OT-ebay question

[Anonymous-0]

I listed a tractor on ebay with a reserve.A bidder raised his own bid untill my reserve was met,then he emailed me and wanted to pick it up.I told him to contact me after the auction,there were 6 days left.He then retracted his bid.I wonder what he was trying to do.

 

[rgvtx]

He was trying to find your reserve and obviously he did. If you didn't have a buy it now, you did the right thing in telling him to contact you after the end of the auction. Since he retracted his bid, anyone can now find out what the reserve was. You can report him to Fleabay, but I really doubt they will do anything about it. In the event you wanted to keep your reserve a secret (I rarely bid on items with a hidden reserve) then your only option is to end the auction early, wait a while and start it over again.
By the way, what is the auction number? We may all want to jump in there and bid on it now that we can find the reserve you had set!

 

[James Howell]

He needs to review eBay Glossary for the definitions of both Reserve Price and Buy It Now.

Reserve Price
The lowest price at which a seller is willing to sell an item in an auction-style listing. When sellers list an item, they can set a secret reserve price. If the highest bid does not meet the reserve price, then they're under no obligation to sell the item to the bidder. This feature lets sellers set a low starting price to stimulate bidding among buyers, yet ensures that the item will not be sold below a price they're willing to settle for.

Buy It Now
A listing feature that lets a buyer purchase an item immediately for a price the seller has set. Items with this feature will display the icon and the Buy It Now price in their listings.

Just because he met your reserve price does not mean that he will be the highest bidder at the end of the auction.

You did the right thing in advising him to contact you after the auction.

Hope this helps.

 

[Steven f/AZ]

You cannot bid yourself up. Someone else has to have a higher bid than you for it to go up. He just bumped in increments - I do that all the time to see where the limit might be on an item. However, I don't retract my bids.

There are specific rules for bid retractions as well on eBay, report him.

 

[chvet73]

You definetly did the right thing. I don't see how he can retract his bid. It is a binding contract. Trouble is how do you enforce the contract. Be sure and report it to Ebay. They will pull his account and he will just reappear under a new name. That's the problem with Ebay. If he is local to your area you might have more leverage.

 

[Bob]

If you think someone "bid themselves up" on ebay, you are obviously confused!

 

[Bob]

If you think someone "bid themselves up" on ebay, you are obviously confused!

 

[Mike M]

It is very easy to bid yourself up on ebay or any other auction.
Don't be confused into thinking it can't or isn't being done.

 

[Bob]

Yes, Mike, I agree. I mis-read his post. On ebay you CAN 'bid yourself up", but only 'til the reserve is met.