I recently tried to sell my old MacBook on eBay, but the winning bidder had zero feedback and subsequently refused to pay. This was annoying, and it was only after this happened that I discovered eBay has some mechanisms to stop this kind of thing happening — but they are disabled by default.
So, you really should enable these options if you want to prevent time wasters and scammers from bidding on your items. You can access the options, called “Buyer Requirements”, by doing the following:
- Login to eBay
- Go to your Account Settings page
- Click on Site Preferences in the left-hand menu
- Under “Buyer requirements” click “Show” and then “Edit”
Here are the options I recommend:
- Block buyers who don’t have a PayPal account.
- Block bidders and buyers who have 2 unpaid item(s) recorded on their accounts within 1 month(s)
- Block buyers whose primary delivery address is in a location I don’t post to.
- Block buyers who have 4 breach of policy report(s) within 1 month(s)
- Block buyers who have a Feedback score of -1 or lower
- Block buyers who do not have a credit card on file. (Only apply this block to buyers who have a Feedback score of or lower.)
- Don’t allow blocked buyers to contact me.