SOLD Expensive item to new user 1 FEEDBACK . I need protection HELP!! $1200 concern

[justsharingourtreasures]

Hello

SOLD Expensive item to new user 1 FEEDBACK . I need protection HELP!! $1200 concern

I have been selling on eBay for quite sometime now. I have been fortunate enough to be able to make some pretty good sales to new buyers without having a fraud or some crazy loss.

Well I have just sold a tapestry to a new buyer that has 1 feedback and that feedback came from which is automatic when a buyer pays for one of my items.

I am wondering what I can do to protect myself and the item I just sold from being scammed or what ever else can happen from a bogus buyer.

The tapestry I just sold went for $1200 and I can not afford to end up eating this item and loosing it and the sell all together. 

What can I do to guarantee that I get covered before shipping this?

Thanks 

[cityslickercreations2004]

I am glad you posted this. 

Sellers are just giving themselves a false sense of security since Ebay will not accept this as proof of anything.

A video tape of the packaging process just shows you packaging the item.

Then you send the video'd package out into the wild blue yonder where hundreds of people will have access to that package long before the buyer receives it.

[m60driver]

One should never sell an item that is many times the value of your average sale.  The only good news is that the tapestry is not  a traditional high scam item like electronics.  In the future be very cautious of selling anything more than one standard deviation above your average sale.  Find an online statistics calculator to do the math for you.

[powell-memorabilia]

Yep, I did provide the disclaimer that nothing completely protects the seller.  BUT, the video does help.  I've never needed to use one for a sale, but I have used it multiple times for purchases.  When a seller was spouting off about how great her Let it Be box was, I offered to show her the video of the opening her "near mint" sale.  That ended the conversation very quickly.  Another time I had a somewhat expensive lot of records coming in - around $1200, over five LP's.  One was missing - not one of the more expensive items, but $75 is $75.  The seller claimed that I was wrong - as if I'd pick the least-expensive record in the box for a scam.  Once again, the offer of video evidence was all that I needed.

[southern*sweet*tea]

If this were a cell phone, a computer, a designer bag or shoes...I would be worried sick.

A tapestry? Not at the top of the list of scam material. That doesn't mean that someone wouldn't try.

However you send it, send it FULLY INSURED, signature required.

Now...if you have been selling on Ebay (or ANYWHERE online) and intend on continuing, you need to self-insure. Start RIGHT NOW. Take a small percentage of each and every sale, stick it in a separate account somewhere and don't touch it. Use it to cover any loss you may incur, be it transit damage or yes, theft.

Sellers online are not really protected. It is up to each seller to fully protect themselves.

[tools*]

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@justsharingourtreasures wrote:

Hello

SOLD Expensive item to new user 1 FEEDBACK . I need protection HELP!! $1200 concern

I have been selling on eBay for quite sometime now. I have been fortunate enough to be able to make some pretty good sales to new buyers without having a fraud or some crazy loss.

Well I have just sold a tapestry to a new buyer that has 1 feedback and that feedback came from which is automatic when a buyer pays for one of my items.

I am wondering what I can do to protect myself and the item I just sold from being scammed or what ever else can happen from a bogus buyer.

The tapestry I just sold went for $1200 and I can not afford to end up eating this item and loosing it and the sell all together. 

What can I do to guarantee that I get covered before shipping this?

Thanks 

---

1. Use tracking that requires a signature on delivery

2. Insure for $1200 through a third-party parcel insurance company

3. Never keep money in your PayPal account, in case of an attempt to defraud.

[soh.maryl]

So do you video every time you open a package?

[soh.maryl]

Evidently this makes you, as a buyer, feel more secure; however, a buyer has the Money Back Guarantee from eBay.  That means that, if any buyer opens an item not as described case, he doesn't need to prove his contention because eBay almost automatically sides with the buyer and requires that the seller send him a prepaid return label or reimburse him in advance for the cost of return shipping.  The seller is then required to refund to the buyer everything that he paid to the seller.

So, to summarize, no proof, video or anything else, is needed for a buyer to be refunded if/when he opens an item not as described case.   "Once again, the offer of video evidence was all that I needed."  And you did not actually NEED that.  

[nmemoryof]

Usually the new people are great.  Everyone has to start with purchase #1.

[uncseniorsportsfan]

I agree.  I've sold to a lot of 0 and low feedback buyers through the years, and most of them were new because they were looking for the specific item I was selling and not a regular eBay shopper.   

[vintagecraze50]

Third party verification/authentication should be the wave of the future here on Ebay for certain types of very expensive items. I see that they have begun the watch authentication and perhaps they will expand this to include many different types of high end items. This will help smaller sellers of these items who cannot shoulder the costs of doing business with a scam artist.

[vintagecraze50]

Also, this may be a great opportunity for buyers to obtain better priced high end stuff than the big retailers sell this stuff for. This is what Ebay is about. Better prices for what you want. 

[ersatz_sobriquet]

I vet the person and address on higher priced items. If I find that the person has a criminal record and they rent in a trailer park, then I cancel, I'll take the out of stock super defect.  If the person checks out and their address /home value checks out, then I mail the item. I have only cancelled one higher priced item because of what I found on google. 

[soh.maryl]

So renting in a trailer park would be, to you, grounds to cancel a buyer's purchase?

Interesting.

I am sure you're pretty firm in your feeling about this, but just wanted to tell you that I currently have one friend who downsized from a pretty large house to live in a trailer park so she could fulfill her lifelong dream of traveling without having to worry about what would happen to her home while she was gone.  I also know another family who lost just about everything in a natural disaster about two years ago and just recently moved out of the trailer they had been renting for all that time because it took that long to have their dream home rebuilt.

[soh.maryl]

Just in the interest of learning more about eBay, I hope you will return to this thread at the end of this transaction and let us know how it worked out for you.  

[nmemoryof]

Exactly.  Honestly, I love the new people.  I like to try to give them such good service that they want to keep shopping on eBay.  We all win if that happens.