any advice on how not to get ripped off when selling a high value item

looby75

My sister was burgled a few months ago and they took some jewellery, one piece was a hand made topaz and diamond white gold ring. It was designed by her ex partner and was a one off so can't be replaced at a normal jewellers. The insurance company knew this but still refused to give her the cash so she could replace it and have given her a H Samuel card instead.

So she's asked me to sell it for her on ebay (she doesn't have an account and doubts anyone would buy it from her as a new seller), the card is worth over £1000 and similar cards have sold for about £800. I have never sold anything worth so much before and I'm conserned about all the paypal scams where people pay with stolen cards and then paypal make the seller pay them back.

Has anyone got any tips to help me and my sister avoid getting conned?

Thanks :beer:

durham_girl

Make sure it's insured for the correct value when you/your sis posts it. Just in case anything happens to it while in RMs hands.

ETA I know it's not what you asked, but worth knowing anyhow!

looby75

oooh good point I hadn't thought about that thanks

pinkshoes

She should also write down the serial number of the card, so that if she does get scammed, she can have the card cancelled immediately.

cally6008

tighten up all your buying preferences to block people with no credit card on file, people that are in countries you dont post to, people with a minus feedback figure etc etc

frivolous_fay

OOh, H Samuel. Bad luck

looby75

Thanks everyone, great ideas I hadn't thought about all I could think of was no buyers with low feedback

soolin

You can't block bidders with low feedback, you can only block them with negative overall feedback and that is almost impossible now of course.

Start from here to set buyer requirements to exclude overseas bidders or bidders with NPB strikes etc.

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences

looby75

thanks for the link soo, I can never find all that stuff when I look...why probably explains why I don't sell much on ebay

POSSETTE

def put in your listing that you have the serial number, and that if it goes missing in "post"you will cancel its use. That should help cut some scammers out there!. But if they should use it,before telling you it hasnt come,you may have to file police report.
Special delivery is the definate option you need,but still after that, the buyer can claim you only sent an empty envelope!

looby75

ARRRGGG and the scammers start already

I've been bombarded with messages from newbies and the highest bidder has private feedback

I had a feeling from the start this was going to be a problem.