Blitz (and related) bits on Ebay Australia

[Private_collector]

To be honest, it quite shits me, the old "advertised elsewhere and may be withdrawn at any time" ploy. Once bids taken, I feel the seller should live up to the commitment of auction selling. If no bids, sure, remove it whenever you like.

If they effectively change their mind about honoring the auction, why can't I say "changed my mind, don't want it now"? That's not acceptable, but sellers cancelling bids & auctions is OK? Not with me it isn't!

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

To be honest, it quite shits me, the old "advertised elsewhere and may be withdrawn at any time" ploy.

Obviously in these cases there can be no objection to making phone offers, since the seller is actually informing bidders that he's open to offers. I agree of course that it's extremely annoying - life would be much easier if sellers confined themselves to one mode of selling at a time!

I guess it begs the question - does the absence of this caveat mean the seller is NOT open to offers? Obviously not, as we've just seen with the F60L and C8AX auctions. So perhaps my criticism of phone bidding is unreasonable - or at the very least naive. Perhaps I should operate on the assumption that ALL sellers are potentially open to offers, and adopt the view that if someone is prepared to make their maximum bid known to the seller, he's entitled to the advantage that affords him over ebay bidders.

I shall wrestle further with this pressing moral question!