Screening Buyers On Ebay

You are right, Don. Ebay feedbag used to be more useful than it is now. I am leary if I see someone with 1000's of transactions and 100% feedbag. I must admit that I have been scared off of some sellers based on their feedbag, but I cannot tell you how many times I have bought from those with 'iffy' feedbag and been incredibly happy. I have been on eBay since they were Auction Web (almost 30 years now) and the GREEEEEEAAAT majority of my transactions have been just fine.

I think I have a bit if a Spidey Sense when it comes to wonky sellers. Sometimes it is what they are selling (like the TYPE of product), sometimes it is that they are clearly selling faulty material, sometimes their descriptions get a little weird, and sometimes it is the feedbag. But the feedbag has to give me a specific feeling of something being wrong. Like multiple buyers that say the same thing ("Never got my stuff!"). And I check out the feedbag on the negative givers, too. Sometimes it is clear that the negative feedbag is not due to the seller really, but due to a wonky buyer.

In another thread, a guy was showing his beautiful USA #11A that he bought on eBay, and when it arrived, he plated it and determined it was a #10A. It had a PSE cert saying it was an 11A with sulfurated color. It looks like he got quite a deal. After all, we all see #11's being sold on eBay as #10's, but very rarely see #10's being sold as #11's. I have given up on browsing through eBay - there are just too many stamps to look at them all. I will look for specific things, but no more browsing.

Sorry for the book!! But, yes, it is hard to trust the eBay feedback system.

Just to clarify:
Leaving negative comments in a Buyers feedback is a serious issue with eBay and can lead to account suspension.

Award,
I do not believe that was the intended point, at least for anything that I posted in this thread..

I was replying to the suggestion that a seller could add a note in the listing that they would reject anyone with a low number of feedbacks and then cancel any sales which from those who did not meet the seller's criteria.

I think that a typical seller might only be able to cancel X number of sales before some buyers would dispute cancelled sales with eBay. And that eBay would not tolerate a seller who habitually cancels sales.
Don

Don,

I think he was referring to this from a previous post in the thread:




He is correct, that doing this repeatedly can get you suspended.

eBay just needs to get rid of Buyer feedback entirely. It's meaningless, a holdover from a bygone era at eBay.

I genuinely appreciate all your comments. These kind of threads help everyone as there is no eBay user manual.

One helpful bit of information is that eBay gives the zip + 4 of the buyer. So I did an internet search of one potential very low feedback buyer's zip + 4 and it came back to an apartment building either on or adjacent to a university. I message potential buyer asking if he/she had any questions and if they would be available for signature confirmation and they respond they would prefer no signature confirmation since they live in an apartment building and are not always around. Is that a red flag?

You could just make it your policy as seller that all shipments will require signature confirmation. And then just ship everything that way.
But with respect, maybe you just shouldn't sell on eBay? I've never come across a seller trying to find so many ways to shrink the number of prospective buyers, as you are attempting to do.

classic_paper: Only for this one expensive item that commands double the price of what an e-tailer will buy it for.

My listing clearly states will ship with signature confirmation. I just want to be sure the potential buyer was aware and apparently this one was not and didn't want it, which is kind of a red flag to a beginner like me.

As a new seller on eBay, my experience with requiring a signature confirmation isn't entirely positive. I sent an expensive item, checked with the seller to see if they would be home (said yes) and sent it via UPS, paying for a signature confirmation. Well, the buyer wasn't home so instead of attempting a second delivery, UPS dumped it off at the nearest UPS "access point" - a local CVS - and washed their hands of it. Package has not been picked up and inquiries with UPS just end with "well, CVS signed for it". Well, that's not what I paid for. Now my package may be still sitting on a CVS shelf, the seller hasn't responded to my messages, and I'm wondering if I will ever get the recipient's signature and therefore proof that it was received.

Unfortunately that is a danger now with UPS (I don't know about FedEx). I used this feature when I traveled back east in December to visit family. I set it so that all incoming UPS deliveries to my street address instead were redirected to the closest UPS access point to be held until my return. It applied to ALL incoming deliveries other than SurePost (USPS last-mile delivery), but I placed a vacation hold at the USPS for those deliveries.

The shipper does not know of or get notified when a recipient chooses these options.

I don't know whether there is a UPS shipping option that excludes the parcel from this.

A follow-up after one month.

My item sold to a user on a BIN who created an account last year but has zero feedback. There is no way to tell if buyer has transacted before and if so neither party left any feedback. What is odd is that I also had a best offer but the person never made a best offer and just bought item outright. I have experienced that as well, even for lower priced items. Have no idea why people don't make a best offer, but instead just pay the BIN. Any theories why? I am not selling one of a kind items and my items aren't the lowest priced already.

I was tempted to cancel the transaction and risk the consequences (whatever they are) but figured the next buyer could be a zero feedback too and if I cancelled repeatedly because of fear of zero feedback buyers, then I could lose my selling privileges. The username of the buyer has buyer's real name in it and wasn't some gibberish like a lot of zero feedback buyers are. The buyer is a real person and when you do an internet search on the name and city, they have a business, family, are on social media and have an address in the same town as on the order, albeit a different address. Perhaps they moved. Whether all that means anything positive or negative, I have no idea. I don't know if they paid via credit card or PayPal, but I just shipped to the addressed eBay instructed me to ship to after eBay informed me item was paid. Don't know if address was verified or not but I don't want to worry about that. I have sold to zero feedback buyers in the past who created the account the same day of purchase, and so far no issues. It was for lower priced items and they don't leave any feedback sadly. I hope the buyer read the listing with the signature confirmation requirement because that's how I sent it. Not going to message buyer asking if buyer is ok with it like I did last month. I did get other prospective buyers who made best offers but when I asked them if they had any questions and if they understood the signature confirmation requirement, I either received no reply or questions that were already answered in the listing. Never accepted their offers.

I spent too much time reading forums about zero feedback buyers and how you can't block them, but the consensus is that everyone starts from zero at one point online. One person used the analogy that a lot of people who enter a physical store are new customers and it would be foolish for a shopkeeper to not transact with them and I agree with that premise. I feel like I did everything I can to protect myself on my end and I will hope for the best.

Did you check blood type?

Because they are motivated to purchase the item. You could lose out on an item by submitting a best offer if someone else comes along and submits a higher best offer, or purchases it outright.

Also, some buyers do not like to negotiate. If they think the price is reasonable, they will pull the trigger and purchase the item.

[friendly advice]I would also like to suggest, in a friendly way, that you not assume that deals on eBay will come with problems. The vast majority of transactions are problem-free, period. This I base on buying and selling thousands of items there. I've never lost a minute of sleep over any transaction. Can you have problems? Sure, just like anything in life - it can happen. So, just relax and try not to stress out about it.[/friendly advice]

John

Rogdcam: LOL. I do not normally do an internet search on my buyers, but on this one I was curious to see if anything came up on a simple search that relates to a sordid past with fraud.

John : I hear ya. Thank you for the friendly advice.

Another update: Tracking shows item was delivered and signed for today (a postal holiday) by the actual buyer, which is a good sign. What I wanted to share is that item was sent by USPS Retail Ground and was delivered to the buyer about 45 hours after mailing and our zip codes are about 2,600 road driving miles apart. So one has to wonder from this anecdotal experience is Retail Ground really ground only or partially air? Was my super fast shipping experience a fluke?