...If buyers had to pay a fee for unpaid items after a certain time frame I feel it would cut down/cut back on unpaid items.
I doubt that would cut back on unpaid items? If we were talking 40 lashes on a televised public shaming, that might be the deterrent that would achieve the results you are looking for?
But it is entirely possible that the current system is as good as it gets: buyer doesn't pay; item is taken from them; seller blocks them, buyer incurs strikes, several strikes and other sellers block them, enough strikes and eBay puts a hold on their account (however it might be better if eBay instilled a better program in that regard, by limiting buying privileges for a period of time if 3 strikes are incurred within 6 months, say).
Your system: buyer doesn't pay item. eBay sends them a user fee. They quit eBay and don't pay the fee, but just to make you happy, eBay charges their registered credit card, the buyer files a fraud complaint with their CC against eBay. It costs eBay more to fart around with a fraud complaint then the actual charge of $1.15 they sent for the user fee, and besides they lost a customer for ever.
A financial penalty, which will never be paid, may run off many good customers who make one mistake, don't understand, or simply need to be reminded what they are doing here.
Many sellers only look at how an auction format helps them while cursing the other side of the coin. What do sellers dream about and drool over when it happens? The OP mentioned it himself. A bidding war. What is a bidding war? That's where a seller gets lucky because two buyers are not bidding on an item but they are bidding to win! And occasionally you can get very, very lucky. And occasionally the buyer realizes she can never explain to her husband why she paid $43.98 for a Mini Mouse key chain worth less than ten bucks. She has a loss of conscience and doesn't pay.
Now, I can hear sellers now: But there are non-payers sometimes who have won items that weren't in a bidding war. That doesn't matter, every auction comes with an element of loss of conscience, people place a bid on Monday, when they win it on Thursday they have a different demeanor and budget.
My point is, for every buyer who ever won one of your auctions and perhaps paid a little more than you would have got at BIN, there are going to be those who regret having ever bid. Life happens. Ebay has chosen to forgive them their transgressions.
Trust me, we are more content in life when we learn to move on after someone makes a mistake.
If I meet an A-hole in the morning, they probably are an A-hole. But if everyone I meet throughout the day is an A-hole? I'm the A-hole.
