Question for eBay Sellers: Retracted bids

All,

I was looking at my mobile eBay app and I noticed there are a some "retracted bids". From what I remember in the past, I thought the only way to retract your bid was to contact the seller and have them cancel the bid.

Has this change?

 

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As far as I know you have been able to retract your own bid for a LONG time, possibly forever. Only under certain conditions though.

 

Hm... that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of... Another reason why bidding early is dumb. eBay sucks

 

Why is it dumb? I've accidentally hit the key once to many times, and bid $3,000 instead of $300. You think I should have to still pay $3,000?

 

And it is actually why bidding early is smart. If I hit the wrong amount too late in the auction, I cannot retract my bid if I make a mistake.

 

I was bidding on a coin back in April and took a screenshot of 4 bidders, 6 bids, and 62 retracted bids.

 

For honest buyers, this is not dumb. For everyone else, it takes away the whole aspect of an auction house. People can figure out what your final price is and screw up auctions for you.

WOW. Absolutely insane.

 

I have retracted one bid in my history with ebay. It was in 1999. I added a comma instead of a decimal. It made my bid thousands. Scared the crap outta me. After looking up how to retract it I remember having to give a short explanation and that was it. What I saw was the high bid someone had already placed. Just to be safe I only place one increment higher and didn't bid again. Those were the days when everybody knew everybody.

 

This is a great example of why it is good.

This feature absolutely helps cheap buyers and snipers. It takes away that extra boost from overpaying customers for the seller. You figured since eBay takes 6%-10% Final Value Fees, they would find out every possible way to stop retraction.

 

How does it help cheap bidders and snipers? If anything, it helps unethical sellers shill bid

 

Shill bidding is an everyday thing. If you find that you have nothing better to do you can just about pick a few auction at random and find at least one has shill bidding.

 

And as most of us know, many ebay auctions are won or lost in the last 3 seconds. Most experienced bidders do not engage in bump bidding, unless they are shills working with the seller.

 

I think it is not as common as some think. I have been accused of shill bidding when a customer thought they were about to win a coin at a low price, then it jumped last minute. They would not believe me when I said some people bid last second.

 

How exactly?

What I think needs to change on eBay; they should require sellers that have "Best Offer" enabled to setup automated accept and reject thresholds. This should not be optional.

It is ridiculous that I can make an offer that is only less than 5% of the asking and have to wait 48 hours (I think that is what it is) to receive a reply. One time and that was it for me. I waited the period of time only to have it time out never hearing a word, while I saw other possible options being purchased as I waited.

If I make a reasonable offer and do not receive a response in half a day, I am retracting my offer and I will continue to do that. If a seller does not have the time to answer my offer I don't have time to waste on them.

 

You are correct in that bidders refuse to believe. I firmly believe that if the entire population was made up of ebay bidder type people that our Republic would be doomed!

 

The seller can set a minimum. But I see what you are saying. The seller will wait to see if someone offers higher. I also would like to know immediately.

 

And I always check out the bidding history of the bidders in an auction. If you see 50% or higher bidding history with that seller, back off. And ebay does very little to stop all the shill bidding.

Some sellers use shill bidders that have a 100% bidding history with them.

 

I have success making offers on coins to sellers who are not coin people. If the can make a profit they will usually let it go.

 

Well, all I can say is that I have certain sellers that I like the way they do business and often bid on almost all of their coins.. almost all of the time. I am not a shill bidder.
Its the bidder with high bid history who never wins that is suspect.

 

Absolutely. I think it should not be optional.

I have sold plenty on eBay (reluctantly) and if I ever place a BIN or BO I always set a minimum that I will take and reject all below that. I am not trying to waste buyers time, and if I can not be "babysitting" an eBay sell through the computer or a mobile device, it seems logical to do exactly that.