• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Selling on EBay

Rival

Gold Member
So I recently was fortunate enough to buy a new gpu at msrp from Best Buy and decided to sell my old 1080 on eBay. The auction closed yesterday with a final bid of well over $400 plus $15 for shipping. That’s great and all. My issue is the person paid right away and has zero feedback and is a brand new account. I haven’t sold anything at all on eBay in years and never anything to someone without feedback or for over $100. I feel like I am about to be scammed if I ship this. eBay says the person paid right away and it’s good to ship. Any advice or experience here that anyone could give me would be appreciated.
 
Message them to ascertain some information and especially send with a tracked signature service. That way the buyer can't complain to eBay the package wasn't delivered and take a picture of the parcel for good measure.
 

Rival

Gold Member
If you already got paid, what's the problem?
eBay says they paid but also said the funds would be held until mid November which seemed weird. It just makes me nervous that there is no feedback on this person. I know everyone starts at zero feedback with eBay but I don’t want to be scammed.
 

MachRc

Member
Im assuming youre getting paid via, paypal. I would document packaging and sealing the box (make a video) and even document dropping it off at the UPS store with receipt.
Don't worry too much about it.
 
Last edited:

Artoris

Gold Member
So I recently was fortunate enough to buy a new gpu at msrp from Best Buy and decided to sell my old 1080 on eBay. The auction closed yesterday with a final bid of well over $400 plus $15 for shipping. That’s great and all. My issue is the person paid right away and has zero feedback and is a brand new account. I haven’t sold anything at all on eBay in years and never anything to someone without feedback or for over $100. I feel like I am about to be scammed if I ship this. eBay says the person paid right away and it’s good to ship. Any advice or experience here that anyone could give me would be appreciated.
If you have proof of postage, you are most probably fine
 

Rival

Gold Member
Im assuming youre getting paid via, paypal. I would document packaging and sealing the box (make a video) and even document dropping it off at the UPS store with receipt.
Don't worry too much about it.
It was not PayPal. Honestly I’m not exactly sure how they paid.
 

MachRc

Member
The new ebay terms did mention direct to bank, so maybe they(ebay) is holding the money.
But you can just take the card to UPS and video them packaging it for you too if youre really worried.


edit:

Its always a great idea when shipping stuff, even to an OFFICIAL samsung phone trade in program.
I video taped my wifes trade in, and samsung sent photos of a completely different phone saying the screen was cracked and would only give me half the credit.
With one youtube video, issues cleared.
d92uhxc8fjm71.png
 
Last edited:

BigBooper

Member
Ebay won't let you block buyers with no history. Only if they have bad history can you limit it. Like everyone else said, take pictures of it before, during, and after packing it. Get signature confirmation and delivery insurance.
 

DeaDPo0L84

Member
So I recently was fortunate enough to buy a new gpu at msrp from Best Buy and decided to sell my old 1080 on eBay. The auction closed yesterday with a final bid of well over $400 plus $15 for shipping. That’s great and all. My issue is the person paid right away and has zero feedback and is a brand new account. I haven’t sold anything at all on eBay in years and never anything to someone without feedback or for over $100. I feel like I am about to be scammed if I ship this. eBay says the person paid right away and it’s good to ship. Any advice or experience here that anyone could give me would be appreciated.
DO NOT SHIP! Refund immediately and relist with a strict notice in your listing that only buyers with positive feedback may purchase your item. I've done this for years and had no problems. People will still buy with zero feedback and I immediately refund and resist, don't risk it! They buy and pay immediately but then will claim package was never received or not as described and you will lose your money, eBay typically sides with the buyer.
 
Last edited:

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Sometimes funds are held when you have a new account or items sell for a lot. Could be because you haven't sold in a while.

There's nothing you can really do to totally prevent being scammed. Just do the best you can. Ship it insured. Take photos of the item in the box before mailing.

Signature confirmation won't totally prevent being scammed, because they could always lie and say "Seller shipped be defective item" and swap out your item with a broken one and mail it back. That's a common scam tactic.

But ebay gets tons of new users everyday. Odds are against you being scammed. New users have to start somewhere, they can't control that they've never bought before.

You could put no 0 feedback buyers allowed, but it's technically against ebay policy, and also if you sell something to a 0 feedback buyer and refund them, they could leave you a negative feedback. Get enough of them and your account is toast.
 

Durask

Member
The truth is: the guy could claim that you sent him an empty box and Ebay will refund him the money. Or they can request a return and mail you an empty box or a broken item.
However, vast majority of transactions go through without any problems.

You just need to be aware that there is a small chance of getting scammed.

Personally I limit my buyers to USA only mostly so that I do not have to deal with customs forms and foreign shipping.
 

Winter John

Member
Someone paying straight away is probably about the best sign they're not scammers. A lot of scammers delay payment then try and beat the price down because they know sellers don't want to go through the hassle of re-listing. If you haven't sold anything before EBay/Paypal hold payment for a certain period to make sure you're not a scammer.
If you decide not to send the item to the buyer and relist it. The buyer might complain to EBay and they could ban you. Make a small, but easily identifiable mark on your item. Take a photo. Send it insured, tracked.
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
Ebay is full of scammers and liars.

I'll tell you why ebay is not worth selling on.

You send your item, video it being sealed up, send it signed for. The buyer signs for it. The buyer contacts ebay and says "the seller sent me an old book?! Where's my gpu?!"

Ebay refunds the money.

You can show the video. They will not care.
 
Last edited:

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
If worst comes to worst and you get scammed, make a big enough stink on social media and threaten legal action and you’ll get your money back.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Everyone has a negative experience with eBay at some point in time, but once you breakthrough it’s really good don’t let yourself panic about getting money you’ll probably get it PayPal is legit, I don’t think you’ll get $ now 2-3 business days.
 

Rbk_3

Member
I sell all my PC stuff on FB Marketplace with great success. This way it is easy to vett the person as well. Sketchy profile with 8 friends? Pass.
 
Last edited:

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
You should be covered under ebay seller protection, just need to show u shipped it to registered address and it arrived. When my pc died I sold off the parts, the guy who bought my cpu claimed it was an unauthorized purchase. I just gave them the tracking number and all taken care of. It’s better they didn’t go thru PayPal, eBay will protect you better then PayPal.
 
Last edited:

manfestival

Member
I went through this same situation when selling my 2080 recently. To be fair, my account has like no feedback. The buyer didn't respond to any of my communications. Everything has been good for some time. The guy bought my 2080 for $660 and it seems like a steal in the fluctuation of the market but I am just happy I made most of my money back.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
eBay says they paid but also said the funds would be held until mid November which seemed weird.

Do not send that shit. There is zero good reason eBay should be holding funds for several weeks on an item they expect you to ship tomorrow.
 
Last edited:

Paulistano

Member
You should make photos of the gpu with the serial number and everything that can be used to identify the GPU and if possible you should film it in working state too, it's very important to do this so you can have proof in case the buyer tries to scam you. I always do this for everything I sell on the internet.
 
payments are normally on hold, can be up to 3-4 weeks if you're new or infrequent seller

 

AJUMP23

Member
eBay normally puts the money in escrow until the product arrives. If there is an issue I know they will make the buyer while, not sure about the seller though.
 
if they have paid then you need to ship it. ebay will hold onto the money for a while which is normal. usually until the item is delivered and positive feedback is left for you. they changed their process a while back to rely less on paypal but in my experience money is released quicker now.

anyway, just make sure you have tracking/insurance in case the buyer says it wasn't delivered or was damaged. you should always do this for high value items.

for high value items my approach is to always make it absolutely clear in the listing that it will be sent tracked and will require their signature or maybe even a photo of them at point of delivery! Also, say that no returns are accepted unless it arrives damaged and if that does happen they must send it back for inspection before any refund is issued. It's always worth saying that you have recorded the serial number and that the item has a security mark that you will check upon receiving the item. Use a pen with invisible ink to mark it (or don't...lol). if the item has cosmetic damage make a note of that too.

basically you're just trying to deter any scammer. hopefully they read that and decide it's not worth it. there's been plenty of buyers on ebay i've hesitated shipping stuff too but you gotta do it if they pay.

good luck! :)
 
Last edited:

th4tguy

Member
Most recent scam I encountered when selling old semi broken phone on ebay was this:

Phone is advertised as broken with detailed pictures and description of what doesn't work
Person buys phone and pays without issue.
They get the phone and start private messaging me that they can't do anything with the phone as it is broken in ways that were described in the listing.
They don't want to return the item. They want a partial refund and will continue to harass you for a partial refund until you either give them one or stop responding.
They will not report you because Ebay knows of this scam and if you listed the product correctly, they wont succeed.

We contacted EBay when this started and were assured by their support we were good and didn't need to do anything. Guy went away after a few messages unresponded to. Didn't even leave negative feedback (something Ebay said they would remove if he did).

Just make sure you film the item being packaged and shipped at the store. Film the product working. Require signature. Cover your bases that way and you should be fine.
DO NOT GIVE PARTIAL REFUNDS.
 
Last edited:

Cattlyst

Member
I sold a graphics card on ebay late last year. I took photos of it and sent it by courier. About a week after the buyer received it (I was notified he had taken delivery by the courier) he messaged me claiming it had arrived damaged. No way it got damaged in transit with how well I packaged it. He sent photos of a card that wasn't the one I sent and he also opened a case. I refused to give a refund initially and pointed out it wasn't even the card I sent, and also contacted ebay to let them know I was being scammed. Ebay didn't care, they took his side because he was the buyer and I had to issue a refund and make a claim via the courier's complaints team. I will never sell another high value item on ebay as it is just absolutley full of scammers. I'll buy low value items but I won't sell anything on there ever again.
 

Rival

Gold Member
I sold a graphics card on ebay late last year. I took photos of it and sent it by courier. About a week after the buyer received it (I was notified he had taken delivery by the courier) he messaged me claiming it had arrived damaged. No way it got damaged in transit with how well I packaged it. He sent photos of a card that wasn't the one I sent and he also opened a case. I refused to give a refund initially and pointed out it wasn't even the card I sent, and also contacted ebay to let them know I was being scammed. Ebay didn't care, they took his side because he was the buyer and I had to issue a refund and make a claim via the courier's complaints team. I will never sell another high value item on ebay as it is just absolutley full of scammers. I'll buy low value items but I won't sell anything on there ever again.
This is exactly why I decided to cancel the order. Not worth the risk I was taking. Especially considering the buyer was brand new with zero feedback.
 
I sold a graphics card on ebay late last year. I took photos of it and sent it by courier. About a week after the buyer received it (I was notified he had taken delivery by the courier) he messaged me claiming it had arrived damaged. No way it got damaged in transit with how well I packaged it. He sent photos of a card that wasn't the one I sent and he also opened a case. I refused to give a refund initially and pointed out it wasn't even the card I sent, and also contacted ebay to let them know I was being scammed. Ebay didn't care, they took his side because he was the buyer and I had to issue a refund and make a claim via the courier's complaints team. I will never sell another high value item on ebay as it is just absolutley full of scammers. I'll buy low value items but I won't sell anything on there ever again.
Graphics card all have a unique serial number to my knowledge so why not use that against him during the case?
 

Cattlyst

Member
Graphics card all have a unique serial number to my knowledge so why not use that against him during the case?
The card was clearly a different one in the buyers photos so it wouldn't have had the same serial number. I sent my photos to ebay resolution centre and also mentioned this and I was ignored.
 

Rival

Gold Member
The card was clearly a different one in the buyers photos so it wouldn't have had the same serial number. I sent my photos to ebay resolution centre and also mentioned this and I was ignored.
The buyer could easily claim the serial number was not the one the seller sent. It’s all just too risky for me.
 
The buyer could easily claim the serial number was not the one the seller sent. It’s all just too risky for me.
Then it's all hearsay and eBay doesn't work as intended. You put the serial number in the photographs, video yourself posting it and they can come back and say it's doctored.
 

Unk Adams

Banned
The sad thing is that there's no perfect option for selling things. eBay will get you the most money in most cases but you also run the risk of getting scammed and if that happens then absolutely no one will care or help you. You can meet people in person from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist but then you have to deal with lowballers, flakes, and entitled assholes for weeks or even months before you can find a good buyer so that's hours of time wasted. Secondhand stores won't rob or scam you but will give a shitty trade-in value because they have to resell it themselves.
 

Ionian

Member
Have used local sites for selling, Ebay always sounded like way too much hassle.

Have bought a few things from sellers with a high-rating though without issue,
 

Durask

Member
I do sell stuff - mostly old computer parts.
Unlikely to be scammed when you are selling a 5-6 year old motherboard or RAM or CPU or a 8 year old laptop.
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
Check the list of countries that have problems and make sure you put them on exclusion list.

Better yet - don’t ship outside Europe and US - Russia
 

Dthomp

Member
This worries me, I wanted to get back into downsizing through Ebay, did a bit of that probably 7-8 years ago and after two attempts at being scammed I was over it. Was hoping that Ebay had come around to being a a little better to the sellers then they used to be.
 
Top Bottom