Weird eBay “scam”?

Not even sure what the motive is here so here goes nothing. Pretty much this guy’s “from” Dubai, has had 100% buyer feedback from I think 40 people. He wants to buy some of my WOTC heavy packs so I send him an offer for $100 less than the listing. This is where it gets weird. He first asks if I can ship to Dubai, and I told him yes I can add international shipping as long as he’s willing to cover it. Then he says he has a US address of his “cousin” that he uses to get shipped but he’d prefer it sent directly. I say yes that’s fine, just message me with the address you want it sent to and it’ll get done. He then says eBay won’t allow shipping to either address of his and I say that’s weird so I check his Dubai address and it includes directions like (behind shopping mall). I’m assuming that’s why it won’t let him choose the address so I ask him to change it or give me the full address in a message reply. He does neither and then says I’ll pay it soon, just made other purchases. I ask him about using the address to his cousin who he later tells me is actually a middleman that he uses. He asks to re-send the invoice so I do so and now he’s saying again that neither addresses work so he put a “random Australian address” (uh wtf?). I said alright no it’s not okay to use some random address and he ends up saying he can’t pay anymore he bought other things instead.

So uh. What just happened? I cancelled the sale after opening a case of no payment but I can’t re-list the the two packs that were “sold”. Not too familiar with eBay but I might have to re-list the whole listing. Was this just some weird dude or was it a way to get the packs shown as sold at my price? Is there something I’m missing when he messes up the eBay shipping address on purpose and tries to get it sent to Australia? He said he’d try and buy them all again when he had the money but I don’t believe anything he says at this point. I dunno.

I worked in Abu Dhabi for almost 6 years. All of the Emirates that make up the UAE do not have a proper postal system. When I wanted things to be delivered which I specifically purchased online (personal purchases) I had them sent to the closest National Postal Center. For other letters like banks statements, credit card bills and all other official documentation, I had them sent to my company address as they had a P.O. Box number. The place where I lived and also my friends whom I visited in Dubai, all had only their street names as addresses, followed by a landmark (close to this mall, behind this shop etc) - like you mentioned in your post.

I am not implying that he is not trying to scam you but from personal experience if you live in UAE there is a high chance you don’t have a zip code for things to be delivered to. Maybe you can ask him if he can provide the address of the postal center (EMIRATES POST) you can deliver products there.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

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Thanks for the clarification on the addresses, didn’t even know that was a thing. Yeah the weird thing is he told me he’s had this done so many times within the month. You’d think he’d have run into a problem with shipping before. I dunno this whole thing was confusing.