O,

If it's any help here's what I do. Number one, have good selling instructions. Make sure that anyone with a certain number of feedback who bids can only pay with your preference of payment. Me personally, if under 10, you have to pay with PayPal or Postal Money Order. Secondly, everything I've sold I have never had anyone flake, mind you I've had some unhappy people who wanted to return something, but I refer them to my selling instructions.

Here's my return policy:

If item is not to your satisfaction I will refund your original bid and original cost of shipping, not the cost of shipping back if you are unsatisfied with the product. The item must be received back as it was shipped, if there is any damage, buyer's refund may reflect the condition of received item. I describe all products to the best of my knowledge and inspection.

My selling instructions:

Payment is accepted by PayPal, money order, cashier's check or personal check unless you have a 5 or less feedback(I MUST INSIST ON PAYPAL OR MONEY ORDER) I WILL HOLD PERSONAL CHECKS UNTIL THEY CLEAR, THEN I WILL SHIP. I offer three shipping services, it's your choice. Please contact me after winning bid and let me know your preference. INSURANCE IS YOUR OPTION. I will not be responsible for damage during shipping. If you are not in the lower 48, contact me for shipping rates.

I don't have a lot of feedback, 163, but all are positive, even the ones who didn't like the product. As far as the new system, it sucks not being able to leave bad feedback for a seller, Ebay wants everyone to be happy and Stepford wife-like. The old system worked just as good as anything.

As far as snipers, if they bid my stuff high enough, I don't care who gets it, as long as they are paying....

Backbeatkeeper

So now, you as a buyer leave a good faith positive for a seller, who is a lazy ass, and that seller does not post positive feedback for you.......it is essentially a negative. I am liking ebay less and less over the past few months. And I have a 305 positive rating. About ten percent of ebay sellers are deadbeats as feedbacke posters.

Well, I mostly sell high-end drum items only very occasionally and I suppose the people who would be seriously interested are also going to be serious buyers and not just some flakes playing games...so I think I'm going to just go to Buy It Now terms and require a minimum of 20 feedbacks and those all positive.

No matter how well I list my terms, I always seem to find the flakes...or they find me, I should say! I'm talking about first-time bidders who want to have it be the same way as if they stepped into a BEST BUY STORE. I'm not a store! I don't have a return policy because I feel like the EBay thing is more like an electronic yard sale and not a store front. It's up to the buyer to ask questions, review the item, etc. Buyers should ONLY bid when they are satisfied they are bidding on what they know they will be getting. And, as a seller, IF there are any (even the slightest) problem(s), then it's MY responsibility to list them in the description.

So, I think for my sales, I am going with the Buy It Now price I want. It kind of sucks to do things that way, but without the ability to "defend" myself should the situation arise, I need to weed out the serious bidders from the flakes up front.

Thanks for the responses so far.