Non payment on Auction sales

[vintagevariety51]

Is anybody else experiencing a lot of non payments on auction format sales. I sell vintage items and have never before had to cancel orders for so many non payment's. Always in the auction format. BIN seems to be OK.

[sugar249]

no ............

[imastawka]

Your auctions seem to be going mainly for one bid.

I'd make them all BIN  (maybe add an extra dollar or two)

Auctions are not what they once were.

There's no frenzy being created by yours.

[siddieswans]

"Auctions are not what they once were."

Of course you're right. I start all my listings as auction, and most do sell with only 1 or 2 bids. But then  there's 3 weeks ago, start at $45, 16 bids later $275. Which is why those of us wedded to auction (initially) for vintage items will always be reluctant to change. There is a VERY well known long-established seller of antiques and jewellery who still starts all their auctions at 99 cents. As they have over 7 THOUSAND followers, their items obviously always sell, and attract multiple bids. Different strokes for different folks.

[imastawka]

Siddie, you have quality items - ones that I've always admired, and they deserve to be auctioned.

But, not to be blunt, but the OP's items are hardly in that league.

[siddieswans]

Aw shucks ......

[digital*ghost]

eBay has been testing ways to confirm payments from auction bidders / winners for a while, for those in the test, it asks for a payment method up front and gives a grace period of around 3 days post-win before the debit or charge is made, but I'm not sure if it will ever be implemented in full, and honestly I just take significant patterns or changes in buyer behaviour as an indication to adapt.

Years ago, everything I listed was an auction, then I did a lot of Buy it Now with Best Offer, these days it's exclusively Buy It Now, and I haven't had a non-paying buyer in years (as far as I know, anyway, I check every few months out of curiosity, but I have it set up to automatically cancel orders that aren't paid for within a set time, so there may have been some that I never even saw - much better to never even have to think  about - much less chase after - bidders who don't want to be buyers, IMO).