Avoiding being scammed on ebay when selling

ahar

ahar

ahar

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So, I'm selling a 22 inch TV on eBay, and both of the people bidding for it have no feedback at all. The price has gone beyond what I think it is worth and I'm a little worried that they are going to try and scam me.

Of course, we all have to start somewhere on eBay with feedback, but if they are up to no good, how do I avoid getting stiffed?

I've said either cash on collection, or paypal and I'll post it. What could go wrong with the paypal payment?

If posting, I'll go with an insured tracked service, and take photos before it is sent to prove it is working.

Anything else I should do ?
 
If posting, make sure the courier you use will pay out for a tv if anything happens to it, most of them dont cover them under their insurance.
 
Restrict your buyers by setting rules.

No feedback below 3
No users less than 6 months old
No more than 1 non-payment warning
Registered PayPal only

..or various others that you think appropriate. I've had this setup for years and never had a problem.
 
Take plenty of pictures, of the serial number, showing it working etc etc. Ive so far never been scammed but anything you can do to help yourself incase it goes sour cant hurt. Paypal do seem to be a bunch of inept swear words but hopefully with sufficient evidence they will manage to put their eight brain cells together and favour a seller.
 
EVH said:
Restrict your buyers by setting rules.

No feedback below 3
No users less than 6 months old
No more than 1 non-payment warning
Registered PayPal only

..or various others that you think appropriate. I've had this setup for years and never had a problem.
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I thought you could only restrict it to no lower than -1 feedback?

EDIT: Just checked and -1 is the lowest feedback level I can set it to. You should be able to set it to whatever you like, but i guess everyone would do that and then new buyers wouldnt be able to buy anything.


I put my Sony Ericson C902 titanium silver phone on there last night for £50 buy it now and less than an hour later it had been bought and paid for by a guy with 1 feedback :( :rolleyes:.

Got a bad feeling about it due to the guys name, but if i dont send it the guy will probably neg me and i'll end up having to pay the 10% final value fee so tempted to just risk it and send.
 
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Bennie-Mac said:
If posting, make sure the courier you use will pay out for a tv if anything happens to it, most of them dont cover them under their insurance.
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Good catch - just assumed the standard insurance covers TVs, but clearly not
 
Right - TV has sold for £79 which is way over price, along with a postal charge of £12.

Address is in St Annes in Nottingham (about 3 hours drive away), and he has just given me a road name for now, no house number.

Question is, do I go ahead using Special Delivery which do seem to cover LCD TVs in their compensation (I'll take the hit on the extra postage cost as the purchase price is so high) and take photos of the serial number and it working next to today's newspaper, or just claim that I can't find a good courier and relist as pick up only?

Don't want to screw him around, but it doesn't feel good.
 
tbh if hes gonna screw you hes gonna screw you.

He could say..
damaged in transit etc and send you back anything and ebay will probably side with the buyer
-this usually happens but not always

to avoid this i put high value items on buy it now + best offer with a high price so i can choose who wins

one time i knew i was going to get scammed, was almost 2x price, i said i had sent the item, and when it didnt turn up said it was lost in the post, buyer got refunded but i still had the item. no loss

of course it could all be legit, its not like its a high value item/phone etc
 
ahar said:
Right - TV has sold for £79 which is way over price, along with a postal charge of £12.

Address is in St Annes in Nottingham (about 3 hours drive away), and he has just given me a road name for now, no house number.



Don't want to screw him around, but it doesn't feel good.
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I know what you mean, i'm in exactly the same predicament. My Phone sold for £50 buy it now, but I put a best offer on to hopefully get a few buyers I could pick from. But the guy just bought it for the buy it now price :(. Most C902 phones sell for £25-£30, but mine is like new so maybe its a good deal lol.

When you say he hasn't given you a house number, does he not have a confirmed address in paypal?
 
Mark A said:
When you say he hasn't given you a house number, does he not have a confirmed address in paypal?
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If this is true avoid! Say you dropped it or something then sell it on gumtree or something, no fees and you have to sell in person so less likely to get scammed.
 
You can set settings to having credit card on file, thats what I do when I do the odd sale.

OP if in doubt , dont sell item to the winner
 
eatcustard said:
You can set settings to having credit card on file, thats what I do when I do the odd sale.

OP if in doubt , dont sell item to the winner
Click to expand...

Need to put that setting in place next time.

As to the address, he hasn't paid yet, the address without a house number is the one linked to the eBay account, not PayPal.

Lets hope he doesn't pay so I can relist without hassle.
 
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Bennie-Mac said:
Take plenty of pictures, of the serial number, showing it working etc etc. Ive so far never been scammed but anything you can do to help yourself incase it goes sour cant hurt. Paypal do seem to be a bunch of inept swear words but hopefully with sufficient evidence they will manage to put their eight brain cells together and favour a seller.
Click to expand...

I've resorted to using a video and showing today's paper in the shot to prove it working and get the serial number, model number etc.

Infact, I don't really use ebay these days as I've lost out on £300 a few years ago and only tend to buy and not sell.

If in doubt cancel auction before completed.
 
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