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Posted By: Bob

Erland- One of the problems with this board is that anyone willing to be honest and post something like asking to end an auction early gets drawn and quartered by some people, usually by some who have done the exact same thing but never admitted it. I certainly don't mind you saying you don't like the practice, to be honest I don't either. I have seen way too many auctions in my time disappear when I have a snipe bid waiting or I am high bidder and feel good about my chances. One way around it is to ask the seller if he will end his auction and create a Buy It Now for the buyer to use. That way ebay gets their cut and both buyer and seller come under the ebay umbrella in case anything goes wrong. I realize this doesn't solve the problem though.
Just like Leon and tons of others here, the request to end an auction early is a reflexive action these days because of the many cards that are tough which end early.
As I said in my earlier post, when I asked the auction to end early the card did not yet have any bids. Some use this as a differential between it and cards which people have already bid on. Some sellers will actually end their auctions hours before the final deadline. Buyers can withdraw their bids for 6 days (on 7 day auctions) so it is not totally one sided between buyers and sellers.
Don't forget some auctiones have ended early because the seller does not have a reserve and is afraid he might take a "bath" on a card. There are many reasons why an auction ends early.
I wish I had an answer for you but I don't. The easy way out is to simply never, ever ask a seller to end an auction early for any reason whatsoever. The harsh reality is that if you have been searching long and hard for years to find a particular card you might reconsider because someone else might beat you to the punch.