Ebay Question

I thought that in any auction if you made a bid you had to pay the seller what you offered.

Therefore how can the seller say on the advert "I reserve the right to remove the the item as it is advertised elsewhere"

That just means that they don't like what the auction brought so won't sell it.

Originally Posted by Tris

I thought that in any auction if you made a bid you had to pay the seller what you offered.

Therefore how can the seller say on the advert "I reserve the right to remove the the item as it is advertised elsewhere"

That just means that they don't like what the auction brought so won't sell it.

Sellers are only allowed that right, up until the last 24 hours of the auction. Before that they can just cancel the auction. From that point on, they are committed to sell via the auction. If they refuse to sell you an item that you have won - report them to ebay.

Originally Posted by lukemillar

Sellers are only allowed that right, up until the last 24 hours of the auction. Before that they can just cancel the auction. From that point on, they are committed to sell via the auction. If they refuse to sell you an item that you have won - report them to ebay.

They often get around this by conveniently losing/breaking the item concerned between you winning and them shipping it or getting it lost in the post (but losing the reciept for proof of postage) and then kindly giving you a full refund, instead. A rather cynical way to get around not selling something for too little, without having to scare people off with a reserve.

Had the same happen to me, won a 03 ZX6R a few weeks back, ready to pay as no-one else had bidded and was 30 mins till finish and was ready for bid war, 23 mins to go, boom, bid removed auction gone. Wow, nice one.

its a standard thing to do. one of the problems with buying on ebay and one of the perks of selling on it.

on a side note, i have noticed that there are more bargins to be found on ebay at the moment, people seem to be flogging alot of things as they are short of cash.

Originally Posted by Tris

I thought that in any auction if you made a bid you had to pay the seller what you offered.

Therefore how can the seller say on the advert "I reserve the right to remove the the item as it is advertised elsewhere"

That just means that they don't like what the auction brought so won't sell it.

I tried to include this in my text when selling some furniture a couple of weeks ago. Didn't even make it to listing; Ebay withdrew it immediately and I was forced to relist after removing the statement.