Have an odd feeling about a sale.

[ericsells75]

Could be total paranoia as honestly, I've been doing some research on scams as my topic of the week to learn more about ebay. 

But I made a sale this morning that just gives me a weird feeling. It was bought from a guy who hasn't had feedback since 2014 which I read can be an issue and well frankly his name just seems odd as well (I'll not divulge that).

Beyond that though the sale has been fine - we went back and forth a bit on an offer, they promptly paid and the money is in PayPal, and it's really not that big of an item. It just seems ''off' - you know what I mean? 

I verified the funds (in PayPal - no holds, not an e-check). It's a brand new sealed item and is shipping with tracking. I took pics of the item packaged and packaging.  And it's shipping to a verified address.

Am I being paranoid? Have I covered myself as well as I can? 

[mrdutch1001]

Perhaps over the years, this person had a life and wasn't active on eBay, but now with Covid, has more time on hand to be online more....anyone's guess...but I'd not fret about it...

[widgetc]

Likely all will be ok.

As for photos of the packing ....unless you just like to look at them they will be of no use if there is a problem

[reallynicestamps]

When an account has had no activity since 2014, it is possible that it was hacked, but usually we see these reported as a selling scam.

The scammer hijacks an abandoned account and offers vapourware at a price that is too good to be true. Often with greatly extended delivery times.

A buyer with whom you have been communicating doesn't really fit that picture.

[ricarmic]

My thoughts, experience:

-people who haggle "never" are scammers. Why waste time haggling the price down when it will eventually be free anyway

-unless something in a discussion/observation prompts you to, otherwise "never" look at feedback etc of buyers. All it is going to do is cause (perhaps) false "spider senses" to go off and this causes extra worry and/or cost if it means one would put on tracking otherwise (again a scammer is "never" going to bother chatting, that just takes time and all they want is the freebie at the end).

-noticing a zero feedback buyer and/or a guest buyer might warrant spider senses (aka tracking), but there's nothing to go on, and I've a few times mentioned the 0 feedback buyer I sold to a long time ago that is up in the 30s or more now and ALL of them are from me!

-this is the same reason I really really try to "never" watch a tracked item in transit because 99.99% of the time it just causes me unnecessary worry.

Again, I live in the "stamp" world, buyers in other categories could be very different, and these are simply my thoughts......

[kawartha-ephemera]

Will probably be just fine, not everyone shops ebay regularly. Everyone will have been a zero feedback buyer at least once too. From time to time some strange names and addresses pop-up that make you wonder. Personally, none of these sorts of things have caused any problems. My experiences may have differed if I had been selling iphones all this time.

I had a weird one not long ago. This buyer supplied a Toronto address that did not exist according to Canada Post. This was a large multi item order so I took the time to pop the address in Google Streetview and was surprised to find nothing there but 50 acres of green grass and cemetery gates, no community boxes up and down the street anywhere ... nothing. So, I messaged the buyer and asked; are you sure about this address? Almost instantly got back a quick affirmative reply. Checked further and it turned out I'd shipped there before! Sent the package on it's way all the while wondering where it was going to end up ... mortuary, crematorium, maybe cemetery office, who knows where? In the end I needn't have worried.

[zee-chan]

It's probably going to be fine. I just had a new buyer who messaged me asking about volume discount. The buyer ended up buying $300's worth of similar items, and even agreed to give me a few extra days to ship (I need more time to pack a big order). I'm not sure if they are looking to try to sell them off themselves or they are a new collector, but I'm happy with my big sale 😃

[travis7s]

In my experience hagglers are a red flag. Sometimes when they don't get the price they want they will just buy it anyways and then try to find something to get a  partial refund later. Oviously not always, but its something I consider when I get an unsoilicted offer.

[ricarmic]

It probably depends on what category one is in.

I do not remember ever having someone complain afterward to get a discount.

I do regularly anymore have people purchasing at full price after they've asked for a discount (on stuff I won't discount) and so far no problems.

I did a few years ago have a buyer that would only purchase if he haggled something off the price, even if it was a small amount. He was buying a decent amount of better value stuff, and predictable stuff, so I started added a few dollars extra to the price so I had some haggling room.

I haven't noticed in my world a change in the level off haggling happening through the COVID era.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

He is using tracking, so this is true.

For untracked orders, they can serve as delivery confirmation for not authorized cases with Paypal. The case was opened with the buyer's bank and Paypal handled it. Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe Paypal comped me, but I was covered in a not authorized case. All I provided Paypal with was a screenshot of my stock shipping confirmation message I sent to the buyer. That message has an attached photo of the addressed bubble mailer at the mail box. (I used to get them dated by Canada Post, and keep the photo on file, but with the pandemic I started attaching them as proof of date sent).

With that said, managed payments is taking over, and I've only had one not authorized case out of 1000+ orders. I include the photo confirmation of delivery as a form of customer service. I'm not sure it is worth it to go through that hassle just purely for insurance against rare Paypal cases on smaller transactions.