I made multiple mistakes selling an item (first time) and I need help understanding my situation.

[embacheri]

Hello everyone,

It is likely evident from the title of this post that I am a new seller on eBay, so please forgive my ignorance.  While I now know what to do in the future, I am having trouble fixing my mistake.  The messages eBay has provided are not helping.

To put it simply, I have been attempting to sell my expensive (this may be important) laptop.  I have made three separate listings.  All removed by eBay due to fraudulent activity on the buyer's account.  The first time I listed my item, I set it up as "buy it now" with the option for someone to make an offer.  Almost immediately, a had a couple offers that were identical to my buy-it-now price.  Even though the user who submitted the offer had no rating, I accepted it for some odd reason.  Shortly after I get an email from the buyer asking me for my PayPal address and phone number so we could finish the transaction.  Now, at that point it was pretty easy to surmise that I was being scammed.  Not too long after, the listing was removed by eBay, so I deleted the item from my "sold" section and eventually learned to cancel the transaction as well.

The second listing was exactly the same.  I simply created another listing for the same item, which I have learned is not good practice.  Though, this time I was going to make sure whoever submitted an offer had previous history and a positive rating.  I end up getting several users offering me exactly what I am asking for, of course.  However, one stood out it because the user had been with eBay for a fair bit of time and also had ratings, positive ones too. 

I accept the offer and the same thing happens as last time.

This time, the last time, I thought I had it figured out.  I would not accept offers and simply have it as "buy it now."  This is when I thought everything would go smoothly.  I did not put much effort into the details, description, and photos of the laptop the last two times, so this go around I made sure it was a quality listing now that I believed my problems were behind me.  I expected it would take awhile for the item to sell and that I may have to adjust the price, but to my surprise, a user who had been with eBay for several years with many positive ratings bought it quicker than I anticipated.  Of course the sale never completed, because I did not tick the box or enable the setting that required buyers to immediately pay for the item.  If I had known that setting existed, I would have definitely used it.  The same thing happens again though.  Citing fraudulent activity on the opposite end as the reason, eBay tells me that my listing has been removed.

Ultimately, I just want to be able to resubmit my last listing.  I had put a lot of effort into it, or at the very least far more effort than my previous ones.  I know now that recreating a listing that was removed by eBay and submitting it is something one should definitely not do. 

The message I have received from eBay over three times states that I can relist my item if it was removed, and that I would be able to find within my "sold" section.  However, the only option I have is to delete the listing from the section.  It still says "waiting for payment" as well, but they removed the fees I was charged, state in the email that the purchase was cancelled, and acknowledge that the buyer's account was used in a fraudulent manner, so I would assume the transaction/sale is as good as canceled. 

I really have tried searching for answers for myself, and I apologize if this is a common thread, but I honestly don't know what to do or what is exactly happening with regards to my account.  Even though I have deleted the past two listings I created from my "sold" section, the data under "monthly selling limits" and "selling promotions" are being affected as if all my three listings were completed.

If you read this, thank you. 

[corvettestainless]

I didn't get past the 2nd sentence- you are a New Seller with a high theft item. Sell locally, with pick up and cash in person. 

You are the equivalent to chum-in-the-water of the Amazon River- you bring all the Piranhas out to play.

[vintagecraze50]

If you have learned anything from these transactions I hope you learned that laptops are extremely scam attracting items. If you are a new seller I would not recommend you sell this online. 

[vintagecraze50]

Yep. It’s like a shark feeding frenzy. LOL!!!

[bonjourami]

This is for the $3500 computer? A newbie seller selling an expensive item, you are a sitting duck for scammers. I wont encourage you to relist either. But just so you know, all buyers have one hundred percent feedback, sellers can leave them any other kind. And anytime a buyer wants your email, its because he wants to send you a fake invoice that he has paid.

[rfmtm]

First off, stop listing an expensive high risk item, until you get some selling experience.  Scam buyers look for new sellers doing this, so you are just a big magnet attracting them.  Also when you do list a high priced item, you might want to start off listing for local pickup only with a cash payment rather than risk getting scammed.

Start will smaller items until you see how the entire system works, what issues can arise, and how to navigate and resolve problems.  Ship quickly after being paid using tracking and build up a standing with ebay.  This way your limits will be raised and you payments eventually will not be held.

Yes, any sale whether completed or not affects your limits, so you need to wait for that to reset next month and then work to have your limits raised.

[bonjourami]

Do you know if you do decide to relist that you must have online signature confirmation? Anything sold over $750 must have it.

[tdumonde2014]

Legit buyers willing risk $3500 on a Zero feedback seller are hard if not impossible to find. I suspect that you'll be back wanting to know what do about the box of rocks that your buyer returned instead of your computer. Good luck.

[kensgiftshop]

To be honest, a new seller selling an expensive item, about all you'll get is scammers trying to steal your computer.

[gracieallen01]

Depending upon who reads it, one person will read the sign on your back that says, 'Looking for a sucker to pay for my Holidays by buying this fake offering', OR 'I'm a babe in the woods so come and steal my offering and I will pay you to do it'.

Either sign will be able to be read from the moon - without a telescope.

Even if there are legit buyers out there who would buy your 'puter. the chance is very, very slim because of all the scammers pouncing.  You would do a whole lot better putting an ad in the local 'paper' - online or not - and meeting the person at the local 'cop shop'.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi @embacheri no need to apologize for needing some guidance thru the eBay deep water. It is a positive move for you to reach out here in the forum. Lots of knowledgeable posters willing to help. In that vein, I wanted to clarify that there are two actions you can take to cancel a transaction and get your fees back from eBay. (PayPal will keep their fees, a new policy.) One is to simply cancel the transaction. This gets your Final Value fee credit from eBay. And that's it, the non-paying buyer is free from consequences.

However, when a transaction ends without payment, sellers can also open an Unpaid Item Dispute. This gets your fee credit and gives the undesirable buyer a strike on their account. Two or more such strikes can result in the non-payer being blocked from buying from many savvy sellers for a period of one year. You can set these blocks in your Buyer Requirements, see link below.

The Unpaid Item Dispute is an important seller protection mechanism that can shield your account from these assaults by serial non-payers. Some may try to get around the blocks by opening new accounts, but this requires effort on the part of the scammer. Anything that can be done to limit the scope of such buyers is a very good thing.

It also might be a good time to mention that while a seller can pick and choose who he wants to do business with, trying to limit a new or zero feedback buyer from purchasing on eBay is frowned on and is not an optimum selling strategy. New buyers come to the venue every day and if not welcomed, but held in suspicion, would likely not come back. Plus, trying to limit risk by accepting only established buyers can be akin to shooting oneself in the foot and may do nothing to actually manage the risk all of us face when selling online. While it is true that some scammers may use new accounts, others do not, and one cannot tell a legitimate buyer from a scammer based solely on a feedback history. They all look the same until the fraudulent buyer tips their hand, and they always do. Ultimately, the time to address one's risk tolerance is prior to listing the item, not after the sale is made.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/setting-buyer-requirements?id=...

[ekmadonna]

I concur with the other posters that you should not list that item until you have a significant track record of selling here. The chance you can sell that successfully without any issues or getting it stolen is slim. I would like to add that you had the right idea by at first listing it as a BUY IT NOW with BEST OFFER attached. This is the ONLY way you can potentially weed out any scammers. You can check the persons FEED BACK history as a SELLER or BUYER using this mechanism and scroll through their Feed Back History to look for any tell tale signs of wrong dealings with others. You can also check how many times they have CHANGED their user ID'S which is also a helpful tool in weeding out the bad apples. The more changes to a USER NAME the higher potential for someone who has had problems here. Keep this in mind. It is always BEST to attach a BEST OFFER to a BUY IT NOW listing when selling anything of high value. You can always decline any and all offers from those with sketchy feed backs, lots of RED NEGS, lots of Buyer / Seller Complaints ect. Make sure you read all the GREEN POSITIVES also. buried in them will surely be sellers who left FALSE Positives for others to pick up on. 

[city*satins]

I've been selling on eBay since 1998 so I've been around the block a few times.

Having said that, I will tell you, I would never try to sell a laptop on eBay.  

So you didn't really make multiple mistakes. You made only one that actually mattered - trying to sell this item on eBay.