How to end your Ebay auction early

You can end your Ebay auction early but there are some restrictions.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Existing Ebay auction
• "End your Auction" web page

1. If you decide to end your auction early, it will no longer appear on Ebay. If you cannot complete your listing as planned, you can end your listing before the scheduled date. If there are bids on your item, you can cancel them.
2. Reasons for ending listings early include:
   1. The item is no longer available for sale.
   2. There was an error in the starting price or reserve amount.
   3. There was an error in the listing.
   4. The item was lost or broken.
   Note: Your account will still be charged listing fees (such as the Insertion Fee) if you end your listing early. Consider revising your listing first if there are aspects of it you want to change or improve.
3. Timing Matters:
   When there are 12 hours or less remaining and the item has a winning bid, including a bid that has met the reserve price (if any), sellers cannot make any changes to the listing, including:
   5. Ending the item early. Sellers may cancel bids, but not end the item unless the item is being sold to the high bidder.
   6. Adding to or changing the item description.
   Note: Canceling bids or making changes to a listing with bids when there are 12 hours or less remaining, can damage the buyer experience and can undermine trust in the marketplace.
4. To end your listing early:
   7. Type your item number into the "End My Listing Early" form, found at: http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?EndingMyAuction&guest=1.
   8. If there are bids on your item, choose between:
   Cancel bids and end listing early or Sell item to high bidder(s) and end listing early
   If your item has no bids, you can skip this step.
   9. Choose the reason you're ending your listing early.
   10. Your listing will end and will no longer be displayed on eBay. If there were bidders, they will be emailed that their bid will be canceled.
   Note: Sellers are not permitted to cancel bids and end listings early in order to avoid selling an item that did not meet the desired sale price. This is considered to be reserve fee circumvention. Although there are legitimate reasons for ending a listing early, abuse of this option will be investigated.
   Note: eBay Motors allows sellers to end their listing early and cancel all bids by sending a Transaction Confirmation Request to the buyer.
5. It is always preferable to make changes to your listing, if possible, rather than canceling the auction. You can make the following changes:
   Revise any information except the format. In addition, the duration cannot be extended if two or more hours have passed since the listing was submitted.
   Remove the following optional features only: Buy It Now, eBay Picture Upgrades, Reserve Price, 10-day listing.
   Add optional features to increase your item's visibility (for example, bold.)
   Add or change a Gallery picture.
   Add or change pictures using eBay Picture Hosting.
   Add a second category.
   Reduce the start price of your item. (You will not receive credit for the difference in your insertion fees.)
   Add to the item description.
   Reduce the reserve price of your item. (You will not receive credit for the difference in your insertion fees.)
6. There are few things you can change in your auction once there is only 12 hours left. These include:
   Revise any information except the format. In addition, the duration cannot be extended if two or more hours have passed since the listing was submitted.
   Remove the following optional features only: Buy It Now, eBay Picture Upgrades, Reserve Price, 10-day listing.
   Add optional features to increase your item's visibility (for example, bold.)
   Add or change a Gallery picture.
   Add or change pictures using eBay Picture Hosting.
   Add a second category.
   Reduce the start price of your item. (You will not receive credit for the difference in your insertion fees.)
   Add to the item description.
   Add pictures using eBay Picture Hosting.
   Add optional features to increase your item's visibility (for example, bold.)
   Reduce the reserve price of your item. (You will not receive credit for the difference in your insertion fees.)
7. By ending your auction early you may lose customes as many people like to bid in the last few minutes of the auction. This also happens because people have used bid sniping programs to bid for them in the last few seconds and having your auction disappear may leave them confused, disappointed or angry.
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Tips & Warnings

• Finding your way around Ebay can be difficult. Just keep going back to the "Help" section and ask the question a little differently. Instead of using "auction" the help files use "listing".