suspicious winner of my ebay auction

Linas · #1 12-14-2009, 12:23 AM

I sold a bass on ebay and the winner of the auction is a new ebayer, with no feedback. He says he lives in Israel but wants me to ship the bass to New York. This screams of scam to me, but since he did win my auction, what should i do to protect myself the most from being scammed. Should I just tell him i cant sell to him? What is the absolute safest method of accepting money?

bongomania · #2 12-14-2009, 12:33 AM

Tell him you will only ship to a Paypal "Confirmed" address, and you will only accept Paypal as payment, and it has to be through the normal Ebay checkout process. Then when you ship, be sure to get a tracking number. These steps will not be 100% protection, but they are the best you can do aside from telling him the deal is off.

I'd also say it would be OK for you to email him and (politely) tell him you're just not comfortable with the situation. If he's a reasonable person, he will accept that and agree to cancel the transaction amicably. If he's not a reasonable person, then you'd be wise to cancel the deal anyway, though you'd risk getting a negative feedback from him.

**jmattbassplaya** · #3 12-14-2009, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

Tell him you will only ship to a Paypal "Confirmed" address, and you will only accept Paypal as payment, and it has to be through the normal Ebay checkout process. Then when you ship, be sure to get a tracking number. These steps will not be 100% protection, but they are the best you can do aside from telling him the deal is off.

I'd also say it would be OK for you to email him and (politely) tell him you're just not comfortable with the situation. If he's a reasonable person, he will accept that and agree to cancel the transaction amicably. If he's not a reasonable person, then you'd be wise to cancel the deal anyway, though you'd risk getting a negative feedback from him.

+1

MJ5150 · #4 12-14-2009, 01:04 AM

I suspect he'll turn and burn if you decide to do anything but send the bass ASAP. These scammers are looking for a quick buck, and don't want any hassles.

-Mike

burk48237 · #5 12-14-2009, 07:43 AM

Not necessarily. I've had one foreign customer on a transaction here that was more comfortable with shipping to a relative in the states and picking it up himself. Remember good insured shipping costs for a musical instrument overseas are prohibitive. I looked at shipping a Martin Guitar to Europe and the minimum was about 350$ US. In the case of some lower cost instruments the shipping could be more then the price of the sale. And the receiver still has to pay duties and fees. I wouldn't be surprised if an overseas customer who travels here a lot was more comfortable with pick up then delivery. It's only an extra 15-30$ baggage fee if you fly it back yourself. I would certainly require paypal and be sure that the cash is released to you upon receipt at the receiving address at the latest.

TrooperFarva · #6 12-14-2009, 10:02 AM

I once sold a bass on here to someone in Singapore, I think it was. Definitely in Asia anyway. He asked me to ship the bass to an address in Seattle, who would then ship the bass over to him. My responsibility was only to get the bass to Seattle, I didn't have to pay for anything else. It did seem odd, but he told me that he did the same thing once before, so I contacted the TBer who sold that bass, and he confirmed that he did the same thing, and it was find. So we went through with the transaction, and everything was fine.

So it's not necessarily a scam.

kesslari · #7 12-14-2009, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by burk48237

Not necessarily. I've had one foreign customer on a transaction here that was more comfortable with shipping to a relative in the states and picking it up himself. Remember good insured shipping costs for a musical instrument overseas are prohibitive. I looked at shipping a Martin Guitar to Europe and the minimum was about 350$ US. In the case of some lower cost instruments the shipping could be more then the price of the sale. And the receiver still has to pay duties and fees. I wouldn't be surprised if an overseas customer who travels here a lot was more comfortable with pick up then delivery. It's only an extra 15-30$ baggage fee if you fly it back yourself. I would certainly require paypal and be sure that the cash is released to you upon receipt at the receiving address at the latest.

This seems reasonable. I would contact the buyer and figure it out from there.

EricF · #8 12-14-2009, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kesslari

This seems reasonable. I would contact the buyer and figure it out from there.

+1.

Although it could be a scam, it could also be totally legit. Communication with the buyer should give you a better idea about the situation. If he's legit, he should be responsive to your concerns.

ZoomBoy · #9 12-14-2009, 10:30 AM

Paypal as payment only ship to confirmed address and set up the listing to not allow bidders from outside the USA. That's what I do. I also state several times in the listing that I will not ship outside of the USA. Of course that means that I always get asked shipping questions to places like Thailand and whatnot. The guy may be legit but doing international deals is not worth the hassle for me in general.

Jeff

Jefenator · #10 12-14-2009, 10:53 AM

I also make it very clear in my listings: international & zero feedback buyers please e-mail BEFORE bidding. If they can't figure that out, that doesn't bode well for their ability to follow through with a purchase - and I have an "out".

I think you can even set it up to automatically block such bids now. Not sure, though, because I haven't bothered with the eBay selling process for quite a while, now.

Jim Campbell · #11 12-14-2009, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linas

I sold a bass on ebay and the winner of the auction is a new ebayer, with no feedback. He says he lives in Israel but wants me to ship the bass to New York. This screams of scam to me, but since he did win my auction, what should i do to protect myself the most from being scammed. Should I just tell him i cant sell to him? What is the absolute safest method of accepting money?

at this stage you could do some checking to make sure the ny add is for real,and insist on a mo payment.....tell him you will not ship until enough time has ensured the mo is real.....it is plausable that an israeli has contacts in ny that will ship to him or even be visiting israel.....paypal would leave more room for a scam than a mo in this deal

varunkapahi · #12 12-14-2009, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by burk48237

Not necessarily. I've had one foreign customer on a transaction here that was more comfortable with shipping to a relative in the states and picking it up himself. Remember good insured shipping costs for a musical instrument overseas are prohibitive. I looked at shipping a Martin Guitar to Europe and the minimum was about 350$ US. In the case of some lower cost instruments the shipping could be more then the price of the sale. And the receiver still has to pay duties and fees. I wouldn't be surprised if an overseas customer who travels here a lot was more comfortable with pick up then delivery. It's only an extra 15-30$ baggage fee if you fly it back yourself. I would certainly require paypal and be sure that the cash is released to you upon receipt at the receiving address at the latest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrooperFarva

I once sold a bass on here to someone in Singapore, I think it was. Definitely in Asia anyway. He asked me to ship the bass to an address in Seattle, who would then ship the bass over to him. My responsibility was only to get the bass to Seattle, I didn't have to pay for anything else. It did seem odd, but he told me that he did the same thing once before, so I contacted the TBer who sold that bass, and he confirmed that he did the same thing, and it was find. So we went through with the transaction, and everything was fine.

So it's not necessarily a scam.

yes,
all my transactions on TB have been the same way. i ask the seller to ship stuff to a friend in the US who brings me the pedal thus saving me a lot of money. but this is TB and that is evilbay so its up to you. but its not a definite scam imo

Bob Lee (QSC) · #13 12-14-2009, 02:11 PM

I thought maybe you were going to tell us that a gray cat was the auction winner.

GeneralElectric · #14 12-17-2009, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by varunkapahi

but this is TB and that is evilbay so its up to you. but its not a definite scam imo

Big +1

Caca de Kick · #15 12-17-2009, 12:32 AM

Communication is better than making assumptions.
Just simply ask the buyer who it is in NY that is receiving the bass.

I've sold lots of overseas stuff, and some of it I shipped direct to them, and sometimes it shipped to a relative in the States. While at the same time, overseas buyers are also just as paranoid as the sellers are in the States, sometimes these buyers have import or broker companies they deal with here that accept the shipments and ship it later when a crate is filled with their purchases.

I don't know what you specified as payment, but either paypal or international postal money orders are best. Don't get tangled up with western union junk. And you'll want to specify the bass won't ship until funds clear.