Selling High Dollar Item to Zero Feedback Buyer

[chucks-place]

H, I just got a zero feedback buyer for a $1600 item (high value comic). He HAS paid. His account is about 2 years old, with no activity.  I'm extremely concerned. He "bought it now" despite my price being about $200 or $300 high. I expected an offer, so that makes me even more leary. This is my first time with a zero feedback. Any advice?

[ebooksdiva]

Yes, If the buyer paid then you ship. Simple. 
I get many zero feedback buyers , many of them create an account the same day they buy I’ve experienced no issues with those buyers. 

[caldreamer]

No way to tell in advance is he is a scammer.    Just be aware that anyone can "reverse credit card payment" AFTER they receive your item (keep your money and item).   If you get scammed there is no protection.

[theteamsetguy]

@chucks-place 

Everyone starts at zero. Including you and I. 99.999999% of buyers are not a problem. The problem is people reading all of the old post from sellers who have had issues in the past. Old posts stay on the internet forever. As they accumulate it makes it look like a problem is bigger than it really is.

Remember only disgruntled seller post because they are mad. When was the last time you saw a post on how well their sale went?

[joliztoyco]

Why would you sell this on Ebay? You have ZERO protection from scammers. Ebay has none.
Why not take it to a high-end comic shop? You might not have received as much as on here (hopefully you'll "receive"it) but would have left with cash. When I discovered a couple of Lego sets I'd forgotten about stashed away in a bin (Lego 7783) and then discovered how much they were worth, my first thought was "You can't sell these on Ebay." So I used a competing platform where you meet in person and easily sold them both. For cash. I can afford to lose 1 or 2 hundred on Ebay, but not 1 or 2 thousand.  Hopefully everything works out. 

[richard1rst]

A buyer with a zero feedback coupled with their failure to not make an offer:

In and of itself that is NOT a red flag.

You mentioned high value which on its face would suggest it was also scarce. Because if it wasn’t scarce then it wouldn’t be high value.

I can not speak to your buyer but let me give you a corollary.

I recently found an antique car that I really wanted. Understand I mean ANTIQUE and REALLY

I had never done business with this dealer. The way I see it I had 2 choices.

1) Pay the asking price and guarantee I will get the car and be REALLY REALLY HAPPY

2) Haggle with the dealer (that is what you do with used car dealers, right?) and run the risk of not being able to get the car and then be REALLY REALLY DISAPPOINTED.

Get the idea?

Everything went well and I am as happy as that dopey Clam everyone keeps talking about.

[theteamsetguy]

Why would you sell to a dealer who will give you 50 to 60 percent on the dollar if you are lucky. Over the years I have sold many sports cards over $1,000 and some in the 5 figures on eBay with no problems. I know many other friends that have sold many more expensive cards than I have with no issues. The odds of running into scammer is very low. 

I you read everything on the internet you think this world is full of crooks and everyone is dishonest. Yes there are crooks and scammers out there but their numbers are small compared to the honest people. 

[isaiah53-57]

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@chucks-place wrote:

H, I just got a zero feedback buyer for a $1600 item (high value comic). He HAS paid. His account is about 2 years old, with no activity.  I'm extremely concerned. He "bought it now" despite my price being about $200 or $300 high. I expected an offer, so that makes me even more leary. This is my first time with a zero feedback. Any advice?

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Considering this account has not had activity for 2 years and suddenly a $1600 purchase, I believe you have justified concerns and red flags with this sale - Since you are afforded virtually no protection against fraud on this site, it is up to you to take some due diligence steps to ensure you are eliminating some of the risk.

Bare minimum, what we do in these cases is email the buyer with a request to verify their address on file to ensure it has not changed over the last 2 years. Its a simple request and protects both you and the buyer. If they tell you the address has changed and give you a different address to ship it to, that is a BIG red flag and the sale should be canceled by selecting "something is wrong with the address".

It is reassuring to get a contact from a buyer that you have doubts about, especially if it is legible and cordial. If you get no response, that is also cause for concern, since both their email and shipping address cannot be verified.  At that point, look for the buyers phone number in the sale record - If you call them and it is a disconnected or a bad number, that is cause for concern also and at that point, you'll need to make decisions based on the information you have...

[chucks-place]

I appreciate all the responses. I found a couple old posts with the same problem. One suggested, as the last poster suggested, that I contact the seller. I did that, actually had a bit of a conversation and now feel much better about the buyer. Or else he's just a great con, LOL. Anyways, I'm sending it out today. Thanks everyone!

[the_og_surplus]

Ship the item insured, with the USPS signature require RESTRICTED DELIVERY. Using the Restricted Delivery service means that the postal carrier will verify the ID of the person receiving the item and only the person named on the shipment can sign for it.

If the account was a scam one using a fake name, the item can't be delivered and will be returned to you.

The eliminates any chance of an item not received claim working. In addition, if they do a chargeback on their card you can send that to eBay who can sent it to the CC company and likely win the dispute.

And, most important, using that service often discourages potential scammers from trying, because their identity has been confirmed in the process.

[joliztoyco]

Interesting.
Considering you would be one of those "dealers" you're speaking about?
And we both know on rarer or high demand cards your going to get a lot more than 50-60%. 
At least I KNOW, as I have sold many "rare" insert cards to dealers over the years. 
Like you, I don't believe the world is "full of crooks and scammers". But there's enough of them.
There's a reason my bank sends alerts on the latest scam/phishing attempts and how to avoid them. And our Sheriff's Department does the same.
According to the AARP, OVER 40 MILLION  Americans were victims of assorted fraud in just 2021!! At a cost of 52 BILLION DOLLARS!
You do know that's OVER 10% of Americans??
So no...."the numbers aren't small".
And people should be aware and take the proper precautions to protect themselves. Which would include selling high dollar items on Ebay with ZERO protections from Ebay. 
When my ATM card got cloned at a gas station a few years ago while we were traveling, I noticed about a week later that some strange charges appeared. I called my bank, they shut down the card, issued a new one, did a 2 day "investigation" and promptly replaced the funds in my account. I pay my bank to use it's services and they provide me with protection.
I pay Ebay to use it's services and they provide me with none.

It only takes one loss, or scam, for a seller on here to go from "eBay cheerleader" to "disgruntled seller". 
Seen it happen many times over the years. 

[coolections]

The time to worry about a scam is before you list. Once you put that $1,600 item on Ebay you have to follow through with the sale if the buyer pays. Feedback numbers and how often a buyer purchases on Ebay does not matter that much.

[coolections]

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@isaiah53-57 wrote:

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Considering this account has not had activity for 2 years and suddenly a $1600 purchase, I believe you have justified concerns and red flags with this sale - Since you are afforded virtually no protection against fraud on this site, it is up to you to take some due diligence steps to ensure you are eliminating some of the risk.

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So, you think this buyer should have been purchasing $1,600 all along on Ebay ? I doubt there are many people who just are always consistent with $1,600 purchases.

[psfhobbies]

My experiences its another seller or someone you blocked 

[reallynicestamps]

According to the AARP, OVER 40 MILLION Americans were victims of assorted fraud in just 2021!! At a cost of 52 BILLION DOLLARS!
You do know that's OVER 10% of Americans??
So no...."the numbers aren't small".

But.

Statistics can lie.

We've all heard that "50% of all marriages fail", but rarely does that number make it clear that someone with a failed marriage is more likely to have another, and another.

In the same way, the person who falls for one scam is likely to have fallen for several.

So it's not 10% of Americans. It's 3% or 5% or 7% of the most gullible.

The dollar value is very likely correct.