End time on auction suddenly changed? 5 October 2021 at 3:46PM in Ebay, auctions, car boot sales, post & parcels 10 replies 304 views

Maskface

Hi I'm a bit confused on this one. I placed a bid on an item with 12hrs remaining. I first got an email I was outbid, then another to say a bid was retracted so I'm the highest bidder, and now another email saying I've one please pay. Only 10 minutes ago there were still 12hrs to go before the item finished, how did the seller change the end time? Does it look dodgy?

soolin

Maskface said:

Hi I'm a bit confused on this one. I placed a bid on an item with 12hrs remaining. I first got an email I was outbid, then another to say a bid was retracted so I'm the highest bidder, and now another email saying I've one please pay. Only 10 minutes ago there were still 12hrs to go before the item finished, how did the seller change the end time? Does it look dodgy?

No a seller cannot change the ending time unless they opted to close it and sell to the highest bidder, but the finished auction would show that. It is possible that they were shill bidding to find your maximum bid and then retracted the shill bid, but it’s impossible to prove unless bidding history shows a lot of interaction between the 2 2 accounts. 

Maskface

Thank you, so how would you play this? I'm now wondering if it was a shill bid but I wasn't going to go higher anyway but I'm now committed to pay aren't I?

theoretica

A seller can, I believe, end an auction early to sell to the highest bidder.  If they thought the bidder who outbid you was dodgy or trying to wreck the auction and might try again, but were happy with your bid, they might do this.

Maskface

Thanks. I do want the item so I'm going through with it but just seemed odd how out of nowhere I suddenly won.

martindow

Could the explanantion be that you had the page open on your computer all the time?  The time left may not change unless you refresh the page, so it would seem that the end time keeps moving to 12 hours in the future.

Maskface

martindow said:

Could the explanantion be that you had the page open on your computer all the time?  The time left may not change unless you refresh the page, so it would seem that the end time keeps moving to 12 hours in the future.

Nope definitely not that. I honestly think they guaged the price to see how high I'd go then closed the auction.

se2020

I don't see why they would close the auction though?
Once they had bid you up as far as they could why not leave the auction running to see if anybody else outbids you?

Maskface

Maybe they were just seeing how high I'd go and we're happy with my offer so accepted it. I agree though it does seem odd when there were still several hours left.

MalMonroe

Maskface said:

Maybe they were just seeing how high I'd go and we're happy with my offer so accepted it. I agree though it does seem odd when there were still several hours left.

It does seem rather odd but if you go through the eBay system with all payments and messages, etc, if anything does go wrong you are guaranteed your money back.

It's only when people go off grid that things start to go wrong. 

However, if you think it seems fishy then you can always retract your offer too. Giving that very reason.

soolin

MalMonroe said:

Maskface said:

Maybe they were just seeing how high I'd go and we're happy with my offer so accepted it. I agree though it does seem odd when there were still several hours left.

It does seem rather odd but if you go through the eBay system with all payments and messages, etc, if anything does go wrong you are guaranteed your money back.

It's only when people go off grid that things start to go wrong. 

However, if you think it seems fishy then you can always retract your offer too. Giving that very reason.

You can’t retract a bid once auction has finished.