OT: ebay's Retraction Policy Doesn't Stand
 

Last night I had a Ty Cobb Sweet Caporal Pin - PSA 5 listing that ended at 11:12 PM EST.

One buyer had multiple bids on the pin along with other bidders. With less than 4 minutes to go in the auction, he decided to retract his highest bid. He did not enter another bid. In the final 5 seconds, some other bidder swept in and picked up the pin at a nice discount.

This particular bidder who retracted his bid had 73 retractions to his name.

I thought that eBay's policy says that you cannot retract a bid without rebidding.

I called eBay and they didn't have much sympathy about the existing item that was retracted in the final 4 minutes. They did say that they are opening
an investigation into the buyers 73 retractions.

Another example of eBay not protecting the Seller.

not enforced. probably not enforceable.

hmmmmm
 

unsure what happened but eBay has always (well at least the past 15 years anyway) restricted withdrawing from an auction if there is less than 12 hours to the close. I've been on there since 1996 and have had it crop up a couple of times when something I was bidding on was revealed to be altered or fake. You know, back when we could see the bidder id's :-)

Yeah, seriously....WTF!

It's bad enough with the retractions already, but if Ebay is now letting bidders retract bids with minutes left to go in auctions, that opens a whole new can of very serious implications.

:mad::mad:

Please share the id. I'm sure lots here would be grateful to be able to block this bidder.

The buyer in question actually won a few items. I told eBay that I wanted to cancel the transactions because I did not want to have anything to with the buyer anymore. They told me not to cancel transactions because it would go against my Seller status. You just can't get any satisfaction from eBay.

So, once items are paid for and I am done with this Buyer, then I will share his eBay Id.

Bad luck, but having said that, good luck getting Ebay to do a damn thing.....

bid retractions
 

we have instituted a NO TOLERANCE bid retraction policy for any bidders that retract after 24 hours without prior contact to us first or anyone that retracts without our consent within 12 hours of ending as that # has spiked.

E bay will not help but report them anyone as it does basically violate the rules....and you can block these bidders no matter how much feedback or how many times they have purchased. We will give a second chance once and ONLY if bidder acknowledges that this will not happen again, anyone that gives me S**T, we dont need them, I suggest ANY sellers do same..retractions are not fair to sellers or to any and all bidders that are legit.

I also have a No Tolerance bid retraction policy. If any bidder retracts a bid without rebidding, they are blocked. If all Sellers would have these type of policies, we might get rid of some of the retracter junkies.

Hmmmm
 

Do you think the person who won it was in on it somehow?
It sounds like a scam to me.

But, full disclosure, I only buy stuff on eBay, I don't sell; and I have never retracted a bid. So I don't know how the rules work.

It just sounds fishy.

Exactly my thoughts. The winner never bid with me before. I have no way of proving it, so will just move on.

When someone retracts a bid in one of my auctions, they have never put in a new bid. I block then from further bidding and move on. I do look to see how many bid retractions they have.

Recently, a bidder did this and I blocked them, They have been a member just over a year with 100% feedback but look at this:

Bid retractions (last 12 months): 3974

That's over 10 a day for the year they have been on Ebay!

Mike

See if the retracting bidder and winning bidder are from same town... Might help you figure out if he was using another account...

This whole thread is irritating. Every word rings true. Somewhat related, I can almost "feel" a bad bidder. Meaning, when someone unfamiliar pops up with an auto-generated ID and bids aggressively on multiple items, I reach out and welcome them, thank them for their interest, let them know I am eager to serve them and request that they establish communication by simply sending me a reply...
I do this even though, I'm afraid, I already know they're deadbeats or suspect characters. The truly odd thing is--they never respond. Further, when I have just "let it ride"...it ALWAYS ends in trouble. Actually 100% with no exception. Now, I give them 24 hours. I send a second notice. No reply--canceled bids and blocked.
I would be likely to save a hamster from drowning before these people.
A bid retraction is a complete no-go. Exceptions, of course, but that's generally scum.

That's insane. Another example of eBay enforcing their policies.

Clearly PWCC got them to clean up their act.

This is what came to mind when I read the op
 

A way I have not heard of previously to cheat!

What Mr. Moses said
 

I'm not aware of ebay themselves ever having a policy of having to rebid after canceling a bid (not really sure how that could be enforced), but this canceling so close to the auction's ending is new news to me. Historically, once you enter that final 12 hour window, sellers do not have the ability to edit the listing (even when there are no bids), and buyers do not have the ability to retract bids.

I will say though that I cannot recall the last time ebay notified me as a seller that a bidder on one of my items has retracted their bid. I might think there simply have not been any retractions in the last couple of years, except that I know of at least one case where I noticed the bid count drop on an auction item without any notification to me as the seller. So while the ramifications for sellers are troubling if this becomes widespread, it would not surprise me if ebay has taken the stance that auction bids are only final once the hammer falls. And even then, if they're not going to do anything to force payment from a high bidder with buyer's remorse, might as well go ahead and let them off the hook if they get cold feet right before the hammer falls, right? :rolleyes:

eBay bid retraction page
 

Retract a bid
Keep in mind that you can't always retract a bid once it's made –if you're not able to retract your bid, you can also try contacting the seller to see if they'll cancel your bid for you.

When you can retract a bid
You can retract a bid if:

The seller significantly changed the description of the item
You accidentally bid the wrong amount. For example, you meant to bid $20, not $200. In this case, enter the price you intended to bid as soon as you've retracted the incorrect bid
You can't reach the seller. For example, you sent the seller an email and it comes back undeliverable, or you tried calling the seller and the phone number doesn't work
As well as the above, timing is also important when retracting a bid:

If there are 12 hours or more left before the listing ends, all of your bids can be retracted
If the listing is ending in less than 12 hours, you can retract your most recent bid if it's been less than an hour since you placed it
Any other bids can't be retracted, but you can contact the seller to see if they'll agree to cancel a bid for you.

eBay's system "looks" at every bid retraction. If you rebid (particularly if you bid $556.00, retract it and 30 seconds later bid $5.56, or something similar), the computer will be more inclined to "overlook" the retraction. If you bid higher in $20 increments, become high bidder on your fourth try, and then retract the last bid made, you will probably get "disciplined". It has more to do with the plausibility of "an honest mistake" versus the appearance of intentional deceit.

Hmmm, I wonder if they snuck that in there recently. Don't remember that part of their bid retraction policy.

Do you think the guy above made 3974 honest mistakes?

How about outing this SOB? I'd like to block him.

Probably not. He/She is now up to 4002.

My thought is if Ebay has any sort of system to stop this, it's not working very well.

Mike

Hey, just think of the silver lining. If they're using some sort of A.I. program to combat this, then I don't have to worry about being outsmarted by the machines when they rise up and try to take over the planet.


;)