ugh - help, ebay advice needed
 

okay, so heres my problem..last week i decided it would be a great idea to surprise one of my best friend with tickets to see weezer for her graduation/birthday present..well after seeing how much the tickets were on ticketmaster, i decided to check out ebay, and see if anyone was selling tickets there. well, i found one pair of tickets for almost 1/2 of what i would have paid for on ticketmaster, so i put in a bid. i then realized that it probably wasn't a good idea to not consult my friend beforehand, because the concert is the day before graduation, and her parents are coming into town and stuff, ,so i talked to her, and of course she can't go. anyway, about 36 hours before the auction was supposed to end(at this point, i am still the only bidder) i emailed the seller, and explained my situation and told her that i had to retract my bid. she wrote back to me yesterday, about 4 hours before the auction was supposed to end and said that was fine, just as long as i did a formal retraction through ebay. well, at this point it was too late for be to formally retract my bid thru ebay because it has to be at least 12 hours before the end of the auction, but she, as the seller has the authority to retract the bid. well, i wrote her back telling her this, and she didn't get back to me until this morning, long after the auction ended. now, i am legally bound to pay for these tickets, but quite frankly, i don't really want to. i tried contacting the seller with plenty of time to take appropriate action, and i don't really like the band that much. so, my question for all of you is what should i do? should i suck it up and pay her for the tickets, should i argue it out with the seller because as i see it, i was the ONLY bidder..if i hadn't bid there wouldn't have been any bidders, so she's not really out anything...or should i just blow her off and ignore her?

I am not sure if it is the same with all the bidding on ebay but i had to retract a bid and i was told that the only thing that will happen to you is you will get a "non paying bidder alert." or something like that. This is only between you and ebay and no one will know that you retracted. So pretty much they can't do anything to you i think. Hope it all works out.

Anne Marie

Formal bid retractions are a matter of public record on Ebay and they show up on your user ID profile.

I am unsure how they deal with your particular situation. I suggest that you contact Ebay and explain your situation, and include the email in which the seller stated that she would retract your bid.

If you are a frequent, or even occassional bidder, it might be tough for your future bids to be accepted by sellers if you do not clear it up.

You could always pay her for the tickets, and then try to resell them yourself. I'm sure that it would be pretty easy to get rid of them, possibly for even more than you paid for them.

It's too late to retract your bid, so it wouldn't show up on your user ID stuff...just an fyi

I'd try to work it out, maybe she can quickly relist them, or sell to the second highest bidder. Or you could contact the second highest bidder and sell them to them....(ie: pay the woman, and then resell them like the person above said).

eBay 101
 

My husband gets all of his income from selling on eBay (part time seller/part-time student), so I'll give you a few things to consider:

1. Is this a professional eBay seller? You can tell by looking at their feedback history/and seeing how many have "s" by them for "seller." Or click "view my other auctions." The reason I ask is this--if she is making her living from eBay, she expects some no-sales, but more than a couple of no-sales can effect a professional eBay seller's livelihood.

2. If she is a professional seller, she knows what it takes to retract a bid--and that you couldn't do it with less than 12 hours. Also, it seems from her original response to you that she was OK with the cancellation...if she demands payment, politely remind her of your prior e-mails, which you would be happy to forward a copy of to her, and that but for her delay in responding, you would have been able to retract in a timely manner.

3. You said the way you see it, she is not out anything. Actually, she is out the listing fee, and the auction commission, which is a percentage of the sale price. She has to pay those to eBay regardless of whether you honor the sale. It may not be more that a couple of bucks in the end, but she is definitely out some money, and if she relists the item, she will have to pay again.

4. Many eBay sellers have disclaimers on their auctions stating that a bid is an express agreement to the auction terms, and not to bid if you are not serious. I would not expect any legal action on this type of clause, unless it is a big ticket item (think houses, rare trading cards, jewelry, etc). However, it is very bad form to engage in recreational bidding, when you have no intent of paying up...and in some cases, it can be considered fraud (like in the case of badge collectors asking their friends to bid up badges so we will have to pay more...ahem.).

5. Since the auction was completed, she has the right to leave you negative feedback for not honoring your bid. Some eBay sellers take this very seriously--my husband does not think twice about cancelling bids for people with numerous negative comments. YOu can rebut the comments, but remember that once they have been made, they cannot be taken back. Also, she can put a non-paying bidder on your ID. If you get 3 of those, you (or your ID rather) will be banned from eBay. This may or not matter to you depending on your eBay habits.

All of that said, if the facts are as you say, I think that if she is a reasonable seller, she will recognize her responsibility and will not demand payment. IN fact, she may be relieved, because you probably got a really good deal, and she was probably hoping to get more (and now she may be able to get more on the street). *Side note: Auctions that end on Saturdays or weekdays do not bring nearly as much as those that end on Sunday-late afternoon....these are the big $ days in most cases because people have been watching the auctions all week, and are waiting to snipe at the last minute--and all time zones can be involved in these!

Let this be a lesson to you!:) Don't bid on anymore eBay items unless you intend to follow through with it! (also, on a side note, don't bid on multiple different auctions of the same thing, hoping to win one of them--because you may win them both! It is a pain to the seller you choose to dishonor when you choose between the two).