I’ve been running some eBay auctions lately and it always seems that there’s a solid percentage of my buyers who I have to prod and message and encourage to pay for the items they themselves bid on. I usually give my buyers 2 days after the auction ends to pay for the items and then I message them. If there’s no response I open up an unpaid item case. Often I get the same explanation:
“I don’t have the money to pay” or “I don’t have the money to pay now but I will in two weeks”
And now, the rant begins. Why, in the name of all that is good in the world, do you not have the money? This concept just simply doesn’t make sense to me. Why are you bidding on goddamn Pokemon cards on eBay if you don’t have the money to spend? Do you just get a kick out of bidding? Or do you have a legitimate problem where you are so broke that you can’t afford a Pokemon card. Either way, you have issues. If you can’t pay, DON’T BID ON MY AUCTIONS. Is that too hard to ask? As a seller, I need to a) budget for incoming funds, and b) not have to waste my time begging my bidders to adhere to the rules they agreed to when they placed a bid.
I never bid on cards if I don’t have the money. If I don’t have the cash in my account right now, then I won’t bid. Doesn’t matter how amazing the deal, how much I want the card, or what. I don’t have the money, then tough shit for me.
eBay’s policies towards nonpaying buyers are so lax that it’s actually funny. They get 4 days to pay, after which you can open an unpaid item case, then wait another 4 days before closing it. They say “an unpaid item has been recorded in the buyer’s account” but what does that even mean? If it were 1 out of every 100 auctions I wouldn’t care, but it seems to be a very large percentage now. I think I’ve sold at auction around 30 cards at auction over the past several months, and I can think of at least 5 times when my buyers haven’t paid. It’s a huge annoyance.
If it makes you feel any better, I can’t remember the last time I had auctions where at least one individual could not pay. There is no accountability anymore for non-paying buyers.
It is crazy that there was a time when you could leave negative feedback for buyers.
You can open an Unpaid Item Case after 2 days. eBay recommends 4, but I set my Unpaid Item Assistant to open the case automatically after 2 days.
It would be better if eBay did what Buyee does for auctions. They withdraw the money from your PayPal/credit card as soon as you win the auction. I’m sure there would be a lot less bs bidders if the money was withdrawn from their PayPal account right away.
Very annoying when you get dumb bidders like that. I normally don’t bid either if I know I won’t have enough money to pay by the time the auction ends. If it’s something I really want, I usually message the seller first and ask if they are willing to give me a couple extra days to pay (if I happen to win). Otherwise I just don’t bid. Not sure why some people can’t keep themselves from bidding.
I am with you 100% - SO ANNOYING!!! And the icing on the cake, YOU CAN’T LEAVE BUYERS NEGATIVE FEEDBACK FOR NOT PAYING!!! No, eBay doesn’t want buyers to feel “threatened”, so no matter the case, you’re forced to leave Positive Feedback or no feedback at all - WTF?!?!
Quick Story… I had a few seven-day auctions end on Feb. 15. AFTER winning one auction, I have a buyer message me: “Hey sorry I know its really late at night but is it okay if I can pay for this next Friday [Feb. 26]?” Ummm… You didn’t think to ask this question BEFORE bidding on my auction???
This eBay system discourages sellers from listing auction style cause of the huge non paying bidders percentage.
Until they fix this I’ll only list fixed price.
The majority of non-paying buyers come from auctions (at least from my personal experiences); there are still cases of non-paying buyers from BIN Listings though - I’ve even had a few buyers go back-and-forth with me using the Best Offer and not pay!
Does anyone know what happens with non-paying buyers? From my understanding: the seller opens an unpaid item case, eBay sends an automated message to the buyer asking them to provide payment, you close the unpaid item case (and get refunded your fees)… From here eBay gives the buyer a “strike” and MAY restrict there account. But how many “strikes” can a buyer receive?
I heard buyers can receive 2 strikes without getting anything worse than a warning from eBay. But 3+ strikes results in a temporary/permanent ban from buying. Depends on how frequently there buyer receives strikes I guess.
Yup, I adjusted my account settings to this a long time ago. It unfortunately doesn’t block 0 feedback users/new accounts from bidding, which can still be a problem. I had a guy with 70+ feedback, 100% positive recently who won an auction I had but didn’t pay. I guess he had fewer than 2 strikes when bidding.
Yeah, funny thing, the guys with low feedback or new accounts generally worry me but then end up being good buyers.The few bad sales I have had were mostly with buyers that had 50+ refs. Maybe we’re too harsh on the new guys sometimes lol.
Good idea, reporting definitely helps others
Never used the auction feature for this specific reason.
I have had 2 BIN’s where people haven’t paid. One of them was a person who somehow ‘forgot’ to pay until unpaid item case opened and a 3rd email reminder was set. The other one was a brand new eBay’er.
That actually makes a lot of sense. I remember reading one of the ebay newsletters, I forget the exact position of the staff in the article, but they said the best option for selling today is BIN/MAO. I have personally noticed a change in auction popularity in the past year. I also noticed I personally miss more bid auctions as a buyer.
It is rampant in the technology categories where some of the larger accounts will create multiple dummy accounts to buy out items that they sell that are listed cheaper to erase them from the market. This has not transferred into the Pokemon market as much but is very annoying
Not entirely. A lot of sellers decide to auction off items that they have had sitting for ages as BINs. Also, if you’re in need of some quick cash, your best bet is to auction your item, even if it means a higher risk of some troll buyer stumbling upon your listing and winning the auction.
“Can you unblock me? I will pay this time I really like the auction you have listed.” - I have actually gotten this from a blocked non payer a week later.
Some other replies I get sometimes after the case opens:
“My kid must have bought this on my iPad, can you please cancel”
“My car broke down and I don’t have the money now”
“My kid has autism and would love this card, can you go any cheaper?” Not that this was on an AUCTION!
“Can you combine shipping on these?” won 2-3 of my FREE SHIPPING auctions and somehow wanted a cheaper shipping rate.
I have at least gotten 2-3 negative feedbacks over the past 18 months or so solely from the fact that I was “rude” by opening an unpaid item case on a buyer after 3 days of non payment. It is ridiculous.
Mine is crazy too. It doesn’t take much to get blocked. About once every other week or so I have someone message me with a question which literally can be answered 3 times over by looking at the listing. “Is this holo or non holo?” Title says holo, photo shows a holo card, and description says holo… BLOCKED
Whats worse? A non payer for auctions or BIN? I am a small seller but have had 2 non payers for BIN or Best offer. I have to try and contact them for payment and it takes weeks to cancel if they don’t respond. 2 weeks that that item could have sold. B.s
Go through and fix your settings. As someone else said, I have mine set up to 2 (or 3, can’t recall) days non-payment and the unpaid item case is automatically opened. This gets a lot of people to pay shortly thereafter. Of those who still don’t another 2-3 days and automatically closed against them with an unpaid item strike. I like to list on Sundays and it is nice to be able to relist the following Sunday which I do.
