Why would a seller close an auction early?

ioscorpio

I asked a question today and then bid on an item, just had a look and the seller has closed the auction and sold to the highest bidder which was 10 mins after someelse outbid me.

If you had 2 people bidding and a few days to go, why would you close the auction early?

The_JinJ

Maybe sold it elsewhere

liz_uk

Mmm, the sellers loss.... maybe the buyer lived locally or the seller was going on holiday and wanted to close the auction early??

It could have been any number of things.

It`s a pain when sellers do that !!

Spinner

It's possible that the highest bidder offered to pay him a higher amount if he closed it early.

lisyloo

It's possible that someone not on the bidders list, offered them a higher price.
Personally I think this is wrong, but there's not a lot you can do to stop it.

angelcake

why don't you ask him?

bleugh

I do this often, if someone offers me a decent amount for an item, and i receive payment before the auction ends, i'll pull the auction.

it's technically naughty as you avoid ebay fees though, but i pay 'em enough as it is, so i don't care :-)

pivotalgubbins

I'd also guess that he either received a good off-eBay offer for the item, or has decided not to sell it.

It is a pain, but I'd just forget it, it happens now and then.

Road_Hog

iomexico wrote:

I asked a question today and then bid on an item, just had a look and the seller has closed the auction and sold to the highest bidder which was 10 mins after someelse outbid me.

If you had 2 people bidding and a few days to go, why would you close the auction early?

As a seller, I'd say, a quick sale & covenience. You are allowed to end the auction at anytime and sell to the highest bidder as ebay still gets their fees.
As a seller you may have decided you had got a high enough bid that you were looking for, wanted to get the auction done and dusted and out of the way. Also the seller that made the offer might have had better feedback and you felt that you had a better chance of getting paid.

A bird in the hand etc.

Hintza

The tone of your post would indicate that you were nibbling at the price. The rule is bid late and bid your maximum. In this case bidding late would not have helped but if you had stuck a good bid in you might have forced the seller to change his plan.

If you bid your maximum you will never be beaten...except by someone who values it more than you do. Nibbling is for newbies and not a reccomended way of bidding.

ioscorpio

What's nibbling? I have only bought one item before on ebay.

The starting bid was £30 which is what I bid, I thought if anyone else bids then I will up my bid, as the auction did not end until Friday. The other person bid £31 and that was the final bid and price that it sold for.

I emailed the seller and they responded that it was the first time they had sold anything on ebay and didn't know the procedure.

"Really sorry, this was my first one, wasnt quite sure how to go about it".