selling advice please

chatty123

I have a excellent unused mobile phone that i was thinking of selling on ebay. I am aware of the nigerian scammers but how can i tell if a bidder is genuine or not? do they have a nill feedback? any advice appreciated

greenstreetprince

not all scammers will have zero feedback, other potential danger signals include accounts with low (not necessarily zero) feedback which have not been used for a long time, these are often hijacked.

just make it clear in big and bold letters that you WILL NOT POST OUTSIDE THE UK IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, and set your seller preferences accordingly.

Shawz

If you are concerned if may be worth changing you ebay preferences so that only bidders with feedback of 5 or more can bid

frivolous_fay

Shawz wrote: »

If you are concerned if may be worth changing you ebay preferences so that only bidders with feedback of 5 or more can bid

This only works if those low feedback peeps have no credit card on file.

Tim_Deegan

frivolous_fay wrote: »

This only works if those low feedback peeps have no credit card on file.

No, it will block any bidders with a feedback of less than 5.

Look at their feedback. Beware if all their feedback is made up from purchases of low value items. Or if most of their feedback is from a long time ago.

Hintza

The only way i would do a mobile phone would be on a BIN with immediate payment required ticked.

That will stop 99.9% of problems and then send to a verified assress only.

I have sold two phones only and BOTH have had problems. One on EBay was supposedly not working managed to exchange it at shop and resend. The other on Amazon and it looks like the buyer is attempting a chargeback (thank goodness its on Amazon)

Amazon might be a better bet?

Dave_Brooker

chatty123 wrote: »

I have a excellent unused mobile phone that i was thinking of selling on ebay. I am aware of the nigerian scammers but how can i tell if a bidder is genuine or not? do they have a nill feedback? any advice appreciated

Only take payment by cheque or postal order.

Problem solved.

soolin

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

No, it will block any bidders with a feedback of less than 5.

.

No, Fay is right. You can only block bidders with less than 0 (ie minus) feedback. If you re read the option for blocking those with less than 5 feedback it states unless they have a credit card on file. It might still be worth doing of course, but it is best to know excatly what you are blocking as many legitimate buyers register for ebay purely to buy one or two items and don't build up much feedback.

mpython

Chatty, tell the sellers to contact you before bidding. Their grasp of english grammer will be one indicator but the best one is to ask where they will want the item shipped to. As soon as they say something along the lines of I'm in London but I want it sent to my daughter in Lagos/ Tallin/ elsewhere you can block them.

You can always sell it to non-uk residents as long as they pay by western union. Don't accept payment by cheque as without the guarantee card, this can (in certain circumstances) be recalled even after the funds have shown up in your account. I'm not sure but I think this could happen anywhere up to 6 months after the event.

soolin

Dave_Brooker wrote: »

Only take payment by cheque or postal order.

Problem solved.

Problem with that is that you will struggle to get a good price. Who in all honesty is going to buy a mobile phone and want to pay by cheque? I would think there would be very few people on here that would chance that for instance.

Also, don't forget when accepting cheques that they can bounce for fraud for several months, so just take the normal precautions and don't think cleared funds mean you are safe.

Dave_Brooker

soolin wrote: »

Problem with that is that you will struggle to get a good price. Who in all honesty is going to buy a mobile phone and want to pay by cheque?

Why not? I've sold lots of stuff on ebay and only ever taken cheques, in fact some buyers prefer to use cheques, especially those whi have had their fingers burn by paypal...

Bottom line is that if it is something that someone wants, they'll bid regardless of the payment method.

Ebay try to make people believe that paypal is the *only* way to take or make payment, but it isn't.