E-bay question, HELP!

[sharbear]

I am new to bidding on e-bay and I think that I made a mistake. I bid on an item. I just put one bid in and I was never the high bidder, someone out bid me by proxy. So I took that auction as a loss and bid on a simular item which I won. Today I got a notice that the high bidder retracted their bid and now I am the high bidder.

What should I do? Should I just suck it up and buy an item that now I don't want. If I retracted my bid would that be bad, would I be black-listed on ebay.

The auction has 2 more days, I am praying that someone out bids me but I am not optimistic since things seems so slow over at e-bay.

Thanks to anyone who could answer my question.

Sharbear

 

[twinz]

If you were not the original high bidder then there is no reason that you should purchase the product that you don't want. There is a FAQ place check there to see if your question is there. Also when you place your bid, put in the highest amount you are willing to pay, Ebay will automatically bid upto that price for you. EG. If the item you want is at $2.00 and your willing to pay upto $10.00, put $10.00 in as your bid. Hope this helps. Good luck with buying, we've got some good deals!
Twinz

 

[DMRick]

You should never bid on something else (that's the same) til the auction is over. It apperars that yes, you are the high bidder. You can retract, but be aware that everyone can look by your feedback and see that you retracted. eBay allows just so many retractions. This was just recently discussed on an eBay board I am on. I didn't realize that you are responsible for your bid until the auction is completed.

Here is what eBay says about bidding:

Q.
If I place a bid, how am I obligated to the seller?
A. If you place a bid at or above the minimum bid amount (or in a reserve auction, at or above the reserve amount), and your bid is the high bid at the end of the auction, you are obligated to complete the transaction with the seller, unless you bid on an item covered by our Non-Binding Bid Policy, such as real estate.

You may want to retract your bid and put as your reason, that you had been outbid and you went ahead and bid on the same item with another...and then the person who ouotbid you retracted. It's still not right, since eBay says you are the high bidder, however.


This is what they say about retracting a bid:
Bids are not retractable except in exceptional circumstances, such as: when the seller materially changes the item's description after you bid; a clear typographical error is made; you cannot authenticate the seller's identity; or when the seller does not confirm your purchase in the Half.com area of our services.

 

[ChiTownZee]

Did eBay say you were the winning bidder or the seller?

 

[DMRick]

I assumed the auction wasn't over....so she wouldn't have gotten the end of auction note yet. However, when I have "suddenly" turned into the high bidder, I get a note from eBay.

If I misunderstood and the the auction did end, and then the high bidder changed her mind..that is a different story. It can be offered to the next higher bidder (and a lot of people use personal offer for that), but the next-high bidder isn't obligated to buy the item, and no feedback could be left. My answer was based on an auction still going on.

 

[momm2four]

If the first auction ended with you not being the high bidder, then, no, you aren't obligated to purchase the item. It's a little unclear if you are talking about the first or second auction you bid on when you say "...the auction has two more days.."

Hope things work out for you,
Lori P.

 

[sharbear]

Sorry I didn't get back but I've been out all day. Took my son to a Tiger's baseball game. I am crazy, it was hot as blazes out there!

I have to say I learned a big lesson on ebay today. I thought that if you bidded on something and someone out bid you then that was it. I had no idea that the high bidder would retract, I didn't even think that it was possible. BTW this person retracted with a really bogus reason, makes me think that they were just driving the price up for some unsupecting person (me!).

I retracted my bid also, I feel really badly but I felt that it was the only thing that I could do. It may hurt my rating but oh well, I haven't bid that much on ebay before and if I don't buy anything else no big deal. On the other things that I have bought I have been an ideal customer.

Lesson learned I have decided that I will only bid on things close to closing of the auction so that this doesn't happen to me again. I have to say that I feel a little duped and I feel really sorry for the seller, I think that she was duped also.

Sharbear

 

[Kimkimba]

Sharbear,

I do not think it will hurt your Ebay rating at all. As someone who bids and sells on Ebay (with over 700 positives and only 1 non-deserving negative), this is part of the game. In my Ebay lifetime of about 3 years, I think I may have retracted 2 bids and have had about 5 bids retracted from my auctions. NO big deal. If Ebay can let someone with no feedback leave me a negative for not willing to ship "their way" when I was clear about my shipping terms and extremely flexible, then retracting should be no big deal (unless of course it is done excessively or at the last minute). Don't sweat it.

 

[DMRick]

I don't think the retraction will hurt you..and who knows, maybe someone was shilling the bid for the seller.
However, the retraction policy on eBay has recently changed...and so you want to be careful to not use it in the future except for the reasons Bay has given. It was being used so much before, that eBay had to change the policy. Some people were bidding on several auctions of the same item, and then just retracting after they won the less expensive item. Most people on the eBay board I frequent put people who have retracted on their list that won't let the retractors bid on their auctions again...we have also passed those names around to add to our own lists.
One person on our eBay list was suspended indefinately when she hit her third retraction..in 2 years! Obviously an angry seller reported her, and eBay took action. It's only a 30 day suspension so she'll be back up bidding soon.
Don't confuse eBay's awful system of feedback with retractions, though, as they aren't connected. People have been complaining about the feedback system for years. I'll be hitting 900 shortly, and I'm happy with it, but I sure do wish it was run differently.

 

[sharbear]

Thanks everybody. I feel much better now. And much wiser about e-bay. I will not make it a practice of retracting bids, I'll make better choices. BTW the orginal high bidder who retracted, when I looked up her profile, she has retracted bids 7 times in the last six months. That seems a bit excessive.

Sharbear

 

[DMRick]

Sometimes you can follow that, and see that it's always on the same persons...and that usually leads to a shilling find...(someone who bids on their own stuff, under a different name, to artificially raise the price).