What is worse, seller's remorse or shill bids??
 

Over the recent weeks, I have had 3 transactions canceled by sellers on ebay for varying reasons.

First was a BIN on a PSA card that was a best offer that auto accepted at 10% off the recent comp (and subsequent comp). Seller canceled with no message and relisted at twice the comp. Said he listed item at the wrong price.

Second, another BIN, seller messaged mentioning he could not find the item, Not too upset on this one as I paid market for it. I understand items can be lost.

Third occurred yesterday. I won 3 auctions from a "larger" ebay seller. I paid minutes after the combined invoice was provided. An hour later the transaction was canceled by the seller with a reason of "buyer asked to cancel". Ironically, I made NO such request. He then sent a message saying the order was canceled due to a "technical error". Then last evening, the seller relists all 3 items as auctions but with starting prices higher than what I had won the cards for. I won auctions for $97, $58 and $112....he relisted these 3 items with starting bids at $104, $75, and $150.


I am guessing this seller's technical issue was none other than he didn't sell the items for what he wanted.


In this case, the ONLY positive is that least I was not shill bid by this seller!


So, is it better to have transactions canceled when the seller doesn't get their price OR to have a shill bid increase your cost(but you still get the card)?

Me personally I go with shill bidding. Seems like i have come across it more often lately. It always seems as the sellers feedback percentage is usually bad as well. That is usually the first red flag for me.

I never quite understood the logic to doing this sort of thing. If there is a minimum you want to get as a seller, just start the item there. If you don't get bids, you know your price is too high.

The only time I've canceled a sale it was because I'd had the card listed as a buy it now for so long I'd forgotten it was still listed. By the time someone actually bought it, I'd already sold it to someone else but forgot about the listing.

Adam, I obviously don't understand this logic either. This sort of behavior is mostly associated with modern card sellers as price surges occur based on a player's performance. I, as most on this board, am a vintage collector and rarely experience seller's remorse as seen in the modern market. It is even more surprising when this type of behavior occurs with a seller having 50k+ feedback and is clearly a full-time seller. I can only wonder why a seller in today's social media driven world would risk the negative publicity of having ZERO auction integrity over $64?

Mike, I would have been less aggravated if I had been shill bid to a near market price, as I would likely NEVER have known. If I had been bid to over a market price, I would not have ever known either, as the shill bid would have exceeded my bid.

Packs, I get that honest inventory mistakes occur with all sellers, large and small. If this situation had involved an inventory mistake and not seller's remorse on an auction listing, I would understand.

So, I bought a lot of pins on ebay for $39.00 and they're worth probably $300. Well, the seller canceled the sale and refunded my money. He said he "misplaced" the pins. That didn't sit well with me. I looked at his feedback and saw there was someone who left neutral feedback because he canceled that guys auction too within the last month. I looked at the item he canceled and it was a zippo lighter worth probably $120 or so but sold for $45 in an auction. I looked at his other sales and he was getting top dollar for everything. He knows the values, he's an antique dealer. He wanted to get full value for his items. He knew those two items went too cheaply, so he canceled the sales. That's a violation of ebay's selling policies. It's also just a very weaselly thing to do.

This was my response:

I don't believe for a second that you "misplaced" those pins. You feel like you didn't get enough for them so you cancelled the sale. Maybe you should start them at a price that's more acceptable to you to begin with, that way you don't have to cancel sales. Not that hard to figure out. Personally, my reputation is worth more than a few dollars so I would honor the sale even though I know I could get more for the item. But, that's me and apparently not you. I'm guessing you also "misplaced" that Vietnam lighter that you cancelled the sale on earlier this month too. You've earned the negative feedback I'm about to leave. This is my first time leaving negative feedback after thousands of transactions. Learn to do better.

And, in the same week as the transaction above, another canceled sale. Not a good week for me on ebay. I bought and paid for a pin on the 18th in an ebay auction. Right after I won the auction, the seller (a woman) messaged me with a note saying she didn't think mine would be the only bid on it. She also included her phone number. I didn't call her, but my guess is she wanted to renegotiate the price for the pin AFTER I had won it for $200. So, 11 days later after I paid, no messages and the pin isn't marked as shipped. So I messaged her twice on different days and she didn't respond to either message. So, this is my last message to her:

Ok, so you decided to ignore my first 2 messages to you about the status of this pin. This is my third and final message to you. I'm going to ask once more, have you shipped this pin yet? It's a very simple answer, either yes or no. If I don't hear back from you or have the pin in my hand by 1:00 EST today, I'm going to open a case with Ebay for item not received. I'll let them deal with you. You've had my $200.00 dollars for 11 days now. That was plenty of time for you to ship the pin and to have it arrive here. I'm trying to be patient with you because you're new, but you're choosing to ignore me. The $200.00 wasn't a loan or a donation to you. I either want the pin I paid for or I want my money back. It's pretty simple.
Your selling on Ebay isn't off to a good start.

I reported both canceled sales to Ebay and in their infinite wisdom did absolutely nothing to either of them.

After initially indicating that the three card transaction was canceled due to a "technical error" (LOL), I asked this seller what the tech error was and got this response:

"The initial listing price was incorrect which is why we had to take it down in the first place. There were other internal issues with similar cards from this particular batch and we didn't know at the time if these cards would be relisted or not as there were errors with many of those cards. We understand your frustration and we apologize but unfortunately there is nothing we can do."

Here is my translation of the seller's message:

The initial listing price for these auction listings, which has nothing to do with the final auction results, was incorrect which is why we had to take it down (or in words everyone else understands, cancel the transaction after the listings ended) in the first place. There were other internal issues with similar cards from this particular batch and we didn't know at the time if these cards would be relisted or not as there were errors with many of those cards. We obviously don't understand your frustration with our admitted seller's remorse, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do as we refuse to stand behind our auction results and exhibit any sign of integrity, much less follow ebay's TOS. At least we did not shill bid any auctions you bid in.

I can't make this stuff up.

I also can't make up the fact that this seller is not only an ebay "direct seller", but also appears on PSA's dealer directory.

Despite the caveat on PSA's site regarding their dealer directory (" The PSA Dealer Directory is provided for informational purposes only. Neither PSA, nor its parent or affiliates make any representations or warranties regarding the qualifications or suitability of any dealer listed in the Dealer Directory. Additionally, PSA, its parent, and affiliates shall have no liability whatsoever to any customer of a dealer as a result of the actions or omissions of such dealer."), I wonder if anyone at PSA would be interested in this seller's lack of auction integrity involving three PSA products?

Does anyone have any PSA contacts who might be interested in a dealer on their directory's lack of auction integrity?