These are Ebays rules for a seller ending a listing early. No the seller generally cannot end it at the last minute but Ebay can.
When you can end a listing
If you end a listing early, it risks disappointing potential buyers, so we strongly discourage all our sellers from doing so. However, we understand that there are times when it might be necessary to end a listing early. Some valid reasons include:
- The item is lost, broken, or no longer available.
- You made a mistake, such as listing the wrong starting price in an auction.
Whether you can end your auction listing early depends on if you’ve received any bids yet, how much time is left in the auction, and if you have a reserve price in place.
You can end your auction listing early if:
- There are no bids on your item
- There are bids on your item, and you are willing to sell your item to the current highest bidder
- There are bids on your item, and you don't want to sell it to the highest bidder, but there are 12 or more hours left in the listing. You'll need to cancel all active bids before you can end your listing. In this situation, we charge a fee equivalent to the final value fee that you would have paid if the listing had ended on its own and sold for the highest bid received when you ended the listing. We allow you to end one listing each calendar year without being charged this fee
You can’t end your auction listing early if:
- There are fewer than 12 hours left in the listing, you’ve received bids, and you don’t want to sell it to the highest bidder
- There are fewer than 12 hours left in the listing, you’ve received bids, but the item’s reserve price hasn’t been met yet
If your listing isn't eligible to be ended early, you can contact any bidders to explain the situation and ask them to retract their bids. If the auction has finished, you can contact the winner and, if they agree, you can cancel the transaction.
Ending listings early disappoints bidders, so we may place limits and restrictions on your account if you are doing so regularly.
