Bidding on Ebay Question

[shopgirl]

What if you bid on something and
are the high bidder, but you change
your mind? Can you back out of it?
If so, how?

[decadence]

They do have a retract bid option.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-retract.html
Not sure if that's useful but there ya go anyway

edited to add: You can also (assume the auction is still going) contact the seller, that way they won't have to find out you don't require the item afterwards & then re-list it. They might be accomodating?

[honeychile]

I once bid on an item that was incorrectly marked. I emailed the seller, and told her that I would purchase the item if I won the bid, but didn't want it. She appreciated my offer, but said that she wouldn't hold me to it. Luckily, someone else won the bid!

IMHO,, all in all, the more honest you are, the further you get with the seller.

[Kevin]

I used that retract option once... Saved my butt. I meant to bid $20.00 and misplaced the decimal. I ended up placing a $2,000 bid for a really cool looking bottle.

[kddani]

The only real reasons that ebay accept for retracting a bid is:
* If you bid the wrong price (2000 instead of 20.00) - but you've gotta put in the correct bid afterwards or ebay may suspend you
* If you tried to reach the seller and couldn't contact them. This, IMO, is a stupid reason, because if you have questions on anything you should ask them before bidding. Bidding is a binding contract! Ebay even tells you this after you hit the place bid button and asks you to confirm.
* If the description of the item has changed significantly. This shouldn't really ever happen, because once someone places a bid the seller can't change the item description except to add on to it.

Retracting a bid after a change of heart, sleeping on it, etc. isn't acceptable, and if you do it more than a few times, you'll probably get in a trouble. The number of bid retractions you have shows up in your feedback profile.

Sometimes if you REALLY have extenuating circumstances, a seller may cancel the bid for you. Or, if it's a seller you deal with a lot they may cancel it if you bid on the wrong item, for example I just did this the other day- someone wanted the XL size in an item I sell and accidentally bid on the medium.

As a general rule, i won't cancel a bid for someone, I make them do it themselves so that it shows up in their profile. One or two won't make a difference, but if someone's abusing the system I want them to get caught.

Sorry if I sound like a tough ass about this, but as an ebay seller I deal with this stuff EVERY single day

[shopgirl]

Thanks for the help.
I wasn't sure if I wanted
something I had bid on, but
I was outbid anway. I'm a
little sad now, but oh well.