So I just made a big sale on eBay (over $5k) and the buyer has relatively low feedback count (mid 30’s), but it’s at 100%.
This is my first big sale, I’ve made a few sales that were just below a thousand, and even though I’m really excited I’m still just a little bit nervous…
What precautions do you guys take when shipping to help prevent or even reduce the chance of any fraudulent activity from the buyer. As of right now, I am planning to record the whole packaging and shipping process as well as adding tracking with signature confirmation along with insurance on the package. I generally use USPS, but does anyone recommend any other shipping service within the United States?
It should be noted that the buyer is also in the United States, so I wouldn’t have to worry about any potential issues that come with shipping overseas.
I would sincerely appreciate any advice. And I want to thank you all in advance!
It’s real hard to say anything about the choice of which shipping service you want to use. It might boil down to personal opinion and it only takes 1 simple mistake from 1 office to ruin a customer/seller’s trust in a service.
For me, personally, I rank USPS below UPS and Fedex mainly because of their tracking. Sometimes, USPS would tell me the package’s been delivered but it’s nowhere in my mailbox… only to mysteriously show up the next day or few later.
If your buyer happens to encounter this problem, just know that they (and you) might be on the brink of rage and immense insecurity, but kindly suggest to them that they should wait a day or two as tracking may not be fully reliable (common issue, suggest a Google).
I don’t know if this is an issue with USPS, my region, or my usually low-priority mail. So far I don’t seem to have the same issue with UPS or Fedex but that’s just for my case.
The rest of your preparations seem top-notch to me.
it’s an issue with crappy USPS workers, they’ll mark it delivered so they dont get marked down for missing a delivery. You can report them to USPS when it happens.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about the insurance/fraud team at FEDEX, and I’m highly considering using them even though they may be expensive.
I am also aware that @smpratte and @garyis2000 frequently make high-value sales. Would either of you mind chiming in to help calm my nerves? Thank you!
Sure, use a USPS priority box and ship it REGISTERED with 500.00 insurance. Your friendly counter person will give you the paper tape and a wet sponge I’m sure. You’ll need to tape over all seems. They will then hand stamp the tape in its entirety.
Don’t use any other tape on the outside of the box (or inside lol). They will direct you on this.
Once they accept the finished package it will get scanned every time it changes hands or gets put in the safe. When it gets retrieved from the safe it will be scanned by the person removing it. This is done so at every moment they know who held that package.
Works perfectly and is very cheap. 13.00 covers the registered feature. Then add the priority box price and whatever a few hundred insurance costs.
A minor thread hijack, but as we have all seen ebay side with the buyer most of the time.Say I sell an item for 2000 it ships fine and everything, am I right in saying the buyer can return whenever they like over like a 6 month period(complete guess)?
I don’t know, that’s why I am asking.Based on recent discussions it seems like buyers do what they want
Cheers!
On a related note, insurance, tracking and signature, its really the only way. Just give full communication and keep records of it all
Also congrats on the big sale!! I hope you made a decent profit and good luck
Buyer just sent me a message this morning…
"The only thing I would ask is that since this is such a large amount of money. I do not have 7000.00 to pay right up front. However we can create an open invoice in PayPal and I can pay you monthly until the full 7000.00 is paid off. That way we are both protected by the security of the invoice. If I don t pay. It will force me to pay no matter what cause I signed the agreement and if anything you get to keep my money. But I would not expect you to send the cards till the transaction is paid in full. So that way you are not sending the cards and only getting partial of the 7000.00. Please let me know if monthly payments will be acceptable for you and we would both be covered by the security of paypal.
I have done this many times before with large purchases like this on e bay and have never had a problem. So let me know your complete and honest thoughts on my proposal so that way we can decide if your willing to move forward with the payments or not. Cause if you want all the money up front I can understand and will not bother you about this auction. I have just been watching it for months and I am willing to commit to buy it if you are willing to allow me to pay over time? "
How should I respond? Isn’t there like a financing option that eBay offers?
I want to respond with something along the lines of…
No I’m sorry, but I will not proceed to any other payment outside of eBay. If money is truly the issue, I do know that eBay offers a financing option where they would send me the full payment and you would pay eBay the monthly payments. How does that sound?
You can do private payments via PayPal with regular intervals. But eBay will not check that, and private payments are not covered by PayPal if anything happens. He can basically stitch you up after the first or second deposit.
For everything else, as an EU citizen, I cannot say anything about shipping.
That’s what I was thinking, I was reading into a lot of stories where the buyer would send payments via PayPal but outside of eBay’s checkout system. And when the seller assumes technical difficulties with ebay and sends the item since they have the payment. But what that does is it voids any buyer/seller protection provided by eBay. And so since PayPal typically sides with the buyer almost always, the whole thing just gets crazy.
Which is why I’m trying to keep everything to process through eBay
$7,000 sale and payments? On Pokemon cards? Payment plans are for houses, student loans and sometimes cars. Not Pokemon cards or other consumer goods.
Personally I would cancel as this has issues all over it. Paypal/eBay do have some financing thing they are always bothering me about, but $7,000 may be higher than this buyer could qualify for.
This is exactly how I feel. But if a buyer commits to buying the listing, isn’t the completion sale binding for both the buyer and the seller?
And on a side note, I do also agree that $7000 is a lot, but then again he’s getting a full holo 1st edition base set lot… I would never try and buy something I personally could not afford, especially not something that is for my hobby.
I think you just have to have faith in the postal service and buyer you choose. I would mail express or the top tier service, so it is hopefully treated well and fast. Secured in 2 boxes, one inside the other, with different types of padding to cushion whatever it is. newspaper, packing peanuts, bubble wrap, but don’t make it too tight, or too loose. needs to be somewhere in the middle.
If this buyer can come up with 7 k to at least deposit into your account… he probably isn’t just jerking you around. Jerks and scammers have a hard enough time coming up with a deposit of 7k… Which takes a long time to complete a transaction, with long money down. Somebody scamming wouldn’t want to wait up to 25-60 days usually for the time you agree on a price, pack, send, open a case etc, get reassessment, back and forth. You will have all the proof with tracking and signatory anyways, so don’t be afraid. There is protocols in place to protect sellers on paypal and ebay… i know it’s lame… and sellers don’t get much support, but if you pack everything securely, and send express it should be okay.
Yeah this is a really good point actually. He has been very nice and asked actual hobby related questions and has had an account active for a few years. He’s been very respectful this whole time.
And I was just reading into all the added security measures by both PayPal and eBay transactions exceeding different amounts. Which is somewhat more settling
I would not have fear for completing a $7,000 sale on its own. Sure it would be a little nervewracking and I would only send registered and insured for the full amount, but sales and shipments of that $$$ amount and above happen successfully thousands of times a day. I would though fear the payment plan thing.
Yes. The sale is binding for both the buyer and the seller. But not with wonky payment plan garbage. eBay has a strict policy on when and how payment is due which he is not satisfying thereby easily allowing you out of it (the route that I would take).
lol… a few people here are supporting non payment plans. I have to disagree a little bit.
Of course, i hate these types of buyers… if you don’t have the money, you shouldn’t be purchasing it. My mother always taught me that.
But i understand in the real world… not everyone shares the same viewpoint. As a business i think it is fair to offer some leeway and time for buyers to come up with funds. Not everyone is rich and can afford these things up front, it is alot of money for some people.
I generally allow up to 4 weeks for payments to clear on my side, which is the maximum ebay allows before you can open a cancellation and be reimbursed with any fees. (i will open an unpaid case around the 2-3 week mark usually.)
It’s not that i like what buyers are doing, it’s terrible, and bad ethics, but on the other hand; if i can lock in a sale, and get money coming in, i’m happy. Even if i have to wait a little bit of time for the buyer to get the money together. If a buyer pulls out after making deposits, i will charge a restocking fee usually.
Payment plans are always a risk. From experience, I try to avoid them as much as possible. The longer the plan, the more that can go wrong.
This situation sounds a bit precarious. Not sure why someone would bid on an item and cannot pay within the allotted time frame. It is different if someone messaged you and said, “hey, would you accept 7k on this item and I can pay it off over x months”.
I personally would wait for another buyer. If they can’t afford this today, it would worry me that the payment plan would have the same result.
Could you just do it privately using f&f staying that you will not send to him until he has paid in full and that if at any time he defaults on a payment you can keep whatever he has paid up until that point?
Yeah but if we do it privately and I give him the product and he defaults while paying… he’s going to just keep the product and I’d be out thousands
Which is why I would at least want EBay’s seller protection, so I wouldn’t be able to do it privately.
Only way I’d do it privately is if he came and met up with me with the total sum in cash and paid me for the sale and then signed a bill of sale, like you would with a used car
In my eyes I thought the way the payment plan works is that the buyer would sign a financing contract with eBay and then eBay would pay the seller the total amount. And in the meantime the buyer would have to pay the monthly payments with a certain % APR. Because it would be easier for eBay to enforce the guidelines of a financing agreement when compared to handing that responsibility over to the seller. Also keep in mind, eBay probably does a thorough credit check before approving it. This is how financing plans work for houses, cars, everything. I don’t see why eBays would be different.
I don’t think eBay would ever do a payment plan if the seller would only receive payments in small increments over a long period of time, it would be completely illogical tilt the balance between buyers and sellers on eBay by giving buyers the opportunity pay over time and penalizing sellers by only providing partial payments.
From a straight up business standpoint, I understand eBay does some stupid stuff, but this would be next level.
EDIT
And @smpratte , the seller did pitch me the offer and sent me those messages on the side stating his situation. I know I mentioned it was a sale on the original post, but I honestly didn’t think this thread would get a lot of traction so I was trying to keep the situation simpler. I still have the offer sitting there, but I wanted to talk it over with you guys so I could make an informed decision. I like the price point, but the conditions add way too much risk and I don’t think I’m going to commit to this offer.
I really appreciate all the contributions everyone made and especially for keeping it real. This is why I love this community, you guys helped me think clearly rather than seeing the big dollar offer and pulling the trigger.
and good luck