Guild Wars Guru Auction - Seller's Obligation?

Icy Zephyr

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2006

W/

I'm assuming that if a seller lists an item with no reserve price and no special terms in their item description they're obligated, on the completion of the auction, to go through with the exchange with the highest bidder? I'm basing this on this line from the Terms & Conditions:

"As a seller, you are obligated to complete the transaction with the buyer at the end of an auction if the bid equals or exceeds the reserve price."

It sounds really clear, but there seems to be some confusion out there. From hearing some of my guild-mate's experiences, and from my own first winning bid, many sellers seem to think that they're free to back out of an auction at their whim.

For example:
Icy Zephyr - "Hi! I just won your auction for X."
Some Seller - "Hey there. What was your bid?"
Icy Zephyr - "One sec, let me check."
...
Icy Zephyr - "OK, got it. My bid was Y."
Some Seller - "OK, that's too low... I'd be willing to sell it for (Y+20K) though."
Icy Zephyr - "errr...."


A couple of suggestions that may help:
Add an Obligation subheading to the "Help -> Selling" section just like the one included under "Help -> Buying".
Also, I haven't put anything up for auction myself so maybe this is already there, but maybe add the terms/obligation to both the seller's and bidder's submission form (so they'd see it just before submitting an auction or placing a bid on one).

Thanks.

Inde

Site Contributor

Join Date: Dec 2004

Icy,

Yes it is a problem. People treat the auction system as the forums stating things like "I reserve the right not to sell" or "This is not an auction" (irony there). This is what negative feedback is for. I assure you that other seller and buyers will see the remarks and it will hurt the seller's reputation to not complete the sell.