eBay

ajdornier · ‎10-26-2021

This has happened to me twice now on auction items where there are many bids and the winning amount is rather high. At the last moment, a buyer with zero feedback would snipe the auction and would ultimately not pay, even after several reminders and no response. Of course eBay will cancel the sale, credit me back the fee, and put a strike on the buyer, but I've effectively lost the sale. I've tried to do second chance offers to the next highest bidders but of course they've moved on to other listings. I've heard from other sellers that this is happening more frequently.

I'm not saying buyers with zero feedback should be blocked (we all had to start somewhere), but I think there should be a policy where a buyer with zero feedback shouldn't be able to make a bid in the last 5-10 minutes of an auction. It still won't prevent scammers 100%, but I'm hoping it should help curb this abuse.

femmefan1946 · ‎10-27-2021

When you joined eBay it was known as an auction site. I'm not sure if back in the 20th century we even could list at Fixed Prices.

But times change, and frankly buyers don't like auctions very much.

There are less than 15% of transactions as Auctions nowadays, and that has been true for most of the past decade.

And one way this shows is that winning bidders often walk away from the auctions they have won, possibly because they did not win immediately and have already bought the item elsewhere, received it and are enjoying it, by the time the auction closes.

They're not scammers. They just got bored waiting.

Kids today, eh?

With all your experience here, you must have a pretty good idea of what the winning bid on your auctions is going to be. Why not list at Fixed Price ? Or even add Immediate Payment Required?

BTW- looking at one of your listings, I noticed this " I can only provide the exact shipping cost when I have the mailing address of the winner. "

Umm. No.

You can't change the shipping cost after the sale. And in any case you are using Calculated Shipping so provided you have entered the dimensions and weight correctly (and in metric) the bidder sees exactly how much he will be paying you for shipping.

When you use CalculatedShipping, the program sees the address of a browsing customer, even though you don't.
Actually I wonder if that statement, in spite of your reassurances, might not be why some bidders move on.

ajdornier · ‎10-27-2021

Hi - I don’t think it’s a case of the winner getting bored waiting when they snipe. I’m looking at the bid history, the non-paying snipers jump in literally at the last minute of the auction and haven’t previously bid, so there is some intent there.

The only reason I say exact shipping cost based on location is that the shipping tool doesn’t take insurance into account, which depends on the final amount on the bid as well. Canada Post only covers up to $100 CAD so if the value is well above that, I do have to factor some additional insurance into the final shipping cost. But yes, perhaps I can word it differently.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-27-2021

You shouldn't word it differently, it should be taken out all together. The buyer is only obligated to pay what the listing states. If you want to purchase insurance you need to decide ahead of time and put that as a handling cost so that the buyers sees it as included in the total shipping cost. Since buyers are covered by the eBay MBG insurance is for the seller, not the buyer and it cannot be added on after the sale.

Buyers often buy or bid based on cost of the item plus shipping. It's not reasonable to expect them to buy or bid without knowing part of the equation AND it's not allowed by eBay to add on costs after the fact.

teenytrinkets · ‎10-27-2021

I agree with your logic about no zero bidders should be allowed to snipe, but honestly you should stop using auctions if you cannot provide the exact shipping cost beforehand. I would never bid on something knowing that. I think you're attracting the wrong type of buyers by doing that, and setting yourself up for non paying buyers regardless of feedback.

Not to mention, most auctions these days that I see end with no bids or one very, very low bid. They just don't fly anymore

ajdornier · ‎10-27-2021

Thanks everyone for your feedback! I changed all my listings to remove the statement about the shipping cost, and also changed some of them to BIN listings - I'm going to let the other ones end then change them as well.