How To Cancel a Bid on eBay as a Seller or a Buyer

Whether you’re a buyer or seller, you may wonder how to cancel a bid on eBay. Transactions are legally binding, so you have to be careful when selling. When bidding, be sure that you’re bidding on the right product and offering the right price. For the most part, the process is smooth and painless, but there are occasions when things don’t quite go to plan. That’s where canceling or retracting your bid comes in handy.

In eBay terms, canceling a bid is what you do as a seller. If you’re a buyer, you retract your bid. They are essentially the same thing, but if you read the eBay Terms and Conditions, the two are very distinct.

Canceling Bids on eBay as a Seller

Sellers can cancel bids for a few reasons, including but not limited to the following:

• The buyer requests you cancel the bid
• The item is no longer fit or available for sale
• You made an error in your listing
• You are concerned about the buyer

No matter what the reason is to cancel a bid as a seller, eBay discourages canceling for obvious reasons, so you will only be able to cancel a bid for specific reasons.

Here’s how to cancel a bid:

1. Log into eBay and visit the bid canceling page for sellers.
   
2. Enter the item number in the top box, the buyer’s username in the middle, and the reason for cancellation at the bottom. Click cancel bid when finished.
   

If you have certain criteria for bidders, such as restricting low feedback or satisfaction scores, it is a good idea to say so in your listing. You can require those with a feedback score of less than 20 to contact you first, or you can bar them altogether. Adding criteria for buyers to your listing helps prevent the need to cancel bids, assuming you have criteria.

Aside from canceling bids, you can also block bidders from buying from you.

Blocking Bidders from Your Auctions

If you have persistent non-payers who keep bidding on your listings and messing the auctions up, you can block them. It is a legitimate tool within eBay, and it can be useful in those rare occurrences when someone is just trying to cause trouble or lower your feedback score.

1. Log into eBay and visit the block eBay bidders page for sellers.
   
2. Enter the username of the person you want to block in the box. Select Submit to save. To unblock, simply delete the username from the list.
   

You can add up to 5,000 different user IDs to your blocked list at any given time. This tool can be exceptionally useful when you come up against competitors who play dirty or when someone just wants to mess around with you and cause trouble.

Retracting a Bid on eBay as a Buyer

When a buyer cancels a bid, eBay calls it retracting. Since eBay wants a fluid selling process that works for both parties, it discourages retractions as much as possible. Sometimes, you need to genuinely take a step back from a transaction, and there is a mechanism just for that.

There are only a few criteria that allow you to retract a bid, including:

• When the seller significantly or materially changes the product description
• You accidentally bid a different amount than desired
• When the seller doesn’t respond to communications

If the auction has less than 12 hours to run, you can only retract your last bid, and you can only do that if it’s been less than one hour since you placed it. If you miss the chance to cancel, you have to communicate directly with the seller to hopefully have them cancel the bid on their end.

To retract your bid on eBay, all you do is visit the buyer’s bid cancellation page, click the blue Get started button, choose the bid you want to cancel, type your reason, and click Retract.

As long as you meet eBay’s bid canceling rules and criteria, your bid will be withdrawn. If you don’t meet the criteria, eBay will refuse to retract it. If your cancellation is denied, you should contact the seller directly and see if they will remove your bid. Just explain the situation and be sure to apologize. If you have a genuine reason, most sellers will agree to cancel the bid for you.

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