Best offer on eBay and providing a payment method
 

The last 2 times I've made a Best Offer on eBay, I had to provide a payment method before submitting the offer so that payment would be made automatically if the offer was accepted. Is this something new that eBay is doing or was it always an option for sellers to select with a listing? I've made a lot of offers in the past and don't remember it ever happening before the last week or so.

i know as a seller, you can request immediate payment option.

Thanks. Hard to believe I just happened to find 2 listings that had that after never hitting one before, but I guess it's possible.

I suspect this could be it. I could be wrong, but I think this box may be a new feature on eBay. I just noticed it recently when listing some items, and didn’t recall seeing it before.

As a seller, I prefer this method, because otherwise I could see jokers running around and canceling their purchases after the seller accepts the offer. Then waiting a little while and trying to offer less. To be safe, the joker could set up different accounts to avoid getting blacklisted in their real account.

I noticed the same thing with my last purchase. At first I thought I hit a phishing scam. I guess there are buyers who play games, but I am not one of them. I received the item purchased but it was the first time I had seen the automatic payment. Also, the payment hit my credit card not PayPal which was annoying.

I've just started using it as a seller. The last two times I sold something through BIN the "buyer" never paid.

Is it a new option for sellers or has it been available for a while?

i goggled it and it says:
This feature is optional on the seller side, but many sellers may not even be aware they have it turned on - eBay automatically opted all sellers in when they introduced it in 2021 and if a seller isn't aware of that, they may be losing sales and not know why.

also found this:
With the immediate payment option on eBay, a listing is still available until a buyer completes the purchase.
You can require immediate payment in both fixed price listings, as well as auction-style listings with a Buy It Now option. Here's how it works: Fixed price: When you require immediate payment in a fixed price listing, the first person who selects Buy It Now and completes checkout gets the item.

Thanks for the additional info

This has been the case for me for a couple years now.

Just started for me
 

I only just started seeing this feature as a buyer over the past month or so. I do a lot of eBay best offer submissions so noticed right away. I actually don’t mind it at all as a buyer, since the sale is completed as soon as the seller accepts. I also think it could result in getting my items shipped maybe a day earlier on average as a result. Time will tell if that pans out.

I used to encounter this very rarely, but in the past few weeks it seems like every single offer I make now requires this. I wonder if they changed the settings so that this now the default?

if they accept your offer its taken right out of your account right away ,,

It’s been around for awhile now. As a buyer now, I dislike it because I’ve learned from experience it means I’m paying independent shipping on each offer, so if it’s set up this way I don’t make an offer unless I only want one item from the seller.

I understand why they make you do it; it's no different than a winning bid and you're supposed to honor all winning bids. But it is annoying because you don't know if it'll be accepted, and therefore you don't know if you have the money tied up in your offer that is ultimately rejected or not.

I ran into this as a buyer. I contacted ebay and they said it was a new feature.

I understand the logic. But, here is the problem I encountered which someone else may have described.

I made offers on multiple items from the same seller. Each was accepted. But each item was processed separately along with shipping. Free shipping would be no problem.
Combined shipping had been offered for multiple purchases but could not be applied.. This caused the seller to have to recalculate total shipping and do multiple refunds to me.

Maybe there was a simple workaround that we did not take advantage of.

Ebay did say a seller can opt out of the feature.