Buyers wanting personal information

[jeanba_19]

Why does every buyer want me to text or email them with my personal email or phone number?

im starting to wonder is this normal?
I thought the whole idea of this was so we were protected against scams

i cant even list anything because it’s taken out of auction by these people. How does anyone sell anything?

[twinkling.smile]

@jeanba_19 

They have a nose for new inexperienced sellers. They come with different stories, all nonsense. 

Don't reply, don't explain.

Block them: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/blocking-buyer-ebay?id=4082

Report them: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/report-issue-buyer?id=4084

If they already bought on eBay from you and want to pay you not the way you offer to be paid, wait until day 5 for doing the right cancellation: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/resolving-unpaid-items-buyers?id=4137

You don't have to send reminders.

After following this procedure your buyer gets a strike and can't leave feedback.

[mudshark61369]

@jeanba_19,

There are scammers who look for items listed by sellers with (0) feedback, who Try to take the payment off ebay.  You can avoid some of them by first getting rid of Best Offer on your auction listings. 

  If you receive a message from a "buyer" trying to get you to accept an off ebay payment method add that members ID to your Blocked buyer list (BBL) and ignore it.  You can decline offers by (0) feedback buyers if you receive them and block those IDs (link in previous reply below ending in 4082). 

Buying a few inexpensive items to build a feedback number also helps.

Besides having Best Offer on your listings, your titles on your listings are also a telltale that you are a new seller.  Your titles should be more or less standardized. Ex: 2001 D Virginia Quarter error, (off center, die break error, slag inclusion...)

Your auction start prices tend to be a bit high as well. While starting an auction at a very low price is not a wise idea, starting them at, or very near previous ending prices is not a good idea either.  To get an idea of the trending prices of previous listings you can use the Advanced button to the right of the Main ebay search button.  On the page that opens, enter a broad item title EX: State Quarter error.  If you want add the state name to the search but that can limit the results.  Then check the Sold listings box and search.  On the results page at the upper right you can select All Listings (default),  Auction or Buy It Now to see only those results.

If you receive a bid from a (0) feedback buyer, click on the feedback number.  That will take you to their feedback profile page.  If you see that they just registered on the same day or a couple of days prior to the bid, Cancel it (link below)

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/selling-auctions/cancelling-bid?id=4140

FYI>  You may not know that ebay will place a 21 day hold on all new sellers payments. On your sold listing page the payment status will say Pending.  The funds are there, but not in your account yet. The link below explains how to deal with the hold to get your funds released sooner.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/getting-paid-items-youve-sold/payments-hold?id=4816

Good Luck.

[woodland_gnome]

You are a new seller. You are going to attract more scammers than legitimate buyers. To keep the scammers from committing to buy your item (and tying it while you go through the unpaid item process) don't use auctions or Best Offer. List as fixed-price Buy It Now only and set the BIN to Immediate Payment Required. I'm not familiar with the new listing tool to be able to tell you where (and how--you probably have to click a "show more options" link somewhere) to find them on that form.

eBay is experimenting with requiring pre-authorization for payment when a buyer makes a Best Offer but that's just an experiment and not applicable to all buyers (as a seller you can opt out--it makes combined shipping discounts difficult to impossible--or into the experiment in your Buyer Requirements). Otherwise auctions and Best Offer (and some Buy It Now) allow the buyer to promise to pay in order to scam you.

Note that anyone requesting you to contact them outside the eBay message system (email or text or phone) is almost certainly a scammer trying to get your contact information (e.g. to send you a fake payment message). Any mention of a gift card is also a red flag (they make the real money getting sellers to buy gift cards to send with the package for which they "pay" extra in the fake payment message).

Respond to any message wanting you to text or email or call that you only communicate via eBay messaging, and cancel for non-payment after the 4 days is up if s/he has already committed to buy. Make sure your Buyer Requirements are set up to block anyone with 2 or more unpaid cancellations in the past 12 months and those with primary shipping addresses in locations you don't ship to (and opt in or out of the pre-authorization experiment as your situation warrants). Add anyone who doesn't pay to your Blocked Bidder/Buyer List (and anyone wanting you to contact him/her outside the messaging system). But the scammers can create new accounts a lot faster than eBay can remove the ones that prove to be scammers. And some have the skills to hijack established accounts to scam with, so don't think it's only new accounts that can get you. Be wary of anyone requesting anything out of the normal flow of eBay business (you list, possibly they ask legitimate questions solely with the messaging system, someone uses the buttons you choose to buy/win the item, they pay, you ship to the address given with the payment, eBay tells you on the website--don't rely on email or text messages and don't click any links in them--that the funds have cleared and it's OK to ship).