OT - Ebay Auctions ended early

A asked a question of Ebay recently, regarding an auction where the vendor had stated that if the item didn't attract sufficient interest, she would end it early.

My understanding always was that just as a bid was legally binding on the bidder, it was also binding on the vendor, but apparently not.

It seems that any seller can withdraw any item and cancel any bids, and a bidder can withdraw any bids, almost at will.

It is buried in the site details, but both sides have get-out clauses to allow bids and offered items to be withdrawn, even when bids are in place.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Prepair Ltd
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Interesting.

Anyone know what the *legal* position is in a live auction, if you panic just before the hammer & try to withdraw your bid? Does it depend upon rules set down by the auctioneers, or is there a general auction law to cover these things?

Ebay have certainly made it superficially much harder to withdraw a bid than it used to be.

Withdrawing an item early may mean missing out on a good price, of course, as most seasoned buyers will enter their final bids very near the end

Cheers Tim

Reply to
Tim Leech

Peter,

this has happened on a few items I've been watching.

Someone I know uses eBay a lot as part of his business and routinely "pulls" auctions if it doesn't look like he going to get the price he was hoping for. This saves him the fee for having a reserve.

An item I very much fancied had a bid from one of those zero feedback bidders (yes, he tells me you can have two eBay identities) which I assume was the seller or a mate pushing up the price. This bid had the effect of pushing up a proxy bidder to beyond the reserve, then the bid was withdrawn. I didn't bid...

It's a jungle out there, but probably no worse that your average small local auction, where the auctioneer usually takes bids "off the wall" to get an item going. I remember being angered some years ago when I placed a commission bid to buy an item when I wasn't going to be present. I indicated my upper price on the form. As it happened I did manage to get to the auction, only to see the auctioneer starting the bids at my upper price. I've never placed a commission bid again.

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Arthur G

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