Should I be concerned in this situation?

[eye_of_the_tiger]

I just recently received an offer for $70 on one of my items I was selling for $80. The “buyer” has 226 positive buying feedback, and had been around since January this year. The feedback he received in one month was over 200, and no feedback left. The address said the buyer was somewhere in Delaware, but when I look at the actual account, it says he’s somewhere in Ukraine. Ukraine is Eastern European, near Russia, and so I was a bit suspicious about this buyer. I decided to let his offer go, meaning I wouldn’t accept it, but let it just expire. About five minutes later, I saw he had retracted his original offer and put in another one, this time $75, like he was trying to bargain. Why not just buy the item, right? This time, I declined his offer and blocked him, so he couldn’t just buy the item. A couple minutes passed. Then, I get a notification saying, “Congratulations! Your item sold.” I check who bought it, and sure enough, it was a buyer with 1,000 feedback, all from buying.  It was definitely not the same account I blocked, but the same person. The shipping address was somewhere in Delaware, the name was Eastern European, and he only had left 2 positive feedback. Should I be concerned in this situation, or just go with it like every one of my orders? 

[7794heather]

The buyer may be overseas, but they are using a freight forwarding address. 

If it were me, I would ship if he paid. I have sent items to those FF before and hadn't had a problem. Guess we'll see what the consensus is with other replies.

Good luck

[dbfolks166mt]

      Depends on a couple of things. What is the item and what is the value and how risk adverse are you? As long as the item gets delivered to the FF address the risk is low with regards to an eBay NAD case since the buyers MBG protection ends when it gets delivered to the FF. The viable risk is with a buyer chargeback through their CC company. EBay has attempted to put some seller protection in place with regards to this. You may want to read the following before you make a decision. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/payment-dispute-seller-protections?id=5293  

[donsdetour]

New seller High scammed items,,, Hmm Can you afford to lose the item and the money paid for it.

This is the single most factor of listing anything on the Internets today...

[eye_of_the_tiger]

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@donsdetour wrote:

 Can you afford to lose the item and the money paid for it.

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I bought the item for $38. I sold it for $80. That’s more than twice as much (of course, without eBay fees). If I lose the item and the money paid for it, then I would be out $118, I can’t afford to lose. 

[slippinjimmy]

You paid $38 for the item....THAT is the MAXIMUM you can lose.

[mtgraves7984]

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@eye_of_the_tiger wrote:

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@donsdetour wrote:

 Can you afford to lose the item and the money paid for it.

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I bought the item for $38. I sold it for $80. That’s more than twice as much (of course, without eBay fees). If I lose the item and the money paid for it, then I would be out $118, I can’t afford to lose. 

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@eye_of_the_tiger 

This (fairly commonplace) logic baffles me. You'd be out $38 and the FVFs, as I see it. Still hate to see you take a loss...

[albertabrightalberta]

As I was reading the OP, I didn't see any issues and wouldn't have declined or blocked. IMO, a $70 offer on an $80 item is darned fair! 

And as others have pointed out, once delivered to the Delaware address, you have protection against INR and SNAD. Yeah, buyer could file chargeback but it's pretty clear he wanted your item so I doubt you're going to have a problem. 

The only caveat is that if the buyer is ticked that you ignored and blocked the other ID, he might take revenge but you could try to fight that. 

Sometimes I think sellers see red flags where there aren't any! 

[albertabrightalberta]

@eye_of_the_tiger 

Ugh! Did you cancel and refuse the buyer's order in order to relist? I hope it's just that you have a second item and just used the "relist" button. 

Sheesh! Sellers are complaining about buyers not buying and this seller is refusing sales.

[eye_of_the_tiger]

No, I had a second one to relist. 

[iart]

You have a lot of problems here.

You say you can't afford to lose. But there are no guarantees here. If losing that amount of money sends your finances into a tailspin, then you might want to reconsider.

Also, you're spending a lot of time researching your buyer. We never do this. We'd rather spend our time buying more items, listing more items and taking care of our customers. If you have more items up, you should sell more and then you can afford the occasional bad sale.

I don't think you're making enough to even justify the sale. Your original cost was about half of what it sold for. If you add in fees, packing materials, and shipping costs I doubt you're making more than 10 to 20 bucks. Is that really worth the worry and hassle? (For a rough idea, we will only pay a third of what we think an item will go for - and that's only for something in demand, a fast sale).

A tip. When you put someone on your Block List and think they might be a problem, record their location so that if they do bypass the list with another account, you can prove it to eBay customer service (if needed). And yes, I know you've done this.

And last, it's too late to ask this question. The item sold. You should ship.

[inhawaii]

You are getting way to involved in your buyers life.

They buy. You ship.  The end. No need to investigate each and every buyer. 

As you gain experience and your feedback goes up, you will be less of a target for scammers.

ANY buyer with ANY feedback from ANY country can scam ANY seller at ANY time simply by making a false claim.

99% of your sales will go off without a hitch. Some will not. It's all part of doing business.

Good luck. 

[doug_5857]

I do Not sell items outside the lower 48 (49) States. I have no international problems what so ever. Good Luck to You!

[inhawaii]

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@doug_5857 wrote:

I do Not sell items outside the lower 48 (49) States. I have no international problems what so ever. Good Luck to You!

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How would you have "international problems" selling to Alaska and/or Hawaii?

[katzrul15]

@eye_of_the_tiger 

What was the item purchased?  Ukraine has custom limitations similar to the Russian Federation.  Some things will never make it to the Buyer as customs will block same.  See USPS postal link.

Ukraine | Postal Explorer (usps.com)

Not a "fan" of the Delaware freight forwarders, but at $80, not something I probably would not ship.  I would use signature confirmation to prove the freight forwarder received and signed for it.

Your Buyer likely circumvented your BBL.  You could ask e-Bay to get involved, if for some reason this transaction concerns "you".  It is your sale and your appetite for "risk", not any of us posting to give you advice.

It is said many times that you make your money when you purchase the item for "resale".  At $38 investment (+ tax, I presume?), your item initially costs you approx $40.  If you sell it for $80 + $6 shipping, your net is approx $40 + fees as you would need to ship the figure and include shipping supplies for your 1st class parcel.  Freight Forwarder Buyers use DE as there is no sales tax.

So your fees are

$86 x 12.55% (did not see that you are TRS + or have a Store) +.30 cent transaction fee = 10.80 + .30 = $11.10  (I presume you were also charged the international fee at 1.65%??)

$40 minus the $11.10 = net of $28.90 + international fee(s).  Not a bad profit on a $38 investment and they appear small and easy to ship. 

(Would encourage you to come up with a burden rate for the taxes you will owe next year for your 2021 sales, etc.  Appears your sales this year are minimal, but as your sales pick up, be sure to build something in for the Federal and State tax you "may" potentially owe)

I would re-think a "best offer" at the $80 range - perhaps raise that slightly to make sure you "net" where you truly wish to end up.

Congrats on your sale.  If you are concerned about how the buyer circumvented - you can report your Buyer now in the Transaction view in case they pull anything "funny" like a chargeback later, etc.    I would probably ship the item, but I would use signature confirmation, which does "eat" into your fees $2.90) and you would have been charged the international fee on this order as well @ 1.65%.