Buyer makes an offer for buy now price. Scam?

[arunnersellingshoes]

Selling a high value pair of shoes and it will go through Ebay's authentication process. Buyer made an offer at the buy now price, which seems odd. Is this a scam? Should I accept? Buyer has many positive feedbacks on other purchases but often the exact same feedback from different sellers.

[tthodgepodge]

It's likely.  You're a new seller, they are making the "offer" hoping they can convince you to conduct the transaction off ebay.  NEVER do this.  If I was you, I'd just turn off "offers".  You're going to get bombarded because every scammer on ebay knows you're new here.  Just decline the offer, no reason they can't buy it now if it's not a scam.

Very rarely, someone will reach out to me and ask for more time to pay, citing "payday" etc.  But this is VERY unlikely here if they did not reach out before hand.  

[mam98031]

@arunnersellingshoes 

Humm, why do you have a Buy It Now price on the listing if you think that when someone wants to buy it at that price you think it is a scam??  That simply doesn't make sense.

Is it an OFFER or did they click on the Buy It Now Price?  The two are completely different functions.

If the purchased the item by using the Buy It Now function, then the item is sold and it would not show up as active anymore.  So I tend to think you received an offer since you also allow offers.

What amount did they offer you?

[duncanvr]

Zero feedback account selling a pricey item your a big target for the scammers. Sell low value stuff and get a feel for how the platform works first. You could read up on this board about known ebay scams. You know you have to be able to cover the cost of the sale should something go down south. You can lose both the item, the money and the shipping if you don't know what your doing. Don't list stuff for $900 when your new.

[soh.maryl]

ALL buyers can only have positive feedback.  

Don't see "canned feedback" as a sign of a scam.

But my concern is that I am surprised eBay would allow a new seller to list such an expensive tem.  

[powell-memorabilia]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

ALL buyers can only have positive feedback.  

Don't see "canned feedback" as a sign of a scam.

But my concern is that I am surprised eBay would allow a new seller to list such an expensive tem.  

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As the item goes through the authentication process, there isn’t a big risk for a new seller - as long as he doesn’t take the transaction off eBay.

[ckimodog]

@soh.maryl 

Seeing more and more of this selling behavior.  I thought new sellers were limited as to how much they can sell, yet it doesn't seem to apply to all. So many new sellers sign on and don't even have a way to get paid either.  Then complain later.  Why is eBay allowing this? 

[ittybitnot]

What amount did they offer you?

@mam98031 

From the OP:    Buyer made an offer at the buy now price, which seems odd.

[aeparts1]

Its hard to believe eBay lets a new seller list a $900 item as their first listing.

New seller, you need to know the eBay rule: Don't sell anything here that you can't afford to lose. Scammers abound, especially targeting new sellers.

[a_c_green]

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@mam98031 wrote:

Humm, why do you have a Buy It Now price on the listing if you think that when someone wants to buy it at that price you think it is a scam??  That simply doesn't make sense.

Is it an OFFER or did they click on the Buy It Now Price?

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Per the OP: "Buyer made an offer at the buy now price." Obviously if they did want to buy it at that price, they could, y'know, just hit the BuyItNow. Instead they're hoping to evade an Immediate Payment Required setting on the BIN price and get an off-eBay line of communication opened up with the seller, to enable a fake payment notification, etc.

This looks like just a new sighting of the old scam. Evidently the buyer account is not subject to providing pre-offer payment information (or else the seller has that new setting turned off on his account, which seems unlikely as its default setting is On).

[ittybitnot]

Evidently the buyer account is not subject to providing pre-offer payment information (or else the seller has that new setting turned off on his account, which seems unlikely as its default setting is On).

@a_c_green 

I was thinking along those lines as well.  The OP @arunnersellingshoes  does have the requirement set to the Default to YES (I checked), that  would indicate the 'buyer' had to put one up in order to use the send offer feature.  

Normally, that would result in the buyer being auto-billed if the offer was accepted, but with the new morphing accepted offers turning into sent offers "enhancement, test, intended change that looks like a glitch" going on that may not happen either.  If the buyer is out of the US, would that make a difference with the auto-billing?  Would they even be allowed to PAY since the listing is only for US/and protectorates.  

I do know that if the buyer really intended to BUY these and use a Freight Forwarder the transaction would be allowed to proceed.  With EIS, the authentication process would not be required, but that does not apply here.  

As you suggested, likely an old scam attempt by someone that does not know an accepted offer might behave differently and NOT be the usual opportunity to begin the typical scam attempts that were used in the past.   An accepted offer was just that.....an opportunity for the old 'text me' scammer to show their cards. 

@arunnersellingshoes    Did the person actually use the 'best offer' feature, or did they just message you? 

[fern*wood]

Has anyone seen an announcement or explanation of any kind from ebay or their reps about the new offer process that's out there?  I can't even comment on these posts anymore, since I have no idea how they work now.

[ittybitnot]

Has anyone seen an announcement or explanation of any kind from ebay or their reps about the new offer process that's out there? 

@fern*wood 

I have seen nothing in regards to that.  

[reallynicestamps]

Best Offer is usually at a lower price and allows a bid of haggling.

An Offer at the Buy It Now price is either someone too terminally dumb to know how to buy online,not a good bet as a paying customer, or a scammer setting you up  probably for an off-eBay transaction that will leave you with no money and no shoes.

You can accept, decline or ignore any offer.

Buyers can make offers even if Best Offer is not enabled.

You also have a Blocked bidder option, and do not have to tell anyone why you used it or even that you used it.

Oh, yeah.

EBay's Managed Payments are set up so that the customer is paying electronically. Any electronic payment is going to be basically a credit card.

If the customer can't pay until payday he can't qualify for a credit card and shouldn't be buying neat stuff like your expensive shoes.

Be careful out there.

Best wishes.

[a_c_green]

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@fern*wood wrote:

Has anyone seen an announcement or explanation of any kind from ebay or their reps about the new offer process that's out there?  I can't even comment on these posts anymore, since I have no idea how they work now.

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There's a major internal disconnect between when a new release goes into Production and when the other departments (particularly Customer Support) get any guidance or explanations. Typically the new release and its changes thereof take everyone by surprise.

In my own experience with my buying account, making an offer (via the Make Offer button, not just messaging) first produces a popup asking you to verify the payment info that will be used if your offer is accepted. That's the place where you can either hit the Confirm button to use your default payment settings, or maybe choose one of your alternate payment methods instead. 

That is specific to offers, not auctions. There is a separate setting (at the bottom of the seller's Buyer Management page) for requiring bidders to provide payment info in advance of bidding in an auction. Evidently my buying account has not been enrolled in that, or else it's not in wide usage yet, as I have never been asked to confirm payment info before bidding, and I bid or buy many times in a week, so I can't say how that process works for auctions. (I'm very concerned that my last-second sniping could be interrupted by a payment info demand, but so far that has not happened.)