I have had a ebay account for almost 5 years and the ebay policy on sellers prematurely ending auctions has changed over time. At one point, ebay said that once an auction started and the first bid was placed, the auction had to follow through to completion. Now, the seller can end the auction for any reason at any time. Ebay policies on auctions, including vintage bike sales, has gradually changed over time because at one point. there were no legal precedents to guide their regulations and procedures.
Ebay changed this "user agreement" policy in the past 2+ years where the seller can end the auction at any time for any reason. However, the seller still owes ebay the $5 ebay listing fee which applies to a SECOND AUCTION if the same item is relited within 30 days of the original. IMHO, this has opened up a can of worms for ebay where expensive items are sometimes de-listed to be sold to a seller found through ebay and avoid ebays additional 2.5% commission rate on top of the original $5 charge. This ebay fee amounts to $25 on top of every $1000 item sold. By avoiding ebay fees for buyers found through ebay, this action violates ebay rules and procedures outlined in the user agreement and voids any ebay protections afforded through its insurance program with a $25 deductible.
Federal and state laws are inconsistent at best regarding the regulation of Internet auctions. Ohio (where I live) has administrative law regarding auctions enforced by the Department of Commerce which says that once a auction has started, AND AT LEAST ONE BID ENTERED, the auction cannot be prematurely ended. The seller may have a disclosed/undisclosed reserve price listed in the auction which the bid may or may not meet, but the auction must follow through to completion. Therefore, ebay may be in technical violation of Ohio laws regarding auctions. When I posed this legal question to the ebay legal team several years ago, they did not respond... this is because ebay claims that all auctions takes place and are finalized in California and not the home states of the sellers or the buyers. Therefore, ebay claims that California law takes precedence over Ohio law in this matter.
Ebay's policy on declaring all auctions take place in California allows ebay to avoid charging the buyer or seller their home state taxes for out of state purchases. However, some states have signed reciprocity agreements with California to exchange sales tax information on out of state ebay purchases. Ohio has a "usage tax" that requires residents to pay state taxes at a rate of 5.5% (?) for any and all out of state purchases, including ebay purchases through auctions. This usage tax is legal, but cannot be enforced in Ohio because it is up to the individual Ohio resident to report it on taxes. The Ohio state government has started to complain that Internet sales and ebay auctions are pulling millions of dollars of state tax revenue from Ohio.
Regards, Steve Neago
Cincinnati, OH
> Dear All,
>
> I'm not a user of Ebay so I don't know what the rules are, but I do wonder
> at someone who wishes to reserve the right to end an auction because they
> simply change their mind. In all fairness, if you set a reserve you should
> allow the auction to proceed for the allotted time (barring flagrant
> violations of the auction guidelines). If the reserve is unmet, then it's
> unmet; no sale, end of story. To end the auction prematurely, on a whim,
> may lead one to I think you are fishing to establish the market worth of
an
> item (a topic which has been discussed previously on this list) and
> possibly a higher reserve, something I'm sure happens quite a bit.
>
> I believe that any seller who indulges in such melodramatic sentiment (as
> stated by Dale) runs the risk of appearing less than genuine about a sale.
> And from what I read on this list, adverse reputations on Ebay spread like
> an Australian bush fire and stick like Merri Creek mud (the stuff used to
> form cricket pitches in Melbourne, Australia).
>
> Personally I don't like auctions. I like to haggle face-to-face with the
> seller with the goods there in front of us. May be that's just my Italian
> background and my experiences in the markets with my Grandfather :)
>
> cheers
>
> Peter
> Perth, Western Australia
>
> > I gag when someone writes stuff like "I
> >reserve the right to end this auction at any time as it brings a tear to
my
> >eye to part with such a beautiful bicycle." Geez, give me a break!! If
this
> >seller is one of us (a CR member) I urge you to not indulge in these kind
of
> >melodramatic silliness, it demean all of us!
> >But then I can't even stand cutesy stuff like "Thanks for looking", so
maybe
> >I am just a grump.
> >
> >Dale Brown
> >Greensboro, North Carolina