Has a cancelled/retracted bid on Ebay ever put you in a fix?
okracer
Posts: 436 ✭
Another thread here made me think of this scenario, which happened to me, and almost put me in a bind:
You have 3k 'spending money' to spend on a coin. So you are bidding on a nice coin on Ebay. The bidding is up to 2k. You place a bid and are now high bidder at 3k. Someone else bids and is now high bidder at 4k.
Realizing you have been outbid, you move on and now place bids elswhere on other coins using your 3k allotment.
The high bidder on the first coin later retracts his bid of 4k, so now you are once again the "high bidder" of that first coin at 3k. But you have used your spending money on other coins, assuming you were no longer in play for that first coin.
Are you now on the hook for the 3k placed on that first coin? Do you have to retract your bid now on that first coin to be off the hook?
(This actually happened to me a while back where I had a bid of 5k on a coin. Then 3 bidders outbid me. At that point, knowing I was outbid, I allotted my money for other coins. 2 of the bidders later retracted their bids for "entered wrong amount". I was lucky because I was still not the high bidder but was close.)
......I collect old stuff......
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Exit bunker, enter Matrix. LOL
<< <i>Are you now on the hook for the 3k placed on that first coin? >>
Absolutely!
<< <i>Do you have to retract your bid now on that first coin to be off the hook? >>
Thats the only way that it can be handled.
The auction ain't over until it's over but, personally, I wouldn't go retracting bids on an auction just because you "think" you've lost much less turn around and spent your "allotment" on something else.
If you get stuck, you've only yourself to blame.
The name is LEE!
History is interesting, so thanks for the reminder. I first read about that (Cheerios Sacagawea) coin here , then got called crazy for paying that much. Then I turned down a firm offer from a collector that was over 5.5 times what I paid after the write up by Mr Hernandez.
Has an ebay bid retraction ever put me in a fix ? Yes and no. The bottom fell out of the market a couple years ago with lots of coins , including platinum, and that Cheerios dollar. Still, the hobby remains.
Did you read about Mr Blay bidding on a coin for $140K and retracting or readjusting his bid by 40 grand ? It's a current event thread.
This is an amazing hobby at every level. Who doesn't love it must really be miserable. Who's not in it yet, is missing out on a lot of fun. Boring as it may seem, there's a lot of history in coins.
The retracted bidder may just have been feeling out your high bid with no intention of buying it in the first place. Sometimes shills are used for this purpose. I never accept "second chance" offers unless the amount is one increment above the next highest bidder-this would be the fair way IMHO to sell to the underbidder-not at his/her high bid.
That retracted bidder may just get someone else to bid you up to your max.
<< <i>Do you have to retract your bid now on that first coin to be off the hook? >>
Yes.
Bob
<< <i>As long as a higher bidder has the option of retracting, your bid is still active. Best to deactivate a bid before devoting those funds to a bid elsewhere. >>
Ok, so you're the second bidder at 3000 and you get outbid. if you retract your bid now (to bid on something else) the high bid falls to one bid increment above the bid below you, or if there is none, back to the opening bid. this can cost the seller lots of money. Others may have seen it at the higher price and moved on, not to look back after the bid is withdrawn.
As a seller, I've had cancelled bids at the last minute cost me a few bucks, never hundreds. But if I got screwed by a bid retraction at the last minute for hundreds of dollars I would not be happy.
--Jerry
I had this happen once on a low value bar.
I became the high bidder at 40 dollars with a secret max bid of 80 dollars. The high bidder outbid me and they were winning the auction at 85 with a few minutes to go.
The other bidder retracted, and I became the high bidder, at 80 dollars and won the auction.
Now my problem with this situation is that had this bidder never bid, I would have won the item at 40. Butbecause I was bid up and retracted, I had to pay double what I would have won the item at.
IMO, this is a flaw in ebays system. If a bid is retracted, the auction price only reverts back to the high bid and not to an apporpriate winning bid.
In this case, I was miffed and felt shipped ( the other bidder was new and 0 feedback) so i asked the seller to cancel. Which they did.
I would have been happy to have paid 80, but this retraction and the ensuing situation left a bad taste in my mouth. The irony is, I had tipsy more than 80 for the item from a different seller.
Please don't flame me for canceling the auction, I only shared the story to enlighten the board to this flaw in eBay.
<< <i>Actually on eBay this kind of a messed up situation.
I had this happen once on a low value bar.
I became the high bidder at 40 dollars with a secret max bid of 80 dollars. The high bidder outbid me and they were winning the auction at 85 with a few minutes to go.
The other bidder retracted, and I became the high bidder, at 80 dollars and won the auction.
Now my problem with this situation is that had this bidder never bid, I would have won the item at 40. Butbecause I was bid up and retracted, I had to pay double what I would have won the item at.
IMO, this is a flaw in ebays system. If a bid is retracted, the auction price only reverts back to the high bid and not to an apporpriate winning bid.
In this case, I was miffed and felt shipped ( the other bidder was new and 0 feedback) so i asked the seller to cancel. Which they did.
I would have been happy to have paid 80, but this retraction and the ensuing situation left a bad taste in my mouth. The irony is, I had tipsy more than 80 for the item from a different seller.
Please don't flame me for canceling the auction, I only shared the story to enlighten the board to this flaw in eBay. >>
Bidding on eBay isn't supposed to work like that.
If you're winning at $40 w/ a max bid of $80, and other bidder outbids your $80 and then later cancels their bid, all of their bids are cancelled and you go back to a bid of $40... You should only have to pay the $80 is if that was the seller's reserve price or if there were other bidders that bid after the person cancelled to run you back up to $80.
I've had folks cancel before in auctions I was bidding on (and in the process revealing my max bid) and eBay has always cancelled all of that person's bids and my bid went back to the low starting point. Of course, it still bothered me since the seller now knew my max bid and I felt very exposed to potential shill bidding which could bump my bidding back up towards my max bid.
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 448
Bob
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Sorry, but im NOT on the hook for that $3k. I write a polite letter to the seller explaining that I feel the retraction was to uncover my high bid.....not some silly "wrong amount" entered by the other potential buyer.
Some may see this as unethical......but so are retractions. Im not going to put myself in a jam because someone else either messed up or was simply doing something fraudulent.
<< <i>In this case, I was miffed and felt shipped ( the other bidder was new and 0 feedback) so i asked the seller to cancel. Which they did. >>
You did the right thing. With zero feedback, the retractor may very likely have been a shill.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
TOTALLY NOT RIGHT!!!
<< <i>I think once you are outbid you "SHOULD" be off the hook. If the person that outbid you retracks their bid then the seller should send you a message and see "IF" you still want the item. It should then be you choice. You shouldn't have to wait a week for the auction to end to see if you might win do to "WHATEVER" before you can go after something else.
TOTALLY NOT RIGHT!!! >>
I agree....in my case in my OP, I would have been okay if the coin became mine. That coin would have been at a great price for me based on my bid amount.
......I collect old stuff......