Selling a high ticket item on Facebook Marketplace. Paranoid about scams.

thefunkygibbon

thefunkygibbon

thefunkygibbon

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Joined
8 Nov 2002
Posts
160
Hi all,

I'm selling my old graphics card (I don't have access to ocuk selling forums any more since the great wipe 20 years back lol) and I've listed it on fb marketplace. I've never sold such a high ticket item on there before, but a "guy" has messaged me asking to buy it, pay extra for postage and send to his "son at uni".

He wants to pay paypal, which i'd rather not as I advertised as cash/bt on collection (wasn't intending to post).

the paranoid in me is concerned that I could be being scammed somehow as I'm always hearing about some scam or another. I've been massively out of pocket before selling things (amazon marketplace though... never again)

I cannot see anything on the persons profile other than name and a photo.

Can't they just simply claim that I didn't send what I was supposed to, or claim it as faulty or that sort of thing? Obviously the card is 100% working fine and I don't intend to scam them, but I note that the paypal buyers protection seems to be a lot more robust than any protection offered to sellers.


thanks in advance
 
thanks, but my point is, whats the scam? how can you tell? how are you supposed to even sell things online/via paypal if you run the risk of this happening?
whats the best way to sell these days?
 
Raymond Lin said:
He will claim you sent him a brick and make a claim to paypal, he doesn't even need to do it straight away, but has 6 months to do it.
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ok, yes i was fearing itmight be something like that. 6 months!? thats ridiculous!. Is there nothing which a seller can do to mitigate such a claim such as taking shedloads of photos of the package and so on. even a video of packaging it and taking it to the post office lol.
 
Yeah, I've no idea where they are. The postal address of his "son" for his "birthday" is Coventry (i'm peterborough). I've messaged him back saying its cash on collection or if he wants to pay via BT i'm happy to post. It's clearly a scam. There was urgency which is a red flag, although my messages seem to not being read by him with any urgency (given that he wants it delivered for birthday tomorrow lol)
 
dLockers said:
The urgency is often because the Facebook accounts are compromised too. Check out his profile, does he even have a son at uni age?
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lol its just one picture from september apparently. of 2 peoples back walking away with a "i've been vaccinated' banner around it. nothing else is on the profile to see.
yeah its of course a scam :-)
 
Out of interest, where would be better places to sell stuff. Other than the Ocuk sale forums (which were great when i had access). Guessing Gumtree/FB are interchangable in terms of risk. (prob worse on gumtree, right? as you can't really do any sniffing around their profile to help ascertain their legitimacy).
eBay is just fee's + fee's from the last time i used them.

anything else?
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
I've had a few bad experiences which I had to chalk up as experience, but otherwise I find that eBay is generally ok for telling tech. That's graphics cards, other computer parts, whole computers and mobile phones.

You could also try your work's intranet notice board.
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yeah, its just the fee's which put me off mostly about ebay.
I don't think my company has such a thing, but even if they did, it wouldnt be much use given that 95% of my colleagues are overseas :-)
 
Lopéz said:
It's a shame you don't have MM access, I think you've been here even longer than me.
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hah, yeah i can't rememeber when it was but i'm sure i was buying from OCUK and prevalent on the forums whilst I was at uni... so like 2000 ish, maybe. Good times. I remember having a LAN party in our uni house and inviting a whole bunch of OCUK'ers to it... prob most of which no longer post here (Jaana, WeaverD, Gilly, Matramskil, Pezboy, slipstream... ah those were the days :-))

just had a look through my old emails and saw some of the stuff i used to buy and sell on there.... great times. (although i seemed to have a bit of a penchant for neon lights/cold cathodes back then lol)
 
hi again. so. another bit of advice.
guy has messaged me (facebook marketplace again) and is asking if i can come over to him so he can fit it. fb profile looks a little more legit ... although stuff like friends and suchlike are hidden from view.

anyone heard of any scams or the like about going to someones house? its not exactly a nice part of town. he's also offered 10% more than it is up for for the 'trouble' of coming over to let him check it fits/works. which obviously set off alarm bells. I don't really have any friends or family I can get to accompany me. (other than my young son/wife... but it seems irresponsible to take them!)

yes i'm a paranoid idiot. telling me so isn't going to help a lot. it is what it is.
 
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Haha. Well I suggested he use the extra money to get a taxi to me with his pc and I would happily fit it and stuff. No reply. Nm I finally got in on the 80% off ebay fees promo so it won't now cost stupid money to sell it on there.
 
oh don't!! i'm at a bloody loss of how to sell stuff these days. everywhere is full of scammers. if only I had MM access still :-( its either places where you'll get undercut stupid amounts, or places you'll get loads of scammers.
at this rate i'll have to take it to CEX
 
SixTwoSix said:
Already mentioned the other week that ebay is nowhere near as bad as generally made out, you only hear when things go wrong - just follow precautions and absolutely get it sent by RMSD at the buyers cost.
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So don't do it as "free delivery'"? Does that make a difference then?

tamzzy said:
well you have 137 posts and you need 1000 to gain MM access the (new) normal way...
i guess that should only take you another 129 years or thereabouts to regain MM access :cry:
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haha yeah 20 years for 137 posts... doesn't bode well to hitting that 1000 target. i'd love to know how many posts i used to have back in the day.. i was on the forums ALL the time lol
 
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