eBay

ronnie_yvette · ‎11-02-2023

I started selling on Ebay back in 2004 and was fairly successful.

However, I stopped selling in 2014 when the competition drove me out of my business.

Fast forward to 2023.....

Three weeks ago, I listed an iPhone 12 Pro Max for sale as a Bidding item.

The winning bidder was aggressively bidding in the last few minutes. I am not sure if it was being bid with bot software or simply manually?

Long story short, the bidder never paid. I sent him numerous messages. He finally responded and told me he never bid on my phone and to move on. Yeah right, Ebay's software mistakenly listed this buyer who never bid. Not a chance.

Anyway I waited four days and notified Ebay that the buyer did not pay and moved on.

I relisted the phone again and the same thing happened.

Another agressive bidder within the last few minutes who won the phone.

Once again, I never heard from this buyer.

Incidentally both buyers have between 17 and 19 positive feedbacks and 100% ratings.

Is this merely a coincidence or is this something that has been going on for a while with other sellers?

I am going to relist the phone one more time. If this happens again, I will list it with another website.

I know selling iPhones on Ebay is a very lucrative item. I see businesses that are listing dozens of phones in the same listing.

Please reply with any information or experiences that you have had with thie issue of winning bidders never replying or not paying the sellers. Your reply can be about any item but preferably iPhones.

Thank you

clemowbooks · ‎11-26-2023

@ronnie_yvette

EBay is reacting to new laws that affect the venues for online selling.

Because revived accounts like yours are often hijacked,eBay is particularly sensitive to returning sellers who are offering high value/high fraud items like the dolls and cellphones.

And they are demanding proof of purchase (receipts) when they notice such listings.

That's also why I mentioned Managed Payments.

Not only is it frustrating to learn that eBay won't credit your Paypal account any more, but setting up the MP account is one more way to "prove" your identity to them.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-26-2023

I know selling iPhones on Ebay is a very lucrative item.

@ronnie_yvette

I don't think "lucrative" is the word I would use. Though non-payers are truly annoying, in the scheme of things it is truly better than having someone purchase it and THEN play some scam on you to get the product for free and a refund from your proceeds. Know going in that ANYTHING can be had for free at the seller's expense with the right kind of phony claim.

Tend to agree while it may be "lucrative" cell phones and other electronics are probably one of the favorite targets for scammers. For awhile there was at least one posting a week by a seller who had been scammed out of a cell phone, a lot of them by overseas buyers utilizing freight forwarders and then the buyer opening a NAD chargeback with their CC company.

I always advise people to sell their cell phones elsewhere, local venues if possible, but if they are going to sell then on eBay to write down the IMEI number and if they are scammed they can report the IMEI number to the blacklist and render the phone basically useless to the buyer.

Advice:
*List it fixed price, immediate payment required, and DO NOT use the best offer feature

*List it locally (someplace else) for CASH.

Since you are a returning seller, eBay is going to hold your payment for month anyway.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-27-2023

I get about one out of ten non paying bidders. The seem to always be low feedback bidders. They have never replied they did not place the bid, they just do not respond anything. I just take it as they do not know what they are doing or even understand that placing a bid ties up the item if they do not pay. Not much you can do. Just wait the four days and cancel the order.

My ratio is a bit higher than that maybe 1 in 20-25. There are a number of reasons buyers may not pay certainly the obvious sport bidders and I will toss those that don't know what they are doing into the mix. But there are also the other scenarios where I have a bit more compassion and understanding. Unlike BIN listings where you can bet the buyer is at the computer or on the app a bidder can place a bid early in the auction and in the days following a lot of things can happen. I have had buyers that experienced a few of these. Worse case scenario the bidder dies. They could also have a major medical issue such as a heart attack and end up in the hospital. They could have a family emergency such as death, medical emergency, accident, etc. or they could have been in an area that was hit by a natural disaster such as a hurricane, flood, fire, earthquake, blizzard........

I always try contacting the bidder to see why they didn't pay. If I get no response I put them on my BBL. However, I have had a number of non-paying bidders that responded and explained the situation and that they were really interested in the item. I relisted the item as a BIN/IPR with their closing bid price and in every case the bidder purchased, and paid for, the item in a matter of minutes. Life tends to be chaotic at times and things don't always go as planned.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-27-2023

Winning bidders who do not pay is a very common thing.

Lots of people will suggest not listing auction style and listing with buy it now/immediate payment required instead.

That used to be the case but with the autopay feature eBay is rolling out for BO and auctions that number should drop drastically. Of course there are tradeoffs to utilizing that feature which have been posted on this forum in multiple discussions.