PSA: Ebay is the devil

KoolAidKid

Golden Member
Apr 29, 2002
1,932
0
76
So I bought a pair of Xbox 360's a couple of weeks ago thinking that I could sell them on ebay and make $50. I put them up on ebay with buy it now prices.

One is purchased by some dumba$$ who is suposedly based in Pennsylvania and wants me to ship it to his son at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

The other is purchased by some guy who claims to be from Missouri but just happens to be travelling in Nigeria.

I relist both of them, incurring fees in the process. This time I list them as $1 auctions with no Buy It Now price. One auction is won by a guy that types in all caps and uses words like U and UR. Not so surprisingly, he doesn't have any money, he just likes bidding on auctions.

Anyway, after relisting each of them three more times, I have finally sold one of them to a neurotic mother who emails me twice a day to check on the status of her Priority Mail package that took four days to get to her house instead of the usual 2-3. Never mind that I got Delivery Confirmation and Insurance without mentioning these things in the auction, she was sure that I was scamming her the whole way. Big surprise, the Xbox shows up at her house today.

An auction for the other xbox ended yesterday. In my auction I state that Paypal payment is required within 24 hours. I sent the winning bidder an invoice after the auction ended. No contact. I sent them another one this evening. I then get this gem of an email in my inbox:

U CAN GO F**K YOURSELF IMPATIENT C**K SUCKING P***Y!!! HAD U NOT EMAILED ME THIS I WAS ABOUT TO SEND PAYMENT. BUT NOW U CAN F**K RIGHT OFF AND SEND A REPORT CAUSE I REALLY DONT GIVE A F**K. YANKEE F**KING F*GG*T!

So now I've incurred about $75 in fees in ebay, my feedback will likely go to hell, and I still have an Xbox as well as a new semi-literate penpal.

Moral of the story: AT FS/T is a godsend, especially if you're a YANKEE F**KING F*GG*T like I apparently am.

Cliffs: Text
 

amdskip

Lifer
Jan 6, 2001
22,530
13
81
You can file a non paying bidder and not pay those fees over and over I believe.
 

EKKC

Diamond Member
May 31, 2005
5,895
0
0
did you bother to block people who have negative feedbacks? did you tell people to use paypal and actually do that in the auction so people MUST use paypal when they win or Buy it now?
granted, ebay is not a great place to sell, but i've had no problems with it. all 100% of my sales have been honest buyers with no problems. you're either very unlucky or you need to work on the details and the way you write up listings
 

Chompman

Banned
Mar 14, 2003
5,608
0
0
If you were smart you would had bought them the day they came out and made over 400 on each. :D
 

buzzsaw13

Diamond Member
Apr 30, 2004
3,814
0
76
Originally posted by: EKKC
did you bother to block people who have negative feedbacks? did you tell people to use paypal and actually do that in the auction so people MUST use paypal when they win or Buy it now?
granted, ebay is not a great place to sell, but i've had no problems with it. all 100% of my sales have been honest buyers with no problems. you're either very unlucky or you need to work on the details and the way you write up listings

Yeah, you could have had it so that immediate payment for the auction is required. I'm pretty sure they charge you, but since there are so many idiots and scammers out there on ebay nowadays it's really a must for something as big as a 360
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,369
6,196
126
Originally posted by: Chompman
If you were smart you would had bought them the day they came out and made over 400 on each. :D

hell I made about $3K profit on 4 that I sold :)
 

BlueWeasel

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
15,943
475
126
Originally posted by: KoolAidKid
So I bought a pair of Xbox 360's a couple of weeks ago thinking that I could sell them on ebay and make $50. I put them up on ebay with buy it now prices.

One is purchased by some dumba$$ who is suposedly based in Pennsylvania and wants me to ship it to his son at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

The other is purchased by some guy who claims to be from Missouri but just happens to be travelling in Nigeria.

I relist both of them, incurring fees in the process. This time I list them as $1 auctions with no Buy It Now price. One auction is won by a guy that types in all caps and uses words like U and UR. Not so surprisingly, he doesn't have any money, he just likes bidding on auctions.

Anyway, after relisting each of them three more times, I have finally sold one of them to a neurotic mother who emails me twice a day to check on the status of her Priority Mail package that took four days to get to her house instead of the usual 2-3. Never mind that I got Delivery Confirmation and Insurance without mentioning these things in the auction, she was sure that I was scamming her the whole way. Big surprise, the Xbox shows up at her house today.

An auction for the other xbox ended yesterday. In my auction I state that Paypal payment is required within 24 hours. I sent the winning bidder an invoice after the auction ended. No contact. I sent them another one this evening. I then get this gem of an email in my inbox:

U CAN GO F**K YOURSELF IMPATIENT C**K SUCKING P***Y!!! HAD U NOT EMAILED ME THIS I WAS ABOUT TO SEND PAYMENT. BUT NOW U CAN F**K RIGHT OFF AND SEND A REPORT CAUSE I REALLY DONT GIVE A F**K. YANKEE F**KING F*GG*T!

So now I've incurred about $75 in fees in ebay, my feedback will likely go to hell, and I still have an Xbox as well as a new semi-literate penpal.

Moral of the story: AT FS/T is a godsend, especially if you're a YANKEE F**KING F*GG*T like I apparently am.

Cliffs: Text

:laugh:
 

KoolAidKid

Golden Member
Apr 29, 2002
1,932
0
76
Originally posted by: EKKC
did you bother to block people who have negative feedbacks? did you tell people to use paypal and actually do that in the auction so people MUST use paypal when they win or Buy it now?
granted, ebay is not a great place to sell, but i've had no problems with it. all 100% of my sales have been honest buyers with no problems. you're either very unlucky or you need to work on the details and the way you write up listings

Yes, I blocked buyers with negative feedback. Yes, it says that I only accept Paypal in the description, and that payment is required within 24 hours. I might be wrong but I don't think that you can require immediate payment unless you have a Buy-It-Now or fixed price auction.

I have been selling on ebay for 5 years, I have had only one non-paying bidder before now. I suspect that a lot of scammers and kiddies are attracted to the Xbox auctions, but that's just a guess.
 

dethman

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
10,263
3
76
if you were smart you would have made it so buy it now is immediate payment required. in addition, you would have also excluded bidders with zero or negative feedback.
 

buzzsaw13

Diamond Member
Apr 30, 2004
3,814
0
76
Originally posted by: KoolAidKid
Originally posted by: EKKC
did you bother to block people who have negative feedbacks? did you tell people to use paypal and actually do that in the auction so people MUST use paypal when they win or Buy it now?
granted, ebay is not a great place to sell, but i've had no problems with it. all 100% of my sales have been honest buyers with no problems. you're either very unlucky or you need to work on the details and the way you write up listings

Yes, I blocked buyers with negative feedback. Yes, it says that I only accept Paypal in the description, and that payment is required within 24 hours. I might be wrong but I don't think that you can require immediate payment unless you have a Buy-It-Now or fixed price auction.

I have been selling on ebay for 5 years, I have had only one non-paying bidder before now. I suspect that a lot of scammers and kiddies are attracted to the Xbox auctions, but that's just a guess.

I see a lot of auctions with the immediate payment required in italics next to the buyitnow button, not sure if it actually means they have to immediatly pay but I think hes talking about that.
 

dexvx

Diamond Member
Feb 2, 2000
3,899
0
0
Originally posted by: buzzsaw13
Originally posted by: KoolAidKid
Originally posted by: EKKC
did you bother to block people who have negative feedbacks? did you tell people to use paypal and actually do that in the auction so people MUST use paypal when they win or Buy it now?
granted, ebay is not a great place to sell, but i've had no problems with it. all 100% of my sales have been honest buyers with no problems. you're either very unlucky or you need to work on the details and the way you write up listings

Yes, I blocked buyers with negative feedback. Yes, it says that I only accept Paypal in the description, and that payment is required within 24 hours. I might be wrong but I don't think that you can require immediate payment unless you have a Buy-It-Now or fixed price auction.

I have been selling on ebay for 5 years, I have had only one non-paying bidder before now. I suspect that a lot of scammers and kiddies are attracted to the Xbox auctions, but that's just a guess.

I see a lot of auctions with the immediate payment required in italics next to the buyitnow button, not sure if it actually means they have to immediatly pay but I think hes talking about that.

You should use that. That means the only way to use the BIN feature is to pay with paypal on the spot.
 

vegetation

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2001
4,270
2
0
Originally posted by: KoolAidKid

Anyway, after relisting each of them three more times, I have finally sold one of them to a neurotic mother who emails me twice a day to check on the status of her Priority Mail package that took four days to get to her house instead of the usual 2-3. Never mind that I got Delivery Confirmation and Insurance without mentioning these things in the auction, she was sure that I was scamming her the whole way. Big surprise, the Xbox shows up at her house today.


Just so you know as you're a new seller: this transaction is over $250 (I assume), you are not in compliance with paypal's seller protection when using only delivery confirmation. You must use signature confirmation. Else, the buyer can pull one over you by saying they never got anything, with your paypal account being debited automatically as your delivery confirmation is no good. If that happens, you'll not only be out on your ebay fees, lost your item, lost shipping fees, incur a paypal chargeback fee, but you also likely to rack up some negative feedback as icing on the cake.
 

Trikat

Diamond Member
May 22, 2003
3,384
0
86
Choose completed listings for Xbox 360s and you will see over 1/4 of the autions are from those deadbeat bidders/buyers.
eBay is raking in LOTS and I mean LOTS of eBay fees from relistings.
Sure you can do a non paying bidder thingy, but you still won't get your insertion fees, bold, subtitle, featured listings, etc. fees back.

Yes there is also a lot of newer members going to eBay to bid/buy Xbox 360s and they probably heard some horror stories so they will nag you several times on the transaction.
Just, because you receive a payment from PayPal doesn't mean you get the money. PayPal money should be treated as play money for 2-4 days unless their address is confirmed. After 2-4 days only then can you be 99% sure the money you received is real money.

As for selling Xbox 360s on eBay I would only use a Buy-It-Now + immediate payment, and choose 3 options to block "unique" buyers/bidders. For example no buyers/bidders with a negative rating.
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,369
6,196
126
Originally posted by: dethman
if you were smart you would have made it so buy it now is immediate payment required. in addition, you would have also excluded bidders with zero or negative feedback.

I sold 2/4 XBox 360's to people with 0 feedback who had registered for ebay the day I started my auction.

Payment was received in less than 5 minutes after the auction ended as well.

So I guess this guy just had some craptastic luck :(

I also had no buy it now, paypal only, and started all my auctions at 99 cents.
 

AnyMal

Lifer
Nov 21, 2001
15,780
0
76
Originally posted by: necine
Originally posted by: amdskip
You can file a non paying bidder and not pay those fees over and over I believe.

Yep

Nope. Only final value fee will be credited, listing fees are not refundable.