NPB, Freight Forwarding, Second Chance, multiple questions!

[alant24fps]

I recently listed a bit of historical ephemera that was of particular interest to collectors in China.   There are a lot of well-heeled collectors there these days, and I got queries about this item from a few buyers who I figured were from there, based on the somewhat garbled English.   (I'm sure my replies were also garbled after going through a translation program, but I try to use simple words.)

Based on a recent transaction I noted that I would ship internationally but only using eBay's Global Shipping option.   That seems easier and safer, and I recently had a book shipped that way get delivered to the buyer in the UK in less than ten days.  

The winning bidder appeared to be from Oregon, but after the auction ended I saw that he's in China, and the Oregon address is obviously a freight forwarding company.   Well, okay, once it's delivered to the forwarding company, that's it, right?   So I sent him a congratulatory message.

He wrote back: 'can you send me chinese address' which I took to mean, can I ship to him directly in China.   I was not going to do that, and wrote back politely but firmly that I would ship to his Oregon address only.    I sent him an invoice also,  just to nudge him.    (I don't usually do invoices since it's clear enough what you need to pay after winning an auction.)

A few days later, no reply, so I sent him another message, asking him to pay or, if he's no longer interested, to just let me know.   Perhaps at this point I should have done NPB with eBay but why get them involved?

He responded pretty quickly to that message, apologized, said he'd been on holiday, and said he would pay 'today.'   (Today is obviously a different day in China from the US.)

However...three days later, no payment.   So I canceled the order.  

I have never needed to do that before, nor have I used the  2nd Chance option.  But rather than relist the item I offered the item through 2nd Chance to the underbidder.   It looks like I could have extended this option to multiple underbidders, but how does that work?  It's BIN and they each had different bids before.  If Bidder #5 at $500 responds before Bidder #2 at $750 do I have to sell it to #5?  (Numbers for example only.)

And I'm also seeing that some sellers don't like sending to forwarding companies, in fact some would like the option of blocking buyers that use them.  I don't see how that could work nor do I see the problem.   If the forwarding company receives the item, transaction is over, right?   No?

So here are my questions:

Was an NPB a better route to go rather than just invoicing, messaging him, and then canceling the sale?  I don't care about him getting a strike so I don't see the advantage of the NPB.

Are freight forwarding addresses really problematic?   If so how?  How can you avoid shipping to them if they're bad?

And how do you handle 2nd Chance offers, better to just go down the list one at a time (as I'm doing) or is there a better way?

Thanks...and if you've read this far, sorry for the long query, I can't help but be thorough! 

[dryophelia]

@alant24fps 

Here is the link outlining how to deal with nonpaying bidders. 

A Second Chance Offer should be sent to one under bidder at a time. Starting with the one closest to the top. 
Sending more than one could result in more than one bidder accepting the offer. SCOs should never be sent until the original sale has been cancelled and the nonpayer is issued a strike. 

Smart sellers will have set their buyer requirements to block any bidder who has accumulated 2 or more strikes in the past year. Nonpaying bidders are a waste of time. Why let them get away with it? Right now, that item should be in the mail on its way to the buyer. You shouldn’t still be dealing with getting someone to pay. Who has this much time to deal with one item? 
Unpaid Item Strikes and the ability to block these time wasters is one of the very few proactive tools gives to sellers. Why not use it? 

[nobody*s_perfect]

Yikes, you must not send out multiple Second Chance Offers.

When you send a SCO, eBay creates a new listing which is identical to the original listing except that it's a fixed price listing set at the underbidder's maximum proxy bid.  If you send out two SCO's, you have created two new listings and thus there is a risk that you will have two buyers for one item. So you need to wait until the first one expires before you send out another one.

I have never had a problem when shipping to/through a freight-forwarding company. I suspect that the problematic transactions are closely related to the category that the item is in, just as with problematic domestic transactions.

[nobody*s_perfect]

"A Second Chance Offer should be sent to one under bidder at a time. Starting with the one closest to the top. "

The seller can send a SCO to any underbidder; starting at the top is an option but you might want to send the first SCO to a different bidder if the highest underbidder has zero feedback, leaves terrible feedback for sellers, etc.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Others have covered the SCO details. The only thing I will offer is that you probably avoided a potential scam. Changing the address voids your seller protection. It is also possible you would have been scammed through the freight forwarder since you loose sight of the tracking once it is delivered to the freight forwarder but the buyer can still file a INR with eBay or a chargeback with their CC company. I to sell internationally but China and Russia are two countries that I will not sell or ship to despite the lucrative buyer base. 

     You should not have canceled the sale and I am not sure what reason you used to do so but you could have simply waited for the cycle to run. If the buyer had not paid in 5 days eBay would have closed the transaction as a UPI case and dinged the buyer. 

[alant24fps]

Thanks for the answers and clarifications.

I followed the exact directions for canceling the order, reason: buyer hasn't paid. It had been multiple days since I sent the invoice.  Idk if that gave the buyer a strike or not.

I did 2nd Chance right, just was confused by the layout of the page, as it appears you could choose several bidders at once.  But obviously you'd usually start at the top, unless that buyer appears flakey.   (Which this one may be, he messaged me after he got the 2nd Chance saying 'what is going on?')

dbfolks, I appreciate your warning about the freight forwarding, and change of address removing my seller protection.   Maybe I dodged a bullet there.   But then you say that I should NOT have canceled the sale.  Why not?  It has been 5 days since the invoice, 10 days since auction end.   Listing 'buyer hasn't paid' was a good enough reason for eBay.

[nobody*s_perfect]

It is possible to send out simultaneous SCO's because sometimes sellers have multiple items to offer.  

If you have 3 identical items you might choose to just list a multi-item fixed price listing.

But if you aren't sure about how much to charge for a fixed price listing for that item, then it might make more sense to list it in auction format.  Then if you get 3 bidders, you know they have (probably) bid the maximum that they are willing to pay for that item, and you might as well offer the underbidders  the other 2 items for their losing bid amount.

[nobody*s_perfect]

" you say that I should NOT have canceled the sale.  Why not?  It has been 5 days since the invoice, 10 days since auction end.   Listing 'buyer hasn't paid' was a good enough reason for eBay."

Some posters might not be quite up-to-speed on the new way of filing an unpaid item case, as an option in the cancellation process.

[dbfolks166mt]

     My reference to not canceling the sale pertained to you canceling the sale as opposed to letting it run its course under the new eBay process. After 5 days of the sale completion date eBay should have canceled the sale for you under their new process. I.E. the open and close a UPI case automatically and the buyer is supposed to receive a strike. If you canceled the sale, depending on the reason you used, it could count against you as opposed to the buyer.