Buyers and sellers trading back and forth private 1 cent items to gain faster and better feedback, is this actually allowed?

[pastmoonlight]

I have noticed alot of people are buying and selling 1 cent items and then fgiving each other Great Positvie feedback!

In one such case I bought a phone from a guy, after bidding it turned out to be $14.50 with shipping. He had excellent reviews with no Negative feedback.

The seller marked it as shipped, but failed to give a tracking number. I emailed him 6 times asking for one. Never recieved any response. 4 weeks later and no phone. I sent email after email asking for a refund or a response, I got neither.

So I made a claim through Paypal and gave the seller his first ever Negative review. After doing this, he made a claim against me saying I did not pay, when in fact I did. So, I called Ebay and Paypal and informed them of this, and asked how is it possible that I did pay, yet he is still able to make an unpaid claim? I will be getting my money back now, but he has done this to 4 other people since and he is still able to pull the same BS.

This brings me to the Private Penny listings, I noticed that the only Items he has actually bought are for 0.1 and are usually private. Then I see other people doing the same thing hundreds of times a day sometimes.

How does Ebay allow this?

Maybe they should consider having a minimum payment of $1 on all items or make "PRIVATE" listings and Positive feedback only available to items over $10

[femmefan1946]

Oh yeah that scam has been around for years. It has led to eBay charging fees on shipping costs among other attempts at control.

Of course, eBay also encourages new sellers to list at a penny on the (faulty) theory that it will get more bids.

So I made a claim through Paypal and gave the seller his first ever Negative review. After doing this, he made a claim against me saying I did not pay, when in fact I did. So, I called Ebay and Paypal and informed them of this, and asked how is it possible that I did pay, yet he is still able to make an unpaid claim? I will be getting my money back now, but he has done this to 4 other people since and

All you needed to do was to put the PP transaction number for your payment into the Dispute and it would fail. However, your method works too.

If all those other people gave the seller negative feedback and more importantly used the Detailed Seller Ratings to give him ONE Star ratings (the lowest possible) for his actions he will be gone soon. EBay boots sellers with 4.3 or lower in their DSRs.