I’ve had enough of sellers ending auctions early

[dukatimonkey]

I'm so fed up of sellers ending auctions early So they can sell the item to someone who  has contacted them privately through messages

this is the third auction this week that I've been bidding on that's ended in this way

I've just literally had enough

why is this being allowed to continue there is no point bidding on anything anymore they might as well just have a buy it now price and that's it 

the auction and bidding process now on eBay is a complete sham 

they should at least give everyone the option to make an offer 

not do it behind other bidders backs

I've no faith left in trying to bid for anything anymore and eBay don't give a **bleep** 

[tobiasd4]

Sellers do not get off scot free, if there are bids when they end item early, ebay still charge 10% fee on highest bid.

[andyf117]

I too am completely fed up with seeing items I'm interested in suddenly end - for me, 'Make Offer' is one of the worst features eBay have ever introduced...

The 'old' system of listing auction-style but with a 'Buy It Now' option meant that if someone was prepared to pay the BIN asking price, fair enough - everyone could see what the seller hoped to get, but there was always the chance of buying at a lower price through the auction route, especially as the BIN option would be removed immediately an auction bid was placed. In some cases, the final auction price was actually more than the seller's original BIN price...

Now, however, MO means that something can suddenly end, regardless of whether it has bids or not, and no-one has any idea how much it sold for - including anyone who had already bid, regardless of how much their maximum bid was, which may even have been higher than the accepted offer. That, for me, is completely unfair, and defeats the whole point of the auction format...

[john1297576]

"So they can sell the item to someone who has contacted them privately through messages". To complete a sale contact details have to be exchanged, ebay monitor messages so that is a foolish risk to take.

How do you know this. If there are bidders it is very short sighted to sell outside ebay and still pay a selling fee and a possible defect. 

No one knows how much a winning bidder is prepared to bid, until other bids appear, so if an auction it should continue to get the best price, rather than risk ebay catch them selling outside ebay.

[red_magpie]

EBay allows sellers to accept a high bid, and end the auction early.

If a seller withdraws an item from sale after any bids have been placed, for whatever reason, they are charged fees on the price bidding had reached.

It's frustrating for bidders when sellers withdraw items from sale, just as it's frustrating for sellers when buyers retract their bids. The difference is that sellers are penalised for this, while buyers almost never are.