Quote Originally Posted by Alan H
Hear, Hear. I know someone who used an e-bay auction done this way to raise money for a charitable cause. It didn't work all that well, in that he targeted a couple hundred thousand bucks and he raised ten thousand, but still and all, if there's a system in place to do stuff like this ebay should stick with it.

That doesn't change the fact aht a lot of ebay "buyers" are deadbeats, but that's not ebays fault. I got stiffed by a seller once, fortunately only for about $20...it was 3 yards of New Brunswick tartan too, dangit. Why HER? Why couldn't the guy who sold me the stupid BAROMETER have stiffed me, instead? laughing, here
I get stiffed by buyers on eBay usually once or twice a month. As a seller you can always request a "Final Value Fee" credit and get some of your money back and at the same time give a warning to other sellers. I have all my auctions set so that if anyone has had a "unpaid bidder" strike against them they can't bid on my items.

I haven't been stiffed on any items I've purchased off eBay yet, but just in case I always use PayPal for my purchases. I don't buy anything from a seller that doesn't accept PayPal. Why? Because at least with PayPal I can dispute a charge if I don't get the item. And any buyer that gets stiffed should also file a "Unsent Item" report with eBay so that the seller gets penalized, often losing their selling privileges.

If you use the tools eBay provides there are still lots of ways to stay protected.