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Ending an eBay auction without cause

gatorcpa
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Bernhard J Bernhard J
The court decision cited further above overruled "eBay Rules", because eBay Rules insofar are not compatible with EC law. In the cited case the seller even argued that he suprisingly discovered a fault of the item (haha), but that did not help him either. eBay Rules are not supernational "law"...
Not sure that EC law is enforceable in UK anymore. Brexit anyone?

Might be a hollow victory.
gatorcpa
 
Bernhard J
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@gatorcpa It still is, despite Brexit, because of Rome I Regulations.

Any cross border court decision will likely become a hollow victory. Because the fraudulent seller or buyer often can just ignore a foreign civil court order. Cross border enforcement typically is very cumbersone and time and money consuming.

Thats why so many get away with unserious business practices, even if prosecuted. That really is something to get angry about. One reason why I prefer local sales.

But one must also say, unserious sellers (and hopefully buyers) remain to be a minority, most are absolutely OK as to my experience.
 
Bernhard J
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collector1946 collector1946
The seller can do as he pleases.

Well, thats a position good to know in advance. I.e. not to consider buying from. 😝 😉
 
Modest_Proposal
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Is a law still a law if it's never enforced? The fact that we all remember the UK pensioner testifies to the extreme rarity of enforcement. I can understand you're upset - but I wouldn't dwell too much on the legal aspect. It's more of a principle thing.
 
Donn Chambers
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Bernhard J Bernhard J
Hi Dan,

The court decision cited further above overruled "eBay Rules", because eBay Rules insofar are not compatible with EC law. In the cited case the seller even argued that he suprisingly discovered a fault of the item (haha), but that did not help him either. eBay Rules are not supernational "law"...

Any seller has the option of electing BIN. Listing it in an auction, however, is binding under civil law (in the EC at least) as soon as at least one bid has been placed. I know that many sellers do not like this fact.

Of course nobody with common sense would go into litigation for low amounts. But that is not an argument making inappropriate sales practice "legal".

I am not really angry. Just a little bit annoyed. Such sellers simply are time-wasters, because before bidding people often do some research work. The lesson is to simply avoid such a seller in the future.

That case would have likely been thrown out in the US. And as others have noted, EBay in the US does allow the practice if the item is “no longer available”, with only minor penalties to the seller.

So you can continue to be annoyed at the practice, but it won’t be going away.
 
gatorcpa
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Bernhard J Bernhard J
Thats why so many get away with unserious business practices, even if prosecuted.
Auctions are far from the perfect sales platform, whether eBay or high-end auction houses. They are open to so many different types of fraud with almost zero oversight.

If the German (or any other EU) government think they are going to stop sellers on eBay outside their jurisdictions, I say “good luck with that”.

There are ethics and there are laws. They are not the same and never will be.

To complain about either is a waste of time.
gatorcpa
 
NoName
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Probably the seller had the watch in other platforms and it sold in one of them!
I put my watches on Omega Forums, ebay,chrono24,marketplace and at my store!
So there are many places the watch can be sold!
IMO if you like a watch very much you can secure it by sending a message to the seller and maybe make an offer if you think the price is too high!
 
C
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Sometimes a auction can end early if the item is sold on another platform. In rare cases, the listing price was wrong, and the seller wants to change it.
 
Pastorbottle
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I canceled a sale when an eagle eyed buyer noticed a fault that I didn’t……. Not all auction cancellations are bad.
 
W
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This happened to me but the other way around. I was the seller and the buyer just cancels the bid at the last minute and eBay are fine with it.
“Entered the wrong amount” even though he was a watch seller himself. EBay’s policies are awful
 
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