Help! Two x higher bids disappeared, minimum bid now showing!

[dotnet]

I listed a plate on eBay which people seemed to like. It was bid for twice, quite early on, the second bid being £9.50. I do remember the monicker of the person who placed the second bid.

Now - 8 hours left to go - I look at My Ebay and see that the plate is showing as having THREE bids - but only the minimum asked for amount (6.69) is displayed in green as the current bid. The usernames of the previous two bidders have disappeared as well.

Going out for three hours now, but if any clever person out there has advice for me I shall see it when I get back. I shan't want to accept the 6.69 showing as the current bid, being as I KNOW it had been bid up 50 per cent higher, midweek (I just can't understand why the previous bidders seem to have disappeared, either; they were listed, and of course the 9.50 bid had been showing in green.)

I shall try to contact the 9.50 bidder when I get back, at any rate, as I can remember her/his username, which was quite a funny one. Anything else I should do?
Thanks.

Could they have been banned?
It seems a bit odd to have that pattern of bidding, usually you get the bulk of bids in the last few minutes. If you are finishing on a Sunday night then that is a good time in terms of maximising your bids.

thay have probably retracted their bid. You should be able to see this on the bid history.

They probably wanted to see how high the the first bidder was prepared to go.

I would ignore and block... they are likely to be a difficult buyer.

Thanks, hiveofbees and typicalvirgo. After I did the post, it did dawn on me that the higher bid must have been retracted. I'd forgotten that people can do that; I know they can't pull out once the auction has ended and I suppose I was thinking that all bids have to stay, once made.
I'll check out how to block, tv. Thanks for the suggestions.

Jilted at the eBay altar, ehI? Boo hoo. I hope someone better comes along before time runs out.

people retract bids for different reasons the most common is accidentally entering wrong amount like £23.40 instead of £2.34, alos someone might have bid on your plate then seen a cheaper one on BIN , or perhaps saw one later that finsihed sooner. or perhaps they relaised they can't afford it

on other occasions people do bid up slowly to see how high other bidder will go then retract bid which is why it is best to " bid your max, bid once and bid late " ie with few seconds to go

you can cancencel any bid at any stage before end of auction

if you check their feedback and highlight feedback as buyer it will tell yuo how many bids retracted in last 12 months if less than 3 it is fine is 35 it means they often bid and retract to see what max alternative bid is, if latter block him but if former i would think genuine and would not block

Hello saratigh. I did block that bidder who retracted. I'd not known how to do that, so I looked up how to on that eBay forum thing or whatever it's called. I was annoyed because s/he retracted so late on, having left his/her bid for days - which might have put other interested parties off?

S/he did put as the reason for the retraction 'wrong amount entered', though.
I suppose I could do what you suggest (find out if they make a habit of retracting), out of interest - make the connection by clicking on that person's username (from when they put the retraction thing through) and find 'feedback as buyer' from there; is that how I'd do it?

I'll give that a go, anyhow. Thanks for the suggestion.

But... I'm very pleased to say that I'm going to sell for quite a high price - it's now standing at three times the original minimum asked for bid. Yay.

yes above all feedback comments on left in small writing it says number of retracted bids in 12 months, i would say 1-3 is ok any more only ok is buying loads like hundreds of items when possibly easier to make a mistake and bid on seller y when you meant seller x

Hi sara - couldn't see anything, probably because the bidder who retracted has made his/her feedback profile private. My gut feeling is that typicalvirgo is likely to be right, and that person needed blocking. It has been useful, this experience, because I hadn't encountered it before. eBay is a strange and quite complicated place. It is useful to have helpful people who are a bit sussed, out there in the ether, who are willing to explain how things work. Best wishes.

How did it go ?

It sold, and very well. Just over twenty three pounds, which is really good and quite surprising. So the retracting bidder didn't scupper things; no harm done. Thanks.