Outbidded on an ebay item & then the outbidder retracts his offer?

[gerry]

I was bidding on a dvd movie on ebay.I was outbidded & then the person who outbidded me retracted his bid & i ended up winning the auction.Do i still have to buy the dvd movie even though at 1 point i was outbidded?.

[spudqueen]

I think that when you hit the button that says 'confirm bid' you have agreed to pay for the item if you win the aution.

[Ethel]

Yes. When you place a bid you are entering a contract to buy if you are the winning bidder. You are the winning bidder.

But do some detective work here - use advance search to find out if the other bidder has been bidding on the seller's items before.

This can be a tactic used to push the price up. If you suspect thisis the case, report both ids to eBay.

[heathfield]

I though this should come under the 'Second chance to buy' arrangement that can be offered by the seller in just these circumstances. I'd check out Ethel's suggestion on this one.

[Ethel]

The 'second chance to buy' applies when the winning bidder doesn't pay.

Then there is no obligation for the underbidder to buy.

[kjn2]

Beware of scams on this matter I had one recently when I was given a second chance to buy something that I was out bid on, ensure all correspondence goes through your e bay account and not through your ordinary e mail, if it comes through your ordinary e mail this is sure to be a scam there are plenty on e bay at the moment. Sorry to be so negative on this but it did really happen to me, and I feel that others should know about this..

[joko]

you don't have to buy as you could have purchased another identical item in the mean time of being contacted.

[tellboy]

No you dont have to buy. You lost your winning bidder status.
It is probably the seller bidding under another EBAY identity to push up the price. There is a term for it which I have forgotten and is the help files.

[Gandy]

You do not have to pay. The seller will send you a second chane OFFER. This expires after either a one, three, five, or seven-day duration. If you do not respond to the offer then ou are not held liable.

Tellbot is referring to shill bidding, where an accomplice of the seller bids with no intention of paying in order to artificially raise the price of an item.

[Ethel]

If the highest bidder retracted the bid whilst the auction was still live, you are the winning bidder and have to pay.

[kuhugaq]

if you have been outbid on an item ,then you are under no further legal obligation to purchase it.

end of.

[john91]

No, if you had to buy it then the whole eBay system would collapse, every sellar could get a friend to place a sky high bid to force everyone else to their maximum and then withdraw.

[Catso]

To expand upon Ethel's reply: It depends on what you mean by 'retracted his bid'. This accounts for the differing opinions above.

If the bid was retracted before the auction ended (and this is actually what 'retracted a bid' means) then your bid once again became the highest, and you won the auction. This being so, really you have to go through with the deal.

But if you mean the highest bidder when the auction ended then just wouldn't pay up, then no, you don't have to buy. The seller sends you the 'second chance offer', by email. If you get this, it's entirely your choice as to buy or not.

And as previously mentioned, this sort of thing can be used by dodgy sellers to force prices up (schill bidding), so be wary and don't just jump at the second chance offer.

[Space]

john91, I disagree, I think that when someone withdraws, the bid should fall back to it's previous value rather than stay at the maximum. Therefore it wouldn't make a difference.

[joko]

in a second chance offer you only pay your own maximum bid as that is the deal YOU offered, not what someone else offered.

if your bid was the highest bid at the auction end - then you must pay.

although perhaps contact ebay and ask, because if you were outbid, say, 5 days before the auction ends, you could have abandoned hope on this auction and bid on another item - believing that you were out of the running on the original item - you would then have two identical items

perhaps contact the seller and tell them the situation you have been put in and aske them to offer it to the bidder before you.
perhaps they will understand your problem and agree to this

if you really don't want the item - perhaps offer to pay relisting fees - which are what, 20-50p?? no big loss

[gerry]

Many Thanxs to those who took the time to answer.The bid was retracted while the auction was still live.I think the bid was retracted 30 mins after the offer had been put in.When the bid was retracted it went back to my orignal bid so i haven't paid any extra for the auction.

So basically if i don't pay for this item,i'm looking at negative feedback?.

Which i do find slightly unfair because what would have happened if had bought the item from another seller once i had found out i had been oubidded. I would still had to have paid for the dvd from the original auction.

[Ethel]

If you don't pay you may get negative feedback and a non-paying bidder strike.

Three strikes and you could be banned or suspended by eBay.
By reporting you as a non-paying bidder the seller gets his final value fees back and free re-listing. Otherwise he would be out of pocket.
Please remember that when you bid your bid is binding until the end of auction.

If you no longer want the dvd I suggest you email the seller to ask them to agree to mutually withdraw the contract. He does not have to though.

[PhilipCohen]

eBay introduces absolute anonymity for (shill) bidders

In Australia, the UK, Ireland and the Philippines, eBay has now obscured auction bidding to the point that genuine bidders have got absolutely no chance of detecting and thereby protecting themselves from �shill� bidding (a criminal offence in most civilised countries) by unethical vendors. Notwithstanding eBay�s statements to the contrary, this application of absolute anonymity by eBay on these sites serves no purpose other than to deceive consumers; and the same criticism has always applied to eBay�s other shill bidders� facility, �User ID kept private�. Again, notwithstanding eBay�s various pronouncements about shill bidding being banned on eBay, eBay is now knowingly �aiding and abetting� such shill bidders, at the expense of consumers ...

A lengthy critical analysis of this matter at:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewto pic.php?p=6498345#6498345
I apologise in advance for the length of the above-linked comment. If you are an unethical shill-bidding seller or a buyer who is not concerned that, on the above-mentioned sites, eBay is effectively �aiding and abetting� such shill-bidding sellers to cheat you, read no further.