A Wee Monday Rant: Just me, or are snipers the slowest payers???

[gurlcat]

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against sniping in fact there's really no such thing as sniping on Ebay, just placing proxy bids in the final seconds.  I've done it lots of times myself and sometimes it worked, other times my highest willing bid did not beat the highest proxy bid so I had to accept that that person wanted the item more than I did, no big whoop. When I win, I go straight to payment. But as a seller what I see is a super frustrating pattern whereby a sniper win means I'm not going to see payment that day, maybe not the next day, maybe not the next.......and no message from the winner offering an explanation either, which tells me they know they're being cruddy.  

What gets me is, their winning via snipe bid SHOWS that they were on Ebay the second the auction closed, so.......what a convenient time to make a couple more clicks and get the item shipped asap! But no, they're obviously securing purchases they don't yet have the money for.  Oh, and some of them just never pay, so you can't even relist or offer it to the 2nd place bidder for at least six days.  SO irritating! 

[this*old*attic]

No, it doesn’t mean they were there at the last second.

Many people use a sniping service like eSnipe.

I haven’t sniped manually/in person since 2003 or so.

[pburn]

I snipe in person and pay immediately.

[gracieallen01]

Back in the day when ebay first started, and the items were unusual, hard-to-find or rare, collectors and serious buyers would generally pay quickly so they didn't get blacklisted - there might be something else along that they WANTED.  Nowadays, when most things on ebay are commodity or fashion or things not-so-special, etc., I think many figure, 'what's the big deal?  I'll pay when I get to it, unless I forget or find something better'.

[gurlcat]

Whoa I had no idea such a thing existed!!!  But they do get a notification that they won, and of course I send an invoice so they know I know,ha.  

[this*old*attic]

Yes, but buyers don’t live on the computer like sellers do and what Gracie says is true as well - much urgency is gone, the site isn’t as new and nothing is rare anymore (I actually disagree that “special” is gone, I think the internet killed much of what was “rare” - it turned out to be common).

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

As long as you get your money before the UID times out it is usually no harm no foul. That buyer bidding raised your sale price so I think it’s worth waiting a few days. Some people may use a tool exactly because they cannot be around at the end.