Genuine question about ebay bid retractions

[JustinD]

Okay, I am asking this out of actual curiousity and it's not a slight on anyone.

I have been an active user of ebay since around 96', in that time frame and having just short of 3500 feedbacks on my current account I made in 01', I have never retracted a bid. In fact I did not know how until I just looked it up on the ebay help pages.

Am I the outlier?

If you want to be anonymous please just vote. With all the talk of these retractions I was just wondering the general bidding practices out there to put it in perspective.

Thanks for your feedback.

[spaidly]

Ebayer since 1999 and I retracted once because I put too many zeros in my bid. I have wanted to retract many times since but feel a bid is like my word, which is my bond.

[bnorth]

I have been on eBay for 20 years and I have retracted 1 bid around 15 years ago because I entered the wrong amount and didn't notice it at first.

[gnaz01]

Ebayer since early 1998 with over 1000 feedback at 100%, I have had 1 bid retraction and notified the seller on the front side.......

[pherbener]

Ebayer since 2000. Hundreds of bids, 0 retractions. I honestly don't understand why ebay doesn't have a "three strikes and you're out" policy. I understand putting an errant zero etc. occasionally but beyond that, the only answer is shill bidding. What else can it be?

[icollectDCsports]

On eBay since '97 or '98 and 0 bid retractions.

[Leon]

Been there since '98 or '99 and don't think I have done any. That being said there is a chance I forgot and could have done 1 in the last 17 yrs. But I put 0 as I can't remember it.

[Stampsfan]

Originally Posted by Leon

Been there since '98 or '99 and don't think I have done any. That being said there is a chance I forgot and could have done 1 in the last 17 yrs. But I put 0 as I can't remember it.

+1

This is exactly my scenario.

[JustinD]

Thank you everyone for the replies and it is a bit eye opening on this practice.

I do believe everyone makes a mistake and it seems that most respondents are zero or roughly averaging about one a decade. This certainly helped change my perspective on what constitutes questionable bidding habits.

Thanks again!

[jefferyepayne]

Never had a retraction.

jeff

[swarmee]

Started on eBay in college (1998 or so?) and have probably retracted one bid lifetime due to my cellphone app not putting the decimal point I typed in the bid price.

[Jantz]

Justin

You are not the outlier.

I voted 1-5 only because mistakes do happen. In all honesty, I believe 5 is a high number for one reason.

Buyers who use multiple accounts can accumulate a large number of bid retractions before it throws up a red flag.

Even then, start a new account and start all over again.

** Sorry, I misread your question Justin. I read it as how many do you think should be allowed. I have been on Ebay since the late 90s and have 0 bid retractions. I'm not going to change my original reply.**

[MW1]

eBay member since July 1998. Zero retractions.

[jefferyepayne]

My caveat for this poll would be that it should be how many times did you have a retraction DUE TO A MISTAKE.

I don't care how many times a shiller has had a retraction. They are doing it on purpose.

jeff

[philliesfan]

16 years on ebay = 0 retractions for any reason.
Robert

[Republicaninmass]

retracted once, card was over graded and had paper loss after closer inspection

didnt pay once, card was obviously shilled up

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

one retraction since 1998. missing decimal point.

[vintagetoppsguy]

I can only remember one. I thought I was bidding on a 1980 Topps Baseball vending box, but it was actually a Basketball vending box. Totally my fault for not reading it correctly.

[irv]

I made a couple rookie mistakes shortly after I joined and had one retraction after the person ahead of me retracted their bid.

I no longer wanted the card as I spent my money elsewhere, but I did ask this question a few times with no answer?

The question was, "If someone ahead of you retracts their bid, making you the highest bidder again, are you obligated to purchase that card if your high bid wins the auction"?

[sterlingfox]

Ebayer since '96 and have never retracted a bid once.

However, I have asked a seller to cancel a BUY-IT-NOW sale when I found out I bought the wrong type of cell phone cord. They obliged.

[Buythatcard]

18 years with 0 retractions.

I have no problem if someone retracts a bid at one of my auctions as long as they place another bid. We all make mistakes and that's why eBay allows us to retract a bid. According to their policy, a bidder must place another bid if they retract a bid. Retractions are only for correcting a wrongful bid.

Once a bidder retracts a bid at one of my auctions without placing a corrected bid, they are blocked for good. If it's done on the last day of an auction, I make a phone call to eBay to file a complaint. Not sure if they ever follow up with any action against the bidder but I was told to call every time a bidder retracts a bid. They assured me that action will be taken.

[rajah424]

I have a question about retractions. I have never retracted a bid but I use snipe services.

Lets say I bid $200 on an item and I'm currently the high bidder at $100. Someone comes in and starts bidding to bump my bids up incrementally until they surpass my max bid. At that point they know what my max bid is and then retract their last bid to leave me at my high bid of $200.

In this case I would feel justified in retracting my bids.

My question is, What would happen if I retracted my $200 dollar bid? Would the other bidder have the high bid now at just under $200?

[arcadekrazy]

Using eBay since 1998. One retraction, which was just recently. Typed in 4,999 instead of 49.99 using the app. Immediately contacted the seller and explained why I retracted. Then proceeded to place a correct bid.

[Jayworld]

eBay member since April 1998. No retractions.

[BleedinBlue]

Member since 1998. I remember retracting 1 bid. Maybe 2 in that time. And always for putting in too many zeros. Not once in at least a decade though.

[darwinbulldog]

Could be I'm forgetting one, but I think it's zero. Joined in the late 90s but didn't really get started until 2002.

[cardinalcollector]

Ebay member since 2000

7500 transactions

0 Retractions

[smotan_02]

I think a better question is posed to our Net54 members that feel that multiple bid retractions are acceptable and explain their reasoning for use.

Note: I've had one bid retraction in 9 years and it was because the seller updated the item description with lesser condition. I retracted my bid and bid lower. I've had several I wanted to do, but always felt I entered a contract with the seller and was obligated to honor that agreement.

[BosseFieldBoy]

Never, but there have been a few times where I wanted to. I view it as a binding agreement. That said, if I accidentally enter too many digits, I will try to retract.

[laughlinfan]

Going on 20 years on eBay - 0 bid retractions. Can't understand how they ethically allow people to repeatedly retract and abuse the process.

[bn2cardz]

There have been plenty of threads on Ebay bid retractions lately so I didn't want to start a new thread and opted to use the most recently commented in thread for this post.

Lately I have been on both sides of the bid retraction.

Last week I bid an amount but did not have the high bid. So I went on to reallocate my money elsewhere. The high bidder then proceeded to retract their high bid leaving me with the high bid. I tried to retract as I no longer had the funds to cover the price, but couldn't because it was within 12 hours of the auction end. I politely told the seller the situation and he cancelled the sale after the auction ended with me as the winner. It is possible that the person that retracted their bid and left me holding the bag had retracted because someone had done the same to them because there was another bidder that retracted their bid.

Now I have some items for sale with .99 cent starting bids. I got an email stating one of the items had a bid, but when I went to see how things were going it didn't have one. I checked and someone had bid and retracted the bid. They put the reason as wrong amount, but then never put a new bid in.
I went on to see that the person has to retracted bids in the last 6 months.

This make me realize how hard it really would be for a large auction house to police since as a seller I didn't get an email stating someone had retracted the bid. What I don't like is that ebay is so flippant about it. To really cut down on it maybe you should have to call ebay to remove the bid, most people wouldn't put up with the hassle if they had to talk to customer service to retract a bid. Then as added protection to only allow so many in a year's time, before a suspension. Just a thought.

[PhillipAbbott79]

Originally Posted by JustinD

Okay, I am asking this out of actual curiousity and it's not a slight on anyone.

I have been an active user of ebay since around 96', in that time frame and having just short of 3500 feedbacks on my current account I made in 01', I have never retracted a bid. In fact I did not know how until I just looked it up on the ebay help pages.

Am I the outlier?

If you want to be anonymous please just vote. With all the talk of these retractions I was just wondering the general bidding practices out there to put it in perspective.

Thanks for your feedback.

A bid retraction can come in a couple of forms as far as I know. I have never officially retracted a bid. I have retracted a best offer, and I have retracted a counter offer to a buyer because I no longer wanted to do business with that person.

I believe both of them counted. Did I ever retract on an auction, no. Do I have retractions, yes. 0-5.

[frankbmd]

16 years

retractions = 0

I think I asked a seller once or twice to cancel a bid, when I realized that I had misread the listing. Does this count?

Having a hissy fit because I don't know whether I should vote (0) or (2).

[Cmount76]

Member since 2003 - 0 retractions.

Made a few mistakes, but always bit the proverbial bullet.

[savedfrommyspokes]

In 16 years on ebay, I have had 3....2 were due to changes in the listing (number of items offered in listing lowered) and 1 due to a mistype. My mail lady would concur that this is an extremely low percent based on the total items she delivers on a near daily basis.

[iowadoc77]

Just one. It was my mistake and contacted seller who was cool about it as it was very early in auction. Felt really bad about it anyway. Won't do it again.

[Jim65]

1, had my only one a few days ago. Ibid on a jersey described as a NJ Devils game used, when I looked at the pics I realized it was a Trenton Devils jersey, I asked the seller to cancel my bid explaining the reason and he was cool about it.