What Would You Do? Updated

RKKay

You bid online, only to realize afterward that you bid more than you wanted to. The message you get, confirmed via email is that the NEXT bid will meet the reserve. In other words, the reserve has not yet been met. You are relieved. A few days later, you check the coin's status and it now says the reserve has been met. What would you do?

coinlieutenant

Let it ride Rick...

The party that wanted it is going to get it and the party that is selling it is getting what they want. You didnt bump up the deal past the reserve... you just got it there...

John

RKKay

No. It says MY bid met the reserve, though it said before that it had not.

UncleWiggly

I understand what you're saying. Well, are you the high bidder? I defintely would ask the seller what's going on. I'd hate to think the seller dropped the reserve down to your bid knowing you bid too high and no one else is going to bid. Keep us posted. This is interesting. I don't think this has ever happened to me. Can you give us the auction and item nr.?


Jerry

bestbino

Once a bid is placed on the item, the seller can not change any pricing. So, I don't see how this could happen. This is very interesting. Do you have the item number or link to the Site??
I would be very interested in seeing how this happened. The only thing I can think of is, someone bid over the reserve price and then possibly retracted thier bid, leaving you as the high bidder and the reserve met.

Conder101

<< <i>Once a bid is placed on the item, the seller can not change any pricing. >>


This is true for an eBay auction. He didn't say it was an eBay auction. And it probably isn't true eBay on-line bidding for Heritage, Superior auctions etc because the reserve is controled at the auction house not through EBay's systems. And it definitely isn't true for the regular auction houses. (Yes they CAN lower rserves if they so chose.) So it sounds like Rick is stuck unless he gets outbid. Rick may have made an error when he bid (by bidding more than he intended) but the rules usually state that the bidder is responsible for errors in his bids so to be careful and double check your bids before submitting them. So He is responsible for honoring that bid if he wins. Unless the on-line auction has proceedures for retracting a bid.

darktone

If you bid X-amount of dollars you should alway's be ready to be high bidder for that amount. mike

ziggy29

I guess it depends on the auction and what their rules are. If the seller can change the reserve on the fly, that's something buyers need to remember when placing a bit. Had this been eBay, for example, if your bid didn't hit reserve, you can walk away and forget about it. That's apparently not the case everywhere.

coinguy1

Rick, I'd suggest that you contact the seller and let him know you wish to lower or withdraw your bid.

If he says it can't be done, politely remind him that it HAS already been done, by whomever lowered or removed the reserve.

RKKay

Thanks for the feedback, guys. My gut is that darktone and Conder are right. My bad. It was NOT eBay. I briefly looked for the rules last night before I went to bed, and will look later. PM me if you want to know where it is. I'd rather not disclose it in public.

Edited to add: I just checked the terms and conditions, and they don't seem to provide for the seller to lower their reserve after a bid has been placed. It raises the issue (in my opinion) of estoppel. Can someone lower the reserve under these circumstances if a bidder has relied on the fact that the bid didn't meet the reserve and therefore subsequently allocated that money to something else?

airplanenut

Rick,

If it doesn't mention lowering a reserve, I'd call the auction house and ask what they can do--that said, my birthday's only 8 months away

RKKay

Jeremy: I sent an email asking them what to do and am waiting for a response.

The eerie thing is that the first thing I thought when I realized the problem was, "Wow! Jeremy's birthday is just 8 months away. If I get stuck with this PR67 pattern, I should just give it to him."

Conder101

I would not expect a lot of understanding from the auction house. In effect you are complaining that the consignor has agreed to accept less than what he originally wanted and sell for your bid.

Conder101

I would not expect a lot of understanding from the auction house. In effect you are complaining that the consignor has agreed to accept less than what he originally wanted and sell for your bid.

RKKay

They were very gracious and said they would cancel my bid.

nwcs

Count myself lucky and move on.