Is it common to get bids that are not paid, and is there a repercusion to the buyer

[suschmi54]

Hello!  I am new to eBay and realize I may have made a mistake.     I am a watercolor artist.   I posted a painting and checked back and there were two offers.  One was higher than I have had before, the other was 1/2 that but still a good amount, compared to what I have been getting on Etsy.   I accepted the bid, then when I looked at the person's reviews saw a prominent one stating "he's a joke he outbids others then never pays".   He does have some other reviews too, but they are not in English.    Is this something that happens frequently on Ebay?  Thank you for your help, and I hope you will not be too harsh with me, I have been working very hard at my paintings and thought I was finally getting pay for all my work.  

[jda09121]

You'll probably get a bunch of negative nannies here but over the past 25 years I have had 2-3 non-payments. May be due to what I sell but I don't run into it much. FYI sellers get in trouble for leaving negative remarks in positive feedback. 

[aprilmoviebuf2000]

No, non payers do not happen very frequently, but I am speaking from personal experience.  Over the past 8 years of selling over 2 accounts we have had maybe 4 or 5.  

You can cancel for non payment if the buyer hasn't paid in 5 business days.  Used to be we had to wait 2 days to file a nonpayment case, then wait another 4 days for the buyer to pay.  The new method cuts down the time held up a little but it's still too long in my opinion.  

There is an Immediate Payment Required option, but only for BIN (Buy it Now) listings.  You may want to consider switching to the BIN format, not only for that reason, but the fact that auctions often times only get 1 bid anyway....so why not just list it at the price you want.

Your paintings are beautiful btw.  

[soh.maryl]

What makes you believe we would be harsh with you?

First of all, sellers are not allowed to leave that kind of FB for buyers.  The buyer should have contacted eBay and gotten it removed.  

The seller has 4 days to pay.  If he pays, you ship.  If he doesn't, cancel, citing nonpayment.

Please do some more reading about how eBay works.  

[ittybitnot]

@suschmi54 

Generally, your items are not particularly "scam" magnets.  However, should you accept an offer and you get a message to "text them", then you know you have a criminal on the line.  If that should happen, DO NOT RESPOND.  

The 'text me' scammers never pay.  They use the best offer feature to avoid having to pay, and give them time to start their usual drivel wanting your email address to send a phony payment notification, and want you to enclose an extra gift card for a present for a relative's birthday (graduation, first communion, wedding).  They will include extra for your trouble in that fake payment notice. 

You are a target for this sort of thing as a new low feedback seller.  Best option is NOT to use the best offer feature and list your item at fixed price with immediate payment required instead. 

You are not required to accept offers from IDs that look sketchy.   Check them out first.  Hopefully, you will learn to recognize them BEFORE you accept their offers.  

[suschmi54]

Ok just reading the above.  He asked me to send more photos by email and I did.  Should I not have done this?

[suschmi54]

we will see what happens but obviously, I will only accept payment if he does it through ebay.  Disappointedly, I wish I could lhave accepted the first offer, but the profile was just made so who knows, maybe this guy put in two offers seeing that I'm new.  Thank you for your help I will let you know what happens

[suschmi54]

it was BIN

[eburtonlab]

He asked me to send more photos by email and I did. Should I not have done this?

Exchanging email addresses prior to payment is a violation of eBay policy. This is to prevent certain scams and off-eBay transactions from occurring.

If the buyer is a scammer, you will likely receive a phony payment email that makes it appear you have received a payment when you have not. Scammers often target new sellers who may be unfamiliar with how eBay transactions work and who might be pressured into purchasing gift cards to complete a sale.

The buyer may be legitimate, though. You should check your account very carefully if you receive notice of payment to be sure you are not being scammed.

[suschmi54]

wait, maybe it wasnt.  And I will be doing more reading , I wasn't sure if I would get any response at all here so I have not yet invested too much energy.  I didn't get any response for a couple of days, and EBay would only let me post about 3 things which had disappointed me, so unfortunately I did not check back until today, and some things had sold and expired.   (low priced things.)  I'm very attentive usually so this won't happen again, if I decide to list  more.  Excuse me I am indeed tired and scattered at the moment

[suschmi54]

Ok, it's a scam, he's offering more money and saying he wants it shipped to his mother, and wants to give me a gift cards and this is ridiculous.  I will not respond to him further

[ckimodog]

New sellers should really list their items with a buy it now fixed price and immediate payment required.  Avoid best offers as well.  Scammers look for new sellers with auction style listings.  Accumulate some feedback as well.