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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

Fred, what you describe does sound unfair. However, based on ebay's rules on retracting bids, I would think that that situation would not happen. If a bidder retracts a bid because he entered the wrong amount, he is supposed to IMMEDIATELY enter the correct bid. Accordingly, if he retracts the bid a few days later as you describe, there must have been another basis for the retraction. My guess is that the other basis (e.g., change in item description) would also allow you to retract your bid. However, I agree with you that the situation would be very unfair to you if, once the other bidder had retracted his bid, you were not allowed to retract your's. Such an outcome would be inconsistent with the rationale behind allowing a bidder to reaffirm his bid in the event the seller lowered the reserve to below that bidder's previous bid.