Question on ebay bidding?

[Kels]

You know how a lot of times the people who put up items for auction on ebay don't get a good profit out of it? This is due to the fact that people who are bidding have the chance to pay less than the normal amount for that item. At the end, if the final bidding price is really, really low, then it doesn't seem as if the person who put that item up for auction is really getting anything out of it. So why do they put stuff up for auction? Are they able to cancel the whole order if they don't get the certain amount of money that they wanted in the first place? Thanks in advance.

[Schmussekatze]

When I sell stuff on e-bay, it's because I don't need it anymore. So I can either throw it away or see of some one wants it and get some of my investment back.

[Ian]

If the listing has bids on it, the seller cannot cancel the auction.
One thing people do is to get a friend to put a big bid in, therefor avoiding having to sell the item at a low cost to someone else. This is called 'shilling' and it's against ebay policy (it may even me illegal?)
If the seller wants a minimum amount for an item, they will put as reserve on, or set the starting bid at the point at which they make a profit, or it's worth their while.
If they don't do this, it's probably due to
1) The item is expensive, or troublesome to get rid of. It's much easier to have someone come and pick it up then struggle taking it to a dump.
2) The seller has misjudged the demand of the item. Thinking that a low start price will pull in more bidders, the strategy backfires and they are left having to sell it at a loss/little money or having to do something sneaky to avoid completing the sale.
3) They don't care what they get for it. Anything is better than nothing and lots of small items with small returns can build up to a decent amount of money.

[Ann]

For the most part, you're going to get garage sale prices on anything that you sell on eBay. Even if the item is in brand new condition and is still in the original packaging, you may only get 1/2 of what you originally paid for it. There are some antiques and collectibles that sell really well, but you have to have something really special or else you're not going to get much for it.

Sellers can set a reserve price and they don't have to sell it unless it to you unless it reaches that amount. If there are more than 12 hours before the auction ends, they can cancel of the bids on it and end the auction early. They may decide to do that if they aren't getting as many bids as they had hoped. eBay frowns upon this practice, but a lot of sellers do it anyway.

[234]

most people on ebay are either sellers with alot of inventory so they can afford to sell thing for pennies plus alot of people are on there are just trying to get rid of the item.


No they are not allow to cancel the auction just because they didnt get what they wanted for their item. If you have something like that then LIST YOUR ITEMS FOR WHAT YOU DO WANT FOR THEM SO YOU DONT FEEL LIKE YOU DIDNT GET WHAT YOU WANTED FOR THE ITEM.