Making an offer to buy

Question

I recently made an offer to buy an item from a seller.I`ve done this before and it was pretty strait forward.But this time they asked a lot of questions that I`ve never had to do before,and when I made the offer it didn`t say it was sent to the seller like it usually does.Is it me or has something changed since I did this last?

You`rs Mr.J.

woodland_gnome · Answer

More and more buyers are now required to pre-authorize payment for if the seller accepts, so that requires both payment details and setting the shipping address (to be calculate the amount to pre-authorize for s/h and sales tax) before the offer can be made. Either you were added since your last offer was made or the seller of that item had opted out of requiring it (sellers can opt out, buyers assigned to the group required to do it can't).

mr_lincoln · Answer

Hi @denverkidder

Exactly what questions were you asked as part of the Offer process? Last year eBay started to implement steps that require Buyers to provide payment information prior to sending an Offer. The intent is to help cut down on Unpaid items.

While you may never had any problems paying for what you sent offers on there were enough complaints from Sellers that eBay had to take action on their behalf. Eventually that requirement will be rolled out to the entire eBay community of Buying accounts ... if it hasn't already been done.