Another observation about eBay Sportscard auctions

halfcentman

Another observation that I have made about eBay sportscard auctions is that the buyers are much slower when it comes to paying. I have a net 7 day invoice, and 50% of the people usually take the entire time to pay. In my coin auctions, 95% of the auctions are paid within three days. It's a little frustrating because I am representing consignors who are getting dinged by Paypal, and I just want to make the turnaround time as fast as possible. Most of the time I ship the same day.

Greg

gameusedhoop

Usually the more the mature the buyer, the quicker they pay. I imagine coin collectors tend to be a little older on average than card buyers. This would be even more true if you are selling newer cards. It is just the nature of the beast on ebay. At this point any auction that gets paid for is a small victory. There seems to be more NPBs on ebay than ever before thanks to the "no negs for buyers" policy.

itzagoner

here's a +1 to halfcentGreg for bringing some nice food to the table these days.

keep up the good work.

Bronkota

If sellers offer reduced shipping for multiple purchases then buyers will sometimes wait too see if seller will offer something else to buy in the 7 day window.
I will do it with the bigger seller's such as 4sc and it actually lets me buy alot more cards than I normally could.

thedutymon

Morning,
I have seen the same thing the last 6 months or so as well. Before that to have an item not paid for in seven days was literally so out of the ordinary as to be a Large red Flag, recently, to get paid within 7 days is becoming the out of the ordinary circumstance. I used to have my not paid balance occasionally at $0, in six months it hasn't been below several hundred dollars once.
As Storm preaches, after the changes on Tues to E-bay/Stores ect. I am going to start some experimenting with Pay to Play (Immediate Payment required) on some of my store items.
I am just over floating short term loans to E-bayers buying my cards.

Neil

halfcentman

Thank you for the kind words. I am in the process of sending out another 80 cards, and I am trying to wrest some higher end material from the guy. In any hobby, there is nothing like fresh material.

corvette1340

I've never understood why people slow pay. If it's an auction that I happen to be watching end and I win it then I pay right then. If it's an auction that is going to end when I'm not around and I snipe it then I pay as soon as I get home or the next morning. I've bought a ton of stuff on ebay and I can never remember waiting a full day to pay. I get really impatient waiting on stuff to come in the mail so I don't get why other people prolong that process even more by not paying immediately. But, to each his own I guess.

lsutigers1973

Depends on who your buyers are.

It seems any time I sell an older card (graded or raw) the buyers usually pay immediately. Modern card buyers, which I have to assume are much younger buyers than the vintage buyers, always drag their feet.

corvette1340

<< <i>Depends on who your buyers are.

It seems any time I sell an older card (graded or raw) the buyers usually pay immediately. Modern card buyers, which I have to assume are much younger buyers than the vintage buyers, always drag their feet. >>



lol, just noticed when I went to use the flat rate box you sent me that you put "Tommy Welldone" on the label.

DeutscherGeist

I have had only one auction in my decade long ebay life, but that item did not sell. So, I am mostly a buyer.

With that said, I wish there was a mechanism where a buyer winning a BIN automatically pays via PayPal account. I know the sellers would love this, but as a buyer, I just feel its part of our integrity too. This way, as a buyer, I do not have to worry about making a payment manually. This needs to be in place so the sellers have their job made easier and less frustrating.

I like that ebay made it so that paying buyers cannot be negged. My payments always got to the seller (my part is easy), but when an item is SNAD, there was always that threat for retaliatory negs if one spoke up.

storm888

"Auto-Pay" is on the back burner, but it should be available
by sometime in 2011. Maybe sooner.

It will help a little, but most folks who register for AP will
prolly be the same folks that paid promptly anyway.

Meantime, BIN/BO - using the Immediate Payment Required
feature - is the best way to fly.

bking

<< <i>"Auto-Pay" is on the back burner, but it should be available
by sometime in 2011. Maybe sooner.

It will help a little, but most folks who register for AP will
prolly be the same folks that paid promptly anyway.

Meantime, BIN/BO - using the Immediate Payment Required
feature - is the best way to fly. >>



The only thing I don't like about that is how it screws with combined shipping if the seller doesn't do things right. FWIW, combined shipping is the only valid excuse for not paying within 24 hours.

storm888

"...The only thing I don't like about that is how it screws with combined shipping if the seller doesn't do things right...."

//////////////

A "shopping cart" will be introduced as an add-on to
Auto-Pay.

The cart will use the seller's initial input to calc the S+H.

Buyers will be able to buy from multiple sellers AND buy
multiple items from IPR sellers w/o having to make individual
payments. (IPR items will remain listed while in the cart so
that abandoned carts do not kill the IPR listings until payment
has been made. If an IPR item is bought/paid while it is in
another buyer's cart, it will vanish from the cart and the cart
pusher will get a "sorry, already sold" message.)

The learning curve will be a little steep for buyers/sellers, but
the mega-sellers are demanding action and they will get it.

mcolney1

I am an old collector

I collect vintage

I don't always pay immediately, but I always pay and I don't believe any seller has had a problem with any of my transactions...nearly 2000

Reasons for not paying immediately:

1. I don't follow my auctions daily - set up snipes for 2-3 days at a time

2. I am often watching several cards from the same seller that end on different days

3. More convenient to log onto Paypal once or twice a week, pay for all my cards at once with one transaction and one log in

4. I pay for most of my cards with my credit card (I rarely have a paypal balance) and have a strict monthly card budget. Right now is a good example: my credit card billing cycle starts new on 3/27 (I always pay off my full balance monthly), I won some cards last night, but won't pay until 3/28 to push that money into my new cycle. If I paid today I would be over budget for my current credit card cycle.

Am I taking advantage of the seller by delaying payment? Some would say yes, but I'm just playing the system. With credit card points, ebay bucks, billing cycles, etc. it really has become a game to get the cards I want with the added bonus of staying on budget and getting rewards. but I ALWAYS pay for my cards and NEVER ask a seller for favors or accommodations.

BTW - I NEVER push my payment out beyond 7 days and usually pay within hours to 3 days depending on when I won the card and am logged onto ebay.

CubsFan41

Good topic. I think it is odd when a buyer wins an auction with a last second bid, then doesnt pay for days. Seems odd, it's not like they forgot they bid.

PowderedH2O

I am the same as mcolney1. I don't have the luxury of being able to just sit around and watch the auctions. There are times it is 2-3 days later before I find out that I won. And I won't lie. I get paid on Fridays. Sometimes an auction ends on Tuesday or Wednesday night that I want. I'll pay on Friday. I don't bid on something on Sat-Mon that I don't have the ability to pay right away. I know the concept of not having a lot of money is foreign to a few of the high roller people on this site, but some of us are not wealthy. But I read the seller's rules. If you say "Payment is expected within 7 days" then don't whine if you get payment in five. And I agree with the earlier poster that mentioned that coin collectors are older. Yeah, a LOT older. Like retired older. Old enough to sit around and watch auctions and use their lots of money to pay quicker. I would guess if you were selling video games or something else that was to an even younger audience, you'd wait even longer on average. Just my 2 cents.

mcolney1

<< <i>Good topic. I think it is odd when a buyer wins an auction with a last second bid, then doesnt pay for days. Seems odd, it's not like they forgot they bid. >>



They could be like me who uses a snipe service, but only check ebay every few days. It appears I've made a last second bid, but I could have place that bid with my snipe service days prior.