Winning bidders ghosting or refusing to pay

[invaderzim]

I have a compact Canon digital camera listed for sale at auction.  This is currently the third auction for this same item.

• The first time, the winning bidder ghosted me, EBay cancelled the sale after 4 days and I relisted the camera. There was only one bid.
• The second attempt, the winning bidder wrote and said he accidentally bid on the camera and asked me to cancel the sale. I did so because I didn't want to risk him paying and then returning the item.
• The current attempt got the first bid about 3 minutes after the listing went live.  It now has a second bid. Both account names look fake but aren't brand-new accounts.  

The noteworthy thing is that all the bids were from bidders with a feedback score of (0) although one had (1) with a fake-sounding score. None were brand-new accounts: some were 5 years old, and the most recent was January 2 of this year.

I don't see what might be accomplished by placing a bid and then refusing to pay. I believe that when EBay cancels a sale for non-payment, there's a strike against the winning account, and I have my auctions set up not to accept bids from anyone with two non-payment strikes.  However, I don't see any way to disallow bids from accounts with a (0) feedback score, just negative feedback scores.

Any ideas as to what might be going on here? It's only happening on this one auction, although I did have all seasons of a TV show for sale in a DVD box set and the same thing happened there once: winning bidder  with a feedback score of (0) ignored payment emails, and the set was re-listed without any subsequent bids.

I doubt I'm important enough for anyone to mess with -- might this be a denial-of-service attack on EBay to keep auctions from being won, denying EBay revenue?

If I cancel bids by those with (0) feedback scores, would that count against me? If one of these weird accounts does pay, I don't want to deal with a potential return or negative feedback. I'd rather not sell to them at all.

Just weird -- any ideas?

[bonjourami]

it doesnt count against you to cancel bids that you are not comfortable with,but you should list your camera at fixed price with immediate payment required. It will protect you from these sport bidders.

[brightlightbookseller]

I wouldn't cancel bids from people with 0 feedback.  We all start with 0, and someone may have made an account years ago to try and win an auction, failed, but logged back in now to try again (who knows, they may have lost many auctions over the years!).  That said, you can cancel any bid as you see fit, though you may make legitimate customers angry, both those with cancelled bids and those who may think there is auction interference going on (even though you're not doing that, most likely, it can look like it).  I'd suggest, since you should have a good idea of the value of that item now, to just list as fixed price instead and be done with it.

[invaderzim]

Thanks for the suggestion -- I will relist fixed-price. I see a third bid was just received from a account opened in 2020 with a feedback score of (1) from more than a year ago.  I listed the camera at auction because I wasn't sure what it was worth, even based on other sales because it's complete with the box.  I hope I don't get a strike if I decide to cancel the auction. 

It's just weird -- I sell personal stuff I don't need any more but might be useful to someone else, and I don't ever remember selling anything to a buyer with no feedback before. 

Edit: good point about bidders with a score of (0) because they never won any auctions.  I wish there was a buyer score of some kind, besides the unpaid items score.

[ittybitnot]

This is currently the third auction for this same item.

@invaderzim 

If running an auction for this item has proved troublesome, perhaps you should consider a fixed price format with immediate payment required.  You also  still retain the buyer preference for "offers" that require a buyer to put up a payment source in order to make an offer.  Though it often is a turn off for buyers because of the restricted payment options and the inability to combine items for one shipping price. it will result in the buyer being auto-billed should you accept an offer. 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

IMO an 18 yo 5 megapixel camera is not a very attractive offering, and buyer's remorse is a high probability, whether sold at auction or fixed price.

[twjwatches]

Yes i am always concerned with people with low feedback but most of the time they go through with sales. I think a lot of buyers dont read the details such as shipping cost to them and when they get the invoice from ebay which can be a little expensive they decide to ignore it. Other times i feel like it is just someone bored that might have hacked an accout to cause strife on sellers. But one thing i will say is i am glad ebay started this shipping overseas program because of lack of tracking overseas and no more claims for not receiving item. 

[slippinjimmy]

Non payment on Auction listings is something that has been an issue for decades. It is just the way it is, low feedback, no feedback or hundreds of feedback doesn't really make a difference.

Some categories are more prone to this but anytime there is a time gap between the decision to buy (or bid) and the time one pays leads to buyers who change their mind and/or splatter bids around and then pick the one they really want and go silent on the ones they don't.

Most of your Auction listings are ending with a single bid or just slightly over starting price, this indicates that you could avoid the hassles of non-payments and quite possibly sell more with Fixed Price listings as there are many buyers who just don't have interest in bidding and waiting.

[invaderzim]

That's great advice.  I start things at auction if I am not quite sure about what it's worth, even after checking previous sales and the number of similar items that are available. That's the case with the camera, since it includes the original packaging. I understand that these kinds of little cameras are popular among teenagers for some reason -- even though they have much better cameras in their phones (might have seen that on the "Today" show). But this could be a fad that's already passed. 

I do remember listing something fixed-price and it sold almost immediately -- I think it was a kid's toy or board game.  Found out later that I could have auctioned it and gotten quite a bit more.  There weren't any others listed so lesson learned.

Anyway, when it doesn't sell, I switch the item to fixed-price with offers.  I'll do that with this camera as well.

[invaderzim]

Great advice. If/when I change it to fixed price, I'll include the shipping. Getting $10-$15 less for something sitting in my closet is still a win.

[invaderzim]

I saw something on the "Today" show a few months back -- that these kinds of "vintage" cameras are popular with teens and pre-teens, even though they have better cameras in their phones. That reminded me that this camera, which I bought for my son to use while camping when he was a scout, was just sitting in the closet all these years.  Tested it, it works great, new batteries are very cheap, so hopefully someone legit will want it. I'm often surprised when stuff sells -- I listed a lovely, very heavy Wilson Armetale pewter soup tureen we got as a wedding gift 40 years ago fixed-price a year or two ago, and recently, a collector came along and bought it and left great, appreciative feedback.  So you never know, and the cost of entry is pretty low.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

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@invaderzim wrote:

I saw something on the "Today" show a few months back -- that these kinds of "vintage" cameras are popular with teens and pre-teens, even though they have better cameras in their phones. That reminded me that this camera, which I bought for my son to use while camping when he was a scout, was just sitting in the closet all these years.  Tested it, it works great, new batteries are very cheap, so hopefully someone legit will want it. .

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Goodwill in my area sells on Ebay. Cameras like this are not among what they offer on Ebay. These are sold in the stores for $10-15.  They run auctions on Ebay of better cameras.

This Goodwill operation is extremely sophisticated. As well as stores and Ebay, they have their own website with fixed price offerings. They have By The Pound warehouse sales outlets as well.

They do a great job of selecting where items will bring the most and how to do it quickly.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Low bidding, ending with non-payment multiple times, is an indication that the item would be better listed at fixed price, with Immediate Payment Required.

I wouldn’t get too concerned about lack of follow-thru by zero-to-low feedback members on auctions. The likely explanation for non-payment among new buyers is they are, as yet, uninitiated into the ways eBay is supposed to work, and they tired of waiting to see if they won an item that they find later is available immediately from other sellers. eBay often shows rival listings on the same page as that they are bidding on or reviewing.

In addition, in practice new buyers should be welcomed, not held in suspicion, as they are vitally necessary in replacing those buyers lost to attrition or BBEs on the platform. Keep in mind one cannot tell the intent or value of a zero feedback buyer. There is not enough information yet to evaluate them.

It is best to go by what a buyer has actually done—in this case they have shown an interest in your item by bidding, so cancelling that bid (or a purchase for that matter) based only on a feedback number is self defeating, completely undermining one’s purpose of being here. (For me to shove an interested buyer to the side, at the least there would have to be some egregious act on their part that proves they are an undesirable trading partner.) After all, we are here to sell, not pad our Blocked Buyer lists.