Weird eBay sale

[3rdStrongestMole | 430]

I have had an item for sale on ebay for a month or so, and it's probably overpriced by a hundred or two, so I have a "best offer" available.

Anyways, someone paid outright for it without making an offer. Also they have zero feedback. Also they made their account yesterday.

It says they paid, but I'm really leery about sending this thing off. I'm thinking something is going to "go wrong" with the transaction on their end.

Surely there are many ways they could be trying to pull one over on me.

What recourse do I have here?

Edit: I mean I guess I can just cancel it, but has anyone experienced this before? Surely.

Edited October 27, 2023 by 3rdStrongestMole

[kazuo | 6]

Technically you could just not ship it and take the hit to your seller account. eBay's pretty strict these days, so I don't recommend it if you like to sell on eBay.

Did you Google their address? It's possible it's someone from overseas, using a proxy service. You can usually suss this out from a Google search of the location, or even an oddly-formatted address (e.g. it has some weird box number). If so, just ship it. If they try to scam you, using proxies violates policy and they don't qualify for buyer protection. You win any case they may try to open.

Do you have any other reason to think it is suspicious?

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

If it says paid and they have provided an address that you ship to I’d say mail it. As long as it gets to its destination and shows as delivered with the tracking number you are safe. If they try to pull something after it’s delivered eBay will probably just look at how new their account is and dismiss it as long as you have adequate feedback as a seller. If it’s a really high priced item throw insurance on it and require a signature for delivery. 

Edited October 27, 2023 by a3quit4s

[3rdStrongestMole | 430]

23 minutes ago, kazuo said:

Technically you could just not ship it and take the hit to your seller account. eBay's pretty strict these days, so I don't recommend it if you like to sell on eBay.

Did you Google their address? It's possible it's someone from overseas, using a proxy service. You can usually suss this out from a Google search of the location, or even an oddly-formatted address (e.g. it has some weird box number). If so, just ship it. If they try to scam you, using proxies violates policy and they don't qualify for buyer protection. You win any case they may try to open.

Do you have any other reason to think it is suspicious?

I googled the address and it's a suite in Manhattan that sells for a couple milli. There's a phone number from the same area attached to the account.

I messaged the buyer and I feel like a lack of response will give me more info. But, yeah, 0 feedback and account created yesterday seems odd to me.

7 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

If it says paid and they have provided an address that you ship to I’d say mail it. As long as it gets to its destination and shows as delivered with the tracking number you are safe. If they try to pull something after it’s delivered eBay will probably just look at how new their account is and dismiss it as long as you have adequate feedback as a seller. If it’s a really high priced item throw insurance on it and require a signature for delivery. 

It's not insanely high priced. Just over a thousand. I've encountered an issue in the past where something got delivered and the receiver said it was broken in packaging,  etc etc even though I know I mailed it off well protected.

They wanted partial refund and i didn't want to go through the rigmarole of Ebay's dispute process, so I gave a partial. I just don't want to walk into a similar situation. 

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

1 hour ago, 3rdStrongestMole said:

I googled the address and it's a suite in Manhattan that sells for a couple milli. There's a phone number from the same area attached to the account.

I messaged the buyer and I feel like a lack of response will give me more info. But, yeah, 0 feedback and account created yesterday seems odd to me.

It's not insanely high priced. Just over a thousand. I've encountered an issue in the past where something got delivered and the receiver said it was broken in packaging,  etc etc even though I know I mailed it off well protected.

They wanted partial refund and i didn't want to go through the rigmarole of Ebay's dispute process, so I gave a partial. I just don't want to walk into a similar situation. 

If you are that worried just cancel the sale and say the item is no longer available. I think there is also a setting on sales where can require that buyers have a certain feedback to buy but maybe they did away with that. I had the same thing as a buyer with Golden Axe Warrior, paid for CIB and the instruction manual wasn’t the right one in the box. That was a two/three week struggle. 
 

At the end of the day it’s your item and if something feels off cancel the sale

Edited October 27, 2023 by a3quit4s

[Skorp | 383]

I've had this happen to me twice before with zero feedback buyers, paid full skipping best offer and both were international. It ended up being a good transaction. One did leave feedback (Japan buyer). I remember being so nervous that they would say it wasn't delivered as I believe one of them had no final tracking confirmation. So it can be a good outcome or bad outcome. Definitely go with your gut though if you feel something is off with this, then by all means make up some excuse and cancel. If you go through it, document everything, signature confirmation etc.

[3rdStrongestMole | 430]

Interesting update:

Yeah, so I messaged the buyer and they actually messaged me back. They said it was a secondary account that ebay created for them for using a different login (or something along those lines?)

Anyways, I cancelled the transaction and they said they'd rebuy under their actual account.

I wasn't sure they would, but after relisting, sure enough, they purchased it again under their main account that had a ton of solid feedback. Same address, name, etc.

So, I feel bad for being skeptical,  but the buyer was very understanding in the messages.

Needless to say, not the outcome I expected at all.

[fcgamer | 4,729]

Nice to hear that things worked out in the end.

On a different note, I've sent parcels to all sorts of "sketchy" places and under "sketchy" circumstances as well. From my experience, one really can't predict when something will go off the rails and when something won't. I remember back on NA when I sent an expensive (about $300) game to a respected member, and about a month in he messaged me that he didn't receive the package, was about to go public and open a dispute, etc. I forget how I talked the guy down, but the parcel got delayed for some silly reason on the USPS side, and it showed up like a week or two after the confrontation, and that was from a member with whom I didn't things would go sideways.

If they pay, I ship.

[Tanooki | 4,936]

Unless they changed it from when I was selling all year on there, they did for the longest time allow blocking 0 feedback buyers as a safety net just like how you can block anyone with any negative rating too or was that all removed?

[Tyree_Cooper | 757]

Only negative profiles can be blocked

[dogbowl | 150]

Its not unreasonable to be suspicious.  I had a small auction close last weekend.  I mailed the item Monday morning and then I received this email Monday evening (over 48 hours after the auction had closed).

Ebay closed the account and the cancelled the sale after I had mailed the item    

 

[Armageddon Potato | 124]

On 10/27/2023 at 8:37 AM, 3rdStrongestMole said:

I have had an item for sale on ebay for a month or so, and it's probably overpriced by a hundred or two, so I have a "best offer" available.

Anyways, someone paid outright for it without making an offer. Also they have zero feedback. Also they made their account yesterday.

It says they paid, but I'm really leery about sending this thing off. I'm thinking something is going to "go wrong" with the transaction on their end.

Surely there are many ways they could be trying to pull one over on me.

What recourse do I have here?

Edit: I mean I guess I can just cancel it, but has anyone experienced this before? Surely.

This kind of scenario happens somewhat often to me, and a lot of times it's just someone who google searched your item and came to see it and wanted to purchase it without thinking too much about it. Just ship it with tracking+insurance and you won't get scammed. If you need help PM me, I get a few scammers online per day minimum, but I know how to handle them easily.

[3rdStrongestMole | 430]

23 minutes ago, Armageddon Potato said:

This kind of scenario happens somewhat often to me, and a lot of times it's just someone who google searched your item and came to see it and wanted to purchase it without thinking too much about it. Just ship it with tracking+insurance and you won't get scammed. If you need help PM me, I get a few scammers online per day minimum, but I know how to handle them easily.

Everything worked out well. Buyer got on his regular account and paid and item's been shipped and arrived at destination. 

I was skeptical in the beginning but I always struggle giving odd situations the benefit of the doubt. I was off-base here, I guess, and I'm glad I was!