Bid Retractions - A Punk Move?

[MattyC]

What are fellow collectors' thoughts on bid retractions? I was just looking at a card I like, and saw some dude has a ton of bids on it. Then I saw homeboy has like 30 retractions in 6 months.

I understand there are legit circumstances for doing this. And that's all good. But that many? Seems like a real bush league punk thing to do, whether it's a tactic to taint an auction or to fish for another guy's max, or if it's just fear of dropping big money. Either hit the button or don't, but the half-stepping retractions is just weak sauce, IMO.

Thoughts?

[Cardboard Junkie]

Yup, it's unmanly.

[DanP]

I've been buying cards on eBay for seven years and have zero bid retractions. Unfortunately, bid retractions, shilling, etc. is part of doing business on eBay. That's not going to change.

BTW, WOW... nice collection. Let me know if you ever decide to sell any of your cards.

[Bestdj777]

I have been actively buying cards on eBay for the last several years and only have a handful of bid retractions. Once or twice, I genuinely typed in the wrong number (i.e., $1000 rather than $100), but I quickly bid the correct amount. The other couple of times I thought I was being shilled. Someone would keep putting in incremental bids until they surpassed me and then retract their bids thereby learning my high bid. I did not like my max bid being public info, so I retracted it and put in a new, lower max in the event the shiller tried to bid me up to what he thought was my max last minute.

That said, I think there are legitimate reasons but cannot think of a legitimate reason to retract 30 bids in 6 months.

[vintagetoppsguy]

I've had a few bid retractions that I can remember.

1). I was bidding on what I thought to be a 1978 Topps Baseball unopened vending box (from a reputable seller), but once I placed my bid I realized it was a Basketball (I believe) vending box, not baseball. It was my fault for not reading the description more carefully.

2). There were a couple times when I've placed a bid on an item and then asked the seller a question about the item with no only to have no response, and therefore I retracted my bid. I assumed the seller had something to hide by not answering my question. Probably my fault again for not asking the question before I bid, but I didn’t want to get stuck with something I wasn’t happy with.

3.) There have been a few times when I was high bidder on an item with a very high proxy and someone outbids me only to retract their bid. At that point my high proxy is exposed and is very easy to run up my bid if someone wanted to. When that happens, I'll retract my bid every time. Please don't lecture me on sniping, I choose not to bid that way.

All that said, I have probably only retracted my bid less than a ten times in my 11+ years on eBay.

[ALR-bishop]

I think I have had one that fits your # 2 David ,and a couple that fit number 3 in my pre snipe days. No lecture intended , but sniping solved those issues for me. It's just a personal choice.

When placing my snipes I just assume the seller has a price that he will try to get to by minimum bid, reserve or shills ( if I get a totally honest seller, great) , so I bid what I am willing to pay for the card and let it go

[pawpawdiv9]

Have ya ever bid on something and wanted to 'retract' but it was under the 12 hr limit and unable to do it? So then you send a message to the seller asking to retract and waits till the auction ends and sends a bad reply.
I told them exactly what the card was in my message...so it was not identified.
And was told i was rude???

[MBMiller25]

I am not sure how many bid retractions I have done in my lifetime, but I have done them. I have never done them to find a hidden reserve or to find out where someone might be with their bid on a card I want to buy. Where I typically found myself doing it, is with BIN/BO auctions. I am totally am impulsive buyer, and would see a card I like, put a offer on that card, and between the time I put my offer in, and waited to get a reply from the seller, come to my senses and retract the BO I had placed on the card.

I have gone to a snipe program now, and it tends to curtail my impulsive purchases.

[MattyC]

Matt, with your great taste in cards, an impulse buy would never steer you wrong. It might only make you money, lol.