I need to sell a new mobile but you've all scared me stiff!

tom_and_barbara_good

I'm selling my sons new mobile, never taken out of the box, it was an upgrade on his mobile contract but after having a think about it he'd rather keep his old one and let the new one go.

I'm a fairly experienced seller with feedback in the low hundreds but I've no experience with selling phones or anything else that seem to be so open to abuse - Ive read some very scary stuff on here about Nigerian scammers, paypal chargebacks and BIN buyers that don't pay.

So what are they key pitfalls that I have to avoid? thanks in advance

LULUBELLE_2

Make sure that you block (in your preferences) bidders from countries that you won't send to (personally, I block them all, except the UK, for mobiles) and block anyone with strikes against them.

Put in the description that you won't accept offers by e-mail, you won't post to anywhere except the UK and you will only post to a confirmed address. State specifically that you will not post to Nigeria, just to ram the point home.

When you post it, after whatever form of payment you accept has cleared, you MUST send it Special delivery.

Oh, and if you're being paid by Paypal, and you get any e-mails saying payment has been made, check 'My messages' in My Ebay, to verify that the e-mail is genuinely from Paypal. :rolleyes:


EDIT: Forgot to say make a note of the IMEI number before you send it, so that if anything goes wrong you can report it as stolen and it will be disabled. Also, so that the buyer can't say it didn't work and return a different one.

tom_and_barbara_good

Thanks LULUBELLE you've given me lots of help there, one more question, can I copy and paste the specifications from the phone website? is this within ebay rules

LULUBELLE_2

You can - but I don't. I complete the basic 'description' box, filling in every line, then do a brief description of why you're selling it. People know what they're buying, that's why they're bidding on it - I think it makes it more credible to write your own. But that's only MY opinion, lol!

frivolous_fay

I would suggest blocking bidders with less than 5 feedback who don't have a credit card on file. Tends to deter the more casual scammer.

'Put in the description that you won't accept offers by e-mail, you won't post to anywhere except the UK and you will only post to a confirmed address. State specifically that you will not post to Nigeria, just to ram the point home.'

Sadly that may not help as Nigerian scanners don't tend to take the trouble to absorb information like that! They just use buy it now and hope you take the bait.

Buy-it-now, while it may be what you need to use, will attract an undesirable type of bidder.

LULUBELLE_2

I agree with Fay - I've never used BIN on a mobile. It takes away any control that you have.

edthedead

I've sold my last 2 upgrades on E-bay... very profitable and with no problems, got a couple of the usual scam attempts (send it to my brother in nigeria etc), but both winning bidders paid with no problems at all!

tom_and_barbara_good

I've just read the contract, it states that the contract sim card had to be used in the new phone within 60 days or he would be charged £100, this really means that I can't say that it hasn't been taken out of the box, which is what I had planned on doing

buggu

Also check that the buyers details are genunine, in particular the address you going to send it to, confirmed addresses would be ideal but not many ppl have confirmed addresses on paypal. You may want to also give them a ring before you dispatch the item to verify anything bugging you.

If in doubt dont send it or ask for a bank transfer payment first.

With regards to the sim card i,m not sure what you trying to say. Unless you going to sell the sim card with the phone you havent got any problems. i have sold phones and have opened them and used them briefly inorder to check everthing is working and to write the imei no,s. Best to be honest about the phone if its been used for a while as the buyer may well pick up on it, all depends on whether any signs of use.

smartie1976

tom_and_barbara_good wrote:

I've just read the contract, it states that the contract sim card had to be used in the new phone within 60 days or he would be charged £100, this really means that I can't say that it hasn't been taken out of the box, which is what I had planned on doing

To be fair you need to get a decent picture of it so just put in your listing "taken out of the box only to photo", and then use the contract sim once in the phone to make sure he isn't charged. No-one will know.

millwalll

yeah you need a good picture so take it out the box also what i would do it state on the auction that if people pay by paypal you will wait at least 3 days to send item as i sold a phone before got payment sent it the same day and then paypal said sumone had used a fake acoount and refund the moeny so lost moeny and phone