Asta: offer canceled

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It’s not serious, but I’d like you to help me understand what happened.

A few days ago, while looking for something else entirely, I stumbled across a listing for a silver ring with an emerald (a more-than-one-carat emerald!!!), for 99 cents. No reserve price. WOW!

Now: nobody is that stupid as to set a big emerald in silver, nobody is that stupid as to sell a big emerald for one euro, and nobody, for that matter, is that stupid as to ship it for free. OK. But it caught my interest, and I decided to play along: the setting was nice and I knew who would like it, even with the piece of green glass it would (I hoped) arrive with.

I place a bid, which is immediately outbid. I place another one, same story. Again. Automatic bids, evidently... Once it got to just under the 5 euros I had set as my budget, I got curious to know who I was “fighting” against, but I found that all the bids except mine were “private bids.” I started to suspect I was fighting against myself and left it at that. Case forgotten.

Or so I thought.

Days later I receive a cheerful email from E-bay informing me that the higher bid above mine has been canceled and that I am therefore the proud winner of the auction for the BIG green emerald, which has just ended. Before I even had time to celebrate, a second email seconds later informs me that MY bid has also been canceled (and why?) and that I can read the reasons in the bid history. Too bad that when I log into E-bay the item shows as sold for the amount of 1 euro, with NO bids having been placed, and so there is no bid history available that would let me find out why my bid was canceled.

More: the item (but is that even possible?) doesn’t even appear among the ones I bid on.

What happened I did understand: the seller backed out.

But:

1) on what basis can a seller cancel my bid (auction without reserve price)?

2) is it possible that after an auction the item shows as sold, without any bids having been placed?

3) is it correct that it disappeared from the items I was bidding on?

(sorry for the length!)

Thanks!!!