02-22-2024 08:48 AM - edited 02-22-2024 08:48 AM
Over the years I’ve cut down on selling more and more. There’s almost 0 recourse for the seller when bidders don’t pay. At this point non payment occurs on 9/10 of my auctions. When contacting eBay their only solution is to list items as buy it now. Seriously? This is an auction site. You can’t control the shill bidding so you state don’t use the auction feature?? I’m 100% sure eBay will die off in the next 3 years. I can’t wait for their downfall.
02-22-2024 08:53 AM - edited 02-22-2024 08:56 AM
If you have nonpaying buyers are you canceling the transaction after 96 hours for nonpayment? When you do this the buyer gets a nonpayment strike. 2 nonpayment strikes in 12 months gets the buyer blocked bidding and buying from countless items on eBay.
Listing your items with immediate payment required instead of auction style would stop all the nonpayment buyers.
You can have cancellations of nonpayment done automatically in preferences for items awaiting payment
Also if you send invoices as payment reminders the cancellation clock resets, also eBay sends reminders so sending more would be redundant.
People have been saying eBay is heading for a downfall for years...it's not going to happen.
02-22-2024 08:54 AM
What would be better, running an auction and not getting paid or list a fixed price with immediate payment required and getting paid?
02-22-2024 09:12 AM
@res0zpvt wrote:Over the years I’ve cut down on selling more and more. There’s almost 0 recourse for the seller when bidders don’t pay. At this point non payment occurs on 9/10 of my auctions. When contacting eBay their only solution is to list items as buy it now. Seriously? This is an auction site. You can’t control the shill bidding so you state don’t use the auction feature?? I’m 100% sure eBay will die off in the next 3 years. I can’t wait for their downfall.
Ebay hasn't been an auction site in over a decade. The auction part of it is a small fraction of the business that most sellers and buyers alike never participate in. You will find very few people who earn their full time living on ebay that use auctions more than rarely. In my last 50,000 listings across all my accounts I ran all of two auctions, only one of them got paid for.
Also, the last thing you ever want on ebay is to force someone to pay for something they don't actually want. That just means that it will get returned to you and you will lose money.
02-22-2024 09:23 AM
There are some steps to take to minimize non-payment issues. Sellers can set their Buyer Requirements to block serial non-payers. See policy below for more information.
”I’m 100% sure eBay will die off in the next 3 years. I can’t wait for their downfall.”
Very unlikely prediction.
If you truly will take enjoyment from eBay’s fall from grace, why use such a platform to begin with?
02-22-2024 09:28 AM
@res0zpvt wrote:Over the years I’ve cut down on selling more and more. There’s almost 0 recourse for the seller when bidders don’t pay. At this point non payment occurs on 9/10 of my auctions. When contacting eBay their only solution is to list items as buy it now. Seriously? This is an auction site. You can’t control the shill bidding so you state don’t use the auction feature?? I’m 100% sure eBay will die off in the next 3 years. I can’t wait for their downfall.
^^ Incorrect. There has always been a way to cancel the transaction when buyers/bidders don't pay. The time has been shortened to 4 days. You aren't out any money and the buyer gets a strike.
02-22-2024 10:01 AM
@res0zpvt wrote:Over the years I’ve cut down on selling more and more. There’s almost 0 recourse for the seller when bidders don’t pay. At this point non payment occurs on 9/10 of my auctions. When contacting eBay their only solution is to list items as buy it now. Seriously? This is an auction site. You can’t control the shill bidding so you state don’t use the auction feature?? I’m 100% sure eBay will die off in the next 3 years. I can’t wait for their downfall.
I'm sure the several million eBay sellers that without eBay might be homeless and starving appreciate your feelings.
It is about 10 years since eBay reported that Auctions represented less than 15% of sales, I quite sure that number today is under 10%.
Yes eBay is struggling to maintain their GMV in recent years but they are still a highly profitable operation that isn't going away anytime soon. Perhaps at some point they will get taken over, if you don't like how it is today, you definitely won't like it if a new ownership / majority control comes along.
02-22-2024 10:07 AM
It’s been over 10 years since I’ve used auction listings, and in that time I’ve only had one UPI cancellation.
02-22-2024 10:14 AM
@glorybells wrote:It’s been over 10 years since I’ve used auction listings, and in that time I’ve only had one UPI cancellation.
Sometimes I think a lot of it has to do with the type of items you're selling?
Some items just attract a better class of buyer then some items.
02-22-2024 10:18 AM - edited 02-22-2024 10:19 AM
If you have a 90% nonpayer rate there is something really amiss.
Your experiences dwarf the average seller's occurrence of such instances.
02-22-2024 10:44 AM
@glorybells wrote:It’s been over 10 years since I’ve used auction listings, and in that time I’ve only had one UPI cancellation.
Same here, gave up auctions in 2009, don't use IPR and have had only 1 non-payer since 2012.
Even when I was doing auction listings my non-payment rate never exceeded 5% and was usually more in the 2 - 3% range.
02-22-2024 10:49 AM - edited 02-22-2024 10:52 AM
I'll take that bet about eBay dying off in the next 3 years.
02-22-2024 11:19 AM
My suggestion is to avoid the auctions style listings and go with a fixed price, buy it now, immediate payment required and NO best offers. I stopped with auctions years ago due to what you are experiencing and now when I get a sale, I always get paid. You are here to make money, not to chase. Sorry for your frustration.
Happy Selling
02-22-2024 05:10 PM
@hartungcards wrote:I'll take that bet about eBay dying off in the next 3 years.
For ebay to die off in the next 3 years some huge, huge money would have to roll out a competing website with half the seller fees, and even then I think it would take them a decade to kill off ebay.
02-22-2024 05:35 PM
At this point non payment occurs on 9/10 of my auctions.
Stop using auctions.