Ebay buyer immediately requesting cancellation- why?

[DynaEtch]

I sold an unopened box of cards on eBay for $350. My listings require immediate payment to buy. So I get notice that my item sold/payment received, and less than a second later notice of buyer asking for cancellation. And of course as an eBay seller, the only wise thing to do here is accept the cancellation request (otherwise you are at the mercy of the buyer and possible shenanigans), so I accepted his request to cancel.

Now I’m wondering....why is the buyer even doing this? This only thing that possibly comes to mind is that maybe there is an attempt to manipulate pricing on sold listings. Maybe this is someone who has these boxes or whatever and wants to show this $350 as a sold listing price (with not cost to them, the sale is canceled and all funds returned). Do cancelled sales still show up in completed listings? (At the moment this sale is still in completed listings even though it is canceled). I’m probably overthinking this, but I have no idea why a buyer would immediately request a cancellation within a second. It’s also a major flaw in the way eBay works and vulnerable to price manipulation in sold listings, unless I’m missing something.

[Frankp2311]

I get this all the time. Buyer hits a BIN and asks for immediate cancellation. I chalk it up to price manipulation as you said. Many times my BIN's are 50% higher and I expect to receive offers. Whenever someone pays full price it is always followed by a request to cancel.

[DynaEtch]

I get this all the time. Buyer hits a BIN and asks for immediate cancellation. I chalk it up to price manipulation as you said. Many times my BIN's are 50% higher and I expect to receive offers. Whenever someone pays full price it is always followed by a request to cancel.


Yeah just gonna chalk it up to price manipulation too. My reasoning is, anyone who requests a cancellation like a second after buying was intent on canceling before making the purchase. I can’t imagine it was a situation where they found a cheaper price or buyers remorse if it was within a few seconds.

Of course there is a very simple fix here by eBay if they wanted to prevent this- simply remove canceled items from sold listings. For some reason they don’t do this though.

[Frankp2311]

Yeah just gonna chalk it up to price manipulation too. My reasoning is, anyone who requests a cancellation like a second after buying was intent on canceling before making the purchase. I can’t imagine it was a situation where they found a cheaper price or buyers remorse if it was within a few seconds.

Of course there is a very simple fix here by eBay if they wanted to prevent this- simply remove canceled items from sold listings. For some reason they don’t do this though.

I always do a check of the buyers listing when this happens. More than often they have a similar item. I report the buyer even though I assume those complaints go unheard.

[smanzari]

I always cancel if its BIN, but do not if its an auction. I let the unpaid item assistant take its course when its an auction (actually had one last night)

[Frankp2311]

I always cancel if its BIN, but do not if its an auction. I let the unpaid item assistant take its course when its an auction (actually had one last night)

Yep. Auction is completely different.

[DynaEtch]

I always cancel if its BIN, but do not if its an auction. I let the unpaid item assistant take its course when its an auction (actually had one last night)


In this case the buyer already paid, so slightly different situation. During the window between payment and shipment, if a buyer asks to cancel, I don’t see what a seller has to gain by not accepting the cancel request- all the buyer has to do is return the item and the seller is out shipping, or even worse possible shenanigans (intentionally damaging item and filing claim, etc, I wouldn’t put it past someone if they were dishonest and really didn’t want to buy the item). Canceling the sale is easiest imo.

[Cactuspies]

I've had a few recently like this. either the BIN or last second bid/snipe and then asking to cancel before I even get any emails about a sale.

also have had a few npb cases close on $1 cards this week. Had a guy berate me for opening a case on him, though in my listings in nice large letters it say a case is automatically open after 4 days and then they have 4 more days until the case is closed. He said that I should have warned him and it's against ebays TOS to open a case w/o a warning. I mean they only send reminder emails twice a day and it sits on your account/cart showing unpaid. I don't send any messages unless I have to. I let ebay handle it all. I nearly canceled the sale/payment after that message and would have gladly taken the neg. I'll probably still get a neg anyway for not having it in his hands before he paid.

[shrevecity]

Yeah just gonna chalk it up to price manipulation too. My reasoning is, anyone who requests a cancellation like a second after buying was intent on canceling before making the purchase. I can’t imagine it was a situation where they found a cheaper price or buyers remorse if it was within a few seconds.

Of course there is a very simple fix here by eBay if they wanted to prevent this- simply remove canceled items from sold listings. For some reason they don’t do this though.

I cancelled one last week and could not find it in my sold listings had to pull up the actual email from the buyer to get the info so I could just hit relist but it did not show in the completeds.

[shrevecity]

I've had a few recently like this. either the BIN or last second bid/snipe and then asking to cancel before I even get any emails about a sale.

also have had a few npb cases close on $1 cards this week. Had a guy berate me for opening a case on him, though in my listings in nice large letters it say a case is automatically open after 4 days and then they have 4 more days until the case is closed. He said that I should have warned him and it's against ebays TOS to open a case w/o a warning. I mean they only send reminder emails twice a day and it sits on your account/cart showing unpaid. I don't send any messages unless I have to. I let ebay handle it all. I nearly canceled the sale/payment after that message and would have gladly taken the neg. I'll probably still get a neg anyway for not having it in his hands before he paid.

I would have cancellled and Ebay will likely remove the neg if you get one.

[shrevecity]

I always cancel if its BIN, but do not if its an auction. I let the unpaid item assistant take its course when its an auction (actually had one last night)

After April 1st there will be no benefit to a seller not just cancelling. I would rather cancel than deal with the issues that can occur.