Have you ever sold anything on eBay?

F

FilmBoy77

Veteran
I've never bought or sold anything on eBay and after listing a big ticket item ($3,300) to sell on the site last week, today I got an email saying somebody clicked the buy now button and the item has sold. The red flags that I noticed are that this person has no buying or selling history, the address is in Brazil and has a couple of "?" in it -- is there even addresses anywhere in the world that lists question marks in it? to me it looks bogus. The person sent an email that says this:

Hello, I will like you to get back to me with your paypal email address so that i can be sure that the fund was send to the right payment address via paypal as soon as possible. Regard.
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This reads exactly like the shi^ty craigslist fraud emails with broken english I always get from people when trying to sell something and how they never mention what you are actually selling in the email and always refer to it as "the item" before going into some bogus story about how they want to buy what you're selling and then have some elaborate story about how you will have to ship it somewhere internationally, but not to them directly.

Has anyone encountered this before? What would you do?
 
yeah, I sold a lot of things on eBay in the past (comics, art books, video games, etc..) and when I encounter something/someone like that I just e-mail them, asking everything I'd wish to know. In this case, as to confirm the adress and bring up why is there question marks in it.

You don't have to ship the item until you recieve payment, so there's really no worries. Sometimes it's good to be clear and let the buyer know that too (they shouldn't complain, it's how 99% of people do it).

So if I were you I'd e-mail the person back, ask about the shipping adress and let them know how to pay *

* If you have your paypal adress listed on eBay or if it's your e-mail that the person is contacting, then just tell them that "This e-mail is the correct paypal adress" (or something like that).

It's fairly common for buyers (I've done it) to ask if the paypal adress is the right one. Nothing worse then sending money, then the person says that wasn't their right adress, then you have to cancle /withdraw the money then send it again. Paypal still charges it's user fee.


As for the broken english, you say their from brazil, maybe they primarily speak portuguese (or whatever it is spoken in Brazil?) or their very young? I wouldn't worry about it.
 
I sold a camera for 1700 on eBay, shipped from Canada to the Us and didn't have any trouble. You can limit the countries you'll sell to before posting, which I reccomend for certain items. If they have paid through paypal you are pretty well protected, although it might be a while before you're compensated if fraud does occur.
 
This is a common tactic to get your email address in order to make a fake confirmation page. They would send you that and hope you believe you got paid when you didn't. It's also a common question for completely legitimate people, and you don't have many ways to tell which they are. Brazil is not a normal scam country. You can inform them that you will not ship until payment is completely cleared, which can take a couple of days, and make sure that the money is in your account (your bank account) before you do anything. If you're actually paid through Paypal- and not given fake information- you are protected. If you thought you were paid through Paypal but it was really a fraudulent email you are not protected in any way.
 
Yes agree with Cassius so make sure you log into your own paypal and confirm funds at all times. I sold a package a few months ago around $14k on ebay - no issues - the guy who bought it turned out to be fairly local.
 
Unless Paypal has changed it's policies... it's way better for a buyer to use Paypal then a seller.

For an item of that much value I'd want to have the actual cash in my hand before I shipped the item... and unfortunately, both of you are then left at the mercy of customs, etc. When you sell to another country like that... there's no way for either of you to track that package all the way to the final destination... AFAIK.

If you get into any kind of Paypal escrow or something like that... so that you see the funds, but can't HAVE the funds... that's bad. You'll be the one taking the biggest risk... while the buyer will be able to give an assortment of reasons why Paypal shouldn't let you have the cash. (item never arrived, not as described, broke, etc. etc.)
 
and that's another thing i've seen in terms of complaints from sellers is that all a buyer has to do is make 2 clicks on ebay in order to say they never received the package or they didnt receive what the buyer said he would ship and ebay will quickly take the money back out of your account and refund it to them while they're not required to send you anything back....meaning they pay you, get the package, then get a refund and you're sh^t out of luck.

i sent the seller an email saying the address was bogus and to provide me with something that can be verified.

the thing that's irritating is that i had a few watchers and someone email me (from Florida) saying they were interested and wanted to know if i could post a buy now price. this person seemed legit....then as soon as i post a buy now price i get this most likely fake person to click on it and i am unable to relist the item because i'm getting an ebay error saying you can only sell $5k worth of products per month....so now i have to wait until April to relist the item all over again.
 
When I send items that sell in ebay I always ask for a signature when receiving the goods, that way at least you have prove that the buyer has received the goods, and he can no longer say that he haven't received the goods. He can attack you using other techniques, but you at least have some kind of document to defend yourself. I also limit my sales to the EU as sending goods inside the EU doesn't require you to export anything and you don't have to weigh customs in the equation..... I also don't like buy it now deals, I prefer to ask for offers, people send me offers, and I accept them or not.
 
Your best bet is to sale within the states. Not that there's not trustworthy people else where, but seeing as your a new seller. You cant take the funds until you send the item and recieve feedback. Or wait so many days ( i think it's tweny). At least within the states shipping is usually quicker and cheaper.
 
yea you're right....how do i limit my sales to just the USA?

i sent the guy an email telling him to send me a valid address and i just got some automated email reply asking for my paypal email address again in the same broken english as if it were his first time emailing me....yea i aint sending nothing. guess i'll just have to wait until April to list it again.
 
With "Buy it Now", you can also require instant payment before it ends your auction. Best way to go so you don't have to deal with this BS. I think it's a scam. Everything you're saying smells scam to me and I wouldn't even risk it. Under the shipping options, you can check where you will send it.
 
FilmBoy77 said:
yea you're right....how do i limit my sales to just the USA?

i sent the guy an email telling him to send me a valid address and i just got some automated email reply asking for my paypal email address again in the same broken english as if it were his first time emailing me....yea i aint sending nothing. guess i'll just have to wait until April to list it again.
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There is an option for USA only, when you make the post. You may want to contact ebay and explain the situation, because he could give you negative feedback for not sending the item. You are in the right, by not shipping to a confirmed paypal address. But im pretty sure they need to know.
 
I have been scammed on epain, sold on epain very rarely and if i can avoid it I am happy. I dont like the company....same goes for painpal. I prefer this board or other channels 10 times over epain, they are too scam ridden! their API has been pwned by cybercriminals for years and they simply dont give a hoot about the small time users!
 
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You can tell Ebay the transaction didn't go through, canceling it (you might have to wait for the payment grace period to end, I don't remember the details), then you can provide your inquiry with a second chance offer at no cost to you.
 
I had a similar situation. I specified for sale in the U.S. Buyer turned out to have a drop box in Texas but was from Brazil. I also had a few people watching the sale. When the buyer did not pay, Ebay's lengthy proceedures for trying to resolve ate up a lot of valuable time. 2nd chance offers had no takers. I finally got the ok from Ebay to relist it and it sold. Needless to say I wasn't happy with the process. Other times when I sold a lot of Nikon camera equipment, everything went fine.
 
yea so.....a little common sense and a gut feeling goes a long way. today ebay sent me this email message:

[FONT=Arial, Verdana]We had to cancel bids for the following buyer because they aren't registered on eBay:

damiwang0016

Please don't complete the transaction and don't ship the item. You may have received an email saying the buyer has paid. However, that's probably a fake message. To check if you actually received a payment, please log in to your PayPal account. Also, be sure to report fake emails to us.

[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Verdana]If you've already shipped the item and didn't receive a payment, you can request a final value fee credit for the listing.
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Verdana]
To help you avoid this situation in the future, consider setting a Buy It Now price and requiring buyers to make an immediate payment[/FONT]
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The rest of the email just talked about calling the cops if i have already shipped out my package which I did not of course.
 
Couldnt some of the ??? in the address due to your computer not having the right letters in its font packs - ie when looking at some chinese/japan sites if you don't have the character sets...
 
Brodieman said:
Couldnt some of the ??? in the address due to your computer not having the right letters in its font packs - ie when looking at some chinese/japan sites if you don't have the character sets...
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doesn't matter, he did the right thing by asking others who have had more experience with ebay. This turned out ok, but if he had not had the red flags go up, chances are he would have been scammed. Nothing worse than a theif. God I hate um all.
 
Things you should do when selling on Ebay:

1. Post in the body of your item "If you have a low or zero rating, please contact me before bidding" this way if it's a new buyer you can get some information from them before they buy a big ticket item.

2. If they ask for a paypal address send them an "invoice" which you can do in your "my summary" section in the drop down menu by the item sold. Tell them to click on the invoice to pay and get a confirmation of your paypal account. I NEVER send anyone my paypal account through email. It's on the invoice people.

3. Always INSURE a big ticket item and include that cost as part of the shipping & handling fee. No way I'm going to send a $500 lens across country and have it break and then get blamed for broken items. Always insure over $100.

4. I sell worldwide to broaden my bids. Don't worry 'bout scamming. I had a friend in Santa Cruz whose husband worked for eBay and they will hunt you down and file charges against you no matter what country you are in. Heard details of his travels to catch thieves.

5. When in doubt for large ticket items use payment www.escrow.com. Years and years ago we bought a car for my son through eBay and had it inspected by Midas, talked to the mechanic, and then had it shipped to us. Payment went through Escrow for protection. It works.

Hope that helps.
 
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