eBay

todorokitech · ‎11-18-2021

Is something sketchy going on? After some negotiation, a buyer bought and paid for my entire stock (qty 4) of a hard drive, then sent me the following message:

"Hey there!

We just bought these WD Blues from you.
If you have more of this stuff, we can probably do some good business. We're buying thousands of dollars in stuff daily.

We've been focusing on electronics mainly. Texas Instrument Calculators, Hard Drives, SSD's, Flash/Thumb Drives, microSD cards, lil Wifi Cameras, mini Printers, and more.

Do you have a minute to talk sometime? I'm usually away from my computer so text is actually much better for me... faster too.
What's your phone number so I know the text / call will be from you?

Thanks!
Chip
xxx-xxx-xxxx [phone number]

Some brands we've bought a lot of:
Logitech
SanDisk
Seagate
WD
PNY
Texas Instruments
Casio
Razer
Tile
Netgear
Arris
Fitbit
Motorola"

jer_kje_mpb7329 · ‎11-18-2021

I wouldn't deal with them outside of ebay, just from the horror story's I've read here.

doug_5857 · ‎11-18-2021

Always remember If you cant afford to give your items away Than Dont post them. I would never NEVER take it off eBay. Never text or converse off of eBay. Your chances they can scam you will shy rocket.

Sounds like a scam to me. Good luck to you.

soh.maryl · ‎11-19-2021

Seems like a pretty obvious attempt to start dealing outside of eBay.

Would not even bother to reply.

hawkwind5454 · ‎11-19-2021

IDK... Their request to you seems a bit casual, to be any sort of a legit business query. If this is any type of a scam, maybe their purpose in doing that, was to put you more at ease? Possibly tell them to just keep watching your listings? You really don't owe them any explanation of your rationale. Or, as previously mentioned, simply ignore them. The only trouble with this is, you know nothing about this individual, or what their potential directive is. You also have no clue as to how many eBay IDs they have, should they be offended by a non-response.... Just saying.

todorokitech · ‎11-19-2021

Yes, retaliation of some kind, like negative feedback, concerns me if I just ignore the message. I may just tell them kindly that I prefer to keep communicating through eBay for security. Then if they push, I'll ignore, block, etc.

cstpos · ‎11-19-2021

@todorokitechI have this happening a lot - I just reply that ebay does not allow buyers and sellers to solicit to transact outside of ebay. Thank them for their order, and ask them to keep you in mind for any future tech needs. If they have paid for the item, I don't have a problem fulfilling the order. I do google the address to make sure it's legit. I've seen quite a few buyers who look for vendors and want to make purchases in the future. They figure they can negotiate a lower price if they can deal directly with a seller as there won't be the ebay fees attached. If someone acts like a jerk, I add them to my Blocked Buyer List.

soh.maryl · ‎11-19-2021

NO ONE can leave negative feedback for you, the seller, unless/until they are in a transaction with you.

m60driver · ‎11-19-2021

If they have truly "bought a lot of" such brands then why are they not contacting a proper wholesaler? And as another noted, the wording is somewhat less than that used in professional business standards.

donsdetour · ‎11-19-2021

Usually such is an attempt to get a way to send you fake payment notice so they get free items.

So go so far as to run the over payment scam asking for Money Orders , Crypto currency, and the most seen on gift cards to compensate for such..

Scammers abound: seller be aware....

Some do this hoping to by pass eBay which is also again the rules.

Good luck with this.

dirk12955 · ‎11-19-2021

Another viewpoint:

There's also the possibility that the guy is 100% real and legitimate.

He wants to have a confab AFTER the transaction? Interested in trading ideas and getting a feel for

the seller himself and what the seller might have in his inventory.

Baby steps. There's no reason to even entertain the idea of going off eBay or to discuss it.

"We need to stay on eBay for the short term. I'd be happy to trade texts with you, or eBay messages so we can compare notes and see if we can do more business. I'm required by my agreement with eBay to keep my trading on eBay itself. That's my only stipulation to continuing a business relationship. I appreciate your business and hope we can do more"

Send a message like that thru eBay message. Wait and see what the next step is.

Let's not assume the guy's a scammer. Maybe he is. Time will tell. Everyday on eBay a seller or maybe 2 or 3 actually do business on this site without issue.

There's many rocks. Some rocks have scammers under them. Most rocks have honest and decent buyers (With money to spend) under them.

Maybe eBAy would be more profitable and if we'd stop driving away possibly honest buyers without assuming everybody is a scammer.

*madison · ‎11-19-2021

@soh.maryl wrote:
NO ONE can leave negative feedback for you, the seller, unless/until they are in a transaction with you.

True.

But the op is already in a transaction, the buyer purchased some stuff and then sent the message, that's why the op doesn't want to ignore the message.

dryophelia · ‎11-19-2021

@dirk12955

Messages asking users to make contact outside eBay are not allowed.

@todorokitech doesn’t need to give his guy a chance. I’m already concerned by the opening comment “After some negotiation”. This buyer is a talker, a wheeler dealer. The used car salesman type. He is worming his way in.
If he’s buying $1000s already, why is he targeting a new seller with little to no inventory? Wouldn’t he be smarter to go to a large volume seller. Someone with more than 2 items for sale.

todorokitech · ‎11-19-2021

Thank you all for the input. I agree there are too many red flags, on top of the policy violation of exchanging contact info.

This is what I ended up going with:

"Hi! Thank you so much for the order!

Thank you for the offer, but I currently only operate on ebay. I am more than happy to do more business with you, and negotiate special pricing as we did in this case, but I'm afraid it must be done through my ebay listings and messaging. In the future, I may expand my business to other channels, but for now this is what I require.

I appreciate your business, and hope we can do more in the future. Thank you!"