offering way more than reasonable

[hmcphail918]

I have a laptop up for sale at starting bid of $420 or best offer.  This person offered me $650 for the item and postage and I checked his profile out which has 10 positive feedbacks but I can't read them because he and the reviews are German speaking.  What should I do?  That seems odd.

[rali-54]

It's a scam

[carlmarxx]

Well make sure you ship it with signature required  ,Could not hurt to pay extra to ship it express  and add the extra insurance.   since the buyer is a newbie  ,your risk  being scamed is  much lower  .    In the future  listings  do low priced items  until you get over 300+ feedback   ,because   scam buyers  target sellers  with  feedback under 300  selling  high risk items..    

[bubbleman2010]

Hit delete just someone wanting a free laptop...

[gopetersen]

Scam.

Positive feedback means nothing. Scammers make a few legit purchases and then go after you.

There is NO legitimate reason for a buyer to offer more than the asking price because they can simply BUY it for the asking price.

[carlmarxx]

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@rali-54 wrote:
It's a scam

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I would  I agree  if buyer  was  not newbie  at 10 feedback .    the   scam buyer  for these  items   have lot  feedback  id at lest 2 years old or more .  

[bonjourami]

old scam..nobody offers 200 dollars more for an item than a scammer..you will get a fake PP invoice that he has paid.

[hmcphail918]

"OK,i will prefer to pay through PayPal because is safer and protected.
Kindly mail me your PayPal email address  now so that i can transfer the money to your account now. "

here is the latest message from him/her/it.  Can I report this or will it make a difference?

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@bonjourami wrote:

old scam..nobody offers 200 dollars more for an item than a scammer..you will get a fake PP invoice that he has paid.

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*** EDIT - Okay, and now that info came in while I was posting.  So yep, definitely that particular scam going on here.  Still leaving the rest of this post intact since it is still good info for future remembrance. ***

The OP said it was starting at $420 (good starting bid number, BTW), with offers available.  There is also the possibility that the buyer believes it will go higher, and he is offering what would otherwise be his max bid now instead of letting the auction run its course.

Did he also ask for an email address to send a PayPal payment to?  That is usually another component of the scam that I think everyone else is talking about.  If he didn't do that, then there are even better odds that he is just trying to do a yoink before it can get bid up over what he is willing to pay.

[femmefan1946]

I can't read them because he and the reviews are German speaking.  What should I do? 

Google Translate. Or Babelfish.

Both will turn your "customer" 's statements into English.

Party fun- Go from German to English on Google, then from English to German on Babelfish, then back to English on Google. Add a third language for even more confusion.

Well, I'm easily amused.

This person offered me $650 for the item and postage

If he checked the cost of tracked air mail postage from the USA to Germany, this could be a legitimate offer.

https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440

Although a $230 overpayment does sound awfully fishy.

Are you using Auction plus Buy It Now or Fixed Price plus Best Offer?

The former has a low starting and a higher (but fixed) BIN.

The latter has a reasonable starting and expects a lower Offer.

Neither include any change to shipping.

[bigchief2472000]

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@hmcphail918 wrote:

"OK,i will prefer to pay through PayPal because is safer and protected.
Kindly mail me your PayPal email address  now so that i can transfer the money to your account now. "

here is the latest message from him/her/it.  Can I report this or will it make a difference?

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Definitely a scam.  Report the buyer for trying to take the transaction off of ebay.  I think ebay would take that more serious than if you reported them for trying to scam you.

[missjen831]

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@hmcphail918 wrote:

"OK,i will prefer to pay through PayPal because is safer and protected.
Kindly mail me your PayPal email address  now so that i can transfer the money to your account now. "

here is the latest message from him/her/it.  Can I report this or will it make a difference?

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@hmcphail918 It’s 100% a SCAM. He’s NOT going to pay you. Yes report him and block him. He wants your PayPal address so he can send a FAKE payment email saying you’ve been paid. This is a very common scam and you should have declined the offer as soon as you got it.

[femmefan1946]

Kindly mail me your PayPal email address  now so that i can transfer the money to your account now. "

SCAM!!

[soh.maryl]

It doesn't matter what the OP is using -- this is a scam.

No one ever needs to offer more than the BIN.

[nowthatsjustducky]

There is no BIN set on this auction, so that left us a little bit of reasonable doubt that it could have been legit until the OP posted the smoking gun about payment.