can the seller change an e-bay listing during the auction?

I have been watching a timeshare on e-bay. I was waiting to bid on it until it had 1 day left, that would have been tomorrow. Tonight I checked on the listing & the seller has extended the listing time an additional 3 days. Also there is a 'buy now' option, when there was not before.

Can a seller do this? I was looking forward to the auction being over on a certain day & at a certain time, now it's changed, how can that happen?

There were no bids on this auction-does that make the difference?

Thanks, Christine

Yes, they can change it if there are no bids. Once a bid has been received, they can still add to the description, but it will show at the bottom of the auction. One of our fellow tuggers mentioned that he will place a very low bid early on to 'freeze' the auction, then place his normal bid towards the end of the auction.

Yes, seller can change quite a few things as long as there is no bid. Even after the bid is placed, there are still a few things that seller can change/edit...

Yes the seller may change just about anything - if there are no bids. If there are bids there are certain restrictions.
Marsha

And this is one of the bid liabilities with using a sniping service. If you set youir bid and forget about it, the description of the auction could change. Your snipe then enters and if you win you are in a binding contract to buy something that isn't what you thought it was.

BTW - I do use sniping services regularly for my eBay bidding. And I do often forget about auctions until I get the e-mail notices from eBay and my snipe service letting me know the bid has been placed.

what a lot of people don't really get is that timeshare sales on EBAY are non-binding anyway. Read the fine print just before you bid, and you will see that it says you do not have to complete the deal. Either buyer or seller.

Changes work both ways. As a seller, I try to put my listing up on Thursday nights for ten days. But if I do not get it done, I just put it up on Thursday night (my preferred night) but put a really high price on it (to prevent 1.00 bids) and go back early Friday morning and complete it and change out the price to the price I really want to start it at. To do an effective ad for a timeshare takes me about 60 to 90 minutes especially getting effective pictures up as well.

I bid on a wedding dress on a Thursday night and i emailed the seller with an additional question. The next day someone else had also bid, and the buy it now was gone from the ad. I had intended to buy it now, if the seller answered my question satisfactorily. But as soon as she saw interest, she removed the buy it now. It went for 50% more than the buy it now price, and not to me unfortunately.

rapmarks said:

I bid on a wedding dress on a Thursday night and i emailed the seller with an additional question. The next day someone else had also bid, and the buy it now was gone from the ad. I had intended to buy it now, if the seller answered my question satisfactorily. But as soon as she saw interest, she removed the buy it now. It went for 50% more than the buy it now price, and not to me unfortunately.

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I believe the "Buy It Now" option automatically goes away as soon as a bid is entered.

And that is another reason why bidders who intend to snipe an auction will first enter a low bid - that low bid limits the ability of the seller to make material changes to the ad and also prevents someone from preempting the auction by exercising the "Buy It Now".

In my auctions, when someone tells me they would have been willing to buy the item at the "Buy It Now" price, we usually strike a deal to sell the item privately, then after I receive payment I terminate the auction.

BocaBum said:

what a lot of people don't really get is that timeshare sales on EBAY are non-binding anyway. Read the fine print just before you bid, and you will see that it says you do not have to complete the deal. Either buyer or seller.

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Imposter BocaBum,

This is not true, many timeshare auctions are binding.

BocaBum said:

what a lot of people don't really get is that timeshare sales on EBAY are non-binding anyway. Read the fine print just before you bid, and you will see that it says you do not have to complete the deal. Either buyer or seller.

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This is not true on all eBay auctions. Some say quite the contrary which is that they will hold the bidders personally accountable for bidding. At the end of the day, it would be difficult to enforce any auction if the bidder refuse to pay. And, legal fees associated with enforcement of the auction rules would be cost prohibitive.

CaliDave said:

Imposter BocaBum,

This is not true, many timeshare auctions are binding.

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Dave, I hate to agree with Imposter Bum, but TS auctions are not binding. When you purchase real estate you must have a signed purchase agreement for the sale to be binding. When you win a TS auction, you've only said that you intend to purchase but it isn't legally binding.

BocaBum99 said:

they will hold the bidders personally accountable for bidding. At the end of the day, it would be difficult to enforce any auction if the bidder refuse to pay. And, legal fees associated with enforcement of the auction rules would be cost prohibitive

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People can and do put clauses in a TS auction to try an make TS auctions binding but they aren't likely to be enforceable. The big thing which makes an auction more enfourceable is the possiblity of negitive feedback. But some people just don't care about that either.

On the other hand, the auction of a TS membership, like worldmark, may be binding as the membership is not a deeded TS and may not follow the laws associated with real estate.

T_R_Oglodyte said:

I believe the "Buy It Now" option automatically goes away as soon as a bid is entered.

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...unless there is a reserve price. If there is a reserve price, the BIN option does not go away until the reserve price is met.