JoyfulPickin - Posted - 02/07/2014:  07:19:59

I felt it my duty to give you all a heads up on what eBay now deems as "acceptable selling practices" when it comes to auctions. And this comes from eBays Customer Service. In a nutshell, I had bid on an item at a very low opening bid. I was the only bidder and the listing was very close to ending. I get a notice that my bid was cancelled,the listing ended "early",and the reason given was the seller "no longer had the item".  So I checked the sellers "other items" and lo and behold,there's the exact same item,same pics,now relisted as a BIN at a much much higher price. I was infuriated. I called eBay as I was certain that this would be taken as unethical selling practices and something done about it. The rep on the phone told me that this was a totally acceptable practice,it was OK,and started giving the seller excuses like "he didn't know any better" The seller has over 1,000 feedback ratings. He knows better.

    So to clarify,I asked the rep if I could put an item up for bid,and upon seeing the auction wasn't getting a high enough bid, I could then cancel bids,end the auction and relist that same item as a BIN at a much higher price. He told me this is a totally acceptable selling practice on the site,and that I could do this without worry about getting into trouble. I was super P.O.'d at this and the rep promised he's give my report over to a manager. (rep was wanting to get me off the phone by this time) It was the principle of the thing that had me so miffed-dishonesty in any form,for whatever reason,just really ticks me off. As eBay says........"Buyer Beware!" 

GalenB - Posted - 02/07/2014:  09:24:26

I was shocked and ticked too the first time I had this happen. The seller closed the listing and relisted an item a few minutes later, 5 minutes before I would have won. Their reason was they deemed the listing inaccurate. The new listing was identical. Ebay customer service told me that a seller is under no obligation to sell an item to me before the auction ends on a high bid auction. This was around 10 years ago. I was pretty hot at the time, but learned my lesson and now I manage my expectations. I've had far more experiences where the seller didn't accurately describe the item, took pics of a guitar at angles that hid flaws, etc... and then you are left to deal with return shipping or dispute resolution. I don't sell on ebay, so I don't know how they charge for something that closes before the auction time ends, but I am sure the sellers know and if those fees don't exceed the margin on a higher sale, they might be inclined to relist.

A big part of me misses my local music stores having a huge inventory. I deal with them as much as possible, but they used to carry so much more new and used inventory, and the pawn shops were just full of treasures. Ebay and other online retailers have ruined that in my little part of the world.