AW Daily - Tips & Tactics - During the Auction: Cancelling an Auction

Home > Tips & Tactics > Tip

It might not happen often, but there will be times when you'll need to close an auction. When is it appropriate to pull the plug? What if your auction already has bids? Read on for tips on when, how, and why you'd want to close an auction.

Stuff Happens
No one is immune to the curveballs that life occasionally throws. Whatever the reason (death in the family, unexpected travel, medical emergency, or an auction site's system failure), you'll no doubt be faced with the situation of not being able to follow through on a particular auction. Canceling an auction might seem extreme, but it does not violate most auction sites' terms of service.

It's usually easy to end an auction early if there are no bids, or, in the case of a reserve auction, if the reserve price has not yet been met. However, if bids have been placed, you are still obligated to sell the item to the highest bidder. In most cases, you must first go through the process of retracting the bids before you can then cancel the auction itself. eBay allows sellers to post a message explaining why the auction was canceled. Of course, it's always best to visit the help/FAQ sections of individual sites to clarify their policies on canceling auctions.

Suspicious Bidders
While monitoring your auction, you might recognize the name of a fraudulent bidder--perhaps a chronic deadbeat you've encountered before. Or maybe you check out the bidder's feedback profile and discover something that gives you cause for concern. In these cases, it's certainly appropriate to retract bids and/or cancel the auction itself. To prevent things from having to go that far, Yahoo Auctions offers a blacklisting service that bans designated buyers from bidding on your auctions.

It's Worth How Much?
Here's an interesting scenario. You have an item up for auction (say, an old fountain pen). During the auction, you find out that the pen isn't just any old fountain pen, it's what Ernest Hemingway used to write The Sun Also Rises. Suddenly, you realize that you have a major coup on your hands. But the auction is already underway, and the minimum bid is set at a measly 10 bucks! What do you do?

Cancel the auction and relist it at an appropriate price, that's what. Some might debate the ethics of such a move, but the bottom line is that you don't want to get short-changed when you have a potentially lucrative item in your inventory.

Don't Abuse It
Although auction sites permit the closing of auctions, they don't condone it as a regular practice, particularly when it comes to stopping auctions that have winning bidders. Don't abuse this capability. Amazon.com Auctions will terminate your account if you cancel too many auctions. Furthermore, if you kill a lot of auctions you can expect to get your fair share of negative feedback from disappointed bidders. Cancel only when it's truly necessary.

Lastly, if you're unwilling to part with an item, try to figure that out before you put it up for sale. You've heard of buyer's remorse? Well, there's also something called seller's remorse. Avoid it.

Monitoring Your Auctions
Addressing Bounced Checks
Dealing With Deadbeat Bidders