eBay bid cancelled?

Irish Halo

I was bidding on an item on eBay which was a low price at the time and was a private listing (didn't pay much attention at the time I had set my maximum to £5). I was away from the net for the day and when I got back I had an email telling me my bid had been cancelled and to look at the item's bid history to see why.

I went to the item and it had gone for £46, a little shocked but anyway, then looked at the bid history and my bid had been cancelled because "the item has been damaged"? This seems odd that the the auction went ahead I haven't lost out just struck me as strange is this a scam that I interrupted?

jor el

Do you think it was worth £46?

It could be that the seller needed to change the item description, so he canceled all bids so as to be fair. If your max was £5 and it went for £46 (even damaged), then either you seriously underestimated it's value, or it's just another case of over zealous muppets on eBay.

Irish Halo

Well I just bought it(a game), albeit unboxed and without instructions, "buy it now" for £5.95 including postage. Just thought it was strange.

jor el

Strange, yes. If it is a scam, it's hard to see what the seller might be up to.

genie_us

I was buying a nintendo ds on it earlier this week, and put a bid on one particular one for sale. Immediately I was told that my highest bid wasn't high enough and did I want to bid more. I didn't so I found another nintendo ds from another sellar and bought that one, all done!
The next morning I came in and got an email saying that due to a cancellation of a bid on the original item I was now the current high bidder! I went to the help to see if I could retract my bid as I already had bought it from someone else, but was told there are only 3 acceptable ways you can retract a bid - Entered wrong amount, Seller changed item description, Cannot contact the seller.
HOwever they do say that if you try and retract a bid 12 hours or more before the auction is due to end then you're ok. Unfortunately by the time I got the email there was only 10 hours left.
So anyway I emailed the seller and explained that I did not want to buy it, after a few hours did not hear anything and because I was anxious that the time was ending soon I emailed ebay as well.

As it turned out I didn't hear anything back from anyone but I was lucky because someone else bid £2 more than me anyway. But if that hadn't of happened it looks like I would have been 'legally bound' to pay for the 2nd nintendo ds!

magnumlady

The same thing happened with me with a cancelled bid, the buyer started an item at £5 so I bid on it, he cancelled my bids and relisted the item starting at £40.
As regards the legally binding contract to buy something, its a joke. I've had to relist the same item 3 times due to people bidding and not paying up.