eBay

chic_thrills · ‎09-24-2017

I received a message from a buyer wanting to purchase an item that is currently up as a BIN. She wants to buy it in a month and asked that I reserve it for her. Is there a way to do this and to guarantee that she will come through in a month? Can I get a down payment? Any thoughts?

zzydny · ‎09-24-2017

There is Nice. And there is Business. Although you want to be nice to this potential buyer, you have no way of knowing whether you will make that sale in a month's time. A good person would not ask you to risk the chance of a sale to someone else because that would not be nice.

So if the buyer is asking you to be nice and is not willing to play nice, too, then that's bad business.

Your response is: Thank you for your interest. Sadly, due to the pressures of business, I am unable to do as you request. Please check my listings again when you are able to purchase.

And if you get a rude response to your reasonable statement, BBL and move on.

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mistwomandancing · ‎09-24-2017

chic_thrills wrote:
I received a message from a buyer wanting to purchase an item that is currently up as a BIN. She wants to buy it in a month and asked that I reserve it for her. Is there a way to do this and to guarantee that she will come through in a month? Can I get a down payment? Any thoughts?

Sorry, I don't do lay-away. But if this item doesn't sell before the month is out and is still available when you want to make this transaction, I will welcome your purchase. Thank you for your interest.

emerald40 · ‎09-24-2017

100% agree with above poster.

Tell her that if it is still available when she is ready to purchase, yo would be glad to sell it to her.

But you have no way to accept layaway and your policy is that items ship to the first person who pays for it in full.

zzydny · ‎09-24-2017

There is Nice. And there is Business. Although you want to be nice to this potential buyer, you have no way of knowing whether you will make that sale in a month's time. A good person would not ask you to risk the chance of a sale to someone else because that would not be nice.

So if the buyer is asking you to be nice and is not willing to play nice, too, then that's bad business.

Your response is: Thank you for your interest. Sadly, due to the pressures of business, I am unable to do as you request. Please check my listings again when you are able to purchase.

And if you get a rude response to your reasonable statement, BBL and move on.

papermoneyforme · ‎09-24-2017

I would BBL now

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-24-2017

I agree with mist and emerald.

It is kind of inappropriate, in my opinion, to ask you to do this.

As has been said, just tell her that you are so sorry you cannot help with this, but if the item is still available in a month, you are welcome to bid/buy it at that time when you are ready to pay.

You could hold it for a month and she could disappear and be non responsive.

Lack of urgency to pay could lessen her desire to buy; then you will have held it for nothing.

See what response, if any, you get...as you may want to BBL.

mistwomandancing · ‎09-24-2017

There's another possible scenario that could be at play here too that the OP should be aware of:

Another seller who has the same item and want to list it here & sell it... can ask you to withdraw yours from the market on the pretext that they are going to buy it later... and in the meantime, they list theirs and snag the buyer who is looking right now, without your listing in competition with theirs! --- And, yeah... they don't ever show up in a month either!

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-24-2017

@mistwomandancing wrote:

There's another possible scenario that could be at play here too that the OP should be aware of:

Another seller who has the same item and want to list it here & sell it... can ask you to withdraw yours from the market on the pretext that they are going to buy it later... and in the meantime, they list theirs and snag the buyer who is looking right now, without your listing in competition with theirs! --- And, yeah... they don't ever show up in a month either!

@mistwomandancing

You read my mind! I just came back to post that and you beat me to it!

That could definitely be a way a competitor gets your item out of the way to snag a buyer for their like item. I'd like to think that someone wouldn't do that, but I also know it is all too possible.

myboardid · ‎09-24-2017

what mistwoman dancing just said - she is trying to pull your off the market so she can sell her own. And any sort of "down payment" could be claimed back for a refund by just saying she never received what she paid for. Essentially, this is a SCAM.

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Successful and experienced seller since 1997, over 70,000 feedback, boardie since the boards were begun.

myboardid · ‎09-24-2017

Good grief. Everybody types faster than I do!

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Successful and experienced seller since 1997, over 70,000 feedback, boardie since the boards were begun.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-25-2017

Frankly I am amazed at the deviousness of people. How someone can think to do something like this, and then actually go ahead with it, boggles my mind.

Yet I know things like this happen. Ethically one would wait until the seller with your item sells it. But this is not a perfect world.