Yeah so I won’t confirm or deny taking a sale off eBay but I guess I’ll just ask two questions
how could they ever prove it and or afford a team of people to investigate every incident
what do they get after they ban a offender? Seems to me just one less eBay user, less product listings, less people browsing eBay…
So I don’t see how they’re incentivized at all to actually follow through with such a thing unless it’s something really high value and they’ve got your eBay DMs of you telling the buyer to contact you over email
They’re incentivised because the fear from just a couple of bans would spread pretty quickly. Obviously we don’t know how receptive the user base would be to but I suspect there is an optimal level of banning that would be a net positive for them with respect to making people less likely to go off ebay.
I’m honestly surprised people ask to pay directly through ebay DMs as much as this thread would suggest. I get the appeal for when the value starts to climb but most transactions are less than a couple of hundred dollars. Potentially saving ~7% (assuming the savings would be split equally between buyer and seller) doesn’t seem worth the hassle.
I can’t imagine bothering someone about an off-site sale for a card less than $115.
eBay’s transaction fee for trading cards is 13.25%. So if the card is a few hundred dollars the benefit of an instant 13.25% discount is significant. Especially because it’s easy — a lot of sellers go for it. They make the same amount of money and make the sale immediately.
A card listed for $300 can save you $40 buying direct. That’s a sizable benefit. Do that 2-3 times and you have enough money for a whole other card. I do suppose this same mindset can exist at the lower bracket with collectors who are after cards worth $40 to begin with, though. So maybe it’s all relative.
Nope. Actually saves the buyer and seller money, even more if you can do PPFF or a non fee payment type. May not be a popular take for some but IG is the way if you are both trusted for the most part. May be riskier but you can still get scammed and lose the card + money on ebay just as easily if the buyer is clever.
I’ve been charged final value fee for selling off ebay. it was a $2000 sale that we done direct via paypal. got hit with $200 in fees after ebay saw the messages and that i had taken the listing down.
It’s actually higher than 13.25%. They charge that percentage on the sales tax as well and take that out of your gross. So if you run the numbers it’s really closer to 15%.
Did they take the money automatically? I would not pay. Accept the account ban and let them sue me if it’s that serious. They won’t be able to prove it legally.
I sold an uncut Fossil sheet to someone off-eBay and then they subsequently messaged me on eBay about the sale for the invoice(on a Tapu Lele WC $4.49 card). eBay ended up charging me FVF based on a $1k sale for the Tapu Lele.
These were my consequences:
"Jul 20, 2018, 2:57 PM
You’re unable to list or buy items for 7 days.
You may be subject to final value fees when you have offers to buy or sell outside of eBay, even if the item didn’t sell.
Your fixed price listings are hidden from search results for 7 days, and fees won’t be refunded.
If applicable, your Top Rated Seller status will be removed.
You can’t send or receive messages with eBay members for the next 7 days unless you have a recent transaction"
I had an identical situation happen with a trophy kangaskhan. I explained it to eBay customer support and they ultimately removed the fee. There was definitely a window in 2018 where ebay was extremely vigilant about off site sales. I think @gemmintpokemon recommended the workaround of editing a listing to a different item rather than delisting. However I haven’t experienced this same level of scrutiny since 2020. Then again I sell less off eBay these days.
In 2018 during a long drive from Snoqualmie, Washington to Boulder, Colorado I sold to a buyer who wanted to pay me off eBay. That buyer came out of nowhere, it was a snap decision, by the time I really processed what was happening it was already too late. It was dark. My hands were shaking. Nobody saw me, right? I sat there for a few minutes with the engine off. I thought someone must be about to come by. Someone is going to know what I did. But minutes passed, then hours, and nobody came. There was nobody there. I started the car and drove off.
I’d think about it from time to time. I’d feel a pang of guilt, a rush of fear, a deep anxiety that someone knew what I did. But retribution never came. It started to feel like it never happened. I moved on, I stopped worrying. But eventually they came. Whoever they are, whatever they want, they made themselves known to me.
It was subtle at first. A car would cruise by the house with the lights off. The landline would ring from an unknown number with nobody on the other end. But it got more and more direct. Someone at a crowded bar sent me a cocktail with my eBay username written on the napkin. I’d sell a card on eBay and when the buyer paid their name and address would be my own.
But it finally came to a head one night. I was wide awake, restless, I hadn’t been sleeping for days. I was sitting in the chair with just the lamp when I heard something fwip through the mail slot. I was too scared to even stand at first. Who is here in the middle of the night? What did they just slip through my door? Trembling, I rose from the chair and retrieved an envelope off the kitchen floor. Inside was the card - the card I sold off eBay all those business days ago - and a handwritten note that said “special deliverance.” On the other side of the door I heard a voice reciting: E…K… 4… 9… 6…
It kept going. 7… 5… 5… 3… 4… 5… U… S…
A tracking number.
It had arrived.
When I looked up the door was wide open. Maybe it had been all along. It was ready to “leave feedback.”
