ebay scam on selling used cards - the 0 feedback bidder trick

[keystroke]

So 2 weeks ago I put 7 ATI cards up on ebay. 5 sold fine but 2 had highest bidders with 0 feedback. They never paid. I had to wait 4 days to file a dispute with ebay, and then 4 more days for the buyers not to reply, so ebay could refund my selling fees. Now the cards are relisted and selling again. I'm deleting any bids where the user has a 0 feedback score as this seems to be happening again! I've also blocked users with no paypal account from bidding (as much I hate to do that given the nature of paypal!) If someone doesn't pay this time I'll have to do a buy it now to guarantee payment - seems this is a common problem as the ebay forums mention it quite a bit. Thought I'd give everyone a heads up here though.

Has anyone else experienced such issues?

[ssateneth]

put your cards as buy it now. ebay has smaller fees for electronics if you post as buy it now. auction has a flat 9% fee. electronics however has a 7% fee for the first $50 and 5% fee for the remaining 50-1000 dollars, and an even small fee for any remaining amount after that. also if you require "immediate payment with buy it now", then 0 feedback users cant do this scam in the first place.

[goxed]

put your cards as buy it now. ebay has smaller fees for electronics if you post as buy it now. auction has a flat 9% fee. electronics however has a 7% fee for the first $50 and 5% fee for the remaining 50-1000 dollars, and an even small fee for any remaining amount after that. also if you require "immediate payment with buy it now", then 0 feedback users cant do this scam in the first place.

+1

[Fcx35x10]

awesome, useful tips. i'll take them into consideration the next time i sell some used toys

[AmDD]

I dont sell much on ebay so maybe this is a dumb question, but how is this a scam? I also dont mean to sound like a dick here. I understand how this is annoying in the wasted time but as long as you wait on payment before shipping what does the buyer/scammer gain by doing this?

[awatson824]

I dont sell much on ebay so maybe this is a dumb question, but how is this a scam? I also dont mean to sound like a dick here. I understand how this is annoying in the wasted time but as long as you wait on payment before shipping what does the buyer/scammer gain by doing this?

Pissing people off.

[BR0KK]

A free item if the seller is short-minded and sends the item before the cash is on his bank?

[MinorMiner]

A free item if the seller is short-minded and sends the item before the cash is on his bank?

Or, the scammers favorite, the chargeback or paypal dispute

[SaintDevil]

There is an option you can select that will prevent buyers with 0 feedback from bidding on ur items.

[Axios]

put your cards as buy it now. ebay has smaller fees for electronics if you post as buy it now. auction has a flat 9% fee. electronics however has a 7% fee for the first $50 and 5% fee for the remaining 50-1000 dollars, and an even small fee for any remaining amount after that. also if you require "immediate payment with buy it now", then 0 feedback users cant do this scam in the first place.

I sold few like this.. My new way of selling old crap better than an auction.

[ssateneth]

I dont sell much on ebay so maybe this is a dumb question, but how is this a scam? I also dont mean to sound like a dick here. I understand how this is annoying in the wasted time but as long as you wait on payment before shipping what does the buyer/scammer gain by doing this?

seller sends item first, scammer doesnt pay. doesnt always work though if the seller is smart and waits for payment first , which protects himself from falling hook line and sinker

[keystroke]

I dont sell much on ebay so maybe this is a dumb question, but how is this a scam? I also dont mean to sound like a dick here. I understand how this is annoying in the wasted time but as long as you wait on payment before shipping what does the buyer/scammer gain by doing this?

seller sends item first, scammer doesnt pay. doesnt always work though if the seller is smart and waits for payment first , which protects himself from falling hook line and sinker

Another option is that the low feedback people are bidding things up higher than the actual price - they may be selling their own goods and thus discourage people from competing with them.
Or perhaps they have potential buyers that will buy for a higher price... if those deals fall through they don't pay.

Not saying that is what happened but they are possible scenarios, I think the first one is most likely though. I don't know why anyone would ship before payment these days. Now that I stopped 0 feedback users I am getting a few new accounts with only 3-4 feedbacks... suspicious but we'll see.

[squeept]

There is an option you can select that will prevent buyers with 0 feedback from bidding on ur items.

Nope. Not since they decided "fuck anyone that's selling things." Can only block -1 feedback buyers now (which can't actually happen anymore to pure buyers so it's completely pointless).

[squeept]

seller sends item first, scammer doesnt pay. doesnt always work though if the seller is not completely retarded and waits for payment first , which protects himself from falling hook line and sinker

fixed.

[strider007]

There is an option you can select that will prevent buyers with 0 feedback from bidding on ur items.

No, there isn't.

[strider007]

So 2 weeks ago I put 7 ATI cards up on ebay. 5 sold fine but 2 had highest bidders with 0 feedback. They never paid. I had to wait 4 days to file a dispute with ebay, and then 4 more days for the buyers not to reply, so ebay could refund my selling fees. Now the cards are relisted and selling again. I'm deleting any bids where the user has a 0 feedback score as this seems to be happening again! I've also blocked users with no paypal account from bidding (as much I hate to do that given the nature of paypal!) If someone doesn't pay this time I'll have to do a buy it now to guarantee payment - seems this is a common problem as the ebay forums mention it quite a bit. Thought I'd give everyone a heads up here though.

Has anyone else experienced such issues?

I experienced the same thing recently. My best guess is this is others trying to dump their cards as well before the big GPU dump begins. They can take your card off the market for 8 days by doing this. Fortunately, on one of them, the kid used an ebay name he uses many other places and found him on youtube, twitter and linkedin. Got him to admit he wouldn't pay and was able to relist immediately and when the 8 days ran out on the auction he burned, left his 0 fb account with a non-paying bidder hit.

[The-Real-Link]

There is an option you can select that will prevent buyers with 0 feedback from bidding on ur items.

That's what I thought as well.

Edit: oh ok guess not.  Either way yeah always make sure to await for payment to clear before shipping

[panda1]

On the listings that didn't pay, you can give the second highest bidder a second chance offer and see if they'll buy it. You don't need to pay an additional listing fee (last time I checked) and the price is usually only a few bucks lower than the winning bid.

[squeept]

On the listings that didn't pay, you can give the second highest bidder a second chance offer and see if they'll buy it. You don't need to pay an additional listing fee (last time I checked) and the price is usually only a few bucks lower than the winning bid.

Long time eBay power seller here: do not use the second chance offer option.

It will turn in to an ordeal and just end up wasting as much or more time than re-listing. The person you offer the item to will even accuse you of trying to scam them somehow. Not worth the hassle. And you won't even get the satisfaction of hitting anyone else with an unpaid item after you're still sitting on your capital a week later.

[farlack]

I dont sell much on ebay so maybe this is a dumb question, but how is this a scam? I also dont mean to sound like a dick here. I understand how this is annoying in the wasted time but as long as you wait on payment before shipping what does the buyer/scammer gain by doing this?

Not really scamming, but if you have 10 items for sale that are selling extremely well, and someone buys 8, and doesn't pay, you have to wait 10 days to relist them, because what if he pays after 9 days, and you already sold them? That's negative feedback.