Thoughts on this member before I sell

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BETA.

BETA.

2[H]4U
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http://hardforum.com/member.php?u=249351

this guy nullpat just contacted me asking to purchase my mobo. He has 0 posts and has been with hardforum for almost 3 years now, I understand this forum does have lurkers, but still. Any advice or can anybody else vouch for him?

he sent me a paypal address which ends with @null.net
 
This is really up to you.

I don't mind dealing with lurkers as long as they have some heat/time on hardware. Ones without, I avoid.

I've done a few trades with 0 post members, but they have an average of 10+ heat.
 
Well, I just sent him a message asking for heat, but I also took the liberty of looking up his info using his username and heatware does have a user "nullpat" I don't know if that is him, but that username has 0 feedback.
 
BETA. said:
Well, I just sent him a message asking for heat, but I also took the liberty of looking up his info using his username and heatware does have a user "nullpat" I don't know if that is him, but that username has 0 feedback.
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That's my first move as well, copy and paste user's name on google "Nullpat heatware" and it's usually the first link if they have heat. I saw that he had 0 too. Don't want to take the risk? Don't have too.. simple as that.
 
proceed with caution... make sure you don't put yourself in a bad position
 
I would not sell to this member directly.

As pointed out before... 0 posts, 0 activity, 0 rep / Heat - in 3 years? Shaky at best, 100% scam at worst. No offense to the buyer, but this is not the forum to be asking for sales with that type of activity profile.

What board are you selling? Is it high-dollar?

Edit: Found your FS thread. If that MSI X99 board is the mobo you're referring to... no way in hell would I ship that board off to someone with such a shaky activity profile. No way, no how, no sir.
 
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yep that is the board. Okay thanks everyone, I am gonna play it safe and hold off then, unless he wants to chime in and provide us with a convincing argument with some substantial evidence proving he's legit.
 
Only reason why I had ever signed up for Hard Forum was to try to buy something off it. After like 15 attempts someone actually sold me something and the transaction went smooth as silk. I had been a hardforum lurker for nearly 10 years before I created an account and started posting. The one thing I noticed was people making a last minute switch on a deal making them seem shadier than the buyer. In all reality you need to protect when you're selling and make sure you make money. If you have any doubt, there's always the next one in line who will want to buy something.
 
If the seller is willing to pay with a service that is irreversible (one way only), i would consider. He would just need to send the $$$ first and i would not ship until i had cash in hand. As everyone knows, Paypal is extremely suspectible to false chargebacks and the such so this is why i would adamantly not sell unless payment was/is made using an irreversible remittance mechanism. Him wanting to use Paypal is not an automatic red flag, but if he is serious he will know that Paypal can hardly be accepted in this specific transaction.

This is a good use case for Bitcoin due to their irreversible transactions property; however, both sides would need to be willing to buy/send/receive the coins. This is actually easier than it sounds, at least for the buyer of the bitcoins. All they would need to do is open up a free wallet on Blockchain, buy coins using a debit or CC card, and send them off to the seller's coin account The not-so-fun part is that the seller would need to be able to convert those coins to $$$. Coinbase has been flawless for me in nearly 2 years of usage (buying/sending/receiving/convering to $$$), but they require linking a bank account (for cashing out into USD) which is understandably unnerving for first-time users.

BETA, if you're really interested in moving this board - and if the seller gets back to you... ask him if he is willing to open a blockchain account and buy the bitcoin amount necessary to purchase the board. I would not mind acting as a conversion point / escrow between you and him. My Heat could use some love.
 
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Correct. That's how I'd do it. As a new user (no posts, heat, etc.) then you have to expect to provide payment first. I'd deal with him, but he HAS to send me a USPS money order. Not western union, USPS. Once I have the money from my post office, I'd be happy to mail him the part. Remind him that once the transaction is done, heat should be left so he can start building some rep. I used several MOs when I had <5 heat. Now people tend to trust me more.
 
Simple IMO, just avoid buyers like this. Someone else can give them a first chance. I have established heat, and would not hesistate to simply say no thank you to this buyers offer.
 
Rav3n said:
Simple IMO, just avoid buyers like this. Someone else can give them a first chance. I have established heat, and would not hesistate to simply say no thank you to this buyers offer.
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+1 to this. Play it safe.
 
A $5-20 item, I would take the risk. Buyers have to start somewhere, and 20 isn't a huge loss.

A $200 motherboard? No way.
 
This same issue has happened to me previously (Actually conducting a deal right now with another 0 rep person).

I sold a razer blade a few years ago to some random dude on eBay that said would pay directly through Paypal. Really saved me a substantial amount since eBay charges 10% of the final sell fee and the price was $1300. I decided to go ahead and sell it to him. Guy received it, was happy and never heard back from him or any issue.

Right now I'm selling another item to some lady through eBay with 0 feedback and straight through Paypal too. Am I always weary when this happens? Of course, but I usually just take the risk. Paypal has always been good with me so I still have hope with them.

Long story short, I say take the risk if you really want to move it.
 
Guy looks like he has a pretty active online presence going by a Google search. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe ask for Google Wallet or something.
 
atp1916 said:
If the seller is willing to pay with a service that is irreversible (one way only), i would consider. He would just need to send the $$$ first and i would not ship until i had cash in hand. As everyone knows, Paypal is extremely suspectible to false chargebacks and the such so this is why i would adamantly not sell unless payment was/is made using an irreversible remittance mechanism. Him wanting to use Paypal is not an automatic red flag, but if he is serious he will know that Paypal can hardly be accepted in this specific transaction.

This is a good use case for Bitcoin due to their irreversible transactions property; however, both sides would need to be willing to buy/send/receive the coins. This is actually easier than it sounds, at least for the buyer of the bitcoins. All they would need to do is open up a free wallet on Blockchain, buy coins using a debit or CC card, and send them off to the seller's coin account The not-so-fun part is that the seller would need to be able to convert those coins to $$$. Coinbase has been flawless for me in nearly 2 years of usage (buying/sending/receiving/convering to $$$), but they require linking a bank account (for cashing out into USD) which is understandably unnerving for first-time users.

BETA, if you're really interested in moving this board - and if the seller gets back to you... ask him if he is willing to open a blockchain account and buy the bitcoin amount necessary to purchase the board. I would not mind acting as a conversion point / escrow between you and him. My Heat could use some love.
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I'll propose that option to him, thanks for the suggestion.

and thank you all for the replies. This deal may just fall through by default as the last time he was logged on was Sunday, when he asked to buy. Regardless, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but im gonna have to chat with him before I make a final decision.
 
Rav3n said:
Simple IMO, just avoid buyers like this. Someone else can give them a first chance.
Click to expand...

I used to think this way, but after speaking with some of them, I realize they just don't spend a lot of time here, don't buy or sell a lot of stuff, but they are just in need of something at a good price sometimes.

I started letting them know that if they pay with a USPS Postal Money order, then I would be happy to ship after getting payment.

Also, new traders need to start somewhere, and we were all new once; I help them get used to dealing this way, point them towards heatware, etc...

For those who don't know, the best part of using a USPS Postal Money order is, you can get them verified and cashed right at the post office, just prior to shipping.

I do it all the time:

1)Take the item and MO I received to the PO.
2)Ask them to verify and cash it.
3)Mail the item off after they put the cash in my hand.

Works great for me, and the bonus is, if they decline paying in that fashion, it gives me a better idea if they are legit or not.
 
Well he sent me a pm and gave me an ebay profile. He told me to PM it and he will respond on there with my username on hardforum as well as his own hardforum profile.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...userid=easycellulartech&ftab=FeedbackAsSeller

IMO this holds much better weight than before. Thoughts on using ebay feedback as a scale for forum purchases?

Honestly though, I am leaning toward the MO solution the most, sounds like a better idea.
 
Unless he's willing to do payment first via USPS money order, I wouldn't bother. I paid first on my early purchases here, because I understood this was customary in order to gain trust and seal the deal. If he bails because of that, that's pretty telling of what kind of person you're dealing with.

Same things goes if you're selling an item with no feedback. You should be willing to ship first if the buyer has a lot of Heat and you do not.

As someone with no feedback, no members here to vouch for him, and no Heatware, his eBay means all of nothing. Moreover, eBay sellers can't give negative feedback to buyers anymore, so its feedback system is pretty pointless from the moment they changed that.
 
I have used USPS money order for both buying and selling where heatware was lacking. I recommend that route. If he wants to buy from you, make that a (very reasonable) condition. He will either buy or move on.
 
Due to the cost of he board and the issues with Ebay feedback, I'd go USPS MO or nothing. Again, I paid by MO a lot when I was new. As mentioned above the PO will cash the MO for you, and you can mail the package at the same time. That way you have the $$$ and it gets mailed all at once. No wondering if it will clear after you mail.
 
4745454b said:
Due to the cost of he board and the issues with Ebay feedback, I'd go USPS MO or nothing. Again, I paid by MO a lot when I was new. As mentioned above the PO will cash the MO for you, and you can mail the package at the same time. That way you have the $$$ and it gets mailed all at once. No wondering if it will clear after you mail.
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2 birds with 1 stone!

Out of curiosity - has nullpat gotten back to you, BETA?
 
yes, nullpat got back to me last night. He basically verified his ebay account by messaging me back with my hardforum username as well as his. What is the issue with the ebay feedback?
 
Ebay accounts can be hacked, and a buyer can only be left positive feedback (no neutral or negative feedback can be left for buyers if I recall correctly).
 
TLDR: Note: Buyers can leave sellers negative, neutral, or positive Feedback. Sellers can leave buyers positive Feedback or choose not to leave Feedback.

I didn't realize Ebay was this bad. Why on earth would they not allow sellers to rate buyers with neutral or negative rating??

More OT though: I would be curious why nullbat is so insistent on using paypal. Why not just go the money order route?
 
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yea that is bad. Welp, he got back to me and basically the deal fell through because he picked up another x79 mobo locally.

Welp that ends that, lol. Thanks for the advice everyone.
 
Because once they send the money their end of the bargain is done. Price agreed along with shipping. They did what they needed to do. All the rest relies on the seller to ship out and send a tracking number. There is nothing else that needs to be left but a positive. You sale a item and I pay for the end. The rest of the feedback would be the shipping time, packaging and if the item was damaged or not received/received.

atp1916 said:
TLDR: Note: Buyers can leave sellers negative, neutral, or positive Feedback. Sellers can leave buyers positive Feedback or choose not to leave Feedback.

I didn't realize Ebay was this bad. Why on earth would they not allow sellers to rate buyers with neutral or negative rating??

More OT though: I would be curious why nullbat is so insistent on using paypal. Why not just go the money order route?
Click to expand...
 
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KILLER_K said:
Because once they send the money their end of the bargain is done. Price agreed along with shipping. They did what they needed to do. All the rest relies on the seller to ship out and send a tracking number. There is nothing else that needs to be left but a positive. You sale a item and I pay for the end. The rest of the feedback would be the shipping time, packaging and if the item was damaged or not received/received.
Click to expand...

And if a buyer does a chargeback, or claims broken item when you clearly sent it unbroken, or files a claim for "item not as described" when it's just buyer's remorse, they can't be labeled as a bad buyer.
 
That is just the down fall of buying or selling anywhere. Not just Ebay, it is what it is. You cannot even count on Heatware now with all the bogus feedback on it now. Or digital keys sold from a buyer.

Tsumi said:
And if a buyer does a chargeback, or claims broken item when you clearly sent it unbroken, or files a claim for "item not as described" when it's just buyer's remorse, they can't be labeled as a bad buyer.
Click to expand...
 
Tsumi said:
And if a buyer does a chargeback, or claims broken item when you clearly sent it unbroken, or files a claim for "item not as described" when it's just buyer's remorse, they can't be labeled as a bad buyer.
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This.



KILLER_K: If you honestly believe the false charge back scenario is a trivial issue (" it is what it is"), please cultivate a sense of empathy. This scenario is not a trivial issue or rare occurrence, and as it would happen, Ebay / Paypal make it super simple to pull off. That's the real problem here.

BETA: I believe you dodged a bullet, from my personal and totally irrelevant opinion. I know the deal is dead and gone, but if he had truly wanted the x99 board, he would have used an irreversible remittance method (and sent the $$$ first) to obtain it. You are an established seller here, and all the risk was balanced against you. That = 99.999% scam.

Ok. Done here. :)
 
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I'm one of those lurkers. As long as he can provide you with adequate feedback I don't see and issue.
 
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