Should I remove the bidder or not?

I have some eBay auctions ending in four hours. One of the items listed is currently at $810 and I’m very confident that it will rise during the last few moments of the auction, just like they always do.

I just received an email from the high bidder asking me to remove his bid. He says he still wants to bid but not that high. The problem is, the highest bids are set for auto, meaning that if I remove his bid, it won’t just default to the next lowest $800, but instead will drop to the lowest auto bid at $600.

He should not have bid without ensuring his cash was fluid enough to make the purchase. And I cannot remove just one bid. I must remove his entire history of bids and ban him from the auction altogether.

Should I remove him or take a chance that he’ll be outbid in the last seconds? Keep in mind that I can always offer the item to the second highest bidder after the auction. But removing the high bid now will lower the overall perceived value of the item.

What’s the right thing to do?