Question for eBay Sellers: Retracted bids

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I've retracted a couple of bids during the last 15 years. One time I was trolling newest listed - buy it now, and a beautiful and scarce Morgan appeared for an extremely favorable price. I glanced at shipping and since that was reasonable, I clicked BIN. Only after did I note that it was from China with 0 feedback! You are required to give a reason, and I suspect that if you retract consistently, eBay will take appropriate action.

The option to enter a reserve is, I think, pretty crappy. If you aren't ready to let the market decide what it's worth (or what you can get for it), just don't auction the item. It's like a predetermined tease.

 

This x 10000. Well said Mike.

 

Are you serious? If you know the top dollar the highest bidder is going to bid at, you can come on top of him. It eliminates the risk of screwing up a snipe since you know exactly where that bidder is at (unless he re-ups his bid).

Also, a bidder could say "I only want to pay $930 for the coin" and make a "fake" bid to see if its even worth his time. Then retract the bid. I didn't know auctions ran this way?

It works both ways... a seller can shill bid on another account and push up the highest bidder until his last dollar.

 

Weak sellers use them... they expect to generate hype and excitement from a .99 cent start, but cover their ***es in case it doesn't sell high.

The ONLY exception is when they are selling something that is really not that demanded.

The market will determine the value. If you take proper photos, list it at peak hours, have great customer service, and fair shipping prices, you should have no worries.

 

I have to compete against these bidders all the time. I try to use their strategy against themselves. Just last night, an item was ending on ebay. I had put in a $70 bid from the beginning, even though it was lower than my max. I was the high bidder for the whole auction with multiple retracted bids against me. I then set my snipe for my full amount. The "bad" bidder thought they knew my price and bid just over my old max. When my snipe came in, it trumped his. Got it for cheaper than I thought. It was a coin that Heritage auctioned on their own website in February. Then put it on ebay for a higher BIN price a few months later, which didn't sell. Then they put it as a $0.99 auction. I ended up getting it for less than both of the previous prices. This is the second time I have done this and came out way better than buying on Heritage.

 

Let's be honest here... the first 6 days 22 hours of an auction are a complete waste of time. The only purpose is to allow time for bidders to watch your auction. Why even bother screwing around until 2 hours before close?

 

There is one big seller on ebay that lists most of their coins as BIN with BO for 30 day timeframes. I have made offers within an hour of their listing, and they say they don't accept offers early on in the auction. They want to give it time to sell at full price first. If they want to do that, then they should start all without BO option, and add it in when rhwy are ready to accept offers.

 

Bite your thumb at those sellers for being idiots.

 

My first experience with them was for a Plus graded coin they had listed for way less than going price. I made an offer, but couldn't wait since it would sell fast. I took it at full price before they even responded. I learned out their "policy" after making an offer on a 2nd coin and waiting it out.

 

A lot of you guys are thinking way too much about this. The big "what if" here, is what if there are other higher bidders, or what if the original high bidder re-bids. This does not help snipers that much.

 

This would not matter, since now they know what the top bid is, they can easily bid again lower than that.

 

Maybe... Maybe not... I just don't understand why so many people would retract their bids. I don't think everyone has a fat finger mistake. Clearly retracting it for a reason.

You are right. If you retract your bid, it should be up to the seller whether to allow you to participate in the auction.

 

Eh, as long as it is not retracted late in the auction, (which I don't believe can happen), I do not care. Like people say, most action happens in the last hour or so, so it really doesn't matter.

 

I once sold a coin for just under $5 and it had 29 retracted bids. I couldn't even wrap my mind around why....

 

Yes, I am serious.

Although we are essentially talking apples and oranges. You are referring only to auctions and I am referring to "Buy It Now" or "Make Offer". There is no bidding so there is no top bid to determine.

When I say that they should make in mandatory for anyone listing a BIN and MO listing they have to put the minimum they will accept and reject all others, that is only logical.

Exactly!

That is the type of sellers that I am referring to. The ones that apparently don't know what "Make Offer" actually means. I could only hope that those people block me from any of their listings. That way I will not make a mistake later and buy something from them.

 

I would be curious to know how and where you are seeing all the retracted bid listings. I went through the last couple of months worth of purchases I ahd made and I only found one that I bid on, the rest were all BIN or MO.

Here is an example of a recent listing that I won. Where would I see this "retracted bid" list displayed?

Also, if I were a "Shill bidder" and if it is so rampant on eBay, why would a seller determined to employ shill bids just not make the listing private such as the screenshot. How can you tell there is shill bidding when that is all you see?

 

Might be a seller's feature. I see it on eBay mobile.

 

Well sure, you will see it if you are selling an item, but if you are bidding on an item, as some have said that the practice interferes with, how would they see that another bidder retracted?

 

I am fairly certain they have to show that a bid has been retracted.