Selling on an Auction Site: Possible Scam??

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EIREHotspur

Well-known member
I listed my Camera for 4,000 on an auction site with a Buy it Now and it sold within an hour to a guy who joined today with 0 feedback.
He sent a request for an invoice to be sent from my payal account for the amount.

On the auction email to me they said
"You did it. Your item has sold. Please dispatch this item to the buyer within 1 working day(s) after your buyer pays".

But the thing is that if he pays by paypal...do I have t ship it to him the next day?
I would feel better waiting to withdraw the funds to my bank account.

It just sounds lie a scam that guy joins and on the first day buys a 4,000 camera.

I cotactedhim to ask for a landline number to go with the name an address he provided.

advice guys??
 
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EIREHotspur said:
But the thing is that if he pays by paypal...do I have t ship it to him the next day?
I would feel better waiting to withdraw the funds to my bank account.
Click to expand...
mainstreetprod said:
No feedback- no way. Wait for the funds to clear!
Click to expand...

Not possible. PayPal will hold the funds until delivery is confirmed (you must prove shipment by giving PayPal/eBay a tracking number), plus a few days. The money will show up in your PayPal account one the buyer pays, but you won't have access to it for at least 10 days from there.
 
I don't see how he can rip you off. Just make sure you send the camera with insurance and delivery signature confirmation and you're golden. There's no way he could get that $$ back by claiming the camera was broken or didn't arrive, etc.
 
Also , if selling might I suggest

(i) Lots of pictures taken of the item including distinguishing marks and serial numbers
(ii) pictures of the item being packed and sealed in the box
(iii) pictures of sealed box and weight on scales if possible

Then send it insured and recorded delivery

Some scumbags will buy a perfectly good working item and then substitute it for a similar defective item claiming you sent them a dud. Hence the serial numbers check oh and yes always Paypal.
I have not had that one pulled yet but the horror stories are out there. I had one guy who never sent the laptop I purchased, he then claimed he sent it without proof of postage , Paypal quickly resolved the case in my favour.
 
That's great advice too Vultch...I will deff follow it...especially on a big ticket item like this.

I had a courier company send 2.5k laptop to the wrong town where the guy (who did not speak English) on the delivery truck walked into this guys house....asked him to sign and handed over my laptop to him....good thing he was honest and rang me to inform me....he told me neighbours of his would not have been so honest.

Some people!!
 
Selling big ticket items are always a risk - last week I dispatched a flight case containing some lights, and the buyer (a business) paid via paypal. The freight company (TNT) managed to smash them up and they arrived in pieces. I did not take out the insurance offered, so the buyer tells Paypal and they processed a refund with no input from me. The compensation was £50, and it cost £45 for TNT to ship the broken goods back to me. Don't forget that Paypal have access to your bank account, so even if you had withdrawn the money into your account, then they would have taken it again. If you emptied the account to stop this, then they'd probably cancel or freeze your account. You cannot guarantee you will win as a seller, unless it's fraud, when they side with you.

There is a similar fraud taking place on Aliexpress - a new trader joins, no feedback and advertises goods they do not have at substantially cheaper prices than everyone else. As soon as you buy, they respond straight away and ask you to leave feedback. Novice purchasers don't realise that leaving feedback trigger the payment to the fraudsters, and then they mark the non-existent package as dispatched and by the time it doesn't arrive they've done the same to loads of others and just vanish.

There will always be scammers. If you are a business seller on ebay you are a serious disadvantage, protection wise, so need to be vigilant!
 
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