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Selling a laptop on eBay, there were two bidders and one cancelled at the last minute after pushing the other way up. Other bidder then refused to pay, claiming

by veltas 4y ago

Selling a laptop on eBay, there were two bidders and one cancelled at the last minute after pushing the other way up. Other bidder then refused to pay, claiming they hadn't got their paycheck. I waited the mandatory time and then got on eBay support, they recommended using a setting that essentially banned anyone from bidding on my items who has a pattern of cancelling. Why this isn't the default is beyond me, or why eBay doesn't ban such buyers. The fact is these kinds of actions are abuse of the system: they can remove competitor's listings prematurely or make them unattractive to bid on, without any loss, and keep doing it.

fsckboy 4y ago
I can see you being frustrated by your time being wasted in a failed auction, but why should you feel the other guy should pay a bid-up price? I've buy a bunch of stuff on ebay auctions, but when I'm losing an auction and suddenly I'm winning because somebody cancelled, I just nope out of it, qui bono, could be the seller.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  How did auctions handle this before Ebay? I imagine they had various rules for how to handle buyers flaking out. The "bid-up" price reflects an automatic bid that you set in advance: you allowed the system to bid on your behalf, up to a specified amount. The other seller outbid your maximum bid, and then disappeared, but that bid was still your maximum bid. Of course, it seems unfair because if that bad buyer had never bid in the first place, the final price might have been much lower. Honestly, I don't know what should be normal and proper here, which is why I asked the first question. Ebay's auction rules mostly follow pre-existing norms for auctions, but not entirely.
  - veltas 4y ago
    You just don't set a bidding price early, it can only increase the final price you pay. And don't bid unless you're willing to pay.
- veltas 4y ago
  Well at least one party bid up unnecessarily, that's the point.

by veltas 4y ago

fsckboy 4y ago

I can see you being frustrated by your time being wasted in a failed auction, but why should you feel the other guy should pay a bid-up price? I've buy a bunch of stuff on ebay auctions, but when I'm losing an auction and suddenly I'm winning because somebody cancelled, I just nope out of it, qui bono, could be the seller.

midoridensha 4y ago
How did auctions handle this before Ebay? I imagine they had various rules for how to handle buyers flaking out. The "bid-up" price reflects an automatic bid that you set in advance: you allowed the system to bid on your behalf, up to a specified amount. The other seller outbid your maximum bid, and then disappeared, but that bid was still your maximum bid. Of course, it seems unfair because if that bad buyer had never bid in the first place, the final price might have been much lower. Honestly, I don't know what should be normal and proper here, which is why I asked the first question. Ebay's auction rules mostly follow pre-existing norms for auctions, but not entirely.
- veltas 4y ago
  You just don't set a bidding price early, it can only increase the final price you pay. And don't bid unless you're willing to pay.
veltas 4y ago
Well at least one party bid up unnecessarily, that's the point.