Leaving Me Puzzled and Smiling

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Posted By: scgaynor

I was the seller, so let me explain.

Lee won the card for $137 about 2 months ago, ebay item #5235751090. He contacted us 4 hours before the auction ended, and told us that he placed the wrong bid. It was a Saturday afternoon so nobody got the e-mail until after the close of the auction.

On Sunday he e-mailed us again and told us that he placed the wrong bid and was not going to pay for it. I was annoyed that he placed the wrong bid (since the bidder has to confirm twice the amount that he wants to bid)and that he didn't cancel the bid himself. Because he was a Network 54 member I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and relist the item without making too much of an issue out of it. He asked that we sell it to the underbidder, but we don't do that as it looks fishy when you start offering things to underbidders immediatley after the close of an auction.

When he won the card again for $39.51, I refused to sell it to him. It is simply not fair to our consignor to have Lee win a card at one price against legitimate bidders (look at the bidding history on #5235751090) and then win it again for almost $100 cheaper the 2nd time around when the piece is more likely to sell for less. There were four bidders who bid higher than $39.51 when we originally listed the item who didn't participate the 2nd time around, probably since they lost out the first time. In the case of this card, there were three of reasons why it sold for less (we didn't have more similar cards posted at the same time, the original bidders didn't participate again and it was the 2nd time that it was listed).

Even if we did have time to cancel his bid, it is Lee's responsibility to retract his bid with ebay (not mine) since Ebay keeps track of things like that to fight fraud. We only cancel bids when a bidder has horrible feedback or there is a problem with the listing and we have to end the auction.

Scott