Yesterday afternoon I won my first auction (not a small one...go big or go home ) from someone who is clearly not an ebay professional. I paid within 5 minutes and sent a quick note with a packaging request. I have received no communication so far. My question is how much time / leeway do you give the mom and pop sellers before you start to get worried? I know it's only been 12 hours but crimany I haven't slept and I just want my first win to go smooth.

I understand that you want everything to go smooth, especially since it's the first auction you won. However I would give it a little time because 12 hours really isn't that long. I believe (and I could be wrong) that sellers have up to 4 days after they have received payment to ship the item. I would give it a day or two, I'm sure they will respond sooner rather than later. Patience is important when dealing with things like this on ebay. Trust me I know it can be quite annoying sometimes unfortunately.

Relax. Give it time. Even the great Amazon.com do not fulfill your order in 12 hours unless you pay for expediated shipping. Perhaps next time you should start with smaller order / payment just to ease your way to buying on eBay. Most sellers on eBay are part timers and do not devote 24 hours everyday taking care of orders. As long as your items arrive within the expected delivery time, the seller is doing their part of the transaction.

Yes, give it some time. There is nothing worse than someone that pays for an item, and then emails me 4 hours later to ask if the item is shipped yet.

Yesterday afternoon I won my first auction (not a small one...go big or go home ) from someone who is clearly not an ebay professional. I paid within 5 minutes and sent a quick note with a packaging request. I have received no communication so far.

My question is how much time / leeway do you give the mom and pop sellers before you start to get worried? I know it's only been 12 hours but crimany I haven't slept and I just want my first win to go smooth.

Ah, I remember my first auction won back in 1999...I was so impatient! It was an exclusive Star Wars Mail away figure - Mace Windu, in anticipation of the release of The Phantom Menace, ah reminiscing...Anyways, try to be patient. Ebay usually sides with the buyer for most auctions so if push comes to shove you'll be fine. In hindsight it's always worth double checking feedback before bidding or making any Ebay purchase. If nothing else it provides piece of mind for the kind of transaction you are entering into. Also make sure you read thoroughly the terms of the auction. There is a lot of wordiness out there know in the descriptions that exclude certain items despite being shown in the picture of the auctions.

Yes, give it some time. There is nothing worse than someone that pays for an item, and then emails me 4 hours later to ask if the item is shipped yet.

Very true haha

Remember that most likely this is just someone doing this part time. Someone who has a family and a job. Not everyone will be sitting in front of their computer waiting for a message to come in. It could be they only check their messages/eBay once daily. It could be any number of things. In any case I always message the seller after an auction ends and ask them to make sure it is packaged good so it doesn't get damaged and so on. I would say only 50% ever even respond to that message. Not sure if they just don't check their messages or if they take it as "message received no need to respond" or whatever. If they seller has good feedback I wouldn't worry about it. Give it some time. I deal with this daily in my normal job. Someone will email me with a question and then email again less than an hour later upset because I didn't respond. If all I did was sit and wait for emails to come in then I would have no business to run in the first place.

I figured as much! No way I was going to bug the seller this morning and be "that guy". I was more worried about not hearing back from my request, I didn't expect it to ship right away. I just need to relax. I have done a lot of homework watching auctions, buyers, and sellers over the last few months. I also did a lot of research on both the auction and the seller which is why I felt good about pulling the trigger. But not getting even a reply was a bit weird to me...I am very accustomed to the craigslist bang-bang-bang speed of transactions and communications. Unless there is a hidden gem I expect to break even or at best only profit a couple hundred dollars...I paid $1.99 under my max bid. This was more an exercise in research and bidding technique. But if I go down in flames on my first auction I can guarantee the she-boss in my house will revoke my ebay card. Thanks for the therapy everyone ;)

if you won it on a sunday afternoon i can almost guarantee that they were probably out doing what the majority of everyone else does on the weekend...relaxing and spending time with their family. my auctions show a 2 day handling time once payment is received, but i always get the item to the post office either the same day or next day, and i always message them with the tracking info right away too. just be patient, and congrats on your first win. you are no longer an ebay virgin.

Quick update, seller and I talked a few times and a shipment is en route. Looks like a happy ending! Appreciate the discussion from everyone.

I had a seller not ship an item for 5 days, they said it would ship in two, I left neutral feedback and they were very upset but offered no way to make it right.

You have to hold feedback hostage so you have something to work with lol, did you really think they were gonna help you out after you left neutral feedback?