Should I remove the bidder or not?
I have some eBay auctions ending in four hours. One of the items listed is currently at $810 and I’m very confident that it will rise during the last few moments of the auction, just like they always do.
I just received an email from the high bidder asking me to remove his bid. He says he still wants to bid but not that high. The problem is, the highest bids are set for auto, meaning that if I remove his bid, it won’t just default to the next lowest $800, but instead will drop to the lowest auto bid at $600.
He should not have bid without ensuring his cash was fluid enough to make the purchase. And I cannot remove just one bid. I must remove his entire history of bids and ban him from the auction altogether.
Should I remove him or take a chance that he’ll be outbid in the last seconds? Keep in mind that I can always offer the item to the second highest bidder after the auction. But removing the high bid now will lower the overall perceived value of the item.
What’s the right thing to do?
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16 Answers
Sounds like there is only one thing to do, and that would be to just keep the bid. It’s win win vs a drop.
yes thank you @poisonedantidote. I want to do the right thing and I can always let him off the hook after the auction. can’t let one wishy washy bidder throw a weeks worth of auction pace into the can.
From what I understand—you leave it as it is, then offer to the second highest bidder. Fingers crossed he gets outbid!
fingers crossed… eyes crossed too
Offer the item to the 2nd highest bidder or relist after the current auction ends. Write the reneging bidder that he won’t be invoiced but to wait it out. You deserve to have the auction continue as if his bid was legit. Selling/posting on ebay isn’t free, the bidder should understand that much.
That’s exactly what I just did @Neizvestnaya. Sent him a message detailing your plan to the tee. Waiting for his reply. Didn’t want to leave him hanging to sweat it out… but I sure considered it.
He just messaged me back and said to forget about the retraction. Lot’s of hand holding before jumping into the big scary pool.
A bid is a contract. It stands.
@josie a bid is not a contract it is an offer. It would be a contract once @RealEyesRealizeRealLies brnigs down the gavel.
But I think as long as you are letting him off the hook at the end no harm done. Wait.. I think that is no longer a problem either lol :P
Yep his proxy was outbid at $870 and from there he was off the hook. Final sale price was $890.
Within the last 2 minutes of every auction the price generally shoots up another 5–25% depending upon the item. This one leveled out early and then hovered all week with no progress until the very end.
@sarahhhhh Actually @josie is absolutely correct. The bid is a contractual commitment to buy. There is another section which allows people to make offers only if I set that style of sale. My auction, and 90 percent of all auctions do not allow for that. When a potential buyer places a bid, they are prompted with a reminder that their bid is a binding commitment to buy.
That’s why the bidder needed my authorization to cancel the bid. If it was only an offer, he could have cancelled that himself.
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