Dear dbfolks166mt, et al:
Here's the rundown with a little background on my question and how I came to end up here in the lovely "community" boards.
I have been on ebay for many years but only as an occasional buyer as I've had several phishing attempts and security issues so I kept it to a minimum. More recently, I started listing items from collections I needed to pair down. I started with a small item, not too pricey and immediately began to read ALL the ebay information I needed to with regard to becoming a seller and it was a chore in and of itself. I made notes and even had a dry erase board handy in the event I felt the need to personally map some of the processes involved for my own eye and understanding. I'm a visual person and I did systems development (not my primary job, mind you), use-case/operating manual functions for systems my depts were to use in conducting our business (which is music). That said, I like to think I'm fairly decent when it comes to writing and following directions, UNLESS they are poorly developed, written and/or implemented.
In this case, I listed one item. It was listed on two other sites as well. I checked all three sites "rules" to insure I wasn't violating any exclusivity to sell on their sites (I wasn't). I listed the item alongside a few others that I'd had up where the pricing I used was based on a blended price that I decided I could live with. This particular item is the first and only (thus far) item to have the auction end WITH a winning bidder. The other auctions ended with no bids, thus not triggering this entire scenario. Subsequently, I quickly received a confirmation of payment which was surprising to this newbie. I immediately referred back to my notes on the subject and then proceeded to troll each and every help menu I could find and even sent ebay a message direct to ask the question and whether or not I had conducted the auction correctly. No response. Sent another message. No response. Read more. Head spinning. The information being spread across several different help topics probably caused me to blow a fuse. I went to a help menu which to where I found some reference to this here user/blog/comment page. I thought, great. Let me ask the question of the more experienced folks on here until i have to make the call and just go on, fulfill the order and call it a day. Lesson learned.
So, yes. I read and read and viewed tutorials on the subject matter to no end. Yes, I am aware of the sale v auction choice and simply put it up for sale to hell with an auction and be done. Yes, I am new but not lacking in the comprehension dept. Now, the reason the other items that did sell didn't trigger this particular scenario: I was revising and renewing the auction items and never came to the end of the actual auction, so, I didn't recall what payment terms I'd entered in listing the item, etc. Next thing know, I get an email from ebay stating Id been paid. I was fully expecting to get an email stating the auction ended and I had one winner. and to check your bids (or whatever the terminology is) and then given a choice of whether nor not I want to accept or decline the bid. This is what I THOUGHT might happen. It didn't and I went on to search again for help via the ebay help/ contact info.
By the way, the reason for my initial effort to decline the winning bid was because I'd received an offer on one of the other listing sites for double the amount and was going to accept that one. As I'm a man of my word (even if the "word" is ebays and not mine-I agreed), I opted to pose the question and am now preparing to ship the item this gent has been waiting for to fulfil my end of the sale.
Hope this helps you to understand better the series of events that led me here. And there are other functions within ebay's innerworkings that say "we will put you into a more substantial user mode after such time as you've "learned" all you have to learn on the site or commensurate with your experience I gathered. I'm good with that.
Many thanks.
