How to Retract a Bid on eBay

Retracting a bid that you've placed on an auction item is not something to take lightly.  You should always put a lot of thought into your bid before placing it.  A bid is a commitment to buy the item if you are the highest bidder.  However, sometimes circumstances arise where you may need to retract a bid.  Retracting a bid on eBay is easy to do, but figuring out where to do it can take some hunting around if you've never done it before.

eBay basically accepts three reasons for retracting a bid: if the seller won't reply to you or answer your question, if the item's description has changed since you placed the bid, or if you accidentally typed in the wrong number when bidding.  If one of these situations has occurred and you need to retract your bid, here's how:

- Login to your eBay account.
- Hover over My eBay in the upper right corner and click on Bids/Offers on the drop-down list.
- Click on the auction item for which you want to retract your bid.
- Either copy or write down the eBay item number for this item (found just under the Description tab).
- Next to the current bid amount, there is a small link that shows the total number of bids placed (ie. "7 bids"); click on this link.
- A list of all the bids will be displayed.  Click on either the Learn more about bidding link above this list, or the Learn more link below the list.
- Under the heading Bidding Overview, click on Changing or retracting your bid.
- Click on the Bid Retraction link in the list of bullet points.
- On the bid retraction page, type in (or paste) the eBay item number.
- In the drop-down box below the item number, choose your reason for retraction.
- Click on the Retract bid button.

All of the bids that you've placed on that item will be retracted immediately, which you can verify by visiting the item's auction page.  If you click on the list of current bids, at the bottom you'll see a note showing that your bid (with your partial username displayed) was retracted.  The amount of the bid and the date it was retracted will be shown, but the reason for retraction will not.