Jim,

I have had that happen before. It usually means the seller decided he didn't like the way the auction was going and decided to flake out. He didn't want to take a chance to see if those snipe bids might come in the final 10 seconds to save him like they do in many auctions. In the old days you would get a notice from ebay if an auction was ended early, but now everything just goes to the Bermuda triangle. I bet if you do a search you will see the auction item that was "unavailable" suddenly available in a new auction in the next week or so. While there could be legitimate reasons for pulling an auction, such as loss by hurricane, mostly it is just someone weasiling out of a true auction. When this happens to me I make a note to myself to never waste my time bidding on that individual's auctions again. When I auction a chip off on ebay, if I start it at 2 cents and it only gets one bid.. it gets sold for that 2 cents.. and of course my astromical shipping rate of $1 to cover all those ebay costs and the actual cost of postage and the bubble evelope... no ending auctions early just because the price isn't what I would hope it to be. I like to see my customers get a good deal.. it keeps folks looking to see what I might decide to sell cheap. There are several people on this board that also have "real" auctions.. low starting prices and high bid wins, no matter what that bid is. I am sure I am not the only one to sell a chip for 2 cents. I think when that chip reappears for auction you should send a note to ebay with both item numbers.. it just isn't right to end an auction early.