Hope this works out for you.  It is a beauty!  Over a day left on the auction, one never knows.

Is it OK to ask the seller to cancel my bid?

Of course it's OK to ask.  The seller could refuse but may grant the request and not want waves.  The sellers auction isn't looking so good right now and an SC bass usually does well at auction.

Well crap.  Does anyone want a SC Deluxe with 3A maple top?  Ending bid plus shipping!  Available tomorrow! *sigh*

If you don't want the bass, retract your bid.
Don't ask the seller to cancel it.
EBay only cares if they get several complaints about you.
You are welcome to email the seller with an explanation, but I doubt he cares.
Just do it as soon as possible so the other bidders have time to react.

I'll give the seller an hour or 2 and then retract.

eBay - gotta love the place!
 
You are in a tough spot.  Any serious bidder knows your top bid now and could slip in and bid a dollar less just out of meanness (some people are just that way . . .).  That or hopefully out bid you by a dollar.  I imagine that your top bid was closer to $4,000 than it is now (I quit paying attention).  You might want to eat your pride and play Murphy's law, as you are not in a good position here.  I have been on eBay for a very long time.  It is the black market of the world, and some not nice people hang there.  I am a firm believer in a deal is a deal.  Even on eBay, my bid is my word.  However, in your circumstances, I would not hold it against you if you retracted your bid.

Yeh, I was seriously worried about that too.  Bid retractions and cancellations are a serious pain.  They totally leave you exposed for abuse of the system.  Any jerk ebayer or someone scheming with the seller could take me up to my max.  The only option i think at that point is to retract.
 
Not that I deserve any sympathy.  It warns you about retractions right next to the place bid button!

the seller was totally understandable and seems like a great guy.

e mail sent

e mail sent to who?

Devon, so do you still need an out option by another bidder?
 
Steve

nope.  i'm in the clear... that is unless there's another retraction.

good news...sounds like there may have been some sort of sceaming going on that back fired or sometimes wierd things like this just happens! There will probably be a last second bidder come in or e snipe.

I too expect that last minute flurry on this SC beauty.  The BIN was the probably the way to go on this bass.
 
(Message edited by artswork99 on September 13, 2008)