Am I about to get scammed?

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gc86

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I'm selling a GTX1080 on eBay and I found a buyer with over 17,000+ positive feedback reviews, with recent ones being posted in the past week. He promptly paid for my card, but the name and address on the invoice I sent him (what is registered with his account) is completely different from the ship to address, opposite coasts even. I've done my research on both names and they appear to be real people.

My first thought is that it was some sort of dropship service? has anyone else dealt with this? I messaged him to verify and he hasn't responded, likely won't. I was contemplating recording myself with a GoPro of packaging and delivering the card to the post office but I really shouldn't have to do that to avoid getting scammed on this scummy marketplace.

[H]ard thoughts anyone?
 
Ive encounterd reshipers (normally going overseas and often a scam) you can frequently google the address and find that out.

Only had one reshipper who wasn't try to scam me and mostly because I got that person to pay with crypto and I suddenly became willing to ship to any address provided.

I normally cancel and orders with a suspect address however I'm unsure if thats what you are dealing with
 
Ask him if he wants it shipped to the other address. If he says, yes then he is responsible.
I think selling a gtx 1080 must be the easiest thing to do these days. You have what everyone wants but cannot buy. Surely you can sell it to someone directly in your town easily that there is no need to ship.
 
cdabc123 said:
Ive encounterd reshipers (normally going overseas and often a scam) you can frequently google the address and find that out.

Only had one reshipper who wasn't try to scam me and mostly because I got that person to pay with crypto and I suddenly became willing to ship to any address provided.

I normally cancel and orders with a suspect address however I'm unsure if thats what you are dealing with
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I ended up cancelling the order. If he had replied to me with a simple explanation I would have went through with it. Just seemed too sketch.
 
I done a few $1000+ transaction recently and had them ended up going to a re-shipper.

At the time I did some research and it is fairly safe overall. Ebay, Paypal, and your shipping preference protects you only to the re-shipper. From the re-shipper to the buyer, it is between them two (or supposedly so). I used FedEx with signature confirmation and took tons of pictures just in case.
 
DTN107 said:
I done a few $1000+ transaction recently and had them ended up going to a re-shipper.

At the time I did some research and it is fairly safe overall. Ebay, Paypal, and your shipping preference protects you only to the re-shipper. From the re-shipper to the buyer, it is between them two (or supposedly so). I used FedEx with signature confirmation and took tons of pictures just in case.
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No it's not safe. Most of the scams I have delt with involving reshipers normally ends in PayPal recalling the payment. Additionally the buyer can still claim damaged/not as described in addition to the normal ebay scams. These scams are especially common for high value gpus
 
The one and only time I ever got scammed was when I shipped an item I was selling to an address different than what was the verified PayPal address, and the buyer claimed they never received it. Took about 2 weeks of back and forth with PayPal but they agreed to cover the cost for both parties. Since then I only ship items to the same address as the billing address.
 
If selling on ebay, only ship to the Paypal verified address, no exceptions.

Theres also another scam going on where after an auction ends, you get a message from another user pretending to be the buyer who won the item asking you to ship it to a different address. Had this happen once, and I saw the scam, but Ebay won't take action against such scams even when I reported it over the phone to them.
 
Skarth said:
If selling on ebay, only ship to the Paypal verified address, no exceptions.
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^^THIS^^ and ONLY THIS !

Do it ANY other way and you are just telling the scammer "Go ahead, make my day, PUNK"

I rarely buy/sell anything on fleecebay anymore, but even in the marketplace forum here, I always put the notice on my postings "shipped via xx shipping service to verified Paypal addresses in the lower 48 ONLY" :)

And only once have I had a potential buyer request shipping to a different address. Guess what I told them....

Not NO..
Not hell NO...
but F. NO !!!!!!
 
Starting in 2021 eBay is now handling payments entirely on their own, requiring you to link a bank account for direct deposits/withdrawals. I think this may close off some scam methods that involved PayPal but it may introduce others.

Anyway, solid advice boys, thank you.
 
I've shipped to a reshipper before (was some dude in Russia). Remember a lot of things costs way more overseas and there are people wanting to make a profit.
 
If I helps I sold an RX 480 during the last mining boom to a russian guy on eBay using a reship service. Made it just fine.
 
Doesn't matter what name is on the eBay account, that is useless information. What matters is that the ship to address matches up with the CC address, which would be the PayPal verified shipping address. The verified address doesn't have to be the billing address (you would never get the buyers billing address anyway), it just has to be one of the addresses that the CC company will accept that the CC owner has on the account.
17000+ fb is almost definitely a business/commercial account. I would not hesitate to ship. But then again, I have 500+ sales on eBay over the last 15 years totalling >$50k, several hundred more on forums/cl/fb, so I have a fine tuned BS detector. :)
Still, even then you're not guaranteed a trouble free transaction. Most recent scam I had pulled on me: sold $800 BNIB iPad pro, shipped via FedEx. Somehow, the package gets re-routed the day before delivery to a different state - something that only the shipper account holder can do. Called FedEx, no notes on the re-route, no explanation who authorized it. Inside job at FedEx it seems. Fortunately, after I raised "scam alert" and verified my account, FedEx routed the package back to sender - me. As expected, it was a scam and CC chargeback was filed next day, but at least I got my item back. Re-listed, second sale went to a re-shipper to China - no issues that time around.
 
FWIW, someone got into my email, logged into my ebay account, and ordered stuff to be sent to a reshipper who would presumably ship it overseas to the criminal. Ebay was totally useless and the only reason I got my money back is that I caught it in time and contacted the seller to tell them not to ship the items that were ordered. Otherwise I would've had to dispute it with my bank. So you might not lose the sale, but it could be going to a scammer.
 
I wonder if they should.just abolish having seperate addresses if any difference arouses all kinds of suspicion

Before the pandemic I and all my colleagues would have stuff shipped to the office instead of our home, billing addresses regularly. No one caredn
 
The last time I sold a GPU on eBay it was won by someone in the country of Georgia. I specifically set the auction options to only ship to US addresses. When he paid via Paypal it listed an unverified re-shipper's address in NJ. Paypal recommends sitting on the goods until the funds are confirmed. While waiting for the funds to clear, the buyer was sending me angry messages in broken English - which I forwarded to both eBay and Paypal just in case. Then I spent a couple hours researching the address and found a forum thread full of complaints about this exact address. I refunded the money and relisted the GPU. The sketchy buyer left me my only negative feedback since 1999, about how I cancelled it because I didn't get as much money as I wanted (it was a 'Buy It Now' listing with a fixed price). The new buyer was a legitimate address in Indiana - much less likely to be a scam. But the threat is always there.

What seems to be common is the seller sends the item to the re-shipper, then somehow the tracking stops being updated and the package *vanishes*, then the buyer uses Paypal and/or eBay to get a refund for undelivered goods. The seller is left without the item or the money with absolutely no recourse.

*edit to add: never had a problem buying/selling here on [H]. Thanks guys, stay legit
 
blackmomba said:
I wonder if they should.just abolish having seperate addresses if any difference arouses all kinds of suspicion

Before the pandemic I and all my colleagues would have stuff shipped to the office instead of our home, billing addresses regularly. No one caredn
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Nah.. this is bad, especially for people that travel or order stuff for friends and family that live in a different state. I buy and ship stuff to family members' houses a few times a year at least. It is way better to do this, especially during the holidays instead of having the times shipped to me and then having to pay for shipping again for it to get to them.

I've also had stuff shipped to the office I worked at because every once in a while I will order something and it is cheaper to ship to a business address than a home address.
 
What about a verified address with snail mail confirmation. Lots of companies do it that way. You add a new address and go through a verification process where they mail you a card with a unique code on it, you enter that code online and now you're legit. It makes it a lot more difficult (but not impossible) for someone without both account access and physical address access to verify. Takes about a week and you only have to do it once per address - or maybe it should auto time-out after 5 years or something?
 
Skarth said:
If selling on ebay, only ship to the Paypal verified address, no exceptions.

Theres also another scam going on where after an auction ends, you get a message from another user pretending to be the buyer who won the item asking you to ship it to a different address. Had this happen once, and I saw the scam, but Ebay won't take action against such scams even when I reported it over the phone to them.
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Just to point out, PayPal and ebay separated. And you can purchased without using PayPal. You ship to the address that is specified at the time of ordering.

They can change the shipping address through ebay if they entered the wrong address, but they have to do this on their end before you ship/make a label of course. But it must be done officially through ebay on the buyer's end for ebay to verify it. If they send you a message asking to change the address without doing it the proper way avoid and cancel the order.
 
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Flogger23m said:
Just to point out, PayPal and ebay separated. And you can purchased without using PayPal. You ship to the address that is specified at the time of ordering.

They can change the shipping address through ebay if they entered the wrong address, but they have to do this on their end before you ship/make a label of course. But it must be done officially through ebay on the buyer's end for ebay to verify it. If they send you a message asking to change the address without doing it the proper way avoid and cancel the order.
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So in theory, if a dropship eBay account purchases my item, I then send the invoice which shows the name and address registered to that account. They pay the invoice and fill out the shipping information, they can put whatever name and address they want, and eBay should technically cover the seller in case of any shenanigans? At least that's how I hope it should pan out.
 
davidlem said:
The last time I sold a GPU on eBay it was won by someone in the country of Georgia. I specifically set the auction options to only ship to US addresses. When he paid via Paypal it listed an unverified re-shipper's address in NJ. Paypal recommends sitting on the goods until the funds are confirmed. While waiting for the funds to clear, the buyer was sending me angry messages in broken English - which I forwarded to both eBay and Paypal just in case. Then I spent a couple hours researching the address and found a forum thread full of complaints about this exact address. I refunded the money and relisted the GPU. The sketchy buyer left me my only negative feedback since 1999, about how I cancelled it because I didn't get as much money as I wanted (it was a 'Buy It Now' listing with a fixed price). The new buyer was a legitimate address in Indiana - much less likely to be a scam. But the threat is always there.

What seems to be common is the seller sends the item to the re-shipper, then somehow the tracking stops being updated and the package *vanishes*, then the buyer uses Paypal and/or eBay to get a refund for undelivered goods. The seller is left without the item or the money with absolutely no recourse.

*edit to add: never had a problem buying/selling here on [H]. Thanks guys, stay legit
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There are more sophisticated variations of this timeless classic trick of the east-euro scammers, that I can't even post here because it would just be a blueprint for anyone coming across this thread in a google search. But I continually feed my findings to a security contact at ebay corporate.

There is sadly still a big easy loophole in ebay's return process that's getting abused as an attack vector by foreign scammers hiding behind VPN's, it typically involves a freight-forwarder address; they wait for your expensive item to be delivered at the freight forwarder and immediately ask for a return (doesn't matter if you specify "No Returns" in your listing), then they order a $2 box of pens from somewhere to "return" to you, and attach that tracking# to ebay's return case. Then you receive a box of pens and have to expend lots of energy explaining the situation to someone in a cubicle in the Phillippines.

*Or* the scammer buys a cheap item from an unassuming third party - like a different ebay seller - but scammer sends that third party a forged shipping label as a PDF attachment, asking them to use that label to ship the cheap item. And that tracking# is already attached to the "return" of the expensive item scammer bought from you, except you'll never get the package, because scammer forged label to address of a random store in same zipcode as you, so you have no evidence to show ebay, and item shows as delivered to correct zipcode. This one is a bitch to fight but there are ways.

That only scratches the surface of one of the common "cheap trinket return" scams, the rabbit hole goes much deeper with these fuckers. However I still have no hesitation selling on ebay.
 
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Some basic safeguards for selling high-value items on ebay:

1) Google the name and address of your buyer - I like to see a house or apartment with streetview, and/or some type of public record with the buyer's name attached to that address. If I don't like what I see in google streetview, if it's some abandoned industrial area or a strip mall, it's getting canceled.

2) Never ship to a freight forwarding (reshipping service) address for a >$50 item. Especially high value electronics. The giveaway in the address is typically a "U#" or "P#" followed by a long sequence of numbers (i.e. 107 Connor St. Suite 7B, U# 1923819238) . That U# or P# is the customer number of the freight-forwarder. There are many legitimate foreign buyers that use reshippers, but there are so many bad apples that I've stopped dealing with them altogether. Some of the worst ones are in Delaware, secondarily in NJ and a few other east coast states. The ones in Florida service South America; in Northern California service Asia.

3) Beware of intentional typos in streetnames, a.k.a. "jigging". The better scammers know experienced sellers will google to detect a freight-forwarder addresses. So to be more search-proof, they'll change one or two letters in the streetname, or one digit in the "Suite #". Example "107 Connor St. Suite 7B" real address, they change "Connor" to "Cinnor" or "Cunnur" or "Conorr" or "Cnnor", and may also vary Suite# slightly. They do this because they know USPS/Fedex/UPS logistics will autocorrect enroute, and package will deliver to correct address anyway.

4) Get in the habit of taking photos of valuable items you sell as you're packing them - showing the item in the box with the packing slip and the buyer's name, and another photo with the sealed box with the shipping label on it. Keep for your records, they might come in handy in a dispute, and can scare off more inexperienced scammers that try opening a frivolous return, at which point you can attach those photos to the return case.

5) If they have less than 10 feedback, they definitely require extra scrutiny. On a high priced item I've actually called them up or texted, I've even talked to wives of buyers asking if they knew about a purchase if I felt the situation demanded it. If I don't like what I see or hear, if anything doesn't smell right, cancel.

6) NEVER lose your cool when messaging someone you suspect is trying to defraud you, OR with any ebay rep. Always keep it polite and professional, don't accuse them of anything, stick to facts. This is important. Those messages may end up scrutinized by multiple layers of ebay employees, and will work in your favor if you're not muddying the water by writing like a lunatic.

PROTIP: If you ever hit a dead end with ebay's regular phone-based customer support in handling a dispute or problem, a secret ally is the eBay and eBay-for-business teams on Facebook of all places. Don't ask me why Facebook. They seem to be ebay backoffice corporate employees that can get shit done rather than recite a script in monotone. They've sorted out problems for me when all other avenues had failed, they're excellent.

https://www.facebook.com/ebay/
https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/
 
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gc86 said:
So in theory, if a dropship eBay account purchases my item, I then send the invoice which shows the name and address registered to that account. They pay the invoice and fill out the shipping information, they can put whatever name and address they want, and eBay should technically cover the seller in case of any shenanigans? At least that's how I hope it should pan out.
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Should be. Whatever they had at checkout is the address you can ship to. If they officially send a request (don't recall how) to ask for a change in shipping address, ebay will cover it. Or should. What scammers try and do is get you to ship to a different address from what is in their order details, which ebay obviously can't enforce. They'll message you and say "ship to this address" without going through the ebay process to change the shipping address. Whatever ebay has down as the buyer shipping address at the time you ship is what they can track and enforce.

Still, if someone wants to change the address after ordering it raises my suspicion. Up to you if you want to cancel the order completely and then block them as a buyer. If you do that, select the option "problem with buyer's shipping address". You might get negative feedback.


Also use the Global Shipping Program if you plan to sell internationally. It gives more protection that domestic sales. As long as the item arrives in Kentucky you're covered from damage claims and negative feedback. Likewise for lost items. Buyers pay more but I wouldn't sell internationally otherwise. Plus, no international forms to fill out. For high end electronics you may still want to sell domestically only though.

I sold a used Corsair 550D case for something like $170. I have no idea why someone would want one when you could buy a new and better designed case for the same or less. If I recall, after fees and shipping, I made $1-3 after using it for 4-5 years. Yeah, I made profit on a PC case. Ebay can be a good place to sell, but use DPI's list as a way to protect yourself if you're doing high end items.
 
Flogger23m said:
...
Also use the Global Shipping Program if you plan to sell internationally. It gives more protection that domestic sales. As long as the item arrives in Kentucky you're covered from damage claims and negative feedback. Likewise for lost items. Buyers pay more but I wouldn't sell internationally otherwise. Plus, no international forms to fill out. For high end electronics you may still want to sell domestically only though.
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I tried that garbage once, not worth it. Got some lunatic abroad that started putting up all kinds of demands because this was a gift for the 2nd of his three wives or whatever and it somehow wasn't perfect. Then he started telling me how much he paid for shipping... eBay paid me like $6 to ship it which didn't even cover my costs. I don't even know how much eBay charged the buyer for international shipping. Finally, the guy started swearing at me and my mother's grave and blah blah blah, and due to that swearing I won that eBay case and put the final nail in the international eBay sales coffin for me.

International sales can be lucrative, but 80% of my eBay horror stories come from international transactions. Fortunately, I got lucky every time and never lost my shirt, but I called it quits before my luck ran out. If you're gonna sell internationally on eBay, you have to tailor to that market and jack up the price to make it worth your while.

Besides, paying extra 1% to PayPal because they use international payments always pissed me off.
 
DPI said:
There are more sophisticated variations of this timeless classic trick of the east-euro scammers, that I can't even post here because it would just be a blueprint for anyone coming across this thread in a google search. But I continually feed my findings to a security contact at ebay corporate.

There is sadly still a big easy loophole in ebay's return process that's getting abused as an attack vector by foreign scammers hiding behind VPN's, it typically involves a freight-forwarder address; they wait for your expensive item to be delivered at the freight forwarder and immediately ask for a return (doesn't matter if you specify "No Returns" in your listing), then they order a $2 box of pens from somewhere to "return" to you, and attach that tracking# to ebay's return case. Then you receive a box of pens and have to expend lots of energy explaining the situation to someone in a cubicle in the Phillippines.

*Or* the scammer buys a cheap item from an unassuming third party - like a different ebay seller - but scammer sends that third party a forged shipping label as a PDF attachment, asking them to use that label to ship the cheap item. And that tracking# is already attached to the "return" of the expensive item scammer bought from you, except you'll never get the package, because scammer forged label to address of a random store in same zipcode as you, so you have no evidence to show ebay, and item shows as delivered to correct zipcode. This one is a bitch to fight but there are ways.

That only scratches the surface of one of the common "cheap trinket return" scams, the rabbit hole goes much deeper with these fuckers. However I still have no hesitation selling on ebay.
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I have experienced this more than once. Luckily, I found that communicating with ebay frequently on the phone resolved issues in my favor. But instances, I made attempts THROUGH ebay systems to resolve/troubleshoot "buyers" issues so there is a record. Scammer will ghost you. During this period, call and talk to ebay support. Let them know that you suspect the return is fraudulent. They will usually say wait and see if buyer escalates to ebay. In that case, let ebay initiate the return and have ebay issue return postage. Scammer wont use it. Instead, as described, they will order some POS off amazon, and use that tracking number. (it helps if you have USPS informed delivery, as you will get notification of unsolicited package entering USPS system). The POS off amazon usually comes from location other than where you shipped. It was this point that won me the cases. YMMV but this worked for me more than once.
 
slavie said:
I tried that garbage once, not worth it. Got some lunatic abroad that started putting up all kinds of demands because this was a gift for the 2nd of his three wives or whatever and it somehow wasn't perfect. Then he started telling me how much he paid for shipping... eBay paid me like $6 to ship it which didn't even cover my costs. I don't even know how much eBay charged the buyer for international shipping. Finally, the guy started swearing at me and my mother's grave and blah blah blah, and due to that swearing I won that eBay case and put the final nail in the international eBay sales coffin for me.

International sales can be lucrative, but 80% of my eBay horror stories come from international transactions. Fortunately, I got lucky every time and never lost my shirt, but I called it quits before my luck ran out. If you're gonna sell internationally on eBay, you have to tailor to that market and jack up the price to make it worth your while.

Besides, paying extra 1% to PayPal because they use international payments always pissed me off.
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I'm just saying if you do international, go GSP. Probably why you won the case. I've done a number of international but I tend not to sell electronics because those have higher scam rates.
 
sc5mu93 said:
I have experienced this more than once. Luckily, I found that communicating with ebay frequently on the phone resolved issues in my favor. But instances, I made attempts THROUGH ebay systems to resolve/troubleshoot "buyers" issues so there is a record. Scammer will ghost you. During this period, call and talk to ebay support. Let them know that you suspect the return is fraudulent. They will usually say wait and see if buyer escalates to ebay. In that case, let ebay initiate the return and have ebay issue return postage. Scammer wont use it. Instead, as described, they will order some POS off amazon, and use that tracking number. (it helps if you have USPS informed delivery, as you will get notification of unsolicited package entering USPS system). The POS off amazon usually comes from location other than where you shipped. It was this point that won me the cases. YMMV but this worked for me more than once.
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Yep, def familiar with all of that, been through it # of times. The last go-round, even after case was decided in my favor, the scammer kept calling ebay CSR's over and over trying to appeal, until he finally found one dumb enough to reverse the outcome into HIS favor, arguing "b-but the return delivered and I was supposed to get a refund". I finally had to contact the ebay-for-business team on Facebook, where someone competent was able to put a stop to the merry-go-round and make the decision final in my favor.

I did communicate with eBay all along the way about the return being fraudulent, reported the buyer, noted that he tried to obfuscate his freight-forwarder address with intentional typos in the address, pointed out that the "return" shipped from California whereas the original item was delivered in Delaware, but none of it stopped him from just continuing to appeal by incessantly calling CSR's until he found one oblivious that didn't read case notes.
 
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DPI said:
Yep, def familiar with all of that, been through it # of times. The last go-round, even after case was decided in my favor, the scammer kept calling ebay CSR's over and over trying to appeal, until he finally found one dumb enough to reverse the outcome into HIS favor, arguing that "b-but the return delivered and I was supposed to get a refund". I finally had to contact the ebay-for-business team on Facebook, where someone competent was able to put a stop to the merry-go-round and make the decision final in my favor. All along the way I communicated with eBay about the return being fraudulent, reported the buyer, noted his freight-forwarder address that he tried to hide, pointed out that the "return" shipped from California whereas the original item was delivered in Delaware, but none of it mattered, when in the end the cockroach was able to just keep calling CSR's until he found an oblivious one that didn't read case notes.
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Oh wow. Good to know.
 
gc86 said:
I'm selling a GTX1080 on eBay and I found a buyer with over 17,000+ positive feedback reviews, with recent ones being posted in the past week. He promptly paid for my card, but the name and address on the invoice I sent him (what is registered with his account) is completely different from the ship to address, opposite coasts even. I've done my research on both names and they appear to be real people.

My first thought is that it was some sort of dropship service? has anyone else dealt with this? I messaged him to verify and he hasn't responded, likely won't. I was contemplating recording myself with a GoPro of packaging and delivering the card to the post office but I really shouldn't have to do that to avoid getting scammed on this scummy marketplace.

[H]ard thoughts anyone?
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Only ship to the registered address on their PayPal. Otherwise you lose all seller protection.
 
Live example of a scammer that nearly cost an acquaintance of mine an expensive laptop today. Notice the formatting which is a typical freight forwarder address - the "L183195 Mvr" number is the customer# with the freight forwarder. Sometimes it's "U# XXXXXXX" or "P# XXXXXXX" - depends on company.

1616796056741.png


The seller believed "the buyer has 60 feedback so it's probably safe to ship", but then noticed it was a type of shipping address I'd warned him about. The scammer turned out to be using a hacked ebay account, something rampant because of data breaches of email providers like Yahoo that leaked billions of usernames/passwords to the public and darkweb. Scammers will scan through compromised email accounts looking for associated ebay/paypal/etc accounts, then hijack the ebay account with "forgot password", and then switch all the address/payment info into their own.

Cornell Dr. in Delware is one of the known freight forwarder dens serving eastern europe, ten of them operating in the same lot. These are where you absolutely avoid shipping anything to, they're assisting foreign scammers in defrauding U.S. sellers without legal consequence, because they're not technically involved in the mail fraud part of the scam (the scammer ordering a $2 item from Amazon / third party and shipping it to you as the "return", or a variation thereof).

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DPI said:
Some basic safeguards for selling high-value items on ebay:
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Thanks for this - very helpful info.
Aside from taking pictures, would it help and is it necessary to record video as well, like some have mentioned?
Can something like that be used if a buyer were to do something sketchy and file a claim?
 
Vile said:
Thanks for this - very helpful info.
Aside from taking pictures, would it help and is it necessary to record video as well, like some have mentioned?
Can something like that be used if a buyer were to do something sketchy and file a claim?
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I don't bother with video, but it depends on the item. Certain things like a cellphone or tablet can be worth taking video of it functioning correctly and not being password-locked, since "switchouts" are still a thing -meaning a bad buyer tries to send you back their old, broken or locked iPad/phone and insist it's what they purchased from you. Motherboards or CPU's with pins, take photos of its pristine condition in case someone tries to return their old motherboard with broken pins. And it's a good idea to either photograph or at least document serial numbers of higher value items.

You can make yourself crazy if you wonder too long about every possible way someone might try to get one over on you, but the reality is most people you'll come across are honest and normal people.
 
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DPI said:
I don't bother with video, but it depends on the item. Certain things like a cellphone or tablet can be worth taking video of it functioning correctly and not being password-locked, since "switchouts" are still a thing -meaning a bad buyer tries to send you back their old, broken or locked iPad/phone and insist it's what they purchased from you. Motherboards or CPU's with pins, take photos of its pristine condition in case someone tries to return their old motherboard with broken pins. And it's a good idea to either photograph or at least document serial numbers of higher value items.

You can make yourself crazy if you wonder too long about every possible way someone might try to get one over on you, but the reality is most people you'll come across are honest and normal people.
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That makes sense. Thanks for all the tips, much appreciated.
I have some older GPUs to sell after upgrading to a new one. Normally eBay would be my choice since I have more history there compared to Heat but I haven't sold there in while.
Hearing all the horror stories on eBay is a bit scary but it sounds like if the proper precautions are taken, it might not be so bad.
 
Vile said:
That makes sense. Thanks for all the tips, much appreciated.
I have some older GPUs to sell after upgrading to a new one. Normally eBay would be my choice since I have more history there compared to Heat but I haven't sold there in while.
Hearing all the horror stories on eBay is a bit scary but it sounds like if the proper precautions are taken, it might not be so bad.
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The problem is you're only hearing the horror stories and that will skew your perception. Millions of items get sold on there smoothly every day. Out of my last 1000 transactions, only 1 was a scammer (that didn't succeed in the end), and it was my own fault because I'd become complacent on scrutinizing buyer shipping addresses - like being careless about locking your car door.

If you're getting rid of some old GPU's it's worth subscribing to a Basic ebay store - even just a one-month ($30) and then canceling - because it reduces the final value fee from 10-11% down to like 4-6% on this particular category. Even if you only sold a single GPU, it already pays for itself. You also get a $25 code toward free shipping supplies (boxes, padded envelopes).

The thing ebay doesn't tell you is that if you have existing listings when you enable a store subscription, discount will not apply retroactively to those listings if they sell. So in that case you do the subscription, then end and re-list your items.
 
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DPI said:
The problem is you're only hearing the horror stories and that will skew your perception. Millions of items get sold on there smoothly every day.

If you're getting rid of some old GPU's it's worth subscribing to a Basic ebay store - even just a one-month ($30) and then canceling - because it reduces the final value fee from 10-11% down to like 4-6% on this particular category. Even if you only sold a single GPU, it already pays for itself. You also get a $25 code toward free shipping supplies.

The thing they don't tell you is that if you have existing listings when you enable a store subscription, it will not apply retroactively to existing listings and they will not get the discounted store rate if they sell. So in that case you do the subscription, then end and re-list your items.
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Nice, I didn't know that about the eBay store with the fees, it will be worth it in my situation so I'll look into that before I list them.
Thanks again!
 
reshippers are shady because of the power of the ebay buyer. I sold something to one, not knowing they were a reshipper. Then two months after the sale they opened a case saying the item was damaged in shipping. Yeah, it was. THEIR shipping. I asked for pictures of my box and it was pristine, but the item I shipped looked like a hammer was took to it, it was in pieces.
 
DPI said:
I don't bother with video, but it depends on the item. Certain things like a cellphone or tablet can be worth taking video of it functioning correctly and not being password-locked, since "switchouts" are still a thing -meaning a bad buyer tries to send you back their old, broken or locked iPad/phone and insist it's what they purchased from you. Motherboards or CPU's with pins, take photos of its pristine condition in case someone tries to return their old motherboard with broken pins. And it's a good idea to either photograph or at least document serial numbers of higher value items.

You can make yourself crazy if you wonder too long about every possible way someone might try to get one over on you, but the reality is most people you'll come across are honest and normal people.
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Yes I sell lots of motherboards I've repaired on Ebay, ALWAYS include a photo or two of the cpu socket. There are so many clowns on there that have no idea what they're doing and will damage the socket and think it's like Walmart where you can return anything.
 
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