtesy to your seller, if you're indeed waiting on a check, then by all means let the person know that so they aren't wondering where the payment is.

This is an eBay problem, not an Auction Sniper problem.

About 1 in every few thousand bids will receive a false "Buy It Now" message from eBay. When you take a look at the auction afterwards, you will see no evidence of Buy It Now. The potential for this happening is that same with a manual sniper who places thousands of bids on their own. When we receive a Buy It Now message, we actually rebid for you 3 times to make sure it was accurate, but as we see here -- this doesn't always work.

I appologize that you did not win this auction due to this unfortunate eBay bug. We do all that we can to make sure your bid is placed in time.

Adam R.