Rant - Tired Of Canceled Ebay Auctions

They should just start the auction at what they want or set a reserve. There has been a couple of times I thought a coin was going to sell for more and I took a hit on it. Oh well, that's the cost of doing business. I have learned since.

Are you certain that it is the seller who canceled the auctions? I've just been through the Inquisition at ebay, which I am told is happening a lot these days for coin sellers. I had about 15 active auctions going, half of which were set to close within hours, when I received an email from ebay stating that all of my listings had been canceled, and that I would receive a separate email with instructions on what I needed to do to have my seller account reinstated. No reason was ever given for their actions, and I am a power seller in good standing since 1999. The email with instructions arrived 9 days later, instructing me to fax personal financial documents, photo ID, and receipts from everything I've sold in the last 6 months. I had been told to expect this from a colleague who also was a victim of the Inquisition, so I had the fax sent within the hour. Four days later, they reinstated my account.
As you can imagine, some bidders were pretty angry with me, even though none of it was my wish. I lost momentum, customers, and 2 weeks of revenue. Oh, and now I am limited in the number of items and dollars I can sell each month.
Here's the best part - tomorrow a specialist will be calling me to discuss growing my business as part of the "Seller Outreach Program" they have launched. Frankly, I would have preferred they keep their hands to themselves and let me run my business as I see fit.
Thanks, guys, for letting me vent!

Something similar happened to me...once. Someone reported that the raw coin that I listed was a fake, and to the best of my knowledge it was not. So, "they" cancelled it and gave a slew of recommendations to help avoid such accusations; clearer images, better descriptions, TPG, etc... You can't please everybody.

And I have ended an auction or seven for having no activity within the last 12 hours (or such), to reevaluate my description, and make other adjustments to the auction as a whole.

aboarman...


Would they be doing this to increase their profit from you? I've only been a buyer from ebay over the years, so I'm not familiar with the costs associated with selling, but from reading many threads here, it seems there is quite a burden on sellers. Would being in this Seller Outreach Program be good or bad for you? Better for ebay?

Just as material for contemplation... I've recently ended 4 auctions early. The reason was because I lost track of time. "What?!" you say? It's like this: I use the exact same listing for each and every coin I sell. I just go in and adjust the date, the mint, the condition, add a new photo etc. The listing I might run today looks like a carbon copy of the listing I was running 4 years ago. When I'm not listing anything (like the last 3 months), I use ebay's "scheduler" to put an old listing out there 3 weeks into the future so that I can perpetuate it and not have to compose a new listing when I'm ready to resume selling. The trouble with that is if you lose track of time and don't keep moving it further out as that 3 week window expires your listing goes live! I'm really scatterbrained this summer and have had to tell 4 people "Sorry! I really don't have that coin and didn't mean for it to go live!"

That's a legit excuse for having to cancel - tho a bit of poor execution/business model. IMO, I'd bet those are the very rare exceptions that do this.

Most of these are likely due to poor guessing on interest level - which is not an ethical reason for cancelling. I've never had one I was interested in cancel. But it would not be pleasing! ;)

(with both comments!)

"the auction will get sniped anyway. That's what EVERYONE is doing these days, it seems like."

Maybe I'm off on interpreting what sniped means, but I thought it meant to wait to the last second to be the only bidder and bid the minimum opener only. Thus to keep from getting in a "bidding war" and pay much more than the minimum opener.

I do that because often the minimum is about as high as I want to pay for the coin, and I know if I bid before 3 seconds to go then someone else will notice the coin - only after I open th ebidding that is - and outbid me. If I wait, no one else notices it or wants it - typically!

Thus the cancelling does it's purpose of not allowing someone to win the bid with the minimum price.

I have seen a few coins go where no one bids for the 6 days 23 hours 58 mins and then a flurry of bidding happens at the very end, but that seems to be the exception. When I look at the history on ebay, most coins just expire with no bids. But then most are priced, in BIN or minimum opener, unrealistically way over list/retail as well.