GGgggggrrrr Why Do Sellers Pull Listings?

Watching a nice item - waited months and months for one to come up and the bloody seller pulls the listing off eBay with six hours to go!  

What is it people making offers? Them getting cold feet.

sellers are worried there will not be a flurry of bids in the final seconds so they pull the listing.
What were you after?

nothing

*sulking*

go on, I might see one on my travels....

*sulking*

sorry, I didn't realise it was a prickly subject

Bloody annoying when they do that. I tend to put a bid in early, which makes it harder for the seller to pull the item, but a few times I've done that, won the item at a ridiculously low price only to get a message from the seller a day or two later saying that the item has been broken and payment refunded. Requests for a photo of the damage either go ignored or they message back that they've already binned it and the bins have been emptied. Fast-forward a month or two and it's back up for sale with a higher starting price.
Why they don't just start the item at the lowest price they'd be prepared accept I don't know. If they're not prepared to accept 99p for something then don't start the auction at 99p just to save on listing fees.

It its an item you really wanted, Why did you not make an offer they could not refuse?
Like a Dead Horse's head or sumfin?

An extremely well-respected pottery dealer who I know will always shill bid on his own auctions that are about to end poorly.
I can't decide if his method is more annoying or the ones that pull the listings on the day they are due to end

The worst one I ever had was a teapot that went low and he emailed be a few days later saying he had cancelled the auction as it was his wife's and not his to sell. He had plenty other stuff for sale. What he really meant as she wanted more for it.

at least he didn't wheel out the old 'dropped it whilst wrapping it' bullcrap.
I just hate lazy liars.

I had that one - the guy emailed d to say he dropped one of the cups whilst wrapping a tea set but he glued it and you could not see it (much)

I must admit I doing mostly BIN's with Best Offer nowadays. The less that auctions are being used, the more scattergun has the bidding become. So its a brave seller indeed, who starts the auction at a tiny price. Its a very risky strategy nowadays. No wonder more stuff gets pulled.

I’ve seen a lot of pieces listed for auction but also at Best Offer. I’m never sure if they want to be offered more or less for the item. I guess it depends on whether it’s gone unsold in earlier listings and then they’ll take less for it. If it’s a new listing they’ll probably want more (I know I would)

From a sellers point of view, when listing auctions I never end them early but am often messaged with offers asking me to do so. I guess its tempting to some sellers if they are not confident of more bids.
As for best offers I only add that option on buy it nows so am expecting less than the asking price. I do this on items that I am unsure of their value. Normally in the first couple of days a few offers will come in and give me a good idea of its true market value. Collectors know the value of what they collect better than me.
I think the best offer on auctions is removed once there are bids, it certainly used to be that way.
As for shill bidding and unlikely breakages it is just dishonest and should really be reported. It may seem like eBay do nothing but if they get enough bad reports they should act.

Sometimes a deal may be done and then the seller will cancel the listing thus saving themselves the 10% ebay fees.

A lot of sellers now have the option of adding 'or make an offer' to auctions (before it was just for BINS) so if it hasn't had any bids it can disappear if someone makes them an offer they can't refuse.