Urgh, low feedback bidders, branded items

mad_rich

Three of my items are currently being won by zero or low feedback bidders

North Face jacket being won by zero feedback, member since 30/12/20.

Others are currently being led or bid on by low feedback bidders, and have attracted a lot of 'What's the BIN price, I'l pay straight away, please please please?' questions within minutes of auction going live. Particularly on the branded goods (N Face, Patagonia, Apple)

Assume as long as I send tracked to the eBay/ Paypal address then I'm covered? Any benefit to doing it through eBay Packlink? The jacket has a couple of imperfections which I've listed and photographed.

Or do I cancel the bid if I don't like the look of the high bidder and offer it to the next bidder?

Thanks in advance. Been a while since I've sold on eBay, and it feels more Wild West!

pbartlett

I would not post anything expensive to someone with zero feedback or recently joined. Others on here may disagree.

You have the option to wait until the auction ends and then cancel the sale 'problem with buyer's address' as of course someone else may outbid them

Watch out for the scam where they ask you to post to a different address - check that their ebay and paypal shipping addresses match and only post there.

Lots lots more scams on eBay now that when I first started - the Wild West was like a family picnic compared to eBay!

soolin

mad_rich said:

Three of my items are currently being won by zero or low feedback bidders
North Face jacket being won by zero feedback, member since 30/12/20.
Others are currently being led or bid on by low feedback bidders, and have attracted a lot of 'What's the BIN price, I'l pay straight away, please please please?' questions within minutes of auction going live. Particularly on the branded goods (N Face, Patagonia, Apple)
Assume as long as I send tracked to the eBay/ Paypal address then I'm covered? Any benefit to doing it through eBay Packlink? The jacket has a couple of imperfections which I've listed and photographed.
Or do I cancel the bid if I don't like the look of the high bidder and offer it to the next bidder?
Thanks in advance. Been a while since I've sold on eBay, and it feels more Wild West!

New or low feedback buyers are not necessarily an issue, in fact I have more issues with buyers well into double digits. As long as you have set your seller preferences tightly and take normal precautions in posting there is nothing else you can do.

Sellers can remove bids if they have issues with a bidder, but it needs to be done early, you cannot do t in the last 12 hours of an auction and you cannot cancel once sale has completed without getting a defect that will harm a new or low volume seller.

Ebay packlink postage is no better than normal postage via the PO or courier, just remember that if buying postage yourself any tracking number will need to be added manually, whereas if you buy through packlink it is done automatically. 

Having said all that designer names can attract scammers so it might be worth tightening your seller preferences just for those listings, for instance you can block bidders with 5 or fewer feedback if they don't have a card registered with ebay and you can of course block non UK bidders and use the GSP instead . 

soolin

Just one other thing, if selling branded goods always check the VERO pages 
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing-and-marketing/verified-rights-owner-program.html#m17-1-tb3

jon81uk

Also in terms of the asking for a BIN price, I set some items up with allow offers but to auto-reject low offers. Then at least if people want to make an offer they can just do it via the proper method.
For example if an item is on an auction with a £10 starting bid, I may allow offers but tell eBay to reject offers under £15. Then I will consider sensible offers, so for that £10 starting bid I might take a £20 offer.

mad_rich

Thanks all. Reassuring to hear evidence that zero feedback isn't a 100% guarantee of scammers!

Undervalued

mad_rich said:

Thanks all. Reassuring to hear evidence that zero feedback isn't a 100% guarantee of scammers!

Of course it is not! Everybody (including you and me) started with zero feedback!

pbartlett

Not for buying we didn't - I had 21 feedbacks before I bought anything

soolin

pbartlett said:

Not for buying we didn't - I had 21 feedbacks before I bought anything

That’s very unusual as most of the time zero feedback sellers are viewed with a lot more suspicion that a zero feedback buyer. We usually advise people wanting to set up seller accounts to buy a few things first to get so some feedback and also to get used to how EBay works. 

custardy

pbartlett said:

Not for buying we didn't - I had 21 feedbacks before I bought anything

So you expect someone to trust you as a new seller but not as a new buyer?

"I would not post anything expensive to someone with zero feedback or recently joined. Others on here may disagree."

pbartlett

just saying that when i first joined ebay i sold a lot of my old clothes etc, got about 21 stars from memory and then a couple of months down the line made my first purchase. The clothes were all under ten pounds-ish

re my comment yes i would sell to a zero star buyer but not if the item i was listing was expensive. In fact i recently cancelled a zero star winner for my galaxy s10 using 'problem with buyers address'.