Advice Needed To Sell Detector (GPZ) On Ebay

[bklein]

Not sure if this is the correct forum, but anyway..

I had my GPZ for sale on ebay and it sold to an overseas bidder.  I had called Ebay support earlier in the week to try and prevent this and the lady said the ad was setup to prevent overseas bidding, but it wasn't.  I see now there is a shipping preferences section within account preferences that can exclude all but US sales if set up right, so I think I have this correct now.  But are there any other things I should watch out for now that sales will be domestic?  If Ebay says "ok to ship, payment made" is it really ok to ship at that point?  Any other advice?

[YubaJ]

What I do at the end of the description of the item is say "Shipping only to the continental US". And then if someone bids or buys from overseas you can cancel their bid because you've specified  'no overseas bidding'. Or you can join their global shipping program and sell to people from specific countries if you want to.

[araratgold]

Personally, I would steer clear of eBay, and sell it via Facebook marketplace, where there are no fees.

eBay charges a closing fee, a PayPal fee if the buyer uses it ( which you must have as an available form of payment ), and then there is the risk of a chargeback happening.

This is a nightmare for sellers, as the buyer can receive the goods, then claim that their card or PayPal was used illegally, and you as the seller lose your item, plus your money, as it gets taken from your account and returned to the buyer. Happened to me a few years ago with a nugget I sold on eBay. I lost the nugget and my money.

eBay / PayPal (who are both owned by the same company), don't give a damn, because they get their fees. eBay / PayPal are great for buyers, but not sellers!
Rick

[YubaJ]

As a serious eBay seller for a dozen years and a serious buyer for 20 years I've never had a real problem with either Paypal or eBay. Glitches,yes, disagreements with sellers & buyers, yes. So Araratgold. perhaps the Aussie eBay is not set up so well. I've done business sending gemstone rough to Australia by way of eBay many times, no problems. Personally, I don't do Facebook. People need to feel comfortable about their buying & selling platforms.

[GotAU?]

Why not save the fees and try to sell it here? -or was it and I missed it?  

 

[Knomad]

50 minutes ago, GotAU? said:

Why not save the fees and try to sell it here? -or was it and I missed it?  

That's what I was going to suggest.

[bklein]

It was here but didn’t sell. Price was better than eBay.

[Rob Allison]

Hi BKlein,

   I have been selling on Ebay for about 20 years now also, along with Amazon and online.  I must say Paypal has always been great to me, even with all the fraudsters.  When you're dealing with Ebay, just make sure you always send to the address, no alt addresses.  No different when you're using major credit cards, always ship to "credit card billing address," unless it's an established customer you trust.  

I've had plenty of Ebay scammers over the years, including International sales.  Here are a couple, a guy from Russia tried to purchase a GPZ, used Paypal and sent me $1 Russian, rather than $9500 US.  He made a claim against me that he didn't receive the item after paying only $1 in Russian funds.  Paypal laughed and banned him.  

Ebay, the new scam is a person will purchase something from you.  Then request a refund once they get the item.  When they ship it back with tracking to you, it's package or envelope with nothing in it but the package, material inside and label with tracking so they can tell Ebay they shipped the item back.  Ebay was favoring the customers for a long time, they finally figured out the scam after they received enough complaints about it.  

I stay clear of international sales, as you can't verify any international credit card.  I learned my lesson about 15 years ago when customers from Canada where ordering large amounts of Minelab detectors from US dealers.  I got scammed for like 20k, recovered from it, but many got scammed for up to 100k and went out of business!! Minelab figured out it was a large fraud ring, but no detectors or money was recovered to my understanding.  

Suggestions,

• if you can't ship a new customers item to the billing address only, then leave it alone.  This is the address that their credit card bill goes to.  
• If the email address or phone number is funky, don't ship.  What normal customer wouldn't want you to contact them if there was an issue with the order? 
• Customer requests overnight shipping, never do it!  This is a way they can recover the item before you can figure out you have a chargeback coming and the order was fraud.  
• I suggest you always ship with full insurance and if you have any doubt, also request Adult Signature 21+ older.  
• If you have any doubt, have the customer "wire transfer, bank to bank" which means they have the funds and it goes directly into your account within 24-48 hours normally.  Ship once the funds clear 100% 
• If you're selling online, many great Merchant Accounts allow you to set fraud protection, so I catch probably 95% of the normal scammer with just the program alone, the other 5% you might have to investigate.  

Just some suggestions from many years of selling face to face, online and just about every marketplace at some point.  

Rob

 

[GaryC/Oregon Coast]

You have been given good advice by many long time eBay sellers.  If eBay gives me an address, after telling me I have been paid, then it's been my experience it's good.  Good luck on your future sales.  GaryC/Oregon Coast