We’re testing changes to auction sales that’ll help you easily go from sold to paid

[seller_update@ebay]

Changes are coming to auctions

As part of our continuing effort to ensure timely payments for our sellers, we'll be testing changes over the next few months that are designed to streamline your selling experience, ensure you get paid without delay, and minimize the hassle of re-listing.

What you need to know

Buyers on select auctions will be required to set up a preferred payment method and shipping address before they can place a bid. After winning an auction, we’ll let them know they have one hour to adjust their order or payment details as needed, otherwise we’ll automatically process their order using their preferred payment method. No action is required from the seller.

These changes aim to improve the auction process on eBay by providing buyers with the ability to decide how they want to pay, while also ensuring that sellers receive payment for their sales. The goal is to foster a more efficient and dependable experience for the entire eBay community.

Next steps

Keep an eye out for these improvements which we’ve already begun rolling out.

Please ensure that all questions and comments remain on topic. Any off topic posts will be moved to the appropriate board, so they can be answered by Community Members.

Please allow us 24-72 hours to provide an answer to your question.

[bushda]

going to cause potential bidders to drop out by coming up with another hoop for them to jump through rather continue with the status quo as I dont ever recall being stuck for an auction item by the high bidder /

[revenue-collector]

This is completely idiotic. It's not helping ANYONE.

What if I want to pay for an auction with payment option A if it's under a certain threshold, and payment option B if it's above that amount? You can't do that in advance with an auction.

Choosing payment option AT THE TIME OF PAYMENT is fundamental and universal.

[mine2yours]

I buy sports cards in bulk from some bigger consigners and usually bid over a few days to build up a bigger lot to combine shipping. So now with this I would be charged for each item plus the shipping and then the sell has to come back and refund shipping on the 30,40,50+ items I bought? If that is the case I'll stop shopping this way. 

[revenue-collector]

Yeah, they've been promising a way to combine orders on Best Offers with this pre-defined autopayment requirement for almost a year now and we got NADA thus far. I opted out of that garbage as a seller as soon as I could.

[carlmarxx]

You should not have believed  they would fix it ,since they get more money  on none  combined shipping.   

[tsme35]

I hope you email sellers if they get opt in your test, half my sales are from combined shipping

[carlmarxx]

Can you explain  once again ebay forgot about  combined  shipping  needed  when same buyer is the winner  of  5 or more  and added in some BINs  in the shopping cart  !    Oh! don't go there on we sellers  can refund the different's  on large  orders   which isn't easy and time consuming . Not counting  to get ebay  to refund extra fee's. 

[becksrelics]

Glad to see that will make it a real legally binding contract .

[a_c_green]

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seller_update@ebay wrote:

Buyers on select auctions will be required to set up a preferred payment method and shipping address before they can place a bid.

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Is this on a per-auction basis, or is this a one-and-done setting that can be applied to all auctions going forward, such as providing funding info now for an auction or two that I'm planning to snipe tomorrow?

Specifically, if I'm going to snipe an auction in which I've had no prior activity and with 5 seconds left to go, I don't want to hit an unexpected demand for funding source before I can bid on the auction. Even if I am just confirming a prior choice, I will lose my chance for a last-second snipe. (I have no idea what sniping services will do about this, either.)

I don't have any problem with confirming my preferred funding source in advance, in conjunction maybe with a one-hour opportunity to change it post-win, but when we are getting into the final seconds of a hotly contested auction, neither the buyer nor the seller want a sudden blockade on a last-second bid.

[caribbean_beach_lover_13]

I love the idea of forcing buyers to pay for auctions they have bid on and won.  Often times I wait for a week or more to get paid...if I get paid at all...and when this happens with high dollar items, it is frustrating to not get paid and be sitting on that item with no cash in hand - and sometimes having to relist and wait some more because the buyer has ghosted the auction and communication.     

But, I also understand the headaches this may cause sellers when they are doing combined shipping and now have numerous auctions on which they need to refund shipping.    Maybe a "button" that resembles the "send invoice" action would be more appropriate.  Seller can determine with the buyer when they are finished bidding and send final invoice (like we have now) - eliminating the issue of having to refund overpaid shipping.  But on "ghosted" auctions - seller would have the option to force the final payment and get automatically paid when they are sick of waiting.   A button like "finalize auction" would end the waiting and force a payment from buyer.   

[somanypostcards]

Please provide some information on what eBay is doing to "minimize the hassle of re-listing."  Absolutely nothing is said about this!

[somanypostcards]

Your announcement states:  "You can still combine multiple purchases from the same buyer in a single shipment, but please be aware that a buyer may be automatically charged for shipping costs for each individual item when payments are processed. In these situations, you can send buyers a refund for any excess shipping charges if you offer combined shipping discounts."

My shipping cost is $.90 for first item and $.10 for each additional item.  Let's assume a buyer wins 40 auctions.  Here are the problems I face:  1) If 60% of purchase are made using the eBay app, these buyers cannot request a combined invoice.  2) The minimum refund eBay allows is $1.00, so I'm out $3.90 (39 x $.10) due to the $1.00 minimum refund.  3) eBay almost never refunds the $.30 transaction fee, so I'm out another $11.70 ($.30 x 39).  4) I'm also out the time it takes to refund 39 overpayments.  This has been a know problem for years now!

[babyboom_toys]

Would like to know what type of restrictions for non-paying buyers. Right now, there are no consequences. I have had buyers with a dozen non-payments, and they are still bidding. One keeps switching User Id's every 6 months. In his positive feedback, all the sellers (at least 15) said this person never pays the auctions he wins.  How can this keep going on? Non-payments should be listed under their feedback and should get a negative rating by E-Bay like a negative comment, since no one knows if the buyer will pay, or is consistently not-paying. 

[revenue-collector]

Ooh... good thinking. I didn't think about the possibility that this could end sniping services entirely, or force them to collect your billing and address information to pass through to eBay, which is an incredible liability, not to mention security vulnerability for buyers.

Maybe eBay wants to kill sniping? Of course by doing this eBay will lose a TON of money.

[seller_update@ebay]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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seller_update@ebay wrote:

Buyers on select auctions will be required to set up a preferred payment method and shipping address before they can place a bid.

---

Is this on a per-auction basis, or is this a one-and-done setting that can be applied to all auctions going forward, such as providing funding info now for an auction or two that I'm planning to snipe tomorrow?

Specifically, if I'm going to snipe an auction in which I've had no prior activity and with 5 seconds left to go, I don't want to hit an unexpected demand for funding source before I can bid on the auction. Even if I am just confirming a prior choice, I will lose my chance for a last-second snipe. (I have no idea what sniping services will do about this, either.)

I don't have any problem with confirming my preferred funding source in advance, in conjunction maybe with a one-hour opportunity to change it post-win, but when we are getting into the final seconds of a hotly contested auction, neither the buyer nor the seller want a sudden blockade on a last-second bid.

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Hi @a_c_green! The setting of requiring a payment method before placing a bid would done on the sellers end and once it is one would apply to all eligible items they list as an auction.