How many bidders do you have blocked right now
And, more importantly ... what does a buyer/bidder need to do to earn an escort to the door?
I am a small seller, in fact I opened this store in November of last year. I JUST bought a store subscription. And so far, I have about 15 people booted. Basically, my line is that they waste my time and generally **bleep** me off. But ... to an old guy, wasting my time is a mortal sin. I do not tolerate people who waste my time - I don't have a lot left so I'm getting kind of stingy with it.
I don't do auctions. I do a set price, and I entertain offers. Most of the time I get offers of about 20% off. I respond with 10% and we usually settle somewhere in between.
Every once in a while I get someone who offers $1 on a $20 item that is NOT over-priced. I research my stuff carefully, and when I get an offer like that .... I do it again (they might be right). But, today I get a dollar offered on a $25 item. I sent a $22 counter, in the notes area I said that I checked Ebay and a couple of other third party sites and that it appears to be priced appropriately. And, "Where did you get your opinion of value?"
The only reply I got was counter to my counter ... $2. BLOCKED.
Got one last week. "Can you tell me if the emblem is scratched, is it warped? How worn is it? Will you take $20 including shipping?" Will I pull the item, assess it to see if it is acceptable to you, so you can complain to Ebay that it's not what you expected, then I have to process a refund, AND you leave me bad feedback -- for almost half of what it's worth? Actually, NO I won't do that. Oh, and BLOCKED.
This is not a way to make a living for me. I just need an extra couple grand a month - and I'll get there I think, but not if I carry a bunch of dead weight that slows me down.
I have made a living at sales my entire life ... big ticket items .. and I never suffered fools or time wasters. If I had, I would have starved.
So, watta ya think?
What does it take to get banned from your listings?
earthdreamer
·3 years agoMy BBL came already prefilled with quite a few usernames. No idea if that is usual.
Have added a number since, mainly from non-payers and ridiculously low offers.
safan80
·3 years agoI have more sellers on my block list than buyers. I buy and sell on ebay. I wish I could block sellers from my saved searches as I have a lot of hard to find items in my searches and I always get sellers popping that must purposely name their items wrong to get hits. If I ran across someone with too many negatives I add them to my block list.
stainlessenginecovers
·3 years agoI block about 1 a month, 12 a year for a total of 160 in a 12 yr span.
gloryglorygifts
·3 years ago25. Most were for non-payment, and I do have BIN on all of my items. (It's from accepted offers sent to followers of items.) 2 were from negs left. 1 was a neutral left. 2 were people that lied about their return. Last, but not least at least 3 or 4 were from this guy that kept sending harassing messages telling me his thoughts on my products and then chatting up my staff about me personally. I think he clocked 23 messages in one hour alone. Blocked him and he created more accounts. Finally ebay stepped in and shut him down for good.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoI'm quite surprised that sellers who use Best Offer don't have those parameters for Acceptable/Not Acceptable set up.
The amounts can be a penny apart.
And the customer gets a polite refusal from an eBay bot. It must be polite because they try again and again.
I've never had anyone go to the full 10 Offers they have available.
It's a huge time saver and a greater irritation avoider.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoThousands.
Not personally Blocked, but I have my Seller Preferences/Buyer Requirments set to automatically Block deadbeats with Strikes for Unpaid Items.
Last time I looked, three had been Blocked in the past two months and I had never seen anything about it.
I use Best Offer, and nearly half my sales are BO.
But I set parameters so I don't see anything that is a lowball (less than 80% of my price) and automatically accept ones that are good enough.
clh1
·3 years agoI've been selling 25 years & have 22 buyers blocked. It usually happens when its an item that I've sold 100's of & all of a sudden this buyer says its terrible & after free return back to me & a full refund they leave negative feedback. And a few times I've had a bidder buy from me several times & every time return the item, they get Blocked. When I get offers I ignore them. Occasionally I am asked if I give a discount when buying more than one item & I reply that the Free shipping is the discount.
mr_lincoln
·3 years ago@clown_car_driver
byrd69er
·3 years agoI do not tolerate people who waste my time - I don't have a lot left so I'm getting kind of stingy with it.
Right on!
I just canned a house painter before he even started. Sorry dude. Your contract doesn't signed.
What a waste of time. Twice, wanted to give an estimate without even visiting the residence.
roobzsportz
·3 years agoI mostly agree with you, I haven't blocked low ballers yet, I usually just decline their offer and don't haggle at all. It doesn't take but a few seconds to click the declined button.
rosachs
·3 years agoI have a stock text message I can copy/paste that politely states that we have aggressively price our item for sale on the eBay Marketplace and are not accepting Offers or offering discounts at this time. When I'm answering Messages, especially on Monday, I just keep Notepad open and pull up the text clip I want for the common question being asked. I don't want to be rude, I just want to make it clear that we're not taking Offers or making deals.
-Bob.
chariot_badges
·3 years agoI have a stock post for that guy that offers 50% or less of what it is listed for.
Thanks for your offer. I was surprised to see such a low number so I checked eBay and a couple of third party sites. It appears to be priced very fairly, but I will give you a 10% discount just for asking. Could you tell me where you got your opinion of value? If you can show that it's overpriced I will lower it.
From there I either get an accept or I hear nothing till it expires.
OK w/ me either way.
evry1nositswindy
·3 years ago@fashunu4eeuh I'm not opposed to answering questions either, but you know when there is going to be a problem. I had one 'buyer' asking for multiple pictures of edges of the pages of books. I sent that, because I'm a collector too and I get it. Then he started asking about a deal because his shipping would be so expensive (UK). It was then that I looked at his feedback left for others. Negatives/neutrals for not giving him discounts. BLOCK! Dodged a bullet there!
fashunu4eeuh
·3 years agoHi, very interesting question and comments. The block list is a useful tool for sellers.
Been here 15 years at least, selling for 12 years. Have 4 or 5 names on my block list. They must do something egregious to get there, like dishonesty.
We don’t haggle much in our American culture, but in many others, haggling is both expected and customary. So i don’t block for that, including low-ballers. Most of my listings have Immediate Payment Required, so i don’t do Best Offers. But if a buyer wants to haggle, that is an invitation to make a sale.
Also do not block for any questions being asked. Interest being shown in my item is what i am here for. I know there are some buyers who have been burned on eBay, so if they are anxious about condition, etc, i try to assuage their concerns and make the sale.
1tuna
·3 years agoI have at least 150 but that is from 1998 and around 45,000 pieces sold at auction
I rarely add a buyer now. I get plenty of returns but most of them are not crooks or abusers, just plain old returns.
maybe 15 years ago when you closed out a non paying bidder ebay woud have a box to check off that said
"add this user to your blocker buyer list"
ebay has had many names for the return area
my favorite name was "dispute console" that gave way to the resolution area and even that is gone now
filing a NPB or non paying buyer/bidder is very effective
I guess I am just too lazy to keep up with the blocked list. I know where the shortcut is in seller hub
@clown_car_driver
rosachs
·3 years agoI turned on eBay's Unpaid Item Assistant shortly after it became available, and did the same at work about my third week on the job. It just makes things so much easier -- I don't even have to pay attention to NPB's anymore! eBay will message them and then cancel the order on day 5 if still unpaid. When I get the message from eBay that the order was cancelled, I tag it in SixBit and relist the inventory. If I'm particularly motivated, I'll check buyer sales history to see if this has been a problem, but nearly all the NPB's I've dealt with have been first time buyers.
-Bob
oldwestcoins
·3 years agoOver 100. I don't have time for non-payers, etc. I block them on the first non-payment. I also block for buyer remorse returns. After looking at what you have for sale, I wouldn't even waste my time for $10 net. I have several eBay ID's doing $1k/day every day of the week. That's just me. Good luck.
evry1nositswindy
·3 years agoI just took a look at my BBL--probably close to 100. Some were non-payers, some were returns, some were PITAs asking SO many questions/low ball offers. A vast majority of them are from this community forum. I will answer their question and promptly block them.
So many problem children here. Members not wanting to understand anything that doesn't fit their narrative or prove them 'right', members arguing with the policy I posted in response to their problem. A few members who actually private messaged me to argue even more. Yes, I know I should have a posting ID, but then that creates its own problems. You can't help me--you don't even sell!
bucslife4me
·3 years agoprob have around 75. from lowballers, to fake addresses, to scammers, to stupid messages....
block list is my fav feature. lol.
manwithnofear85
·3 years agoRight now I have a handful of bidders blocked. Mainly because they won an auction, and after a few messages from me reminding them they needed to pay, they never did.
One haggler a couple years ago messaged me asking me to lower the shipping cost on a set of comics I had up cause he wanted to buy it. He tried telling me he had a coupon from eBay "for $10, but he had to spend $20 to use it." Then after a few messages back and fourth, I told him he was making the whole process complicated and I was canceling his bid. Then he messaged me back saying he changed his mind and he'd pay the original price. Told him it was too late, and I blocked him.
chariot_badges
·3 years agoThanks to everyone for your replies.
I have read the "best offer" debate button before. Both sides have good points.
I have found that I get about 10 to 20 percent of the offers to close of escrow, so I hesitate to change that -- but, if the listing was a straight fixed price would I get the same amount of sales, just without the dance?
I dunno.
Maybe after I have inventory built up to where I want it, and enough track record to be able to test it - I will switch it over and do a comparison.
rosachs
·3 years agoMy boss has cleared me to reduce inventory by running sales of up to 20% off on our oldest items or the ones that haven't had sales in a very long while.
To complement that, I do Send Offers twice a week, offering the same discount as our sale for that item (different items are on different sales - I just open the listing to see which one eBay is displaying) and adding in the note that "We're having a clearance sale - check our Store!". And it seems to be working. The first few times, I got 10-15% of the Offers accepted, which was great!! It's slowed a bit lately, but I do notice that some buyers are making more than one purchase from that sale -- so they much be going to the Store and finding more of whatever interests them.
It takes just a few minutes to do the Send Offers, and I'm only doing them twice a week, so the time cost is minimal. But moving older inventory is great!! We may not be getting as much as we originally hoped, but after years (in some cases) of posting month after month after month... it's nice to have it gone!
-Bob.
fsvsportsandmore
·3 years agoIm right there with you, bud. I have a small LLC that I primarily use eBay for since creating a quality website with e-Commerce capability is so expensive. I've also been on since November and have a subscription.
Heres my take on blocking:
Do it. If it feels like its going to be an issue, do it. You're right about people wasting other people's time. Non-payment is an AUTO-BLOCK, in addition to ridiculous offers. I'm starting to get away from auctions because of the ability to manipulate them. Honestly, Im retired military and am doing this for fun mostly (I love sports cards) and am not going to engage in the games that some, not all or even most, people want to play.
The $1 bid thing is in hopes you will split the difference and go low immediately. Say you're asking $50 for an item, and someone bids a dollar. They're hoping you come back at $25, meet in the middle per say. Its dumb, but one of the many games played on this site.
Hope this helps, and mainly, know that there are people feeling the same as you!
Jay/FSV Sports
coolections
·3 years agoI have not had a nonpaying buyer in over a year since I switched to immediate payment required. Try it, you'll like it. You have to dump the best offer though. No need for them anyway if you are willing to lower the price let all buyers have the same opportunity. Your sales will increase instead of allowing one buyer instead of 100 buyers have the same deal.
rosachs
·3 years agoBest Offer is getting Immediate Payment. Works pretty cool - apparently I'm on the buyer test list since this happens on my buying ID all the time now. When I make an Offer, it requires me to select a payment method, just like it does when you make a payment for something purchased. If my Offer is accepted, the payment method is used to make immediate payment.
Super easy and it actually works correctly. That last part shocked me a bit, but a wee shock every now and again is good for the digestion.
-Bob.
pennysdream
·3 years agoHi there,
I have one. One day I will forget why he is there and remove him. However, currently when I see his ID, I still get really **bleep** off. So, it may be a long time before I forget.
Just my two cents.
Penny
dirk12955
·3 years ago23 years selling on ebay I have 1 or 2 people blocked.
Blocked a "Buyer" this AM. She haggled and negotiated with me to get "A good deal" on 'some
stamp lots. We went back and forth, I combined some listings, Revised some listings, Moved some things around
for her and she ended up spending over $100.00 I thought it was crazy that I spent 2 hours
with her going back and forth but, $100.00 is pretty good money when sales have flat lined.
I blocked her this AM when she told me she wanted to cancel her 2 orders. Changed her mind.
I went back and counted. Between last night and this AM she messaged me 35 times. 35
fern*wood
·3 years agoI think most of mine are people that post here. Note to self---I should use a posting ID.
fab_finds4u
·3 years agoI had a user IDs from the 90s. I only used it to buy. It took me like 5 years to pick up my digital camera and learn how to take pictures with it and post them in a listing. Then I made this ID for selling and I bought a few items so I didn't start out with zero feedback.
Right away I got a bidder from Puerto Rico and I didn't ship outside the US so I came here for help cancelling and found out PR has a US zip code. (Yeah, I was one of those ignorant people who thought PR was an International sale.)
Then one of the first items I sold was a resin figurine that broke. Hey, I thought resin was unbreakable. I came back here for more help and got tips how to pack. Then I fell in love with this place, mostly thanks to bob.mill who cracked me up with his answers. When I saw a post that went unanswered and I knew the answer I began to participate.
Eventually this ID became a posting ID because I'm sure I had a buyer that purchased something to leave me a neg in retaliation because he didn't like that I told him eBay was right and he was wrong.
The problem is sometimes I forget to change IDs when I want to buy something, but that's OK. As long I don't forget and list something for sale on it, lol.
The only problem with a posting ID is you get people telling you stuff like they have thousands of feedbacks and therefore they know more about selling or buying than you do.
.
gloryglorygifts
·3 years ago"The only problem with a posting ID is you get people telling you stuff like they have thousands of feedbacks and therefore they know more about selling or buying than you do."
Not necessarily. Some of my competitors have double, triple, quadruple more than my feedback score, but they also have 25+ pages of it as a buyer. Feedback scores are skewed and not really a good matrix for either buyers or sellers. They may be more of a savvy shopper than a seller.
rosachs
·3 years agoThe solution I use for that first problem is.... multiple browsers. I currently have four (three selling IDs, one buying ID) and use Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Opera to manage them. By keeping one ID in each browser, I don't have to log in and out and in and out and in and out. If I want to work with this ID, I open this browser. If I want that ID, I open that browser.
The solution I use for the second is to just ignore them. We all know a lot about a lot, but even when the thing is something we both know a lot about, your experiences and mine are going to be different, and neither one is wrong or right. They are experiences -- information for new folks to use to get a feel for what they can do or what might happen or ways to handle a situation.
As with most things, with time you learn better how to separate the wheat from the chaff..... 🙂
-Bob.
chariot_badges
·3 years agoI currently have four (three selling IDs, one buying ID) and use Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Opera to manage them. By keeping one ID in each browser, I don't have to log in and out and in and out and in and out. If I want to work with this ID, I open this browser. If I want that ID, I open that browser.
**bleep**! That IS a good idea.
Thx.
fab_finds4u
·3 years agoI have only blocked a few buyers that were trading partners.
luckythewinner
·3 years agoHow many bidders do you have blocked right now
None.
What does it take to get banned from your listings?
I have no idea, but I guess if I got scammed I would add them.
inhawaii
·3 years agoI have about 30 people on my BBL but keep in mind that's from 23 years on ebay.
You have to really **bleep** me off or rip me off to get on my BBL.
I don't block people for asking stupid questions.
I don't block people for asking numerous questions.
I don't block people for making low offers.
postfiftymodern
·3 years agoover 200.
nuclearomen
·3 years agoidk don't keep count - and the answer is anything I feel need for them to be there.
pickapaper
·3 years agoTake "Best Offer" off your listings. That just invites the bottom feeders.
You can take it off with a bulk edit so it will only take a few minutes.
If you do choose to leave it on and you don't want to accept an offer, just hit "Decline". You don't have to explain anything about your pricing to a buyer.
billythekid16
·3 years agoTo date, I have 30 on my BBL. The criteria to be on my list are these:
- You are the winning bidder of my auction, and you never paid (you will also earn a prompt unpaid item strike on your account).
- You return an item for a refund. I never want to repeat that with you again.
- You leave unjustified negative feedback on my account.
- You do a surprise PayPal chargeback just to get the item I sold to you for free. Not only will you be on my BBL, but I will also report you to eBay (and likewise not tell you about it as a surprise).
As you can tell from above, you must do an actual transaction with me to be on the list. I don't put anybody who eBay message me questions about my items, or those who give me lowball offers and doesn't get further than that since these types never buy from me anyways.
kensgiftshop
·3 years agoI think I have a couple buyers, but more sellers on my BBL.
They are ones I've met here in the community, not any I've had problems with, just ones I wouldn't want to deal with.
rosachs
·3 years agoMy personal lists are pretty short - I'm easily riled, and I know this, so I tend to catch my reaction early and use pre-defined processes (developed from years of experience) to deal with it. Like you, I'm getting older and looking forward to a hassle-free retirement. I enjoy selling on eBay and the collectors I meet... but some folks just don't need to be looking at my listings, don't need to be wasting my time.
At work, our list is much longer, but that's mostly due to volume. I've personally been selling online longer than my boss, but he's got a much greater inventory (when you buy inventory by the truckloads, you've got more than I care to ever have), and therefor many more listings and sales. But I use the same procedures and triggers -- tick me off and you're on the list. I wouldn't want to disappoint you again. 🙂
Lowball offers simply aren't responded to. Historically, offers below a certain percentage of the asking price will be buyers who will be troublesome. I don't have time for that - I've got a LOT more inventory to get listed, sold, and shipped. And I don't get overtime pay, unfortunately.
Each seller will have their own policies and procedures - and that's what keeps eBay interesting. As long as I still have my wonderful repeat buyers, I'll keep finding and listing the elongates they seem to want.
And no, masochistic tendencies don't make eBay more enjoyable... just more tolerable. 🙂
-Bob.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoI rarely block, I'm just here to say that I really like your store name! ðŸ‘
slippinjimmy
·3 years agoI have one name on my BBL for my main selling account. Pretty sure it was the 24 negs they gave me that got them that lofty position.
On my old selling id's I have more names but I haven't added any since the 00's (still use the accounts for selling). Back in the day, non-payers used to go to the list because eBay provided a convenient link to click when you closed a dispute.
caldreamer
·3 years agoHonestly...I agree with you. If I get a bad feeling (too picky), customer tries to lowball me, bogus returns or **bleep** me off they go on my block list. I try to avoid any potential headaches and have been very successful so far.
My biggest pet peeve is when they want to haggle with price....this is why everything is "buy it now" (and customer still have to nerve to say "will you take $15 with free shipping". I feel like saying "your kidding, right? Times like this I just have to "bite my tongue".
clown_car_driver
OP3 years agoMy biggest pet peeve is when they want to haggle with price....this is why everything is "buy it now" (and customer still have to nerve to say "will you take $15 with free shipping". I feel like saying "your kidding, right? Times like this I just have to "bite my tongue".
I am, too often, unable to 'bite my tounge'. I remember my father telling me when I was about 10 years old (as I was being expelled from a private grade school, third grade) that "one of these days, boy, your mouth is gonna get you in a lot of trouble." LoL. And it has.
I hear him say that to me all the time, and I am old AF.
I really don't mind playing the 'make an offer' game. But - come on be real or be gone.
I am not selling high ticket items, so the 'loss' of a $10 sale will not change my life.
Spending two hours to get it ... might. Because I don't work for $5 an hour.
new-buddies_store
·3 years agoOver 30😅