Do you accept bid from new eBayers when you've been burned before?

Recently a bidder with little feedback bid on three items and never paid. I had to file a not payment dispute with eBay and was credited the final fees, etc. but lost out on selling it to other bidders as the items were holiday related. I contacted several of the next highest bidders but they were no longer interested as the holiday had past so I relisted the items. They sold but for much less than the original auctions. Now to my point. I listed an item for 7 days and on the second day a bidder with zero feedback bid and ran the price up fairly high as usually these items don't go up so quickly. I decided to contact the bidder yesterday morning and make sure they were a serious bidder and would follow through with the purchase if they win. I have not heard from them. What would you do? I know I've seen many sellers post that they didn't accept bids from new buyers with less than 10 feedback or if they did the buyer had to contact them. Due to my recent experience with a non paying bidder, I'm afraid I might have a similar situation. If I were to cancel their bid, then will the next bidder question the situation and want out because the price was run up by another bidder and then they were cancelled? Or does the price go back down to what it was before the new ebayer came along? Thanks for your input. I want to do the right thing but I don't want to get burned again.|||Did you email or pull the buyer's contact info and give them a call? It is the Easter holiday weekend, so many buyers may not be at their computers or home. Also know not all Ebay messages between sellers/buyers are received. If they are they often get caught in spam filters. If possible , I would call again on Monday. If you do not get a answer at their phone number or it is disconnected, then cancel the bid. If the contact info is not valid, report it here to Ebay Link To get the buyer's phone # here this Link|||"If I were to cancel their bid, then will the next bidder question the situation and want out because the price was run up by another bidder and then they were cancelled? Or does the price go back down to what it was before the new ebayer came along? " When you cancel a bid, the price drops back down to the last high bid made, before the "recreational" bidder placed their bid. When you cancel a bid, you need to Block the bidder user ID, so they can not rebid o your auctions. Use this Link|||There is no practical way to block no or low fb bidders except by manually cancelling and blocking and fb level is not a good predictor of payment follow thru.Everyone is new at some point and non payers are a fact of doing business here.It may not be your fault but it is your responsibility Silver rule "do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you"|||The guy I am currently in a UID with has been enrolled since 2006 and has over 300 fb on the other ID he has bid with. He's mad at me for some comments on a Canadian forum and has been attacking me this way. Meanwhile, low feedback bidders are occasionally "thrill bidding", but usually are not actively nasty.||||||||||||Yes its a gamble-if you wait he may pay and you get a really good price or he may not.If you cancel and block all his bids are removed and price goes down so you make lessIt may not be your fault but it is your responsibility Silver rule "do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you"|||I didn't even know people could see a buyer's phone number. I can't seem to find my own phone number, under which section is it listed? If someone would call me I would find it very strange by the way.|||I just had a sinking feeling about a newbie winner of some vintage shoes Link esp. when i saw how much vintage she was bidding on all at once, but she paid almost right away! Just new and on a newbie buying spree I can guess! 'course it ain't over until it's received & FB etc, but...|||This is my posting ID. I have over 1k on my other id so to limit based solely on number may not always be wise. I have seen some sellers place a disclaimer in their TOS along the lines of "if you have fewer than 10 feedback please contact me before bidding.." I think they even say something about cancelling those bids if not contacted first. I realize this doesn't help with your current dilemma, but might be helpful in the future. I did, recently, contact a seller I've done business with in the past giving them a heads up about using this new id and referring to my old id but that was only b/c I didn't want confusion if I won.|||I had an under-10 FB posting ID I used to buy some things recently, and a couple of those sellers said "contact me" but I thought what the hey, I'm sniping and paying all within a minute, they'll get over it!|||There is no practical way to block low FB buyers, the energy spent to try and do it is energy I rather spend listing. That said I block all buyers who do not pay within 4 days I require payment. But I honestly dont lose any sleep over it. At least eBay halfed the time it takes to get the case closed. I do admit that about 2/3 of my NPB are from bidders with less then 10 FB. I think many new buyers treat ebay as a flea market. What I want is ebay to add a shopping cart with let say a one hour time out, and require buyers to checkout before the item is locked from selling. I rather have an item locked for an hour or two, instead of 4 to 8 days.|||This can be a problem of course, but it's inherent in the system eBay allows in that new members are not vetted at all. Still - everybody deserves a chance that avoids pre-determining their intent just based on being new. However, along with that chance should be some measure of protection to preclude the recreational bidder with no intent or ability to pay. eBay's position is that no 'new' buyer will want to sign up if they have to prove their ability and intent. We say baloney to that. If that were true, there wouldn't be anybody lining up to join costco, or sam's club, or BJs or other discount buyer's clubs. And those folks have to pay an annual membership fee to join. So eBay could do what was necessary to vet new members (like they do for sellers), by first validating their names and addresses, and requiring a refundable deposit, collection of credit card or bank account data, or by enacting some automatic payment for any item they bid on, until they reach a certain threshold of transactions without a UPI recorded. This would both serve their interests (no refunding of FVFs needed then), as well as allow sellers some assurance that this new member will indeed complete the transaction - in the same fashion that they allow PP payment holds and provide other assurances to buyers the newer seller will follow through. And as far as that goes, members should be restricted to the number of ID's they have. We're all for privacy as far as that may be needed, but if a member has a history of more than a couple unpaid items, they aren't really a buyer deserving of such consideration as currently allowed now are they? So it's simple. Trust - but verify. Other posters have provided some useful tips on how to do that already. But if eBay would simply act, it would be moot. Your beef is not with new members. It's with eBay.--------------------------------- Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it. - - Mark Twain