Jim, you're picking nits, and you're not even accurate about it:

1. You said:

... right in its auction bidding instructions (copied and pasted exactly):

>> Your bid is a contract - Place a bid only if you're serious about buying the
>> item. If you are the winning bidder, you will enter into a legally binding
>> contract to purchase the item from the seller.

"So, if I was incorrect in posting that the bid creates a contract, I guess you can blame eBay."

If you were incorrect in posting that placing a bid creates a contract, and you were, you have no one to blame but yourself. The rules are there for anybody to read, and they're prefectly clear to just about anybody who reads them with an open mind.

What it says is "IF you are the WINNING bidder, you WILL ENTER into a legally binding contract to purchase the item from the seller. Plain as day.

You can't be the winning bidder until the auction is ended! The first sentance is intended to inform "recreational" bidders that they should take their bids seriously. The second sentance clarifies when the contract between seller and buyer actually occurs. The context is the entire paragraph, you can't point to the first sentance and ignore the second.

2. I said "the bidders, WHO HAVE NO RIGHTS in this regard". IN THIS REGARD, Jim, referring to having no rights to force a seller to complete an auction that he's started! A bidder has no such right. If you go looking for items to buy on eBay thinking that merely placing a bid guarantees that you have some rights to an item, you are seriously misinformed.

3. I said: Every eBay seller has the right to cancel all bids and end an auction early.

You said "Yes, the rules say that. Doesn't mean some of us can't think the rules suck in that regard. Which they do."

This was not a discussion of whether the rules suck or not, it was a discussion of what the rules actually ARE. You are entitled to your opinion of the rules. You are not entitled to criticise someone for knowing what the rules are, especially when you haven't bothered to learn them yourself after 2 1/2 years of buying on eBay.

Actually, if you think it through, the rule about a seller being able to cancel bids and end an auction early is the only way it can possibly be, and I can give you at least ten good examples of why the rule has to be the way it is.

But I won't, because I don't think you really care about learning anything, so I'll just give you two:

A.) You list a china plate on eBay, with every intention of selling. The auction is four days old, and there are 7 bidders. A new bidder emails you and asks you to check the maker's mark on the bottom of the plate. In doing so, you drop the plate and it shatters. Clumsy you. According to you, Jim, the auction should continue until the end, at which time a contract will be created between you and the high bidder. How could you have arule that says a seller can never end an auction early?

B.) You list an item in good faith, let's say a Thunderbird Casino $5.00 chip. At the time you list it, you know it to be a rare chip, and that it has sold for upwards of $2,000 in the past. It is listed in the reference books as having a value of $1500 - $2000. You have several early bids, and the high bid is currently at $900.00. Then you find out that a new supply of these chips has just been located, and the chips are trading hands at $25.00 per chip.

Being an honest man, you realize that you can't rewrite the description from scratch, but you do add to the description at the bottom , giving the new information. Jim, according to you, the rule should be that you should not be able to cancel all the bids and end the auction immediately. So you email the bidders and ask them to withdraw the bids (do you think bidders should ever be allowed to withdraw bids?). They all withdraw their bids, and the price drops down to the opening bid amount, with no bids. Fine, mission accomplished.

But the auction is still "live", because the rules don't suck, and they do not allow you to end an auction early.

With 10 seconds to go, two bidders who ahacvve not seen the new addition to your description, "snipe" the auction using E-snipe, both at $2,000. The first bid entered wins, and 10 seconds later the auction ends. A contract has just been created between seller and buyer. Ooops.

The rules were not created to ##### buyers off, they were created to do the best possible job of meeting the needs of both sellers and buyers, when no two situations are ever exactly alike. Just like the laws we live by.

Finally, you say "Sellers are all to willing to say "caveat emptor" and too bad for a buyer who doesn't do his homework before bidding. Why shouldn't the same principle apply to sellers?"

Why?

A seller does have an obligation to present the item to the best of his abilty, to make no misrepresentations, and to answer any and all additional questions buyers may have. I have never said anything different.

But a seller cannot know who intends on bidding on an item, and what questions they may have. A seller has no control over who he sells to. A seller can own an object that he knows little about, and wish to sell it anyway. A seller will frequently get bids from people who know 10 times more about the item than he does.

I recently sold a bunch of expensive Christmas ornamnets for a friend, and I was amazed at the questions I was getting! "Why didn't you mention this", and "why didn't you mention that?" Because I had no idea what was important and what was not! I didn't even understand most of the questions, much less the answers!

Fortunatley, most of the bidders were nice friendly people and educated me, and I added to the descriptions as I went along. They taught me where the reference web sites were, what was important, and what was not. They duid not prejudge me, they tried to be helpful. Nice bunch of people, they represented their hobby well.

One guy did come down on me pretty hard though, saying essentially "how DARE you list these ornaments when you don't even know what they are, what they're really worth, and how to describe them properly?" So I cancelled the bids on the remaining unsold items, ended the auctions early, and relisted them later when I had my stuff together. I almost didn't though, I was felt so attacked and stupid.

A bidder, on the other hand, can easily ask questions of a seller to satisfy himself before bidding. A bidder can comparison shop. A bidder can withdraw a bid without penalty (before the end of an auction) if he has a decent reason to do so. And finally, a bidder can refuse to bid and look elsewhere if he's not sure of what he's bidding on.

If new informaiton is discovered that effects the value of an item, a bidder is free to withdraw his bid. Shouldn't a seller be allowed to do the same?