eBay Bid Cancellation Notice /annoyed!

ttm

Over the weekend (since Friday night) I've had 5 eBay Bid Cancellation Notices, all from idiots that were either selling off eBay or were afaid that their items wern't going to get a decent price.

I say selling off eBay as one of the items had a reply to a question posted that indicated how much the seller was hoping to make for the item.

Anyway is it just me thats noticing a lot more sellers Cancelling Bids and withdrawing items from sale?

Only good thing about it is seeing the bid histories including the max amounts bid which in some cases were higher than I might have expected.

CamperMan

ttm wrote: »

Over the weekend (since Friday night) I've had 5 eBay Bid Cancellation Notices, all from idiots that were either selling off eBay or were afaid that their items wern't going to get a decent price.

I say selling off eBay as one of the items had a reply to a question posted that indicated how much the seller was hoping to make for the item.

Anyway is it just me thats noticing a lot more sellers Cancelling Bids and withdrawing items from sale?

Only good thing about it is seeing the bid histories including the max amounts bid which in some cases were higher than I might have expected.

I have had that happen a few times now, mostly on expensive items.

ttm

CamperMan wrote: »

I have had that happen a few times now, mostly on expensive items.

I find its worse (if not certian) with new sellers selling higher valued items. They put them in a 10 day auction no reserve and when they've only got a couple of bids for a few euro (I often put in a early euro bid to stop a reserve beeing added) they start getting worried and when nothings changed two days before the acution end they get cold feet and pull the listing.

Often the item reapears a week later with an unrealistic reserve price.

homer911

ttm wrote: »

I find its worse (if not certian) with new sellers selling higher valued items. They put them in a 10 day auction no reserve and when they've only got a couple of bids for a few euro (I often put in a early euro bid to stop a reserve beeing added) they start getting worried and when nothings changed two days before the acution end they get cold feet and pull the listing.

Often the item reapears a week later with an unrealistic reserve price.

Good tactic...

Miaireland

I haven't really come across it but then I rarely bid on high value items. What kind of things are you bidding on just out of interest?

rubadub

If they offered reserve prices for free it would save all this hassle.

ttm

rubadub wrote: »

If they offered reserve prices for free it would save all this hassle.

Probably I should have said reserve OR high starting price, but isn't the charge for a reserve to try and stop unrealistic use of reserve prices?

Miaireland wrote: »

I haven't really come across it but then I rarely bid on high value items. What kind of things are you bidding on just out of interest?

Again I could have explained myself better as I should have said "items that the seller thinks have a high value". I keep an eye on computer stuff and if you go back a generation or two desktop systems go for very little (becasue they arent worth much) but the sellers seem to think 1500 euro two years a go is worth at least 500 now when they'd be lucky to get 200, but don't quote me as there are loads of exceptions and thats a big generalisation

Naos

rubadub wrote: »

If they offered reserve prices for free it would save all this hassle.

If this were to happen then every seller would just add a reserve price to their auctions, resulting in unhappy buyers.

Naos

ttm wrote: »

Over the weekend (since Friday night) I've had 5 eBay Bid Cancellation Notices, all from idiots that were either selling off eBay or were afaid that their items wern't going to get a decent price.

I say selling off eBay as one of the items had a reply to a question posted that indicated how much the seller was hoping to make for the item.

Anyway is it just me thats noticing a lot more sellers Cancelling Bids and withdrawing items from sale?

Only good thing about it is seeing the bid histories including the max amounts bid which in some cases were higher than I might have expected.

Ending an auction for this reason would be violating seller terms and you should report them.

ttm

Naos wrote: »

Ending an auction for this reason would be violating seller terms and you should report them.

Apart from the fact I've just about given up reporting anything to eBay as they do nothing I've never yet found where exactly you can report an auction that is no longer running. If its not current and no ones lost any money eBay are even less bothered than not bothered at all.

Nollog

ttm wrote: »

Probably I should have said reserve OR high starting price, but isn't the charge for a reserve to try and stop unrealistic use of reserve prices?

The reserve charge is there for the same reason it is in auction houses, to make the auctioneers some extra money.
They discovered that some sellers wouldn't like to sell their goods at too low a price, so this gives the seller a little piece of mind.

The people who abuse the withdrawal feature are scammers and should be charged by eBay rather than charge people who want to put a (sane) reserve on something.

rubadub

ttm wrote: »

isn't the charge for a reserve to try and stop unrealistic use of reserve prices?

Its to squeeze extra money out of people any way they can, as said it means the auctioneers can get extra money. In this way ebay get a bit more in the ebay fees for these auctions which never sell. But also you are right if it was free people might put high ones in and waste ebays bandwidth by posting up auctions which will never end up in a sale.

Naos wrote: »

If this were to happen then every seller would just add a reserve price to their auctions, resulting in unhappy buyers.

Some might not, having no reserve attracts people, reserves put many people off too, I much prefer an open starting price. The OP might be happy if it did have a free reserve as it would stop the seller pulling auctions earlier. I could have said offer free starting prices or reserve prices, I view them as the same thing really. It is very easy to find out the reserve price, so it may as well be the starting price. (put in a stupidly high bid, retract it stating it was a typo and you have found it out, put in a second low bid a few decimals lower so it appears it was a genuine typo).

Some people think of reserve and starting price different things, but they are not using ebay as they advise you to -i.e. put your max bid in at the start, as it is a proxy bidding system. Most people do not cop onto this, and others are smart and snipe, I find out the reserve and then snipe!

e.g. if you see an item you are interested in and put in your max bid and it is below the reserve then move on, if you increase again then it you were lying to yourself, you initial was not your true max bid. For snipers reserves are annoying as other auctions can come up in the meantime and you are not sure which to go for.

ttm wrote: »

Apart from the fact I've just about given up reporting anything to eBay as they do nothing

Yes I have given up, I reported a e-book on sale and informed the author too and it was still onsale and selling well months later.