Bitcoin Forum

Just tried to sell my first bitcoins on ebay, and the auction went really well with lots of action and a good final price, but now the buyer will not pay for the bitcoins he won!

Anyone else dealing with this?

It seems like my buyer at least is using ebay to buy bitcoin options at no risk. Since the tank, he has had no reason to pay up :(

Like in the normal life and with other ebay goods - sometimes there are people like this.
If i were you and i had no chance to get with the buyer in contact (after a couple of days of course) i would try to contact the second best buyer or restart the auction.

Usually you can contact eBay and ask for help, but since Paypal (belongs to eBay) is a bit of a problem with Bitcoin it might be that they won't help you.

This should be expected on Ebay, the same happens with gold and silver, when there is a sudden big drop in the price. One way to counter this, would be to include a shipping fee in the original auction (I know it doesn't make sense, but it can work) and state CLEARLY in the auction that this fee will be lowered to adjust for a drop in the price of a bitcoin in a trusted exchange (Mt. Gox for instance).

You cannot discount the price on Ebay easily (to prevent fraud), but you can discount the shipping.

Example: BTC is 19.00$ at the moment, so you put up an auction for 17.00$ per bitcoin and 6.00$ in shipping/handling fees (you can offer to send a printed receipt for this, so as to avoid being characterised as a "fake shipping fee"). This way, and supposing that the buyer is aware of the current exchange price, you can adjust the final price of the auction in agreement with them.

That's what I would do anyway.

In the years I've been on ebay, and about 90 transactions, this has only happened to me once, selling a netbook.  And I relisted and made sure his reputation got trashed, best I could...you can restrict to certain types of buyers...stupid of them to not pay tho: why waste the time?  idiots everywhere, I guess...

Ebay is very difficult to deal with. Good luck with your sales.

That seems like only a small problem...

The buyer may even pay, but they can force a chargeback down your throat all the way to your credit card and your bank-account (if you have those linked) for upto 6 months after you got paid. I once got scammed this way and lost 200% on what i sold (the virtual goods i had sent + the chargeback)

Easy solution, stop using them.

3phase has some good suggestions!

I'd suggest selling at a "Buy Now" price so whoever bids must send you the money immediately.

moooreaa, you sound familiar, have I seen you around somewhere else? ;)

Fuck. You want to get your money stolen if you sell on Ebay. Chargebacks are coming..

yikes.. ebay

Will bumping that old thread?

ask ebay officer to help you dealing with this issue

Do we really need to revive this old thread??!

I hope you got refunded.

Would one option for eBay w/ protection be sending a physical item containing Bitcoin information... as well as perhaps offering an electronic version to go along w/ it.. or would that not work in seller protection?

WARNING!!! You will get fucked selling on ebay dont do it.

This thread is from June 2011. Is it really necessary to give EBay advice to someone on a question they asked two years ago?  I suspect that any advice you might offer is too late now.

I didnt notice, but it is just new users trying to get their post counts up.

This thread is old but there are always newbies so it is good for them.

There is a reason why to buy bitcoins on exchanges you have to use slow and difficulty ways like sepa, wire transfers etcetc and you can't just sell them on ebay or for paypal payments: SCAMS!

Why sell you hard earned bitcoins on ebay?

I think selling btc on ebay is a gamble at best, but if that's a risk you're willing to take, go for it.

A lot of Bitcoins are sold on ebay at a premium, and the seller most likely will use the sale to buy more Bitcoins than he had before the sale (because the seller has a MtGox exchange account or similar). Even though this seems like the buyer is being scammed, this is not the case. The benefit to the buyer is that they don't have to verify and go through a exchange.

However, I would advise against selling Bitcoins like this mainly because of the chance that the buyer will charge-back or something similar after you transfer a Bitcoin that can never be returned.

Selling on e-bay risky at best - pretty much no protection.

I've only ever heard of bad stories coming out of people selling on fleabay.  Better to stay away from it and become a smarter trader on BTC platforms, rather than gambling on ebay.

Since the buyer committed to buy your item he will either pay for it or be penalized by Ebay. I believe 'no payment' issue is pretty common at Ebay, it doesn't matter what exactly you are selling.

Wouldn't ever sell anything digital on eBay, its hard enough getting eBay to side with you when you have proof of delivery etc in the real world.

I don't like paypal.

Paypal, NO!

eBay, NO!

This is how I feel.

Better not to deal with them.