Ebay Bidder Management

Ebay provides several methods by which you can cancel bids, block bidders / buyers, or assure that you do not received bids from certain countries or buyers with low feedback.

Canceling bids

In the interest of making money, this is probably not an option you want to use often. There are however always circumstances in which cancellation makes sense. Ebay states that bids should only be cancelled for "legitimate" reasons. Among them:

• The bidder has contacted you with a desire to back out of the auction. Its your call whether to cancel their bids. However, since it is unlikely that you'll be paid for the auction anyway its usually advisable to cancel the bid and open the listing up yo legitimate bidders.
• You are unable to identify the bidders identity through all reasonable means.
• The item is no longer available for sale (for whatever reason)

Blocking Bidders

You make wish to block bidders who have reneged on previous purchases or given you a difficult time. The system will prevent them from bidding or purchasing your items under the ID which you have blocked. Its not completely foolproof, as a bidder can always return under a different ID and bid on your items. If a blocked bidder has suddenly fallen under your good graces, you always can unblock their ID from the same page. The block bidder page is located here.

Blocking Certain Countries and Buyers with Negative Feedback

Certain categories such as electronics and computers can attract a high number of scam bids from countries you may not wish to do business with. To block those countries from scam bidding (and thus trashing your auction) you can block bidders registered in countries you don't ship to. For example, if you only ship to the U.S. and Canada, then only buyers registered in those countries will be able to bid.

• To exercise this option, go to your My Ebay page, Preferences, Buyer Requirements, show, and then edit.

The same page will also allow you to block bidders with a negative feedback rating or 2 unpaid buyer strikes in the past 30 days.

Create a Pre-Approved Buyer List

A nice feature to use with high ticket items is the Pre-Approved Bidder/Buyer list. With this you may create an pre-approved list in which only bidders you personally approve may bid on your listings. Anyone not on your list will be asked to contact you by email, and you may then add them to the list (or not). The page to access this feature is here.