Well, this week was certainly a lesson in patience for me.
First off was the Canadian buyer who asked me to ship to a US address. I was nervous about doing it but got lots of reassurance from people here that it's a problem, usually.
So then, the postal clerk at my local PO fails to scan the delivery confirmation code and for two days after mailing the item, I'm on pins and needles wondering if it's going to show up at the address and how am I going to prove that I sent it since he didn't even give me a receipt (I paid for the postage online)!
Fortunately, the tracking did show it was delivered, the buyer emailed me that it arrived and he left positive feedback. WHEW!
Then there was another buyer who won two auctions and emailed me to ask if I would combine the two in order to save on postage. No problem! It saves me the effort of sending two packages to the same address. So, after that, I hear nothing from her. Hmmm.
The auction ended Sunday and still no payment or response by Friday. I send a payment reminder. On Saturday, still nothing and I notice that the another seller has left negative feedback for this buyer. He had a similar item up for auction which ended the same day as mine. Hmmm.
I'm beginning to get bad feelings about this person. They're new to eBay and now have a total feedback of 2 positives and one negative. But my payment terms state that I expect payment within 7 days and it hasn't been 7 days yet. The buyer could have any number of reasons for not contacting me and not paying just yet. "Patience", I tell myself, "Have patience."
Well, in my email this morning, there's a notice from PayPal that the buyer paid last night via an eCheck. Patience pays off! I'm glad that I didn't jump the gun like the other seller did. Now he'll probably never get his payment from that buyer. He left his negative feedback only 4 days after the auction ended!
Patience. Patience is a virtue. Patience pays off. I'm learning a lot from eBaying. Thank you everyone for your support in this thread. I don't know if I would have had the patience to get thru this week's auctions if it hadn't been for you!