Caution on sending out valuable item - advice please

patriciaellen

Hello,

I haven't sold on ebay regularly for many years. I stopped selling completely after being ripped off on some expensive sales and loosing a lot of £££. I have started to sell to declutter when ebay sends me good deals - FVF £1 sort of thing. I am completely out of touch on rules/regs and scams to beware of.

One item I have listed is valuable (£800). I have listed as collect only because I am wary of a buyer saying it hasn't arrived, has arrived damaged etc. The listing price is reasonable for the item and if I were to offer to post it out it would go for more than I am currently asking.

Someone keeps emailing me to ask me to post to him. He looks like an OK buyer but I am so cautious. I want rid of the item so I am tempted to say I am sticking to collection only but tell him he is welcome to bid and then arrange his own courier to collect the item.

Does anyone have any advice here for a rusty ebayer? Thank you.

forgotmyname

Telling him to arrange his own courier is the worst thing ever.

You may as well send it to them and say pay me if you want.

If it arrives damaged or goes missing you have no cover at all. They will claim the money back and your then stuck. You have no contract with the courier so they wont deal with you. The buyer will have had his money back so they may not care about your loss.

Check the ebay sticky..

Sam_Fallow

I would look at the cost of sending. Fully tracked, fully insured. Of course it all depends on the size of the item and the materials (some couriers won't insure ceramics etc.)

Then edit your listing to reflect the cost of sending and see if they're still interested.

As already said, don't allow his own courier. If they do collect, only accpet cash or bank transfer, not Paypal.

Marcon

Rather than using ebay, have you considered advertising the item in your local paper or on a local noticeboard (Wilko, Sainsbury's, Tesco, newsagent etc) to see if that works?

I_have_spoken

Would be helpful to know what the item is.

You'll still have to offer payment by Paypal and with collection only leave yourself open to an INR claim. TBH not many peeps will want to turn up with £800 in cash at an unknown address anyway.

If the item is gold/jewellery/watch, check the price you could get with a high-street jeweller.

If the item is electronic & has a serial #, put that in the listing and also in the pictures. £800 is well within the limits of RM Special Delivery with insurance.

BTW I'd block the buyer who has been emailing you, sounds like 'bother' right off.

NB I can't recommend you negotiate an 'off Ebay' sale where the buyer inspects the goods then sends you a Paypal gift as that breaks Ebay's T&C and you may get banned.

soolin

patriciaellen wrote: »

Hello,

I haven't sold on ebay regularly for many years. I stopped selling completely after being ripped off on some expensive sales and loosing a lot of £££. I have started to sell to declutter when ebay sends me good deals - FVF £1 sort of thing. I am completely out of touch on rules/regs and scams to beware of.

One item I have listed is valuable (£800). I have listed as collect only because I am wary of a buyer saying it hasn't arrived, has arrived damaged etc. The listing price is reasonable for the item and if I were to offer to post it out it would go for more than I am currently asking.

Someone keeps emailing me to ask me to post to him. He looks like an OK buyer but I am so cautious. I want rid of the item so I am tempted to say I am sticking to collection only but tell him he is welcome to bid and then arrange his own courier to collect the item.

Does anyone have any advice here for a rusty ebayer? Thank you.

I would be nervous about selling a £800 item if I wasn't sure about the rules, I certainly would consider familiarising yourself with seller protection before you even attempt to go ahead with this.

This thread covers the issue of collection only items (and as above allowing buyer to send a courier is just about the worst thing you can do)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/65282064#Comment_65282064

Postage and seller protection is covered here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3146680

Remember as well that with a high end item and low volume seller if you do end up with a paypal payment your funds will be held for 21 days .

Realistically things haven't changed a lot and it worries me you have already been scammed in the past - I therefore echo some of the thoughts above that ebay might not be a good place for you to try and sell this, have you considered Shpock instead?

pinkshoes

I assume you are requesting CASH on collection?

(As PayPal needs a tracking number...)

soolin

pinkshoes wrote: »

I assume you are requesting CASH on collection?

(As PayPal needs a tracking number...)

Requesting it is fine, getting a buyer to use cash is an entirely different matter on ebay. That's why we are suggesting OP tries a different site where they can insist on cash on collection and refuse to deal with any buyer who won't do that.

firefox1956

Gumtree or Preloved ??
Cash on collection only,

patriciaellen

Hello. Thank you for the valuable replies. The item in question is a rare and valuable book. It is in mint condition and weighs about 6k.

The reason I stopped selling is because a few years ago I sold a designer item. The buyer claimed it was fake. The buyer claimed a refund, kept my item and returned a cheap Chinese fake to me. I was very upset at the time and I stopped using ebay. That happened in 2012 and since then I have used Vestiaire Collective for designer items, which has been completely stress free as they check all items for authenticity which protects seller and buyer.

My gut tells me to take the listing down. I don't feel ebay is a safe environment for valuable items. I don't want to send it out and then have someone tell me it's damaged or some other nonsense. I have seen similar books in mint condition fetch over £1k but honestly I just want it gone - I'm decluttering.

firefox1956

Gut feeling is the way to go...........