Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards
Actually they are following the UCC to a "T." The UCC states unequivocally that a bid is NOT a contract until the item has been called sold and may be retracted at any time until the item is called sold.
Also it is not possible to sign away your UCC rights, so if you accept someone's bid you HAVE to accept their retraction regardless of what you say your policy is, even if the bidder has agreed to your policy!
However there is nothing saying that you have to continue accepting bids from someone who has retracted bids in the past.
I know this won't be a popular post but I am 100% confident on my knowledge of the law on this issue since it was beaten into me in class very recently  You can search elsewhere on this site for a discussion between myself and a lawyer/member on this very issue. I think it was an interesting discussion, and germane to the interests of a lot of the users here. |
E-bay is in the Republic of California, so let's start there. We don't follow half of the federal laws here anyway. Here's 2328 California Commercial code (which I think is similar to your UCC reference)
(3) Such a sale is with reserve unless the goods are in explicit terms put up without reserve. In an auction with reserve the auctioneer may withdraw the goods at any time until he announces completion of the sale. In an auction without reserve, after the auctioneer calls for bids on an article or lot, that article or lot cannot be withdrawn unless no bid is made within a reasonable time. In either case a bidder may retract his bid until the auctioneer's announcement of completion of the sale, but a bidder's retraction does not revive any previous bid.
We maybe be talking the same language here, but the problem is e-bay is moving the under-bidder into pole position after a high bidder retracts. That is violating law as I read it, or at a minimum, the intent of the law.
I can quote you on some other California Auction Codes that e-bay is ignoring if you want. In the near future, these AH's, and e-bay, are going to have skin in the game. They will not be able to throw up their hands and declare "i had no clue", or "we're just consignors", when they're enabling listings of the highest degree of fraud on their software platform.