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Can I retract or cancel my bid?

In some situations, a bid may be retracted (cancelled). In order to retract your bid, it must meet the requirements of our Bid Retraction policy.

Note: Bid retractions only apply to auction format listings. There is no equivalent for bid retraction in Buy It Now listings. Once you've confirmed your purchase, you are obligated to pay the seller. If you have used the Buy It Now option by accident, you should email the seller immediately by using the "Ask Seller a Question" link from the listing page. You should explain what happened and ask if the seller is willing to cancel your buying obligation. Only the seller is able to do this.

Whether you can retract your bid or not depends on the following factors:

  • Why you are retracting your bid

  • When your bid was placed and when the listing ends

You can retract your bid for the following reasons:

  • You make a typographical error and accidentally enter the wrong bid amount. (Changing your mind is not considered a typographical error.) For instance, you bid Rs. 99.50 instead of Rs. 9.50. If this occurs, enter the correct bid amount immediately after you retract your bid. If you do not place another bid, the retraction will be in violation of eBay's policy and could result in your suspension.

  • The description of an item you have bid on has changed significantly after you placed your bid.

  • You cannot contact the seller. This means that you tried to call the seller, but the seller's phone number doesn't work, or you have tried emailing a message to the seller and it bounces back undeliverable.

You can only retract your bid at certain times in a listing, depending on when you placed your bid:

When your bid was placed

What is allowed

What is not allowed

More than 12 hours before the listing ends

You can retract a bid as long as there are more than 12 hours left before the listing ends. When you do this, all your previous other bids will also be eliminated. Be sure to bid again if you are correcting a bidding error that you made.

You cannot retract the bid during the last 12 hours of the listing.

Please contact the seller to request that your bid be canceled. However, it is up to the seller's discretion whether to cancel your bid.

Less than 12 hours before the listing ends

You can retract a bid within one hour of placing it. In this case, only that bid will be retracted; any other bid you placed before the last 12 hours of the listing remains valid.

Restriction: Your total number of bid retractions in the past six months is displayed in your feedback profile. eBay will thoroughly investigate reports of invalid bid retractions. Abuse of this feature may result in the suspension of your account. Bids retracted within the last 24 hours of listing may be viewed as bid shielding, which is a serious violation of our policy.

To retract a bid, use the Bid Retraction form .

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