Forums Latest Members
  1. Fost Mar 23, 2015

    Posts
    2,052
    Likes
    5,838
    Hi Everybody,

    I would like to have your advice because i am currently selling my speedy on e-bay (not an hidden for sale post as the watch was already on the sale corner here) and i am quite surprised by some bid from 0 rate bidder or people who never buy any watches on ebay and put a quite high price value. I contacted most of them and they explain me that they are not familiar with e-bay or they are using a family account because someone from there family are living in France (and they are living abroad). In fact the sale appears only in the French Ebay because i have not enough sales on Ebay to be allowed to post on international ebay. So my question, do I have to be careful with those bidders or do i have to wait until the payment is done (or not) to start wondering?

    Thanks for your feedback.

    Best
    Vincent
     
  2. oddboy Zero to Grail+2998 In Six Months Mar 23, 2015

    Posts
    9,217
    Likes
    23,877
    'traveling abroad' is a common ebay scam. I tried selling some stuff on ebay and had nothing but scanners.. they usually say something like 'I'm using a family account because I'm abroad. If you can email me the total cost including shipping to scammer@blah, I will pay now and ask you to ship it to my cousin in Zambia."

    Maybe bump your sales forum post a few more times and take it off ebay. Watches sometimes take a little longer to sell on the forums, but if you bump it regularly, it will show up on watchrecon and others and someone will eventually buy it.
     
    dougiedude and Darlinboy like this.
  3. Fost Mar 23, 2015

    Posts
    2,052
    Likes
    5,838
    Thanks for the advice!
     
  4. bazamu wincer, not a bidder Mar 23, 2015

    Posts
    1,678
    Likes
    7,227
    I had the same thing happen with an eBay sale last year. The offer came from Quebec, but they were requesting it to be sent to their sibling in Africa. They even went so far as to send me a fake PayPal invoice saying they'd paid for the watch, although that was pretty easy to sniff out because all I had to do was sign into my actual PayPal account and see that nothing had been transferred.

    Agree with forums being the best way to go. Plus you avoid the selling fees that eBay snips.
     
    dougiedude likes this.
  5. dougiedude Carpe horologium! Mar 23, 2015

    Posts
    7,118
    Likes
    73,396
    I agree that buying AND selling on eBay can be a dangerous/risky proposition. There's some really great advice here. Not only do you 'buy' the seller, you also 'buy' a buyer. Gotta be very careful. I'm not sure how you can keep a 'suspect' buyer from winning, however. It might help a little bit to state in the description that those buyers who have little/no history should not bid on your item. But the easiest thing is to avoid eBay if you can.

    Good luck...
     
  6. bazamu wincer, not a bidder Mar 23, 2015

    Posts
    1,678
    Likes
    7,227
    Thankfully eBay provides a pretty extensive list of reasons for why a sale should be cancelled, one of which is "the buyer provided a different delivery address than originally stated." In my experience with a couple of these scammers, there was a common pattern: (a) they have zero feedback, (b) they want it shipped ASAP and typically to a different address, (c) they're fairly pushy, and (d) if you continue to ask them questions, they typically go silent and move on to another auction.

    The biggest piece of advice if someone decides to go the eBay route is to take a breath, bide your time, and wait to do anything until the money is literally in your account (your real account). But like I said above, I'm done selling through eBay if I can avoid it.
     
    imexian and oddboy like this.
  7. imexian Mar 24, 2015

    Posts
    246
    Likes
    111
    I concur, ebay is a money grabbing con machine now, it's metamorphised into a once usefully medium for normal people to sell there stuff into a commercialised mega monopoly.
    It's cost me over £200.00 to sell my mk11 speedy, I would never use again, I know, I know !! Should have put on OF sales bit, but do not have enough posts!!
    I really do think Ebay is shooting it's self in foot....
    Ian
     
  8. Fost Mar 24, 2015

    Posts
    2,052
    Likes
    5,838
    Thanks for all your advices. I think i will end the auction and be patient for the sale :)