I plan on Selling a New computer... Questions

[yusl_14]

Hi guys,

I plan on selling a new computer Custom built on Ebay; hopefully for a premium. It's not used besides for installation of W10 and other things. But im concerned that when I sell to a buyer they will claim its "used". Or maybe a buyer will bend a pin and insist a refund. What would you guys suggest I do to prevent my self from being scammed by such things? I plan on creating a video tape of my product before I send it to prove that they're no chips or scrapes and that the product works as intended.

[emerald40]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

 I never received a rock back in my 20 years here. If I ever do, I'll just rock and roll and move to the next sale.

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You also do not appear to be selling thousand dollar items in a high-fraud category. 

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A new cusom built computer is not high fraud, especially when being sold by a newbie?

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A new custom built computer is most certainly a high fraud item, especially when sold by a newbie. That's exactly the point I was making. 

My post was a response to a different seller who was commenting about not running into fraud. I was commenting on the fact that he does not sell custom built computers, and perhaps that explains why he has not encountered fraud. 

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Do you have stats on the fraud percentage in custom built PC's? If not, how did you determine it was high?

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All I can add is reading thease boards, I have yet to see someone try to defaud a buyer over clothes.

But I have definitely seen it with phones and computers.

I also see it in diamond jewelry.  There are so many listings of newbie sellers listing expensive diamond jewelry, and when I click on the buyer in more cases than not, she/he also has 0 feedback.

Rose once explained it to me that scammers actually seek out newbies, thinking and hoping they will make a rookie mistake.

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

Do you have stats on the fraud percentage in custom built PC's? If not, how did you determine it was high?

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@ten_o_nine

All you need to do is search these boards for "buyer scammed me" threads ... and see how many of them involve high-end electronics.

[ten_o_nine]

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@emerald40 wrote:

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

And I will say this even if it upsets some sellers, my worst buyers are ebay sellers, I would try to avoid them but in a BIN you can't control that. As a matter of fact, if there was an option to block ebay sellers, I would check it in a heartbeat, just my own experience, yours may be better..

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Since many of us use separate accounts for buying and selling, how can you tell who an ebay seller is or not?

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Many more sellers don't have separate accounts, I don't, and that's how I know. I am speaking from my experience only, others may have wonderful transactions with sellers, I am not that lucky

And by the way the last one was 2 days ago where a buyer submitted an offer, I accepted then they sent an email saying they were in bed and pushed the button by mistake, I looked at their ID and sure it was a seller.

[978systems_660]

I would 100% avoid selling those high end systems on eBay. You are asking to get parts swapped, people claiming "damage", forced returns, etc. If you are going to sell them online I would do them on a website/shopping cart you own and can manage the returns, shipping, payments and terms.

In the 20 years I've used eBay I sold ONE custom built/whitebox PC and I was scammed (back in 2005). We are in MA and someone bought it in Hawaii. I even ate the cost myself for the exuberant shipping fee that back then eBay never factored in and had no way of blocking. Buyer claimed the machine was "delivered damaged" despite being double boxed and kept the video card, CPU and memory and sent the rest back. We don't sell any whitebox systems on eBay at all anymore.

[mikeystoyz]

Use a local sales place, cl, whatever app.  You will get your money for sure in cash, you will be happy, buyer will be happy.  I sell big things locally pretty quick and my smaller things here.

[retrose1]

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@emerald40 wrote:

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

And I will say this even if it upsets some sellers, my worst buyers are ebay sellers, I would try to avoid them but in a BIN you can't control that. As a matter of fact, if there was an option to block ebay sellers, I would check it in a heartbeat, just my own experience, yours may be better..

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Since many of us use separate accounts for buying and selling, how can you tell who an ebay seller is or not?

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Actually it is really easy to tell. 

First off a buyer making hundreds of ebay purchases a month are obviously reselling somewhere.

Second, once you have the buyers address, do a quick ebay search for like items within 5 miles of the buyers zipcode.  There they will be.

And I agree with ten.  When I have a buyer with a 'problem', there is usually a seller with the same items they are attempting to scam me over.

OP, there are way too many sellers of computer parts on ebay.  My advice is to sell a lot of lower priced items to get an idea of how ebay and the ebay dispute system works and how well you will be protected as a seller before you list it here.

[poppyswag]

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@yusl_14 wrote:
Is there any risk of scam when doing local pick up? Can you do cash as a pick up on ebay?

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You can do a local pick up on ebay, but you can't list without adding pay pal as well. You can state cash only in the listing - but if a buyer wants to use Pay Pal they will and you can't stop them. Then you have to negotiate, refund and get the cash when they see the item. If they don't agree you are open to having to cancel (bad), or a dishonest person saying they never got the item. You can't prove they did AND you have the Pal involved in your transaction for 18 months if they chargeback, etc. 

Do you have a problem with using craigslist or a local group? You will cut out your middleman and all the fees so you can adjust the price accordingly. You are getting good advice here.

[yusl_14]

No, it actually sounds smart. I’ve screenshotted your post. Thanks for the help.

[poppyswag]

Used to do local pickup on ebay, sold a few things but I stopped because of all of the above. I still use craigslist. Last month NCIS New Orleans prop dept bought some chairs I had on there so that was surprising.

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@blazeinn wrote:

I would not sell it on eBay  they will take 13% for eBay  and PayPal will take 3% and shipping charges will be around $50 to ship  you will get more money selling local or at creglist or letgo they don’t charge any fees to sell on there website 

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The shipping charges shouldn't be an issue unless there is a return.  That would be paid by the buyer, so only the little extra fees on that bit of the payment would be the only "shipping related" cost to you.

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Where do you get your information about fees?

To the best of my knowledge, eBay's final value is 10% of the amount paid the seller by the buyer, including shipping.  And Paypal's fee, again to the best of my knowledge, is 2.9% plus 30 cents.

So, for example, on that $600 computer with $50 shipping, the eBay final value fee will be $65.  And Paypal's will be about $19.50 (I always round off that 2.9% plus 30 cents to abou 3%).

So, again, where do you get your information about fees?

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And now that this is brought up, I would add the advice to the OP that if you are going to go ahead and try it here (there are ways for even noobs to armor up and minimize the risk), you may want to consider spending the $27.95 for a 1 month Basic Store subscription (or wait for a 1 month free store trial).

That is because this item would be in the 4% final value fee tier.  So the cost to sell would break down as such (not counting product cost)

Sub:  $27.95

FvF:  $26.00 (Based on $650 total with shipping)

PPF: $19.15

Total CTS:  $73.10

Without a store, that would be $84.15.

And then of course, you get to enjoy the other benefits of a store for a month:  up to 250 fixed price listings, up to 250 auction listings in select categories with no Buy It Now, the $25 quarterly coupon for eBay shipping supplies, vacation mode, and the ever nebulous etc.

No sense leaving money on the table and giving the venue more than necessary.