Another new E-bay seller question

monicaj

Hi again

The advice I've been given here over the last couple of days has been invaluable - so here's another one.

I am selling a digital SLR - start price £49.99 and I expect it to achieve around £150. I have had 3 bids 5 days remaining

Buyer 1 (bid 1) - new e-bay member since beginning Nov 10 with no feedback - £49.99

Buyer 2 (702 with 100% feedback- £109.09 must have been his maximum bid

Buyer 1 (bid 2 placed 1 minute after bid 1) automated bid now £111.09

Hope this makes sence - I understand we all need to start somewhere (but I've seen so many timewasters in the past for this kind of equipment). Any advice, or just run with it and fingers crossed.

Thanks

TonyMMM

and your question is .......?

jake2010

If you are on about the 0 feedback, you should let it go, just make sure when sending it is recorded and insured for the value of the camera

Crowqueen

Run a search and look at what Buyer 1 is also buying. Look under Advanced Search for Items by Bidder. If it's a large number of items, then you might want to consider removing their bid. If it's just a once-off, then perhaps this guy is genuine.

You are right that we all start somewhere, but this is worth doing some snooping around on.

Crowqueen

jake2010 wrote: »

If you are on about the 0 feedback, you should let it go, just make sure when sending it is recorded and insured for the value of the camera

Yeah but buyer runs the risk of a scammer emailing them wanting it shipped to Nigeria and receiving a faked Paypal email after they send it, plus various threats to report them to eBay if they don't. It's a very common scam on this sort of item, it still fools people after almost half a decade or more of the people doing it, and the OP may have a scam bidder on their item, in which case if he gets paid it will almost certainly be in fake money.

One other thing to check is if they are registered overseas or not. An overseas bidder is more likely to be a scam for this sort of item ONLY because the Nigerians usually register in a different country to the seller they are trying to fleece.

In general as well, the advice on this forum is normally to restrict high value items to UK buyers because it's difficult to find a properly insured delivery service for items worth over £41. It might not help you for this item but check you have your preferences set to exclude bidders in countries to which you do not ship, which enables eBay's software to block overseas bidders on items you have only specified a UK postage rate to. I don't think you can do this for this item now, but it helps to be protected in the future, particularly if you do end up having to relist the item.

If you cancel the buyer's bids, then don't forget to block their ID as well.

monicaj

TonyMMM wrote: »

and your question is .......?

and your advice is ????

monicaj

Crowqueen wrote: »

Run a search and look at what Buyer 1 is also buying. Look under Advanced Search for Items by Bidder. If it's a large number of items, then you might want to consider removing their bid. If it's just a once-off, then perhaps this guy is genuine.

You are right that we all start somewhere, but this is worth doing some snooping around on.

Thank you so much again for your knowledgable reply - I've just done some snooping around in advanced search and the member seems hell bent on getting this "item" as he/she bid on several of the same item previously but been unsuccessful - I feel a little more comfortable now, just seller's nerves I guess.

Thanks again
Monica

jake2010

Crowqueen wrote: »

Yeah but buyer runs the risk of a scammer emailing them wanting it shipped to Nigeria and receiving a faked Paypal email after they send it, plus various threats to report them to eBay if they don't. It's a very common scam on this sort of item, it still fools people after almost half a decade or more of the people doing it, and the OP may have a scam bidder on their item, in which case if he gets paid it will almost certainly be in fake money.

But if you check your paypal account you will see if it has been paid or not, there is a lot of couriers will insure more than £41, there will be a charge for this option. just make sure you send the invoice to the seller for the correct price.

Crowqueen

jake2010 wrote: »

But if you check your paypal account you will see if it has been paid or not, there is a lot of couriers will insure more than £41, there will be a charge for this option. just make sure you send the invoice to the seller for the correct price.

Yes, indeed, it's surprising how many people don't think to check and rely solely on emails and pressure added by the "buyer" though.

Hammyman

monicaj wrote: »

Any advice, or just run with it and fingers crossed.

Thanks

Just run with it. Feedback is now worthless and has been for several months since sellers could only need positive feedback or none at all. For all you know, the buyer with 702 100% positive feedback should have had a load of negs from sellers but because we're not allowed to, hasn't.