eBay twisted contractual logic?

[RogerS]

In their usual arrogant way, eBay seem (at least to my understanding of contractual law) to arbitrarily redefine the concept of a contract.

If I make a maximum bid of, say, £100 for an item and their system pegs me at £75 as being the higest bidder then that is my contract at that point in time. IE I am offering to pay £75 for the item. If I subsequently decide that I don't value the item at £100 then I should be able to reduce my maximum bid down to my existing contract level of £75. But they won't let you.

Have I got the concept of contractual law wrong?

 

[tekno.mage]

I don't know about the legal side, but you used to be able to do something like that on ebay (provided you did it more than 12 hours before the auction ends). There used to be a facility to retract a bid made in error and rebid - for instance say you made a typo on a max bid of £10.00 and put in £100.00 by mistake - there certainly used to be a facility to correct this (I've used it in the past!)

tekno.mage

 

[Blister]

Its an auction , if you put £100 as your max bid then £100 is your max bid

If you pre bid in a auction house its the same rules ,

If you only value something at £75 then only bid £75

Ebay had bid retraction but only I think until someone bids or 12 before the auction ends

 

[RogerS]

Thanks for the clarification.

Note to self : do not go on eBay after drinking alcohol.

Roger

 

[tekno.mage]

.

Note to self : do not go on eBay after drinking alcohol.

Roger

That's very important - I have a friend who knows that one to his cost! His particular forte is bidding on very expensive high-end audio equipment late at night after a visit to the pub. The result is usually a large pain in the wallet and extreme disapproval from his wife if she finds out (we have been involved in secretative equipment collection & delivery for him in the past). He does have about a 65% success rate on item usefulness good bargains though, even when drunk.

tekno.mage

 

[RogerM]

I usually use bidnipwhich allows you to amend or cancel a maximum bid any time up to 3 mins before the end of the auction.

 

[Blister]

I usually use bidnipwhich allows you to amend or cancel a maximum bid any time up to 3 mins before the end of the auction.

That's a new one for me !