I get that you are frustrated. I'm also surprised that a Top-Rated Seller that has been on eBay for over a decade was unaware that sellers could not leave negative feedback for buyers. This was a change eBay made about eight years ago now. eBay had their reasons; mostly because they were seeing too many examples of negative retaliation. An unhappy buyer would leave a negative, and the seller, being frustrated, would almost always leave a negative feedback in return (even when they might have been in the wrong).
(1) Why can the buyer leave me negative feedback if they did not like the book that they bought from me? Really no concrete answer from the rep except that the buyer would get an unpaid strike to their account. In other words, Ebay will just "sweep" that buyer under the rug and he will still have a 100% positive feedback.
They can't. And no one has left you negative feedback for this reason, so I'm not sure why you're bringing it up. If someone were to leave negative feedback saying "I didn't like this book" there would be grounds for eBay to remove said feedback upon request. You're right that the buyer will get an Unpaid Item Strike as a result of the Unpaid Item Claim.
(2) How many "unpaid strikes" does a person have to have before something is done about it?
No one knows the answer to this question. However, as a seller you have the option of blocking any buyers that have had a certain number of strikes against them. That can weed out some of problem buyers.
(3) The rep suggested that I send a second chance offer to the person that was outbid. I had already done this and the second chance buyer did not accept my offer. I told the rep that if I was given a second chance offer I would be very suspicious as to why the buyer that outbid me did not pay for the book. Many times I have been outbid on a item only to find the same item on sale by the same seller a few days later. What's up with that? T he buyer and seller were working together in trying to get my automatic bid higher without going over. When they exceeded my automatic bid they simply cancelled the sale and the item went on sale a few days later.
I think you are frustrated and angry right now and that might be clouding your judgment. I don't believe this is how the vast majority of people would think/respond if they were to receive a second chance offer.
(4) I re-listed the $49 comic book again and this time It only sold it for $13.25. I lost $35.75 due to Ebay allowing that deadbeat buyer to simply walk away from the sale. How about I do not pay any Ebay fees for the next three months. Will they allow me not pay and simply walk away...I don;t think so!
Your first sale had already seemingly set the market value on this particular item at ~$49. Was that price in line with similar items that have sold recently? If so, why not just list the book as a 'Buy it Now' for the $49? You could also have specified "Immediate Payment Required", in which case this whole "unpaid item" issue would never even have come up. Auctions are always a risk - just because something sold at one price doesn't mean the same item will always sell at that price.
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All in all, I wouldn't really fixate on this issue too much. Buyers that don't pay for their items are always going to be a problem on eBay - simply file an "Unpaid Item" claim, relist the item as soon as the claim is closed, and move on. If after more than a decade on eBay, and enough successful transaction to get to 2200+ feedbacks, this is your first time dealing with a problem such as this, then consider yourself very lucky!
