The ideal conclusion to listing an item is to have that item sell. A seller might need to end the listing because the item is no longer available or was lost or broken. The EndItem, EndFixedPriceItem, or EndItems calls of the Trading API can all be used to end listings early.
For auctions that have qualifying bids (i.e., current high bid that, when applicable, meets the minimum reserve price,) you must specify an EndingReason value. If you specify SellToHighBidder, the listing ends as a successful auction with winning bidder(s). If you specify another EndingReason value, such as LostOrBroken, all bids are automatically cancelled before the item has ended as an unsuccessful auction. An End Item call will fail with an error if there are 12 hours or fewer remaining before the auction ends and there are one or more active and qualifying bids on the item.
EndItems allows you to end up to 10 listings early with a single call. Any restrictions that apply to EndItem apply to EndItems, as well. Refer to the EndItems reference documentation for more information. Note that sellers are not credited for any listing-related fees if they end listings early.
Effects of ending an item listing early
The following table summarizes the effects of ending an item early for various listing types.
| Listing Type | Effects |
|---|---|
| Auction | Current high bidder becomes winning bidder if the reserve price is met (if the listing has a reserve price) and EndingReason is set to SellToHighBidder. The listing ends as a successfully sold item. If a different EndingReason is specified, any bids are canceled and the listing ends as an unsuccessful listing (item unsold). |
| Fixed-price | The listing ends. Any order line items are still valid and payment is still expected from the buyer(s) and shipping of the item(s) are still expected from the seller. |
| Buy It Now | Listing ends as an unsuccessful listing (item unsold). If a user had exercised the Buy It Now option, the listing would have already ended. If at least one user has placed a bid on the listing, treat as an auction (see above). |
| Classified Ad | The listing ends immediately instead of at the scheduled date and time. |
The application must identify the listing to be ended early. This is done by specifying that listing's item ID as the value for the ItemID. If using EndItem results in the listing's ending as an unsuccessful listing (i.e., the item has not sold,) then the application must specify the reason for ending the listing. This is done by specifying the reason in the EndingReason property of the request object. Supported values for the EndingReason property are enumerated in EndReasonCodeType.