Ned some advice

carly

I have a phone for sale, auction ends today. Currently have 6 watchers and a couple of bids. The curent highest bidder has a feedback of 98.9% over 340 bids. feedack is glowing in all purchases stating prompt payment etc. However when I look a bit more closely at his feedback to see what he has been buying ,,,,8 out of 10 of his most recent purchases ( all mobile phones or closely related accessories ) I get this......This Listing Is UnavailableThis listing (160132454332) has been removed or is no longer available. Please make sure you entered the right item number.
If the listing was removed by eBay, consider it cancelled. Note: Listings that have ended more than 90 days ago will no longer appear on eBay.

Now the said listings are not more than 90 days old, so thats not the reason. Am I being paranoid here ? What other reasons would there be for this to have occurred? Is it out of order to contact the earlier sellers to check that the sales followed through ok ( assuming that anyone will answer in time for me to do anything). What are my options to ensure that I don't get ripped off?

frivolous_fay

Can you see if the previous bids were on items form the same seller... or a small group of sellers?

Could be shilling I suppose although it doesn't make sense that he isn't suspended if that's the case.

carly

All the items are from different sellers !

Plus I've just checked further back and found loads more removed listings going back as far as April. Nearly all mobile phones.

motorguy

So some items he has been bidding on have had the listing removed.

Not seeing why this is a problem for you? Has anyone left feedback saying 'this person is a scammer'?

Plus, to be honest, if you are selling a mobile phone, beware last minute zero feedback bidders who then want you to ship to Nigeria to the son who is a minister. Thats where most of your potential problems will lie.

frivolous_fay

You can't leave feedback for an item that's been removed... I think.

motorguy

So some items he has been bidding on have had the listing removed.

Not seeing why this is a problem for you? Has anyone left feedback saying 'this person is a scammer'?

Plus, to be honest, if you are selling a mobile phone, beware last minute zero feedback bidders who then want you to ship to Nigeria to the son who is a minister. Thats where most of your potential problems will lie.

valleymatt

It could just be the sellers who have had their accounts removed for illegal trading or listings. Perhaps the person bidding on your item is a genuine buyer who has been buying things cheaply from unauthorised sellers. On the other hand, they could be involved in something dodgy themselves. There are many people selling feedback on eBay. They list things very cheaply (usually Buy it Now for 1p or 1 cent), someone buys it, then they just exchange feedback without ever recieving the product, and sometimes they don't even pay! It's just the feedback that's been traded. This is forbidden by eBay, so it could be what's happened to your bidder???

You could look at what else they are bidding on by clicking on the Advanced Search button (leave the box blank). Onthe next page you will see the option of Items by bidder. Click on this, and then type the bidders username in the search field. Also select the Include completed listings (last 30 days) and Even if not the high bidder fields and then search. You will then see all items that the user is bidding on. This should give you some idea of how genuine they could/could not be.

Bets of Luck!

Valleymatt

AceCobra1

u need to include the url of the item for us to check... i 'sold' a laptop recently on ebay and this person had like 42 feedback in total of which 10 was given on the same day for high purchase item - account was verified by paypal but not address, waited for 2 days, payment got reversed and it was fraud which i smelt a mile away... need to be very careful unless u know what ur doing...

carly

Happily the item has sold for a fair price. The successful bidder has a verified address and feedback looks solid. I will proceed after making my usual checks and taking my usual precautions.
Thanks to all you replied.