Am I being scammed?

[qcables7]

I am auctioning an item with a decent value. A potential buyer with extremely broken english messages me asking if I would accept a much higher price than I expected the item to sell for. After I say yes, he says he placed a maximum bid for the proposed price. Because there is still some time left in the auction and the current highest bid is way lower than his maximum bid, he says he thinks the best option would be to cancel the auction and relist the item for the proposed price. I do this and do have a confirmed payment from him. Everything seems to check out, except the broken English, the fact that it seems to good to be true, and that the shipping address provided seems to be an airport shipping company (I assume it's going to China given the information I've been provided). Before I ship the item, I just want to make sure this isn't a common scam. I will be careful to document everything and get all the necessary tracking info and insurance. Thanks

[katzrul15]

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@qcables7 wrote:

Thanks 'grandma' for your concern, but what made me suspicious was actually that the offer seems to good to be true. I am going off of very limited information and shipping to a freight forwarder adds complications. And, guess what? Do some research. A lot of scammers are in fact foreign, that doesn't mean I have anything against decent people who don't speak English. A lot of times, US law enforcement won't pursue low level scammers outside of the country, so buyers and sellers are on their own. Thanks for your very helpful and useful comment.

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We sell to Canada weekly.  Have never had an issue - ever as a US Seller.  Our problem buyers are not necessarily "foreign" buyers nor is our experience that " a lot of scammers are foreign".

If you're 2nd guessing ending the listing, you should.  Doesn't make that Buyer a scammer - he asked, you complied, he paid and now you need to ship.

[gjs_16]

Lets get one thing straight...

This is NOT the "buyer offered more than the item is selling for" scam, it's not even a variant of that.

That scam involves a BIN price of (for example) $100 and a scammer offers to pay (for example) $150!
That is the scam where a buyer offers more than the item is selling for.

And that is NOT what this thread relates to, despite what the title and original post might imply or infer.

That being said, this thread relates to an AUCTION item where a buyer basically asked that the auction be CANCELLED so that the buyer can purchase the item outright for an agreed upon offer through a BIN purchase. 

Doing that is NOT against the rules, some of us might suspect the buyer may have acquired the item for less than what it might have gone for had the auction been allowed to run its course, but there's no telling now.  It is ALSO possible to have received an offer, declined it, and then have the auction end BELOW that offered price.  I have most certainly had that happen, the only caveat here is we have no way of knowing since the auction wasn't allowed to run its course.

The way this has transpired, it is your obligation as a seller to ship the sold item.

I believe the way this transpired, there is no scam and there will most likely be no problems.

I say most likely because in all things eaby there is always a chance we as sellers must take, there is no absolute way to prevent it all but in this case, I think you'll be fine.

You might wish to read up on and familiarize yourself with the returns process, specifically the Money Back Guarantee (MBG) and its implications, never hurts to be well versed in all of that.

Good luck

[a_c_green]

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@7606dennis wrote:

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@7606dennis wrote:

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@qcables7 wrote:

I relisted the item as a regular (non auction) item on ebay, so I'm not going outside of the ebay system. He bought the item and I have pending funds in my ebay payments center. Anything else I should look for?

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Which is it?  Either you listed it as an item being sold at auction or a fixed price listing.  I have already given my advice regarding an item being offered at auction, but if the item is being offered at a fixed price and someone is offering more than the asking price I be very suspicious.  Such offers are usually scams.

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If someone is offering more than the asking price of a Fixed Price listing (not an auction), then yes, that is a scam. There is no valid reason to offer more than the Fixed Price.

In this case, the OP agreed to an offer received in messaging for a currently-running auction (that had no actual Make Offer button, apparently), but then ended the auction and relisted as a Fixed Price at the offered amount, which the buyer then paid.

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In that case, the OP could still possibly find themselves in a precarious position if the item had already received bids depending upon the seller's state's auction laws.  Many state's have laws governing the conducting of auction sales designed to protect the public.  While sellers may withdraw items from a sale prior to the fall of the hammer, except in the case of absolute auctions, it must be done correctly or the bidders may have grounds for a legitimate complaint.  Such complaints could be more costly than any profit made from the quick sale made from the offer.  This is especially true in states that highly regulate auctions and have strict licensing procedures. 

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I do wish you'd stop posting these quasi-legal fantasies about eBay sellers getting into dire legal straits based on some purported state laws, within which eBay seems to have been operating successfully since 1995. You could at least trot out some verifiable case examples involving an eBay seller somehow running afoul of those state laws while operating on eBay.

eBay is not a state-licensed auction house running in-person open-outcry auctions. It's an on-line entity with its own set of rules, within which the OP appears to have properly conducted his business. (I am not saying that ending the auction and relisting in the hopes of making a higher sale at a fixed price was a good idea, only that under eBay rules, he was allowed to do it.)

The bidders in the original auction have every right to be upset about it, but sellers are allowed to end an  in-progress auction if desired, either with or without selling to the current high bidder (at the discretion of the seller). eBay reserves the right to bill the seller Final Value Fees anyway if an off-eBay sale is suspected, but in this case the item was relisted here as a Fixed Price listing and promptly sold.

[donsdetour]

3 pages, wow;

Auction and an offer: well most times the auction left to run will bring more than the offer is for:

So was it a scam::::

No, just a user trying to get some thing cheaper, that it would have brought; if the auction was left to run...

Oh and just saying: some times an auction can and will go for less that an offer: rare but happens.

[*madison]

🤣   I'm glad someone has said it.

Stop it Dennis.

[1grandmashope_1]

@qcables7 

"And guess what"...I am completely clear on the information in your post, but thank you for breaking it down for me. You know us old people may need a little help with understanding concepts sometimes.

Oh, lest I forget  

better let the Hawaiians that speak pigeon know their speech is deemed a red flag to some.

Thank you for making it oh so clear for me.

Grandma 

[dbfolks166mt]

Agreed. The only alternative they may have is to cancel the sale due to a problem with the users address if they do not normally sell internationally. US sales comprise less than 50% of the eBay market place which makes perfect sense and I have had no problems with the foreign countries I do sell and ship to but I prefer to minimize my risk by avoiding certain countries. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     There is virtually 0% probability that US law enforcement is going to pursue any legal action against a buyer in a foreign country, especially China where a lot of the scamming operations, counterfeiting and forging are done with assistance from the government. Few individuals have the money to build facilities to counterfeit/forge items and even if they could China, along with others, are communist countries where virtually everything is controlled by the government. 

[pikabo-icu]

My question is:  The auction has a "make offer" enabled so how is accepting an offer breaking any eBay rules?

If the auction is able to include best offer than it seems that is within the rules..

No? 

[katzrul15]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

Agreed. The only alternative they may have is to cancel the sale due to a problem with the users address if they do not normally sell internationally. US sales comprise less than 50% of the eBay market place which makes perfect sense and I have had no problems with the foreign countries I do sell and ship to but I prefer to minimize my risk by avoiding certain countries. 

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OP needs to ship.  OP created this situation and it is what it is.  The time to have questioned this was when the Buyer inquired about ending the auction.  OP got greedy and wanted the $100.   Buyer has paid, OP needs to honor the sale.  Just my2 cents.  Ymmv

[katzrul15]

Think they ended an auction with bids.  Relisted a BIN. 

[pikabo-icu]

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@katzrul15 wrote:

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

Agreed. The only alternative they may have is to cancel the sale due to a problem with the users address if they do not normally sell internationally. US sales comprise less than 50% of the eBay market place which makes perfect sense and I have had no problems with the foreign countries I do sell and ship to but I prefer to minimize my risk by avoiding certain countries. 

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OP needs to ship.  OP created this situation and it is what it is.  The time to have questioned this was when the Buyer inquired about ending the auction.  OP got greedy and wanted the $100.   Buyer has paid, OP needs to honor the sale.  Just my2 cents.  Ymmv

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Yep time to ship..

I really don't think these patches are a high scam item but I suppose it's not impossible.

IMHO this was a buyer wanting to buy right now and hopefully at a price lower than what the item(s) would have been bid up to.

If OP ended the auction properly, within the rules,  I don't see an issue.

We are allowed to list an auction with a best offer enabled yes?

I don't do auctions so I have no personal experience but if eBay allows offers on auctions then I wouldn't think it was outside the rules to accept an offer. 

[donsdetour]

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@pikabo-icu wrote:

My question is:  The auction has a "make offer" enabled so how is accepting an offer breaking any eBay rules?

If the auction is able to include best offer than it seems that is within the rules..

No? 

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It with in the rules: due to no bids on an auction,

the make offer is valid until a bid happens or time runs out...

Cost a quarter to go that route.

[ted_holland4pn4]

I am almost certain this is true:  that once the first bid rolls in for a traditional Auction item, the Make Offer button disappears from the item's detail page.  I just saw that factoid in the help pages recently while I was looking for something...  As an aside, it also says that "in most cases," the BIN button disappears from an auction item at that time too, after the first bid comes in.  Exceptions are made for "some categories" and reserve auctions (reserve price has to be met.). 

So, OP is in somewhat of a gray area here.  I have no idea what I'd do in this situation.  I treat everything on here as a learning experience, though I know that doesn't help OP right now.  But, next time you'll know, let that auction run its course.

[vintagecraze50]

YOU are being baited by a scammer. Stop the communication now. Block them now.