Sellers removing their product

In a regular, lift-your-hand-to-scratch-your-nose-and-you've-placed-a-bid auction a seller can put a reserve or minimum amount on an item. Unlike eBay, this reserve is usually the opening bid, not a hidden amount that must be reached before a sale is consummated.

In a "real" auction, once an item goes under the hammer, that is, once the bidding has been started, it is not possible to withdraw it from the auction. If the seller withdraws it before it comes up for bidding, he owes the auctioneer a certain sum, usually a percentage of the planned starting bid, as a penalty. On eBay, the seller loses his listing fee if he prematurely withdraws an item, which serves a similar purpose. Unlike a "real" auction, he can withdraw it before the auction closes without further penalty even if he's had a bid on it. If he does that too often, though, eBay will suspend his selling privileges.

I agree that it doesn't seem fair for a seller to withdraw an item that has one or more good-faith bids on it. Sometimes, as you say, it's because the seller isn't satisfied with the amount that's been bid to date. More often, though, it's because someone has contacted the seller privately and offered to buy it outright for a sum that is satisfactory to the buyer. By selling the item to a private offeror, the seller loses his listing fee but he doesn't have to pay the eBay premium on an item that's sold on eBay. Needless to say, eBay takes a dim view of this practice but how can they prove that's what happened?

I've also seen situations where a seller has mistakenly listed a valuable item for a low price because he didn't realize what he had and found out before the auction closed. Every bidder looks for deals like that, but can you really blame the seller for pulling his item out if he suddenly realizes he's going to take a bath? I'd like to hear from some sellers about that.

Umm, I don't know how many "real" auctions you attend or for what, but I can tell you that there is many times a reserve that is NOT the minimum bid and on certain items the item is withdrawn. Of course, this is more commmon on larger ticket items such as real estate and expensive single lots. Your average estate or liquidation auctionn bumps along at the discretion of the auctioneer. Even in those circumstances, I've seen the auctioneer screw around with a lot after it has started, if he feels the bidding isn't getting anywhere.

Well, I haven't attended a "real" auction for quite some time, but I'd like to point out that I wrote that reserve bids are *usually* the starting bid. I said it this way because I knew that big-ticket items can be handled as you say, but they are far fewer in number than the routine items that come on the block.

Yeah, now that you've mentioned it I've seen an auctioneer diddle around with a lot that's not drawing bids, often by adding something to it as an incentive.

I am an ebay powerseller with 338 Positives, 1 neutral, and zero negatives.

First off, i'd never ever pull an auction at the end because that is horrible business practice. I gladly end auctions for private offers if there aren't any bids placed on the item in question. However, if there is a bid placed I just tell the person to bid away and win because it wouldn't be fair for the person/persons who have already bid in good faith IMO.

About sellers pulling auctions within 10 seconds to 5 minutes of auction close b/c they don't like the final end price...it basically stinks. Too freaking bad if the seller doesn't like the end price. All they have to do is put a reserve or start the auction with an opening bid that they are comfortable with. Although I see their reasons it isn't fair for honest sellers who shell out extra $$$ for reserves and what not. It's abuse of the ebay system.

It personally ticks me off and ebay never does anything about it even if they are reported. In the end, it comes down to the seller's ethical and moral values, but i'll tell you this...if the seller keeps it up he won't have any bidders bidding on his auctions.

Good for you, Rickdogg! I like to think that the great majority of eBay sellers have principles like that. However, so far as losing your customer base by closing auctions near the end, Sara B. says there are maybe 50,000 new eBayers that join each day. They wouldn't know enough to avoid such sellers, so maybe the chinchy closings wouldn't matter as much as you think.

But what about the situation I posed above, where a seller puts something up and then has the horrible realization that he's accidentally put a $5,000.00 item up for sale at $9.99 with no reserve. Before he can kill the auction there's a couple of bids on the item. What would you do in such circumstances if you were the seller?

In that crazy scenario that is a tough call. Although I wouldn't have much sympathy for someone who would make that big of a mistake. After listing all of my auctions, I double check every single one for correct prices, item descriptions, correct pictures, etc etc. If the seller catches it...in lets say 1-2 days into the auction, I would understand since it is an expensive item, but he would have to immediately relist it correctly to show some kind of integrity. The ones who end their auctions with about 1 hour or less to go is obviously deliberately breaking ebay rules and are doing this b/c they are unhappy with the final price and should be discarded like the scum they are.

About new ebay users...that argument is true, but I deal only with high grade vintage comics and it seems to have the same exact people bidding on the same exact material. This community of ebay is small compared to ebay as a whole. For example there are two sellers who are notorious for ending auctions with no reserve and their names have been smeared all over comic forums for other comic collectors to view. In the case of High grade comic material, bad selling practices do catch up with sellers fast, but if they sell a variety of items and basically your plain ol' garage junk then it wouldn't make much of a difference. The word of mouth is very powerful and is usually underestimated.

[This message was edited by Rickdogg on December 13, 2002 at 07:30 PM.]

I suspect that as you say, any legitimate seller making a big whoopsie like I described would indeed re-list the item with an appropriate asking price, reserve, etc. But I just bought something from a power seller with over 15,000 feedbacks. The guy has 150-200 items or more up for auction 24/7. UPS makes two stops a day at his store. Somebody dealing in volume like that is more apt to make a mistake than a seller who has more time to double-check his listings.

But yeah, sellers who close auctions because they're not happy with the bid amount are pond scum or other floating undesirables.

I won a comic book from a seller in Virginia and has about 150 auctions going a week and didn't realize that he relisted a book that he didn't have. He emailed me and let me know about what had happened and sent me a free book via USPS Priority for my "troubles." He ended up losing a few bucks for his mistake but he gained a repeat customer.

Now, that's a class act! I'd go back to a seller like that, too.