Underbidder auction question....

bgrice · April 7, 2006 10:40AM

Pure & simple.... I bid on a coin in a DLRC auction(ends Monday nite) a couple of days ago that hit the reserve at $2800+. Today I was notified that I was outbid and have no plans of bidding any more. Given that I have now been outbid does that free me up to move on or am I liable to pay for that coin should that bidder back out? I see nothing in DLRC's terms that covers that. I'd love to have the coin, but there are a couple of auctions ending Sunday that I was also interested in and figured if I got outbid on this coin ahead of that time I might do some bidding if the price was right. The combination of wins in all 3 auctions would put a substantial hit to my funds.

MarineEAS1999 · April 7, 2006 11:03AM

If your bid was over the reserve price, then I would suggest contacting the seller
and explaining your situation. Chances are they will be ok with a bid retraction
because you are currently overbid. JMHO.

This may help...retracting a bid.

mozin · April 7, 2006 2:54PM

Since you have been notified you have been overbid, your responsibility ended upon that notice. If the bidder above you backs out, there is a slim chance DLRC will offer it to you for your bid amount, and you can then accept or reject their offer.

relayer · April 7, 2006 3:56PM

Interesting question.

I don't know if the high bidder can even withdraw their bid under the terms of their auctions, but I doubt DLRC would hold you to your bid, especially since they said you were out bid.

If they did, I'd just say "Hey, you told me I was out bid so I bought another coin"

drwstr123 · April 7, 2006 8:27PM

Lebally, according to me, a bid is merely an offer. The seller accepts or rejects that offer. This sale goes to the highest bidder, therefore you're clear.

roadrunner · April 7, 2006 10:23PM

You were outbid and are free to go. The worst that could happen is that DLRC sends you a nasty gram requiring payment. Then just keep walking. There are lots of coin firms out there to go around.
With all the shilling that goes around in the coin business, that's one major reason why one should not be held to an underbid. Auction firms will toss your bid away for a $5 bill if they could (or $0 on the floor of the auction in the case of tie bids) so don't feel too badly for them.

roadrunner

morgannut2 · April 7, 2006 10:27PM

It's pretty dangerous disappointment-wise to bid a coin "sight-unseen" anyway--I can't image they'd hold you to a bid.

roadrunner · April 7, 2006 10:35PM

I would concur with sight-unseen. I bid once on a top tiered slabbed gem type coin sight-unseen and assumed it was probably 1 pt off. Wrong! I won the coin for strong money and it was 2 points off. I had bid based on the photo and description. It was the 1st time I had run across (and bought) a major league coin that was 2 pts off. Enough said. What's next? 3 point errors?

roadrunner

MarineEAS1999 · April 8, 2006 5:49AM

I was curious, so I wrote to e-Bay...

<< Can I retract or cancel my bid?

Message: Hypothetically...if I bid on an item and this bid meets the
reserve price of said item, then I am outbid and that bidder later
retracts their bid leaving me as the highest bidder once again, am I
still obligated to purchase this item even though I received an outbid
notice?>>

They responded...

<<Hello,

Thank you for writing to eBay. This is Fritzie and I appreciate the
opportunity to assist you with responsibility when the highest bidder
retract.

I understand your concern in this situation. Although these instances
are rare, members retract bids for a number of reasons. Rest assured
that our Investigations Team tracks these occurrences and takes
appropriate action when necessary.

If you are the high bidder when the auction ends, you are responsible
for completing the transaction with the seller. For this reason, we ask
members not to bid on another similar item if they are outbid, until the
end of the first auction. This is because a buyer can still win the
first item, until the auction ends, due to a retraction or bid
cancellation.

We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter, and
wish you continued success on eBay.

Regards,

Fritzie A.
eBay Customer Support >>

So I will stand by my first reply to this post and suggest that you contact the seller and request to
retract your bid.

UncleWiggly · April 8, 2006 6:10AM

Since you are talking David Lawrence Rare Coins and not eBay, you'll be ok.

Jerry

Conder101 · April 8, 2006 5:07PM

<< <i>Thank you for writing to eBay. This is Fritzie and I appreciate the
opportunity to assist you with responsibility when the highest bidder
retract.

I understand your concern in this situation. Although these instances
are rare, members retract bids for a number of reasons. Rest assured
that our Investigations Team tracks these occurrences and takes
appropriate action when necessary.

If you are the high bidder when the auction ends, you are responsible
for completing the transaction with the seller. For this reason, we ask
members not to bid on another similar item if they are outbid, until the
end of the first auction. This is because a buyer can still win the
first item, until the auction ends, due to a retraction or bid
cancellation.

We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter, and
wish you continued success on eBay.

Regards,

Fritzie A.
eBay Customer Support >> >>

Yet another reason to snipe on eBay. Or once you get outbid, to wthdraw your bids with the explainationthat ebay rules require you to do so in order to protect yourself. (sellers and ebay would love that option, lower end prices and lower final value fees.) Of course the down side is that it will show you as having done a lot of bid retractions. Which will not look good to sellers when you are high bidder.

Bochiman · April 8, 2006 5:49PM

No kidding...and, there have been a few threads here that have members stating they want to block bidders with too many bid retractions......damned if ya do, damned if ya don't.

Underbidder auction question....

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