Have any of F4F members experienced numerous bid retractions on fig auctions on eBay? This is not only frustrating but there is hardly any way of reporting the problem, believe me, it is a problem when a buyer has as many retractions in a 6 month period. I may be reading the information incorrectly so  let me know if so, looks like the bidder is trying to find out what the maximum bid is on an auction then retracts, check this out:

Member Id: 4***o( 153)

Retracted: US $31.00

Bid: Dec-22-15 16:43:21 PST Retracted: Dec-23-15 05:47:11 PST

Bidder Information Bidder: 4***o( 153) Feedback: 100%Positive Item description: Item Title: 2 Black Madeira fig tree cuttings Bids on this item: 0

30-Day Summary Total bids: 169 Items bid on: 75 Bid activity (%) with this seller: 0% Bid retractions: 48 Bid retractions (6 months): 251

Why are they doing it. It,happens to us all the time now. & we hardly ever sell fig cuttings. Ebay is all we do so yes,frustrating. Dont know why it is a problem lately

Waynea and figpig,

This is interesting to me as a  buyer.  When I come in second, it leaves me in a back-up position with a price that is sometimes way up there.  That is also irritating.  I thought maybe it was a seller strategy.  Now that I see this, I have no idea what is going on.  I thinks it would reasonable for eBay to work on a solution. 

48 retractions in one month, 251 in 6 months is unbelievable, you would think that there would be an automatic block for such actions.

i always thought the seller has a friend or a bogus account that he/she raises the prices by making fake bids with hopes that someone else will outbid them, i have had this problem with everything on ebay.  Not sure if im wrong but just my 2 cents.  id rather pay a premium on here for what i need/want with anything fig related.

I have been an ebay member since 1999. It's always been this way. Ebay is in it for the money. Although they have a policy against it

https://www.google.com/search?q=schill+bidding+on+ebay&oq=schill+bidding+on+ebay&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.10083j0j4&client=tablet-android-hms-tmobile-us&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#newwindow=1&q=shill+bidding+on+ebay

It is difficult enforce.

It so frustrating I tend to shop Buy It Now listings when I can. Ninety percent of my online shopping is with Amazon and other non ebay sellers.

I haven't sold on ebay recently so maybe things have changed. But there used to be a way to block specific users from bidding. If you are the seller who is a victim of this, are you able to see what his username is in the bid history of your listing? Maybe you could block that user from all your future/other listings?

As HH stated above you can place the individual on your Blocked Buyer/Bidder list.
You'll note that individual still has a 100% positive rating.

Maybe its ebay administration. The higher it sells the more fees,i pay ! ,lol. Just kidding

No need to kid Richie, you probably are right. Remember the time we bought international figs at auction and eBay turned our name and contact information over to USDA-APHIS? We tried to get eBay not to list international auctions on the US site , but they wouldn't listen because they get a commission and still turned us in. It's all about the money. The person that I listed above has retracted from several different sellers so I do not think there is any seller collusion.