Buying from a 0 feedback new seller

Question

I just bought a PC video card from a new account zero feedback seller, the price was good but not too good, and i did a reverse image search on the pictures to make sure they weren't taken from someplace on the internet like the scam listings usually do. I am worried though because I try to avoid buying from sellers like this to avoid scams. In addition to what I have already done I plan to film the unboxing of the item when an if it arrives. Other then this is there anymore I can do to protect...

eburtonlab · Answer

@i3lackdth5

The best way to protect yourself is to buy from experienced sellers. Not every new seller is a scammer, but scammers are vastly over-represented among new seller accounts selling high-scam items such as GPUs. Likewise, scammers are under-represented among experienced sellers with a long history of delivering what they describe and getting positive feedback from their buyers.

Given a choice between buying from an experienced seller and an inexperienced one, choose the experienced seller.

In general, you can avoid a lot of headaches by choosing to purchase only from established sellers that have recent and past positive feedback as a seller for selling items in the same category that you intend to buy. If someone is selling a dozen apple watches or GPUs, but has no feedback, or only has feedback as a buyer, or only has feedback for selling dress patterns or fishing lures (actual examples I have seen), perhaps wait until they have a track record of positive feedback for selling electronics before you buy from them.

You might miss out on a good deal from a new seller once in a while, and nothing can guarantee that you won't still run into an issue anyway, but you can avoid a lot of potential problems by choosing to do business with established sellers. Anyone can put together a listing that looks nice -- it is not hard at all to simply copy an existing listing -- but it is much harder to create a history of consistent sales and positive feedback.

For more experienced sellers, you can learn a lot about the sort of seller you are dealing with by checking the seller's feedback page to see where the seller is registered and to notice if the seller has any negative feedback. If you see negatives indicated in the table of recent feedback, you can choose to exclusively see each type of comment by clicking on the numbers shown in the table. Reading negative or neutral comments can often tell you if a seller has a pattern of problems with items not matching the descriptions, canceled orders, late deliveries or item location misrepresentation.

If a seller has a pattern of too many serious negatives -- or just not enough positive history -- it is often better to find another seller with a better track record to do business with.