I really fucked myself. I will soon be the proud owner of about 5 stereo headunits. All the same unit and all for around a 100-120 dollars each.
I thought a person could just cancel a bid. I see now that I should have clicked the “watch this item” thing and only bid if I lost the other auctions. Instead, being an idiot and new to eBay, I just bid on all of them with the idea that I would cancel my bids on the others once I won one of them.
Aw crap. I guess I should read the rules first. Maybe I can resell them for at least what I paid. Man, that’s quite a costly mistake on my part though. There’s still time, maybe someone will outbid me on all of the items and I can get away clean.
Ouch. It’s a silly mistake, but if it really IS a mistake, then you might be better off trying to wiggle out of buying them - maybe offer to pay the seller’s final value fees and file a mutual agreement not to complete the transaction. If the worst comes to the worst and you get negative feedback, you could discard the account and sign up again (I don’t think that’s against any rules).
There are retract bid buttons I believe. Did you look for that on the auctions? If they have closed, I recommend you following Mangetout’s advice and pay the sellers cost. Be upfront with them about your mistake and it should work out. I certainly wouldn’t be paying for all those headphones!
Some in less than half a day. Others in a couple days. I’ve just been outbid on one, thank god. I’ll try to get some newbie help from a mod if it comes down to it. Like if I win most of them and then need to cancel my bids. But I really dont want to dick out on the sellers. My integrity is definitely worth more than $500.00 bucks. I’ll ask them to delete my bid, but if they refuse, I’ll still pay.
You can always turn around and resell the extra units and maybe make a profit in the bargain. At the very least, you’ll certainly be able to cut your losses. I once bought a HeNe laser power supply that turned out to be unsuitable for my particular laser head, so I posted it for sale back on eBay and made almost as much in return as I’d paid originally, and the buyer was quite happy with the purchase.
I’ve also accidentally bid on (and won) an item I hadn’t intended to bid on, and asked the seller if he’d mind canceling the sale and told him I was willing to take the hit on feedback. He was very nice about the whole thing and canceled the sale with no feedback or other repercussions. It’s always worth a try, anyway.
If you’ve been outbid on one, and you bid the same price on other similar items, there’s a good chance you’ll get outbid on others. A lot of eBay bidders come in at the last minute, or even in the last few seconds. So it may be worth taking the risk of doing nothing until the auctions are over, then (if you’ve been successful on more than one), trying to do a deal with some of the sellers. That will preserve your eBay reputation.
I think the seller can cancel a bid even at the last minute. Of course you have to ask the seller nicely and all that.
You consider an account on bidnapper.com or similar service. It’s a service that places bids on your behalf at the last second. It also has a “contingency” option, i.e. “bid on item B only if I don’t win item A”.
I agree, do a search on the make and model of the unit you are bidding on. Then look in the left column of the page of current auctions under “search Options”, you can select “Completed listings” and click the "show items " button. This will display all the similar items that have sold in the last few weeks, and give you an idea of the market price. If it is a common item, it will usually not vary widely between similar items in similar condition. You may be off the hook for all of them by the end of the auctions.
This represents one of the major problems with eBay. It is damn near impossible for a buyer to get out of a deal, but the seller can get out any old time they want.
I did a similar thing when I first joined eBay. I was buying toys for Toys for Tots. My friend told me to put several bids out because I was unlikely to win them all. I did.
It didn’t cost me as much as it cost you, but I learned my lesson.
I did the same thing when I started out. You could try emailing the seller. I did that and they were extremely nice about it. Could you contact someone else that bid on the item? Is that allowed?
Which part is the major problem? I would think it would wreak havoc with ebay and be a major PITA for the seller and the other bidders if a buyer could put in large bids on things and then come along later and say, “Guess what, I decided I didn’t want it after all.” On the other hand—can a seller really get out any old time they want? How so?
Sellers can easily cancel or end an auction early with a “item no longer available”… and then relist… they do this if they do not expect to get what they wanted for an item… and there is little that the prospective buyers can do about it.
It’s also easy for them to have shill accounts to up the bids…
I also suggest you contact the other sellers and ask to have your bid(s) cancelled. Some of the sellers might turn out to be assholes about it, but most I think will honor your request.
As a seller with an 1800+ feedback rating, I can tell you’ve we’ve run into plenty of people who make mistakes. I’d rather have a mistaken bidder tell me before the auction is over that they won’t be able to complete the deal - it saves me the trouble of sending out “2nd chance” notices & otherwise dealing with the end-of-auction bullshit. Time is money and it’s hard enough already to make much profit of FeeBay.
