How fair is this?

talisha

I recently bid on an Apple MacBook on Ebay. The start bid was 99p and placed my bid thinking 'It can't hurt'.

A few days later I received an e-mail from Ebay:
[FONT=Arial, Verdana]Dear eBay Community Member, [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Verdana]The bid that you entered for the item (xxxxx) has been cancelled. You can view the reason provided for the cancellation by selecting the (bid history) link from the individual item page.[/FONT]

I never found out why the person cancelled my bid, but I am guessing that they did not place a reserve, and my bid was going to win!
The seller re-listed the item with a reserve later that week

I've sent ebay a message about this but have received nothing.
I'm just looking for some advice here, thanks in advance

hermum

They had probably made a mistake with the listing so cancelled the bid, it happens, maybe they had put on a BIN & didn't realise that a bit cancels it out unless you also have a reserve set.
Nobody knows until the auction end the amount an item will go for, unless you had bid a fair price then you may not have been the winner.
Best you can do is place the highest bid you are happy to pay for something & cross your fingers that nobody wants it more.

chemical.galaxy

There is nothing you can do as a buyer can end a listing early up to 12 hours before the end for a variety of reasons, item broken, item lost, no longer available etc.

Maybe the seller got worried that there were not enough watchers or not enough bids and he thought that he would not get the price he wanted.

macfly

It's fair enough. Had you won it, it would be unfair.

Oliver14

macfly wrote: »

It's fair enough. Had you won it, it would be unfair.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

hermum

macfly wrote: »

It's fair enough. Had you won it, it would be unfair.

Oliver14 wrote: »

That makes no sense whatsoever.

It does, had the OP won & then the seller refused to sell because it hadn't reached the amount he'd wanted for it. They would have been the winner & expected the item to be sent. That would have been unfair & against ebay rules.
In this case the OP doesn't know whether they would have won so they've lost nothing, except the few seconds it took to read the listing, bid & then read the cancellation message.

mikey72

It would probably be fairer if these cancelled auctions (with bids) show up in the sellers details, same as cancelled bids do with buyers.

talisha

Such quick replies, thank you for clearing this up for me
I am still a bit of a newbie when it comes to ebay rules.

It does, had the OP won & then the seller refused to sell because it hadn't reached the amount he'd wanted for it. They would have been the winner & expected the item to be sent. That would have been unfair & against ebay rules.

I read somewhere on the forum, that you should start the bidding at a price that you would be happy to sell it for. At least then, if the lowest bid wins, you're still happy with what you get

hermum

You should, however not everyone does, especially for something that generally goes for a good price. He may have put in a BIN, not realising that goes when a bid has been placed.

Crowqueen

hermum wrote: »

It does, had the OP won & then the seller refused to sell because it hadn't reached the amount he'd wanted for it. They would have been the winner & expected the item to be sent. That would have been unfair & against ebay rules.
In this case the OP doesn't know whether they would have won so they've lost nothing, except the few seconds it took to read the listing, bid & then read the cancellation message.

Yup, I agree - it's fair enough to the seller and lets them do the decent thing now than get stuck with having to take 99p for a computer.

People shouldn't do this too often but it's better for them than the alternative.