Implications Of Seller Ending An Ebay Auction Early?

This lot on ebay is rather interesting:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Syria-Syrie...AOSwf-VWXY3N

In the body of the lot description, the seller states:
"item will not sell below $220."

This is not the only lot with this kind of note. Another lot has the following in the description:
"if the price did not up to $75 befor 12 hours from the end of the auction , I will cancel the item."

So basically, this seller is setting up regular ebay auctions but states that there is a reserve which if not met will lead to the auction being ended early.

Is it even allowed to make a regular auction into a reserve auction (as this is an option on ebay)? In this scenario, is the seller obligated to sell the item to the highest bidder? Doesn't this leave the seller open to negatives and strikes from ebay?

As an FYI, the seller is routinely using shill bidders and does not accept returns.

Truly strange. Why not simply start it at $200? And why end hours early, given that most of us bid in the last ten seconds? Nice stamps though!

Presumably he's operating a quasi-reserve to avoid a "setting reserve fee"?

You can report him, it is against ebay policy.




Of course, I am not sure that ebay will respond.
Don

If you cancel too many they say they will charge you the final value fee. I have never had it happen but I have only ended a couple because I made a mistake over the years.

If by chance I list an item twice I will just change one listing to another item.

Saves the hassle for ending a listing early and getting caught up in ebay's complications.

Excellent info. I looked for the rules but couldn't find them. Don- to your point, I'm not sure ebay cares but it's a very strange way for a seller to manipulate an auction in pursuit of a (high) retail price.

Sorry, I should have posted the link to the ebay policy. It is here
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/end_early.html
and here
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies...reserve.html
shemae, I agree.
Don

I see nothing wrong with ending a listing with few views, no watchers and no bids. Unfortunately, more and more stamp listings are falling into this category, especially if the material is relatively common. If buyers are not looking, there could be a problem with ebay search, the pricing, the title, the description or some other aspect of the listing that may not be immediately obvious. It is more likely to happen to listings listed during an ebay free listing promotion.

I am not heard of ebay charging a final value fee to an auction ended early if it has no bids.

Clark

Epilogue: The lots in question all had multiple bids when the seller ended them early. When looking for his profile recently I discovered he is now "no longer a registered user."

people are crazy we have free starts nowdays, just start what price you want to get