Originally Posted by tuneman6212
I thought there were rare circumstances where you can back out.
Oh there are those types of circumstances, but they are indeed rare, and it doesn't like you are in one.
And while you are "legally" bound to it. But the legality isn't really enforced. The most you will get is a non-paying bidder strike, and another negative feedback. Neither of which prevents you from bidding on more stuff. Some sellers automatically reject bidders with negative ratings, But most don't. And I think you have to have 3 non-paying bidder strikes within 30 or 60 days to get suspended.
I've had lots of buyers buy something and decide it wasn't what they wanted, or I get an email saying the buyer's son was on his account and is under 18 and thus not responsible, or on a listing that says "U.S. only" a winner in Israel wins a very heavy item and expects it shipped for the same price as the quoted Continental U.S. shipping
Ebay!!
Also if you are just now setting up a paypal account it may take a little while for them to verify you and actually put money into the account (especially with a negative overall rating). So you may want to check the seller's payment deadline to make sure you won't go over it. When I have lots of stuff to sell I'm pretty strict about my deadlines.
The right thing to do is ask whatever questions you need to the seller, but do not back out of the sale, go ahead and pay for it, if you don't want it, just resell it (perhaps on ebay) and call it a lesson learned.
The seller might be nice enough to take reimbursement for his listing fees and exchange postive feedbacks and relist the item. But he is in no way required to do that as it is against ebay policy. I've done it for many ebay newbs, it mostly depends on their demeanor. If they say "oh im sorry I didn't know i was required to pay for it, i just bid on stuff to watch them and so i get an email when it's over, i will happily reimburse your fees etc..." the fees on low cost items are around $3, so i just go along with it. If they say "dadgummit i aint payin fer nuthin!!" then i would happily exercise the non-pay bidder and negative feedback forms.