Low feedback/new sellers, how safe?

[thegm963]

As the title suggest, I have always been adviced by more experianced people to avoid such cases unless I m buying chewing gums or so. 

I refer to sellers with 1-2 feedback for example. How safe is buying from them more expensive items? I do know genuine new members of ebay, or old ones that just browse around and buy/sell once in a blue moon something, plus there are also all these failsafes in place(For the buyer that is!), provided everything was done properly and through proper channels...

Whats the worst that could happen appart from wasting time in disputes?

[chiaretta]

A few things which will make me run if the seller doesn't have a solid reputation:

- The price is too good to be true (if new, more than 15% lower than I would find elsewhere will not get my money)

- The item is declared new

- The item is one of the currently most sought after

- The seller is Chinese and/or has an estimated delivery time longer than about ten days tops

- The price is higher than about 30$ shipping included

Too harsh?

Maybe, but it's my money, my decision, Paypal's protection notwithstanding

[mudshark61369 · Accepted solution]

@thegm963,

"I refer to sellers with 1-2 feedback for example. How safe is buying from them more expensive items"? 

It can be safe, but new sellers often have problems because of PayPal payment holds, or just plain inexperience. Unfortunatel,y there has been an increase in New Seller scams, that make it hard on the legitimate new or occassional sellers.

" I do know genuine new members of ebay, or old ones that just browse around and buy/sell once in a blue moon something".

You can check a sellers feedback profile by clicking on the number in (parenthesis) next to their name/ID.

Things to look for are date they registered, and feedback As a Seller.  Occassional sellers who have not sold in over a year, will have the Paypal payment hold placed on their items.  Even if the seller has sold items in the last year, if they sell an expensive item, or one in a high risk of scam category, the hold may be applied.

If the seller has feedback only for buying, look to see if all but one or two feedback is from over a year ago, then 1-2 purchases in the last 1 or 6 months.  That could be an indication of a Hijacked account. Especially, If they are listing a desireable item at a lower than average or too good to be true price, with a 10-14 day or longer estimated delivery time. 

Brand New sellers who have no feedback at all, but are listing an item as an auction, that is expensive, but with a pretty good start price, such as a high end video camera. Look again at the search results to see if there are similar items currently listed from other low or no feedback sellers using the same photos and or description.  Doing and advanced search of completed listings, by copying the first auction title, in the search, could show the same item having been sold from different low or no volume sellers in different states using the same info. This is a fairly recent type of scam.

If the listing says anything about being contacted to arrange payment, hit the back button. If advanced searches show that there were other auctions using the same item title photos, etc, and a look at the bid history shows the item was ended before the original ending date. Run!

As for chinese sellers look at their feedback profile and click on the number of negatives they have received for slow or non delivery issues.  Be very much aware there are many new or low feedback seller scams coming out of china lately.

Search this board using the tag scams, and read the more recent ones.

If you cannot find any indications of problems, but place a bid, and get contacted by the seller who says they will end the auction to sell it to you "because they are afraid of scam buyers". That is going to be a scam, and the seller is going to not want you to pay through ebay checkout. Report the listing & seller for Fee avoidance, if you are asked to send a paypal payment outside of ebay' check out, or through paypals send money request.

"there are also all these failsafes in place(For the buyer that is!), provided everything was done properly and through proper channels...  Whats the worst that could happen appart from wasting time in disputes"?

If you file disputes too often, eBay/PayPal may restrict your ability to use the Money Back Guarantee. 

[fuzzbuzztuxedo]

There is a much higher chance for things to go wrong with new sellers. I recently made a purchase from a new seller with 0 feedback. Asked multiple times if the item he was selling was exactly as in the pictures and was reassured everytime. Lo and behold, the item was TOTALLY different. I ended up having to open a SNAD and they let me keep the ($160) item cause they already knew what type of game they were playing. (It was a knock off from China so def not worth very much $$$).

I think that buying a cheap item from a new seller is fine, but make your purchases for big ticket items from a trusted seller even if its a bit more expensive. Stomaching the bigger price tag is better than time and headaches wasted on opening  and fighting a case.

[pinupsplus]

Define expensive....  I vet my sellers fairly well for anything that costs over 20 bucks.  While I know that I've got eBay, Paypal, my credit card (in that order) protection on purchases, I really hate to spend a lot of time and effort chasing my money down.

[jade17299]

Usually with the application of a little common sense you can see who is good or not when it is a new buyer or seller. My way to gauge someone is communication. Do they reply to my messages in a timely and coherent fashion?

I just registered on Ebay myself a week ago but I am not new to Ebay or online exchanges. I am a longterm member of BladeForums exchange and other places, and I find that new buyers/new accounts that are legitimate get a bad rap because of people's overreactions. Most people with low or no feedback that are new are just regular people trying to join Ebay. Everyone started with 0 feedback when they joined and they cannot get to the point of having large feedback numbers or positive reviews if no one ever tries to deal with them. Like a person with no credit history cannot build a credit history if no CC company will issue them a card. Same thing here.

As a new Ebay member, I pay via PayPal and have not had any issues with people not selling to me. The one thing I really do NOT like is that EBay will not allow me to leave feedback for the fantastic seller - it told me I need to wait 5 days to leave feedback because I am new. I messaged the seller to let him know beccause I did not want him to feel snubbed, he was great. But Ebay needs to stop that. If a transaction was completed, paid, and goods received, both buyer and seller should be able to leave feedback as they please, regardless of whether they are new or been here ten years.

[castlemagicmemories]

That policy may be because new ebayers often don't know that if they have an issue, they need to email their seller, and not rush to feedback.

They may also by hyper critical and this gives them time to calm down.

Just some thoughts.  New buyers are most apt to damage a seller because they don't know how things work, or that negative feedback should only be used for truly egregious behavior.