If the winner won't pay

Christine;

"If he doesn't pay"? - that's more of a gamble then I would want to make.

"There's another identical item going off in about 22 hours. If I don't win this one, I'd like to bid on it, because it'll probably go at a good price since the seller is a newbie" - I'm confused. You have an auction ending in an hour with the high bidder that appears to be a flake. There's another auction ending 22 hours, but you say "If I don't win this one"?

[This message was edited by Rick on June 08, 2003 at 08:40 PM.]

Minutes to go. Maybe I should cancel my snipe.

I don't know. But the 22 hour auction appears less stressful. I sure wish Chatter or Steve were still awake.

I cancelled it. Thanks for the input. I've wondered before as to how long I should wait between auctions for the same item to see whether or not the winning bidder pays and whether I'd end up the winner.
The seller who really got what she deserved e-mailed me (the runner up) after an auction and said she'd bid too high on her item because she wasn't sure how much it would go for, and she wanted to sell it to me for my high bid. I told her sorry, I'd just bid on and won an almost identical item. I was just beginning on e-bay and had not heard of shilling (or sniping, for that matter). But--she got what she deserved. A relisting fee, and when she did sell it, it was well under my bid.
--Christine

What surprises me here is the concept that the second-highest bidder is entitled to purchase the item if the high bidder does not pay. While I am aware that some sellers do this, I am not aware of any eBay rule requiring it. I would guess that plenty of sellers would simply relist the item at some future point, usually after a month has passed. That is what I would do.

I really did not understand the second part of the question, regarding the auction ending later today. Sorry.